We had psychologists come to our program who are wondering how Krishna, being God, who came to establish religious principles, was engaged in stealing butter, lying, dating with the gopis, etc. How can we explain God being engaged in such apparently immoral activities?rotests or keep away?

About the pastimes of Krishna, we must consider the following:

1. Krishna steals butter as a small child. After childhood, He did not steal anything. Nobody takes it seriously if a child takes butter from the kitchen and Krishna mimicked the activities of a human infant.
2. Krishna dated the gopis when He and they were quite young, between 8 and 12 years of age. Compared to today’s youth, these activities were quite innocent. As a teenager and adult, he was very strict about these things. We must remember that Krishna did two things in His pastimes:

a) He gave the example of dharma, and
b) He showed that He was God, with powers beyond human beings.

3. About His lies, we must consider that Krishna lies in the Mahabharata, which according Sripada Madhvacarya is a corrupt text (in the common sense of the word). In the Srimad Bhagavatam, a pure scripture, Krishna does not lie, neither as an adult nor as an adolescent.