The Gopis said,
“Wait! We’re getting ahead of ourselves! We have some questions for You. What kind of Beloved are You?”
Krishna said, “What? What do you mean?”
“There are those in the world that, even if you love them, they’re not going to love you in return. No matter what, they’re not going to love you in return. Then there are those who, if you love them, they’ll love you back. But we can’t figure out which type are You, because we love You, but Your behavior is very confusing!”
So Shree Krishna said,
“You know the kind where you love them and they love you back; this is ordinary worldly people like us. Then the other kind, no matter how much you love them, they’re not going to love you in return - paramahamsas (fully realized Saints). Their mind is completely absorbed in the bliss of the formless God. You love them or hate them, it means nothing to them.”
“But, Krishna, what category do You come in?”
He said, “I have My own category.”
नाहं तु सख्यो भजतोऽपि जन्तून् भजाम्यमीषामनुवृत्तिवृत्तये ।
यथाधनो लब्धधने विनष्टे तच्चिन्तयान्यन्निभृतो न वेद ॥Nāhaṁ tu sakhyo bhajato ’pi jantūn bhajāmy amīṣhām anuvṛitti-vṛttaye.
Yathādhano labdha-dhane vinaṣhṭe tach-chintayānyan nibhṛito na ved.- Bhagwatam 10.32.20
He says, “I do love you just as much as you love Me. However, I behave in an opposite way. I love you, but I give you My separation.”
Why?
He explained with an analogy. He said,
“Let’s say there’s someone who’s been a beggar for their whole life, just scratching to get by and barely getting something to put in their belly to keep themselves alive. And one day, when they were begging, they made a few dollars. They decided, ‘Instead of buying food with this, I’m going to buy a lottery ticket!’ And they won the lottery! Imagine their state of happiness. This beggar, for their whole life, has been eking out an existence, and now they just won three hundred million dollars. The level of their happiness would be beyond understanding. Now imagine they just got that three hundred million dollars, and someone just came and snatched it out of their hand and ran away with it. And now they’re back to being a beggar. Then they are going to do chintan (contemplation) of that three hundred million dollars non-stop. They won’t be able to think of anything else!”
Shree Krishna says, “That’s what I do to you! You were beggars for your whole existence, uncountable lifetimes, desiring Divine love. And then you met Me. You got God-realized. I graced you with My Divine love. And then I disappear. I give you My virah (Divine separation). So now you’re going to do chintan of Me. So it’s like putting gold in the fire. The more you put it in the fire, the more the heat of the fire purifies it. So your heart, in the heat of love for Me, in that separation, reaches the state of total purity and selflessness.”
So Shree Krishna says, “This is why sometimes I give you My separation - not because I don’t love you!”
So what I’m saying is Shree Krishna wanted to reveal to the world the height of the Gopis’ love for Him, which could only be revealed in the state of virah. The intensity of love is expressed in separation. So that’s another reason that Shree Krishna “left” the Gopis and Radha. So with one form, the form that everyone could see, He left and went to Mathura and Dwarika. But actually, His Shyam Sundar, Ras Bihari, Vrindavan Bihari Lal form was always in Braj with the Gopis and Radha.
