Once, Radharani left the Rasa-lila when She saw that all the gopis were being dealt with almost equally by Krishna. Equal treatment towards one and all did not satisfy Her. So, She decided to display a composition of singing and dancing to please Krishna in a most wonderful transcendental way. Radharani showed Her skill in various ways, and then at the last moment, She suddenly disappeared. And as Krishna was engaged in that combined singing and dancing, He suddenly found that Radharani was absent. So, He left everyone to search for Radharani. He met Her on the way, and after walking for some time, Radharani told Him, «I can’t move, I can’t walk anymore. If You would like to go on, You will have to carry Me. I cannot go further.» And suddenly, Krishna disappeared.
A disciple of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur once asked him why Krishna had disappeared in such a way. But our Guru Maharaj was very disturbed to hear such a question. In this lila, Krishna is apparently showing some disregard for Radharani. So, our Guru Maharaj, by his very nature, could not even tolerate such a question. He had so much partiality towards Radharani that he was not disposed to hear anything against Her. And so, in a rather excited mood, he answered, «Do you find any devotion here? What bhakti do you find here that you have asked me this question?» The question was rejected. He could not tolerate even an enquiry regarding that Pastime.
When this news came to me, I tried to find what Bhakti Vinod Thakur had written in his own words about this verse of Srimad Bhagavatam in his own translation, Bhagavatarka-marichi-mala. Bhakti Vinod Thakur has harmonised the difficulties in the verse. He explains that Krishna was thinking, «I would like to see what will be the mentality of separation in Her.» Only to appreciate the depth of the separation She felt from Him did Krishna disappear. Then of course, Krishna returned after some time.
But our Guru Maharaj could not even tolerate the idea. «Where is devotion to be found here?» But Bhakti Vinod Thakur interpreted this Pastime to mean that Krishna was driven to see what kind of happiness in separation Srimati Radharani would experience. He took this as an example of how the Absolute becomes subservient to His devotee. And so we find that the negative, Srimati Radharani, is so powerful that the positive, Krishna, becomes powerless near Her. It is as if the positive loses its separate existence. This is the victory of devotion.
Devotion is represented in the negative side, drawing from the positive. There is the juice in a fruit and the one who extracts the juice from the fruit. The highest devotion is found where the extraction is in its most intensified condition — there is the victory of the devotees: where the Absolute accepts defeat before His servitors. This reveals the real presence of devotion, dedication, surrender.