COWHERD DAMSEL GAME

By reciting one Hari Krishna mantra a child is chosen to be the cowherd damsel, another to be Mother Yashoda. The other players are gopis. They form a circle while the cowherd damsel stands at a distance making prasada for Krishna. Mother Yashoda secretly chooses one of the players to be Krishna. She stands in the middle of the Circle and churns butter while all the gopis dance around her. Everybody blissfully sings the Hare Krishna mantra twice. Then the dancing and churning stop and all the gopis and Mother Yashoda call, “Cowherd damsel!” The cowherd damsel comes with her nice preparation. Mother Yashoda asks her, “Oh! What have you brought for Krishna?” the cowherd damsel describes what she cooked: some samosas, sweet rice, or rasagullas. She gives her preparation to Mother Yashoda and then asks, “Have you seen Krishna?” Mother Yashoda answers, “Yes”. Then the cowherd damsel asks, “What was Krishna wearing?” Mother Yashoda (without looking at the person she has chosen) describes the child who is Krishna. for example, “Krishna is wearing a blue dress with a red blouse and two bracelets on His left arm”. To make it difficult, she may give a very brief description. This depends on the age of the child playing the cowherd damsel. The cowherd damsel guesses and points at one child, saying, “Is he Krishna?” and Mother Yashoda answers yes or no. if the guess is wrong, Mother Yashoda adds more details to the description until the cowherd damsel discovers who is Krishna. When she guesses right, she chases Krishna around the circle while all the gopis chant Hare Krishna around the circle while all the gopis chant Hare Krishna and clap to enliven them. In the next game, the child who was Krishna plays the cowherd damsel, and the cowherd damsel plays Mother Yashoda.