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Dharma Katha · Season 4: The Road to Diwali · Episode 128

A woman is milking a cow. The milk is foaming in the pot. And she hears a sound from the forest. Another is stirring a pot on the fire. Another is feeding her child. Another is halfway through putting kohl on her eyes; one eye is done, the other is not. And all of them, at the same moment, hear the same sound. A flute, far away, in the forest by the river, under the full moon of autumn. And every one of them stops what she is doing, and gets up, and goes.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 127 first.

Source note. Label: scripture, from the Bhagavata Purana, Skandha ten, chapters twenty-nine to thirty-three, the Rasa Panchadhyayi: the autumn nights, the flute, the gopis leaving their work, those kept at home who reached Krishna in meditation, Krishna's test, their reply, their pride and his vanishing, the search and the footprints, the Gopi Gita, his return, his verse in chapter thirty-two that he cannot repay them, the circle dance in which he multiplies, Parikshit's question and Shuka's answer, and the promise at the end. The verse lines are quoted as commonly cited; a Sanskrit reader should confirm them. The Bhagavata does not name the gopi Krishna took with him; her identification as Radha is later and Vrindavan tradition. Tradition, not the text, places the Rasa on this particular full moon. The reflections are my own.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.