This is very disturbing and not harmonising with the age and position of the Gopis. When time permits, please clarify.
The Bhagawat Purana is written by a Rishi no less than the calibre of Vyasa. The entire Purana is profound in its depth, spiritual and occult understanding. To take it literally is to rob it of its real sense. The gopa and gopis are the divine souls who came down with Sri Krishna to open the path of bhakti, of utter abandonment and surrender to the Divine for man to follow.
Here are some words of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo that reveal its deeper significance.
‘The seeker after divine knowledge finds in the description of Krishna stealing the robes of the Gopis one of the deepest parables of God’s ways with the soul, the devotee a perfect rendering in divine act of his heart’s mystic experiences, the prurient and the Puritan (two faces of one temperament) only a lustful story. Men bring what they have in themselves and see it reflected in the Scripture.
483—My lover took away my robe of sin and I let it fall, rejoicing; then he plucked at my robe of virtue, but I was ashamed and alarmed and prevented him. It was not till he wrested it from me by force that I saw how my soul had been hidden from me.
Let us drop our robe of virtue so that we may be ready for the Truth.’
22 April 1970
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-482-483)
Affectionately,
Alok Da


