Madhurya Bhav of the Gopis and their divine love for Shree Krishna is universally known. Once, a doubt arose in the minds of the Queens of Dwarka. They wondered that even though they were all extremely beautiful, cultured and talented, yet when their husband Shree Krishna always remembers the Gopis of Braj and always says "Radha" whether he is sleeping or awake, he forgot all the qualities of his 16,108 wives in Dwarka.
What was the quality that made the Gopis of Braj exceptionally attractive and lovable to Shree Krishna? To dispel this doubt in the minds of his queens, Shree Krishna performed a leela. He lied down on the bed and said that his head was throbbing with pain. The queens got worried. They tried a number of remedies but nothing seemed to work.
Even Naradji got worried. He asked Shree Krishna, "Dear Lord! Why don't you tell us how your pain can be cured?
Shree Krishna replied, "If I can get the foot dust of a God-realized soul and I can rub that dust on my forehead, then my headache will be cured." Naradji thought that he needn't go elsewhere to get this work done. All the queens were God-realized and he could simply use their foot dust to rub on Shree Krishna's forehead.
However, when Naradji approached the queens for their foot dust, they all spontaneously refused. They revolted, "How can we give our foot- dust to rub on our husband's forehead?"
Even after repeated insistence, none of the queens
agreed to give their foot dust. Finally Naradji gave up and came back to Shree Krishna and asked, "Dear Lord, why don't you tell us how to arrange for a God-realized soul's foot dust?"
To which Shree Krishna replied, "Narad, You are not going to get that here, you go to Braj and ask the gopis for the same thing."
When Naradji reached Braj and explained the entire situation to the Gopis, they instantly offered their foot dust to Naradji and asked him to take as much foot dust as he could.
Naradji was startled, he asked the Gopis, "Do you even realize on whose head will this foot dust be rubbed and what will be the consequences of doing so?"
Gopis replied, "Naradji, we understand that we will be sent to the hellish abodes, but nothing worse than that will happen. We don't care a bit about it. We have been to the hellish abodes a countless times. And if this time we have to go to the hellish abodes for the happiness of our beloved, then what can be a bigger fortune than that?
At least our beloved Shri Krishna will feel better. Beyond this nothing else matters to us, we don't care about what we receive in return. When the queens of Dwarka heard about this behavior of the Gopis they were extremely astonished.
Bound by the love of the Gopis, even Supreme Lord Shree Krishna loses his almightiness. He willingly goes to the houses of Gopis so that he can hear them call him a thief. He is always eager to hear their rebukes.