ousy when Krishna makes love to other
girls. Indeed the essence of their romance is that it includes a temporary
estrangement and only after Krishna has neglected Radha, flirted with
other cowgirls and then returned to her is their understanding complete.

The second result is the allegorical interpretation which Krishna's
romances now received. In Christian literature, the longing of the soul
for God was occasionally expressed in terms of sexual imagery--the works
of the Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, including 'songs of the
soul in rapture at having arrived at the height of perfection which is
union with God.'

Oh night that was my guide!
Oh darkness dearer than the morning's pride,
Oh night that joined the lover
To the beloved bride
Transfiguring them each into the other.

Within my flowering breast
Which only for himself entire I save
He sank into his rest
And all my gifts I gave
Lulled by the airs with which the cedars wave.[50]

This same approach was now to clarify Radha's romance with Krishna. Radha,
it was held, was the soul while Krishna was God. Radha's sexual passion
for Krishna symbolized the soul's intense longing and her willingness to
commit adultery expressed the utter priority which must be accorded to
love for God. If ultimate union was symbolized by romantic love, then
clearly nothing could approach such love in ultimate significance. In
deserting their husbands and homes and wilfully committing adultery, Radha
and the cowgirls were therefore illustrating a profound religious truth.
Not only was their adultery proof of Krishna's charm, it was vital to the
whole story. By worldly standards, they were committing the gravest of
offences but they were doing it for Krishna who was God himself. They were
therefore setting God above home and duty, they were leaving everything
for love of God and in surrendering their honour, were providing the most
potent symbol of what devotion meant. This approach explained other
details. Krishna's flute was the call of God which caused the souls of
men, the cowgirls, to forsake their worldly attachments and rush to love
him. In removing the clothes of the cowgirls and requiring them to come
before him naked, he was demonstrating the innocent purity with which the
soul should wait on God. In himself neglecting Radha and toying with the
cowgirls, he was proving, on one level, the power of worldly pleasures to
seduce the soul but on anothe