When Krishna learned how to walk, He started performing His butter stealing pastimes. These charming pastimes are so attractive that they can completely purify our consciousness. If we can some how or the other develop taste for hearing and speaking the pastimes of the Lord in the association of devotees, we can transcend all the miseries of material existence. To hear and speak about Krishna is the ultimate fulfillment for a devotee. The Bhagavad Gita explains that Krishna reveals Himself according to the level of our surrender. By sincerely focusing on hearing and chanting, Krishna reveals and gives us entrance into those eternal pastimes.
The gopis would come and complain to Yashoda. They would say, “Now we are lodging all these complaints and Krishna is looking at the floor as if He is completely innocent. But we know very well that in His mind He is plotting as to when He’s going to steal our butter.” The gopis told Yashoda mayi, “Actually the only reason that we complain is that it gives us an excuse to talk about Krishna.”
If we want to understand these beautiful pastimes of Srimad Bhagavatam, we must first know the conclusions of the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna is the proprietor of everything that exists. The sign of a proprietor is that he has control over something. Ultimately, whether we are simple people living in a village or whether we are kings, the nature of this world is that any moment anything could be taken away from us. By the power of time, death is certain to take everything away from us. Nothing is really ours. Krishna is the supreme proprietor of everything, including the butter of Vrindavan. Since the butter belongs to Him, He is not stealing it.
When our hearts become soft and sweet like butter by churning through the process of bhakti, Krishna will steal our hearts. And there is no higher joy or spiritual perfection than that.
– Radhanath Swami
