"The character of the _sakhis_ baffles description. A _sakhi_ does not long to play with Krishna all by herself; but she feels a keener delight in contriving Krishna's dalliance with Radha. Radha is verily the Wishing creeper (_Kalpalatá_) of the love of Krishna, and the _sakhis_ are the leaves, flowers, and shoots of this creeper! If the nectar of dalliance with Krishna waters the creeper, the leaves, &c. delight in it ten million times more than if they themselves had been watered! _Vide_ the _Git-Govinda_, x. 16. "The _sakhis_ do not wish for Krishna's embrace, but they exert themselves to make Krishna embrace Radha. For this purpose they send Krishna to her under a thousand pretexts. Thereby they gain a pleasure ten million times sweeter than that of selfish enjoyment. The unselfish devotion of these towards each other strengthens the deliciousness (_ras_), and the sight of such unselfish love delights Krishna. The love felt by the Gopis is not truly earthly lust; for the sake of analogy we call it lust (_kám_). "Earthly lust seeks sensual gratification for one's own self. The passion of the Gopis, on the other hand, seeks Krishna's enjoyment, abandoning all idea of self. They hanker not for their own pleasure, but if they embrace Krishna it is only to please _Him_. "He whose heart is lured by the nectar of the Gopi's passion, adores Krishna abandoning Vedic worship. That man wins in Brindában the Darling of Braja's lord, who adores Him by following the path of passionate love (_rág_). He who adores Krishna in the spirit of any of the people of Braja [contemporaneous with Krishna], is born at Braja in his next birth in the form of that person whose passion he imitated, and thus gains Krishna. This is proved by the _Upanishads_ and the _Shrutis_. Witness the _Bhágabat_, X. lxxxvii. 19. "In that verse the term _samadrisha_ indicates adoration in that spirit, the term _samáh_ speaks of the acquisition by the gods of the persons of the Gopis, _anghri padma sudhá_ means the delight of Krishna's society. At Braja you will not gain Krishna by following the path of prescribed ceremonies. _Vide_ the _Bhágabat_, X. ix. 16: _'Ascetics proud of their conquest of the flesh, and scholars centred in themselves, cannot gain the Supreme Lord so easily as His devotees (_bhaktas_) can.'_ "Therefore, having taken on ourselves the attitude of the Gopis, we daily meditate on Krishna's dalliance with Radha. In the _siddhi_ body we meditate and serve it, and in the next birth we gain Radha-Krishna's feet by being born as _sakhis_. You cannot gain Krishna, however much you adore Him, if you only meditate on Him as a divinity and not serve Him as a Gopi. See, how Lakshmi adored Him, but could not gain Him in Braja. _Vide_ the _Bhágabat_, X. xlvii. 3."