Text 28
nūnaṁ vrata-snāna-hutādineśvaraḥ
samarcito hy asya gṛhīta-pāṇibhiḥ
pibanti yāḥ sakhy adharāmṛtaṁ muhur
vraja-striyaḥ sammumuhur yad-āśayāḥ
nūnam — certainly in the previous birth; vrata — vow; snāna — bath; huta — sacrifice in the fire; ādinā — by all these; īśvaraḥ — the Personality of Godhead; samarcitaḥ — perfectly worshiped; hi — certainly; asya — His; gṛhīta-pāṇibhiḥ — by the married wives; pibanti — relishes; yāḥ — those who; sakhi — O friend; adhara-amṛtam — the nectar from His lips; muhuḥ — again and again; vraja-striyaḥ — the damsels of Vrajabhūmi; sammumuhuḥ — often fainted; yat-āśayāḥ — expecting to be favored in that way.
おお、友人たちよ。ちょっと主の妻たちを考えて見よ。彼女たちの手を主は快く受け取った。どのように彼女たちが主との楽しみを経験したに違いないか。誓い、入浴、火の供犠と完全な宇宙の主の崇拝を常に楽しみ、今や主の唇からの甘露を楽しんでいる（キスによって）に違いないということを。ヴラジャブーミーの乙女たちはよくそのような寵愛を期待することで気を失ったものだ。
Religious rites prescribed in the scriptures are meant to purify the mundane qualities of the conditioned souls to enable them to be gradually promoted to the stage of rendering transcendental service unto the Supreme Lord. Attainment of this stage of pure spiritual life is the highest perfection, and this stage is called svarūpa, or the factual identity of the living being. Liberation means renovation of this stage of svarūpa. In that perfect stage of svarūpa, the living being is established in five phases of loving service, one of which is the stage of mādhurya-rasa, or the humor of conjugal love. The Lord is always perfect in Himself, and thus He has no hankering for Himself. He, however, becomes a master, a friend, a son or a husband to fulfill the intense love of the devotee concerned. Herein two classes of devotees of the Lord are mentioned in the stage of conjugal love. One is svakīya, and the other is parakīya. Both of them are in conjugal love with the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. The queens at Dvārakā were svakīya, or duly married wives, but the damsels of Vraja were young friends of the Lord while He was unmarried. The Lord stayed at Vṛndāvana till the age of sixteen, and His friendly relations with the neighboring girls were in terms of parakīya. These girls, as well as the queens, underwent severe penances by taking vows, bathing and offering sacrifices in the fire, as prescribed in the scriptures. The rites, as they are, are not an end in themselves, nor are fruitive action, culture of knowledge or perfection in mystic powers ends in themselves. They are all means to attain to the highest stage of svarūpa, to render constitutional transcendental service to the Lord. Each and every living being has his individual position in one of the above-mentioned five different kinds of reciprocating means with the Lord, and in one’s pure spiritual form of svarūpa the relation becomes manifest without mundane affinity. The kissing of the Lord, either by His wives or His young girlfriends who aspired to have the Lord as their fiance, is not of any mundane perverted quality. Had such things been mundane, a liberated soul like Śukadeva would not have taken the trouble to relish them, nor would Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu have been inclined to participate in those subjects after renouncing worldly life. The stage is earned after many lives of penance.