It makes you wonder if they were all a little high, because this sounds very much like the time I took some shrooms on a beach in Thailand and saw dancing sea turtles everywhere. There's another bit in the same Rasa-lila, where he calls to his gopis to join him in the forest on a moonlit night: there they frolic Krishna splitting himself up into several Krishnas, so each would have her own personal attendant, as well as standing in the middle of the circle, playing the flute, as they joined hands and danced around him. It's an intense, sensual image - Krishna as the tormentor, Krishna as the lover - and more has been made of this aspect of the god than his lecture on duty and the righteous path that he delivers much later in the Mahabharata. Eventually, they agree, and I imagine, each walks out of the pond naked to dry themselves off. In most paintings, he's depicted sitting on the branches of a tree, telling them to come and get their clothes if they want them. Think of the infamous scene from the Rasa-lila, a joyful dance that describes Krishna's life, where he follows the gopis (the lady cowherds) to their bathing place, and while they're distracted, he steals their clothes. Krishna, on the other hand, began his life romping with women. Krishna is a compelling god, one of the most human - the other was Ram, but he was known for his almost celibate monogamy. It's easy to see how a young woman called Meera fell madly in love with the idea of a blue skinned flautist in the 14th century.
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