Rasa Leela on Janmashtami and its History

Janmashtami is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Krishna. Raslila is considered to be a significant phase in the life of the Lord. This time is referred to that phase of his life when he grew up from a child to a young teen. Before setting his path towards Mathura, in order to accomplish the task of his life (to kill his uncle, Kansa), he grew up in Vrindavan, playing around with Gopis on the banks of River Yamuna. He was mainly famous amongst the Gopis for the mischievous pranks he played on them.So immense was their love the Gopis forgot about the rest of the world and involved themselves playing and dancing with the Lord. They spent a quality time enhanced further with music, songs and mischievous activities.

The Gopis would dance around with Lord Krishna and often play hide and seek. They would also sing songs in the glory of the deity.They indulged themselves so much with the tantrums of the Lord that they considered themselves fortunate as well superior than other women for they were the privileged ones with the opportunity to dance with Lord Krishna. Thus the whole concept of Raslila was to teach the lesson of humility to the world. Shri Krishna would hide himself during Raslila and would reappear only if Gopis plead to come back. While most of the time Shri Krishna stood at the center of all the Gopis, he would at times join hands with them and perform mesmerizing dance.