Hare Kṛṣṇa,
Lord Caitanya’s remembrance of the rāsa dance lovingly instructs us sādhakas on how to remember and meditate upon Lord Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā pastimes. The act of reading or meditating on the rāsa-līlā is not forbidden; what is forbidden is to hear these sacred pastimes from non-devotees, devoid of proper realization and devotion.
In a letter, Srila Prabhupada wrote, “It is forbidden that a mundane person should not indulge in hearing Rasaleela or one should not hear Rasaleela from a mundane person. In your organization both the audience and the lecturer are mundane persons and their indulgence in the matter of Rasaleela out of sheer foolishness will result in imitating Rudra who swallowed up an ocean of poison. There is nothing immorality in the transcendental activities of the lord neither it requires to be defended by any immoral man because simply by remembering the holy name of Krishna or by serving His lotus feet one can at once become a liberated person. Besides that the result of reading or hearing the Rasaleela in the devotional mood is stated to become culminated in complete disappearance of the devotee’s lust disease in the heart. Persons who are not pure devotees and must have therefore an impure heart full with dirty things of mundane affairs will not only try to defend Rasaleela[handwritten] by interpretations or decry the dealings but also shall be ruined as by drinking poison a man goes to hell.” (Letter to Ratanshi Morarji Khatau written from Bombay; 1958)
In another place, Srila Prabhupada writes, “The Lord is so merciful that He Himself descends to take the fallen souls back home to the kingdom of Godhead, where the erotic principles of Godhead are eternally relished in their real form, distinct from the perverted sexual love so much adored and indulged in by the fallen souls in their diseased condition. The reason the Lord displays the rāsa-līlā is essentially to induce all the fallen souls to give up their diseased morality and religiosity, and to attract them to the kingdom of God to enjoy the reality. A person who actually understands what the rāsa-līlā is will certainly hate to indulge in mundane sex life. For the realized soul, hearing the Lord’s rāsa-līlā through the proper channel will result in complete abstinence from material sexual pleasure.” (CC Adi 4.30 Purport)
Finally, I would like to quote another beautiful passage from the introduction to Kṛṣṇa Book, in which Śrīla Prabhupāda offers an elaborate explanation.
“The pastimes of the Lord are generally heard and relished by liberated souls. And yet the descriptions of the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa are so attractive that they are relishable for all classes of men. There are three classes of men in this world. One class consists of liberated souls, another consists of those who are trying to be liberated, and the third consists of materialistic men. Whether one is liberated or is trying to be liberated, or is even grossly materialistic, the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa are worth studying. This kṛṣṇa-kathā will also be very much appealing to the most materialistic persons because Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs (cowherd girls) are exactly like the loving affairs between young girls and boys within this material world. Actually, the sex feeling found in human society is not unnatural because this same sex feeling is there in the original Personality of Godhead. The pleasure potency is called Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. The attraction of loving affairs on the basis of sex feeling is the original feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we, the conditioned souls, being part and parcel of the Supreme, have such feelings also, but they are experienced within a perverted, minute condition. Therefore, when those who are after sex life in this material world hear about Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs, they will relish transcendental pleasure, although it appears to be materialistic. The advantage will be that they will gradually be elevated to the spiritual platform.
In the Bhāgavatam it is stated that if one hears the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa with the gopīs, from authorities with submission, then he will be promoted to the platform of transcendental loving service to the Lord, and the material disease of lust within his heart will be completely vanquished. In other words, such hearing will counteract material sex life.”
(From Śrīla Prabhupāda’s introduction to Kṛṣṇa, The Supreme Personality of Godhead.)
Hence, the conclusion is that studying, hearing, and meditating on the Lord’s rāsa-līlā is certainly permissible—but only when done with reverence, correct understanding, and in the association of spiritually advanced devotees
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 