The rāsa dance, that is described in the Thirty-second Chapter of the Tenth Canto in Bhaga . . . Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Five chapters, from Twenty-ninth Chapter to Thirty-fourth Chapter, Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance is described there. The rāsa dance . . . the short history of rāsa dance is that Kṛṣṇa was sixteen years old, and the girls of the village, Vṛndāvana, and the boys, they were all friends. Naturally in India the girls were early married, some at the age of twelve years, some at the age of thirteen years, some at the age of ten years. The boys remain . . .
So the girls who were friends of Kṛṣṇa, they always prayed to different demigods, Lord Śiva that, "Kṛṣṇa may be our husband." So that desire was there, but it was not possible to get Kṛṣṇa to become everyone's . . . because He was only a boy. But they maintained that idea, although they were married and some of them were mothers. Some of them were unmarried.
So Kṛṣṇa, to fulfill their desire, He blew on His flute on a nice moonlight night, and all the gopīs, all those girls, they came. And Kṛṣṇa advised them, "Oh, you are now married. You have come at dead of night to Me. It is not good." In this way He advised so many things. They were very moral instruction. But the gopīs denied to go back, and they arranged that dancing. That is called rāsa dance. In the rāsa dance there were hundreds of gopīs, but Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself to dance with each one of them. That is called vaibhava-vilāsa. He expanded.
- prābhava-vaibhava'-rūpe dvividha prakāśe
- eka-vapu bahu rūpa yaiche haila rāse
- (CC Madhya 20.167)
The same Kṛṣṇa, I mean to say, expanded Himself in many Kṛṣṇas. That is expansion, vaibhava expansion. Another expansion is:
- mahiṣī-vivāhe haila bahu-vidha mūrti
- prābhava prakāśa'—ei śāstra-parasiddhi
- (CC Madhya 20.168)
So one expansion is vaibhava at Vṛndāvana, and another expansion was made by Kṛṣṇa at Dvārakā when He was grown up and He was obliged to marry sixteen thousand wives. Sixteen thousand wives. He had actually . . . because the kṣatriyas, the administrator, the royal family, royal class, they are allowed to marry more than one wife; not other class. Because they were rich, they were royal, kingly order, they had sufficient means. They could maintain many wives with the same comforts. So they were allowed; not others, not the poor Brāhmins or others. No.
So Kṛṣṇa's father had sixteen wives, and one of the wives' name was Devakī, and Kṛṣṇa happened to be her son, Devakī. Otherwise, Kṛṣṇa's father, Vasudeva, had sixteen wives. He was also king. So Kṛṣṇa similarly had three or four wives . . . eight wives, yes. But He got information, prayer, application, prayer application, from sixteen thousand girls who were kidnapped by a demon, Narakāsura. And they sent application to Kṛṣṇa: "Please save us." So Kṛṣṇa is always responsive to His devotees, so He went to save the girls. He killed that Narakāsura and rescued those all sixteen thousand girls.
Now those sixteen thousand girls prayed to Kṛṣṇa that, "We are kidnapped." They were all king's daughters. They were also all princess. "But because we are kidnapped, so nobody will marry us." That is the system. Once a girls goes out of the home, it is very difficult for her to be married in the society. Still that system is going on in India. Unmarried girls, young girls, they cannot go out unless she is married. If she goes out and if she passes some night with other boys, then no more place in the society.
So those girls prayed to Kṛṣṇa that, "Because we are kidnapped by this Narakāsura from our father's custody, now nobody will marry. So You become our husband. Otherwise there is no other way." So they appealed, they cried and Kṛṣṇa accepted, "Yes. I will accept you all My wives." Therefore He brought those sixteen thousand girls.
But what kind of husband? He is God, not a ordinary husband. So He constructed sixteen thousand palaces for all the wives, and equally all decorated houses. They are described that the houses did not require any external light. It was all bedecked with jewels. And in sixteen thousand forms He used to live with each wife. That is God. You see?
So somebody may say . . . somebody questioned that, "How is that, sixteen thousand? He was very lusty," somebody says, poor fund of knowledge. Or "It is simply story." No. It is . . . Kṛṣṇa is neither lusty, nor it is story. He is Supreme, full in Himself. He did not require even one wife. Because we require the association of wife or girl because we feel the need, if God is in need, then He is not God. He must be full. But just because His devotees wanted Him her husband, therefore He played the part of a perfect husband. That is the position.