up out of the water and ask him one by one.  The cowgirls say, ’But this will make us naked.  You are making an end of our friendship.’  Krishna says, ‘Then you shall not have your clothes back.’  The cowgirls answer, ’Why do you treat us so?  It is only for you that we have bathed all these days.’  Krishna answers, ’If that is really so, then do not be bashful or deceive me.  Come and take your clothes.’  Finding no alternative, the cowgirls argue amongst themselves that since Krishna already knows the secrets of their minds and bodies, there is no point in being ashamed before him, and they come up out of the water shielding their nakedness with their hands.[25] Krishna tells them to raise their hands and then he will return their clothes.  The cowgirls do so begging him not to make fun of them and to give them at least something in return.  Krishna now hands the clothes back giving as excuse for his conduct the following somewhat specious reason.  ‘I was only giving you a lesson,’ he says.  ’The god Varuna lives in water, so if anyone goes naked into it he loses his character.  This was a secret, but now you know it.’  Then he relents.  ’I have told you this because of your love.  Go home now but come back in the early autumn and we will dance together.’  Hearing this the cowgirls put on their clothes and wild with love return to their village.

At this point the cowgirls’ love for Krishna is clearly physical.  Although precocious in his handling of the situation, Krishna is still the rich herdsman’s handsome son and it is as this rather than as God that they regard him.  Yet the position is never wholly free from doubt for in loving Krishna as a youth, it is as if they are from time to time aware of adoring him as God.  No precise identifications are made and yet so strong are their passions that seemingly only God himself could evoke them.  And although no definite explanation is offered, it is perhaps this same idea which underlies the following incident.

One day Krishna is in the forest when his cowherd companions complain of feeling hungry.  Krishna observes smoke rising from the direction of Mathura and infers that the Brahmans are cooking food preparatory to making sacrifice.  He asks the cowherds to tell them that Krishna is hungry and would like some of this food.  The Brahmans of Mathura angrily spurn the request, saying ’Who but a low cowherd would ask for food in the midst of a sacrifice?’ ‘Go and ask their wives,’ Krishna says, ’for being kind and virtuous they will surely give you some.’  Krishna’s power with women is then demonstrated once more.  His fame as a stealer of hearts has preceded him and the cowherds have only to mention his name for the wives of the Brahmans to run to serve him.  They bring out gold dishes, load them with food, brush their husbands aside and hurry to the forest.  One husband stops his wife, but rather than be left behind the woman leaves her body and reaches Krishna before the others.