The highest type of bhakti (devotional service) resides in the hearts of the cowherd girls (gopis). An example is Neeraja. When she came to Vrindavan from a distant village as the bride of a shepherd, she was forbidden to approach Krishna. However, despite all the warnings, when she saw Krishna at the Govardhan festival, she gave her heart to Him. This spiritual attachment confronted her with many difficulties, but she endured them with great fortitude. She first saw Krishna playing the flute at the foot of Govardhana Mountain. Then she often went to this place to breathe in the holy air. She was the first of the gopis to try to restrain the horses that were taking Akrura's chariot, where Krishna was sitting, from Vrindavan to Mathura. For many years she silently suffered from separation from Krishna, and then one day, when she was already completely exhausted by grief, He appeared before her in the same green gazebo where she saw Him for the first time. She had only one request for Him: she dreamed of hearing the divine flute before she died on His lap.
The Lord did not take her with him, but only in order to bestow His mercy on her, he plucked a stalk of reed, turned it into a flute and played a melody on it, which made her heart burst into tears, the flow of which carried away her soul.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru