stern vows, worship heavenly beings, sing confidential hymns, visit holy places or accept major and minor disciplinary injunctions, but even by carrying out such activities, I am not subject to his control.
In each age [there are four: the golden age, the silver age, the copper age and the iron age], many living entities entangled in passion and ignorance have gained from associating with My devotees. Thus, living entities such as daityas (demonic beings), Raksasas (deformed-looking cannibal demons), birds, beasts, Gandharvas (celestial singers and musicians), Apsaras (celestial dancers), the angels), the Nagas (the race of celestial serpents) the Siddhas (the perfect beings), the Caranas (the inhabitants of the Edenic, paradisiac planets), the Guhyakas (the ghosts) and the Vidyadharas (the celestial singers with the voice melodious), as well as lower class human beings such as traders, farmers, laborers, women and others, were able to reach My supreme abode. Virtrasura, Prahlada Maharaja and others like them have also reached My abode by associating with My devotees, as have personalities such as Virsaparva, Bali Maharaja, Banasura, Maya, Vibhisana, Sugriva, Hanuman, Jambavan, Gajendra, Kubja, the gopis of Vrindavana and the wives of the wise scholars who made sacrifices.
The people I have mentioned have not studied seriously in Vedic literature, nor worshiped great holy people, nor carried out any severe vows or austerity. Simply by union with Me and with My faithful devotees, they reached Me. The inhabitants of Vrindavana, including gopis, cows, still creatures such as twin arjunas (arjuna trees), animals, living entities with diminished consciousness like bushes and thickets, and snakes like Kaliya, all reached the perfection of life through unfailing love for Me, and so they reached Me very easily. Even if one engages with great effort in the system of mystical yoga, philosophical speculation, charity, vows, penances, ritual sacrifices, teaching Vedic hymns to others, personal study of the Vedas or the order of renunciation (of material life), one still cannot be realized.
The inhabitants of Vrindavana, led by the gopis, were always completely attached to Me with a deep love. Therefore, when My uncle Akrura brought My brother Balarama and Me to Mathura town for us, the people of Vrindavana suffered extreme mental distress due to separation from Me and could not find any other source of happiness. All those nights that the gopis spent with Me, their dearest beloved, in the land of Vrindavana seemed to pass in less than an instant. Devoid of My union, the gopis felt that these same nights went on forever, as if each night was equal to a day of Brahma, the demiurge and first being created [a day of Brahma equals 4 billion 320 million (4,320,000,000 ) of earth years].
Just as the great sages in a trance due to yoga merge into self-realization, like rivers that merge into the ocean and are therefore unaware of names and forms material, likewise, the gopis of Vrindavana were so completely attached to Me in their minds that they could not think of their own body, nor of this world, nor of their future life. Their whole consciousness was simply bound in Me.