In this way Krishna continues to live.  Sometimes his wives caress his body, ply him with delicacies or swathe him in perfumed garments.  Sometimes to ease their passion they make little figures of him or let themselves be dressed by him.  One night they go with him to a tank and there make love in the water.  Everything in the scene reminds them of their love and they address first a chakai bird.  ’O chakai bird, when you are parted from your mate, you spend the whole night sadly calling and never sleeping.  Speak to us of your beloved.  We are Krishna’s slave-girls.’  They speak to the sea.  ’O sea, you lie awake night and day, heaving sighs.  Do you grieve for a loved one who is far away?’ Then they see the moon.  ’O moon, why do you grow thin?  Are you also filled with longing?  Are you fascinated by Krishna?’ In this way they address birds, hills and rivers, seeking from each some consolation for their frenzied love.

In due course, each of the sixteen thousand one hundred and eight bears Krishna ten sons and one daughter and each is beautiful as himself.

[Footnote 36:  Plate 18.]

[Footnote 37:  Lanka—­modern Ceylon.]

[Footnote 38:  Note 12.]

[Footnote 39:  A sight of the heavenly wishing-tree, the kalpa or parijata, which grew in Indra’s heaven, was believed to make the old young.]

(iii) Last Phases

This gradual expansion of his marital state takes Krishna even farther from the adoring loves of his youth, the cowgirls of Brindaban.  Indeed for months on end it is as if he has dismissed them from his mind.  One day he and Balarama are sitting together when Balarama reminds him of their promise that after staying for a time in Mathura they will assuredly visit them.  Krishna, it is clear, cannot go himself, but Balarama is less impeded and with Krishna’s approval, he takes a ploughshare and pestle, mounts a chariot and speeds on his way.

As he nears Brindaban, the familiar scenes greet him.  The cowherds and cowgirls come into view, but instead of joy there is general despair.  The cows low and pant, rejecting the grass.  The cowherds are still discussing Krishna’s deeds and the cowgirls cannot expel him from their minds.  As Balarama enters their house, Nanda and Yasoda weep with joy.  Balarama is plied with questions about Krishna’s welfare and when he answers that all is well, Yasoda describes the darkness that has descended on them since the joy of their hearts left.  Balarama now meets the cowgirls.  Their hair is disordered, they are no longer neat and smart.  Their minds are not in their work and despite Krishna’s absence, they are filled with passionate longings and frenzied desires.  Some of them marvel at Krishna’s love and count it good even to have known him.  Others bitterly upbraid Krishna for deserting them.  Balarama explains that his visit is to show them that Krishna has not entirely forgotten them and as proof he offers to re-enact the circular dance and himself engage with them as lover.