Lord Krishna and the bathing beauties

The incident in the life of Krishna wherein he 'steals' and hides the clothes of gopis who were bathing in a river, is a spiritual metaphor. This fact is explained by Mahayogi Shrimat Shankar Purushottam Tirth of the Shaktipat Tradition. He says that to all living creatures, Creation has two aspects; 'para', the subtle, foundational aspect and 'a-para,' the sensory aspect.
The five elements, earth, water, fire, air and space along with mind, intellect and ego constitute the eight 'a-para' or sensory aspects which are personified as the gopis who are always around Radha, the gopi who represents the para aspect in an individual, which is prana shakti or life force, divine power that brings to life the individual soul.
Just as subatomic, inter-molecular and inter-galactic space are indivisible parts of the same space, the prana shakti that is being referred to is inseparable from chaitanya, the same all-pervading power.
The word 'radha' is derived from the Sanskrit root 'radh', meaning 'yearn'. It is the experiential realisation of the Self that we really yearn for and even attain, by 'aradhana', which means inner worship, again, a word that comes from the same root 'radh'.
That to which or whom we owe our existence is our Lord. Naturally then, the all-pervading 'chaitanya', personified as Sri Krishna, is the Lord of all creation. The gopis adore the benevolence of the Lord and by way of worship, surrender absolutely and unconditionally to this power. This they do with an inner attitude that a devoted spouse has for her partner, that of her compa-nion being the sole one in whom her soul is anchored and without whom, she is a mere corpse.
The word 'gopi' is derived from two Sanskrit roots 'go' meaning the senses and 'pi' meaning the power to sustain and protect. Gopi is thus the personification of any individual soul-creature, whose sustenance is done by the same universal chaitanya. It is chaitanya that runs through all the sense organs and makes them perform their various functions. The organs certainly do not have their own separate power.

The entire image of 'jala krida' or the bathing of gopis in the river, is again a metaphor. The word 'jala', which ordinarily means water, is here born of 'ja' meaning 'janma' or birth and 'la' meaning end and thus represents the temporal body, having experienced birth and inevitably, will also experience death.
The clothes that the gopis remove and leave on the banks before immersing themselves in the waters of the river represent 'moha' or attachment to the body. The Lord 'stole' the clothes to merely see if this attachment still persisted.
As the story goes, the gopis had already invoked Goddess Katyayani and obtained closeness to Lord Krishna. In yoga parlance, it means that in order to experience the presence and benevolence of the all-pervading Divinity, we too must awaken or invoke the latent divine power, known as Kundalini, the Goddess who is dormant at the physical sphere of human awareness.
Once awakened, the Kundalini enables inner purification by means of a process of various yoga-kriyas that are autonomous to Kundalini. By leading a life as outlined by one's guru, the Kundalini rapidly moves up the body to enable the individual's realisation of Sri Krishna, who is the all-pervading chaitanya. After this, there is no sorrow, no hate and no fear. One is free. This state of freedom from all attachment is what is described as an intrinsic part of the enlightened state, a state of equanimity and realisation.