We hear or read about Krishna’s pastimes, with various details depicted, and we may find ourselves “picturing” them in our mind—how Krishna looks, decorated in a particular way; how Krishna affectionately glances just so toward his friends; as he dashes forth to pound a threatening demon with his fist; or how he lifts Govardhan Hill with the greatest of ease, smiling all the while.

With such pictures in mind, some devotees may turn to the written word to articulate a pastime, adding some details or suggesting how the episode might have been experienced by a lesser-known or unknown witness.

Such writing is what is being encouraged in this Devotional Meditation series, a humble attempt by Vaishnavas to reflect thoughtfully and deeply on particular episodes of Krishna-lila and then to write. Such writing is meant for self-purification, but also to share one’s realization with others, as Shrila Rupa Goswami urges devotees to do (guhyam akhyati). The nature of these explorations is that they are tentative. None of us presume to claim shastric correctness to our portrayals; and yet there is an in-built rightness to them, in that they are attempts to give our best, as ways of “stirring the nectar” of the Lord’s unlimited glories.

― Editor, Krishna Kshetra Swami