About Krishna's Gopastami

 
Gopastami occurs on the eighth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Karttika. On this day, as Krsna entered the pauganda age and he was initiated as a cowherd. Normally, the pauganda age begins as a child enters his sixth year. Five years are allotted for youth (kumara), five years for boyhood (pauganda), and on the eleventh year adolescence begins (kisore). 

However, Krsna, being an extraordinary child in every way, passed through these ages quickly such that by the time he was seven he had entered adolescence. Even in ordinary human society we find that some children are mature for their age, and Krsna was such that he was one and one half times as mature as his actual age. At four, he was six years in terms of maturity. 

The first hint of Krsna's maturity is given in the Bhagavatam, wherein Sukadeva tells Maharaja Pariksit that Krsna began crawling very soon after Gargamuni performed the name giving ceremony for Nanda's sons, Krsna and Balarama. At this time, Krsna was only a few months old, yet he began crawling about, 

"kalena vrajatalpena gokule rama kesavau janubhyam saha panibhyam ringamanau vijahratuh." 

Soon thereafter he very quickly began walking. Sukadeva Goswami said, 

kalenalpena rajarse ramah krsnas ca gokule aghrsta-janubhih padbhir vicakramamatur anjasa: “Within a very short time (kalenalpena) both Balarama and Krsna while still in Gokula very easily began walking on their legs without having to crawl.” 

Soon after Krsna began walking, it was decided by the elders that the community of cowherds should move to Vrindavana, vanam vrndavanam nama. . .tat tatradyaiva yasyamah. 

Once in Vrindavana Krsna soon developed the desire to herd the calves. Before he was initiated into cowherding, he was initiated into calf herding. This is first mentioned in the Bhagavata in connection with Krsna's killing Vatsasura, 

sva kalena vatsa-palau babhuvatuh. 

At this time Krsna had left his mother's breast and his curiosity increased. He was in the final portion of infancy, sesa kumara. When Nanda Maharaja would go to the forest to herd cows, Krsna would go along with him. They would play at cowherding themselves, and when this news reached Yasoda, she chastised Nanda Baba, thinking her son to be too young to be grabbing the horns of bulls and cows. Her motherly affection did not allow her to see that Krsna was actually growing literally and growing within in terms of his dharma or nature.