When Krishna and Balaram are playing with Their friends in the jungle, They generally play in two groups. Krishna is in one group, and Balaram is in another. Krishna is considered to be less strong than Balaram. Balaram was the strongest person there, and the next strongest was Sridama, so Sridama used to play on the side of Krishna.
Whenever Balaram was defeated, He would become enraged. Krishna would diplomatically help His own team, and when Balaram saw that His own team was disloyal due to Krishna’s tricks, He would turn to His younger brother Krishna and say, «I shall punish You!» But Krishna would say, «No, You cannot punish Me; Mother Yasoda has entrusted Me in Your care. You can’t mistreat Me.»
One day, Balaram slapped Krishna, but Krishna went to Mother Yasoda and told on Him. Balaram was very disturbed and said, «I slap You once, and You complain to Your mother that I do not love You? Krishna, how could You do this?» At last, Krishna was perplexed and accepted His defeat.
So, Krishna-lila moves in a crooked way (aher iva gatih premnah…). This fundamental point, the foundation of our understanding about Krishna-lila, has been given by Rupa Goswami in this verse. He says, «Don’t be eager to find reason everywhere in the Pastimes of Divinity. They are naturally crooked. In Krishna-lila, we shall find that although no party is defective, still, one will find fault with another and begin a quarrel. No defect can be found there. But still, for the necessity of lila, false defects are found, and some quarrel begins. This is the meaning of lila, Pastimes: what we find here by necessity flows there automatically. We can’t try to apply our reason or our standard of measurement to the movements of the Infinite. And whatever gain we have made by connecting with that flow of lila will be lost in our attempts to measure it; that will be the only consequence of our analysis. So, we should try to have a taste of lila with a submissive attitude. Sometimes reason, logic, and analysis are necessary, but only to preach to the people in general who have a lower understanding. Only for the purpose of preaching to people addicted to reason do we have to take the help of reason. But when devotion becomes automatic, anuraga, then both reason and scripture are left in the subterranean position. There is no place for scriptural arguments there. To a certain extent, reason is necessary for our development up to vaidhi-bhakti, the elementary stages of devotion. But above that, it has no use.
Anuraga-bhajan is automatic; that is the nature of lila: aher iva gatih premnah. Everything there moves by His sweet will. Sweet will means that it is not a fixed program. It moves in such a way that we can’t say, «It will pass by this road.»
When the Maharaj of Mysore used to drive into town, he would not speak to his driver, giving him directions which way to go, because if any fixed program were arranged, then his life might be in danger. So, whenever he would come to a crossing in the road, he would touch his stick to a particular shoulder of the driver. If at the crossing, the Maharaj wanted to go to the right, he would touch the driver on his right shoulder. In this way, he would never disclose which way he would go, but only at the last moment he would beckon the driver to take a particular course.
So, Krishna’s divine movements are kept in reserve by His sweet will: «All Rights Reserved». We want to search for some law above His sweet will, but this is inconsistent. It is self-contradictory. On the one side, we say that Krishna moves by His own sweet will, but on another side, we try to find some law governing His movement. This is a contradiction. Lila moves by sweet will. When we say it is lila, then we can’t give any shape to that. We can say that it was shown in a particular place in a particular way. But we cannot be sure whether today the same course will be taken.
This is why we find differences in the explanations given about different lilas in different ages. Jiva Goswami has explained that the reason for different descriptions of the Pastimes of the Lord in the Puranas is because at one time that lila was played in one way, and another time it was played in another way. So, we find differences even in the explanations of the same Pastime.
Scholars may challenge: «Why is it that somewhere in Padma-purana the lila is mentioned in this way, but the Bhagavat-purana reveals the description in another way? Why does Hari-vamsa differ from Mahabharata?» We say that in different kalpas, or ages, the Pastimes are enacted in different ways. In infinite ways, a particular lila of the Lord may be represented within this world, because He is infinite, independent, and absolute. So, leaving aside all doubts and suspicions, we shall be most generous in approaching the Absolute, free from all inhibitions. We shall approach Him with that spirit and try more and more to leave aside our past prejudices and precedents, the records of our past experience.