Women both on bodily and transcendent level are attracted to Krsna. Kubja and gopis are examples of both categories.

Bodily attraction is impure.

All devotees are attracted by Krsna's nama, rupa, guna and lila. Their rasa is manifested only in advanced stages of bhakti.

The story is mentioned only in short at the beginning of Krsna Upanisad, no history of the rishis is given there.

> If you are in a male body, what is it that attracts you to Krishna, how do you experience this attraction? Is it like affection for a friend?

This may occur for someone on an advanced level but in general as absolute beginners we are advised to approach Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the same mood as Arjuna: parma dhama parma brahma (Gita 10.12-13)

In CC Antya 20.28 Srila Prabhupada writes of the dangers of devotees who consider themselves "...advanced devotees in spontaneous love, as knowers of transcendental mellows, as the topmost devotees in conjugal love of Krishna..." but who in fact erroneously "...accept their material emotions to be indicative of advancement."

deena:

Actually the answer to 'What attracts men to Krishna?' and 'What attracts women to Krishna?' is the same. Or you can boil it right down to the common denominator and ask, 'What attracts all living entities to to Krishna?' The answer is the same.

I asked the question because I wondered how the sex of the body relates to how an embodied soul feels toward Krishna, given that Krishna is male, and embodied souls generally have specific preferences according to the sex of their body.[br]
[br]
(In comparison, the person's sex and God being portrayed as a male are relevant in some traditions. I knew a Christian counselor who specialized in counselling women who were abused by men and who, presumably due to that, had a problem in accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and addressing God as "He". At least to some Christians, this is a perfectly valid concern, and it has directly to do with the person's sex. - But yes, Christians have a different understanding of the qualities of the soul than GV.)

deena:

> If you are in a male body, what is it that attracts you to Krishna, how do you experience this attraction? Is it like affection for a friend?[br]

This may occur for someone on an advanced level but in general as absolute beginners we are advised to approach Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the same mood as Arjuna: parma dhama parma brahma (Gita 10.12-13)

Sure, this is what we are advised. But my question for this thread is of practical nature too.[br][br]

In CC Antya 20.28 Srila Prabhupada writes of the dangers of devotees who consider themselves "...advanced devotees in spontaneous love, as knowers of transcendental mellows, as the topmost devotees in conjugal love of Krishna..." but who in fact erroneously "...accept their material emotions to be indicative of advancement."

I once read a devotee profile on the internet and under "skills", it said "loving Krishna" ...

>I find it just fascinating that serious, rational, successful men feel attracted to Krishna!

Is it not 'the truth'? Certainly a proof that He does not only exist, but also is very very nice person...

atmarama ca munayo ...

It's very simple: Krsna means all attractive:

"He’s attractive to the animals, He’s attractive to the trees, He’s attractive to the flowers, He’s attractive to the water, and what to speak of human beings. He’s attractive; therefore His name is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive." - http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/730216BG.SYD.htm

VEDA:

> What is bodily attraction - is it the kind of lusty, temporary attraction that people often feel for other people and things?

Yes. hRt-zayA—lusty feelings (SB 10.42.9)

Since you compared Kubja and the gopis, this could be taken to mean that sex desire is bodily, but the desire to dance with a fabulously handsome man is not. This is also in line with common notions of modesty.[br]
I am not sure this is what you mean, though.[br][br]

Would it be correct to say that "bodily attraction" goes by the principle "I want this thing, I want to get rid of that thing; I want this person to do this, I want that person to refrain from doing that; so that then I will be happy" -?[br]
This could then be true of Kubja, and also of other people, men or women, who desire health, wealth, children, relationships with others, fame, mundane knowledge or philosophical insight.[br][br]
But I find it difficult to understand how anyone could have any different kind of desire, as it seems to me that every desire that living beings have has an element of " ... so that I will be happy". I do not see how this element can be ignored or made irrelevant, at least I don't think one can endure such ignoring of one's own happiness for a long time.[br][br]
From some devotees and scriptures, I have gotten the impression that devotees seek to please Krishna - and that one should seek to please Krishna even if it comes at the cost of themselves being miserable in the process. If this is true, then I am worried, because I do not see how I could endure such a state.

yes Baker. This is the key verse.

it is simple for the simple, but it is very hard for the crooked

mung:

it is simple for the simple, but it is very hard for the crooked

Schadenfreude, eh?

Haribol. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Please accept my humble obeisances.

"What attracts men to Krishna?"

That's easy..the female devotees. lol

Especially in the west. Srila Prabhupada said he had to include the women into the temples because if he did not, the men would not come. Then those same men misuse Srila Prabhupada's teachings to abuse the female devotees; they put them down as being "less intelligent" and blame them for their problems resulting from attraction for enjoying women.

Baker: "women who were abused by men and who, presumably due to that, had a problem in accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and addressing God as "He". **Not only Christians, women who have been abused by men have problems accepting Sri Krishna as God, too, or they struggle to develop trust in Him, as men have broken their trust.

Baker : "I asked the question because I wondered how the sex of the body relates to how an embodied soul feels toward Krishna, given that Krishna is male, and embodied souls generally have specific preferences according to the sex of their body." **We are not these bodies yet the body definitely affects us in our devotions. Women possess a wonderful quality called mamta which is the emotion that mothers in all species have for their young, enabling them to take care of them, to sacrifice their comfort and sometimes life, to nurture and protect them; young girls express it when holding small babies, furry animals or dolls. That emotion, when directed toward Lord Jagannath enables her to think of Him as her own and to care for and feed Him with love and devotion, which is what He wants. He is not lacking in anything. He doesn't benefit from our knowledge of matter and spirit or our shastric recitations. He doesn't need anything. He is attracted by loving devotion.

Practically no westerner comes to Krishna Consciousness due to attraction to Sri Krishna. It is attraction to the philosophy or Srila Prabhupada or a safe place to live or the happiness of devotees or temple worship or the taste of prasadam, etc.. Some think they like the chanting but most can't even complete 16 rounds everyday.

Baker: "I have also heard statements to the effect that women are less intelligent than men - whereby by "intelligence" is meant the ability to discern between matter and spirit. This could be taken to suggest that men's attraction to Krishna is on a higher level than women's."** Men may claim that, but you need to hear or read Srila Gour Govinda Swami's lecture on Uddhava Sandesh to understand which is higher.

Veda "Bodily attraction is impure." ***If it is in relation to Sri Krishna it is pure. Sri Krishna is described as being 'attractive to all women'. Why is it not 'attractive to all men'? Because the Lord's attraction to all women really counts for something. "By means of their lusty attraction they became freed from the ocean of material existence, the cycle of birth and death, and coincidentally they got the association of Hari in conjugal love."***It is to be understood that these sages had already developed pure conjugal love for Sri Gopala. An ordinary conditioned soul in a male body would not have these kinds of desires. "In other words, the sight of Lord Rama's beauty reminded them of Lord Hari, Gopala, their personal object of worship, and they then wanted to enjoy with Him."

Usually women are not interested in austerities, they are considered sense enjoyers. They are nine times lustier than men. If they require sex and children they are given by Srila Prabhupada a disciple of his who is in a similar boat to exhaust or burn up these desires. In married life, ladies also learn to sacrifice for the children and how to serve the husband (Sri Krishna is the only real husband of every soul) through femine roles and traits. By his kindless and wisdom he also employs both male and female in his mission and in seva. So, if they are faithful and chaste to him, somewhere in the mid-life, ultimately the only desire left is to become surrendered at his two divine lotus feet in the service of the ideal male, Sri Krishna. There is no other male that is worthy of the soul's full eternal surrender. As a soul we have to surrender to someone--either Maya or Sri Krishna. We are never independent.

There can be no tangible reason behind why men r attracted towards Krishna..The reason is present in Krishna's name...The word Krishna means...'all-attractive'. While we say all-attractive, we mean to say, that every living entity is attracted towards Krishna. We often adopt a narrow sense to consider Krishna just a male. Krishna is a force, The Paramatman, and being so, He has a natural tendency to attract the Jivatman or the embodied soul....The attraction is purely transcendental and nothing mundane.........Nothing can surpass Krishna's beauty....Krishna has got absolute beauty...so it is natural that every living entity will be attracted towards Krishna.........and Krishna has got no material body....He has Sat-chit-ananda vigraha which is eternally blissful. Since Krishna attracts both men and women, He is called the transcendental Cupid. In most of the pictures,He appears like a beautiful prince that can catch the attention of women but not men, but there are some rare pictures where He is portrayed as a Cupid. This portrayal can grab the attention of both men and women. In Bhagavatam we find an incident where Krishna in Dwarka dresses Himself as a woman when Udbhav ji says,"How wonderful it is that this
woman is attracting my ecstatic love exactly as Lord Krsna does. I think she
must be Krsna covered by the dress of a woman!" Generally, if a male dresses himself as a female, it will not attract a male , how beautiful he may be, but since its Krishna, who has got a transcendental beauty, He can ignite ecstatic love within heart even when dressed as woman. This attraction is transcendental and not bodily. I have such a picture of Krishna dressed as a beautiful woman....and I personally extol that form....