নূপুর মরাল ধ্বনি, কুলবধূ মরালিনী,
শুনিয়া রহিতে নারে ঘরে ।
হৃদয়ে বাড়ায় রতি, যেন মিলে পতি সতী,
কুলের ধরম গেল দূরে ॥ ৬৫ ॥
nūpura marāla dhvani, kulabadhū marālinī,
śuniyā rahite nāre ghare |
hṛdaye bāḍāya rati, yena mile pati satī,
kulera dharama gela dūre || 65 ||
Like female swans responding to the calls of their mates, when the swanlike virtuous girls hear the sound of Kṛṣṇa’s ankle bells, they are unable to remain in their homes. Their hearts surge with love and they meet with him as though husband and wife. Their family traditions have gone far away.
Parakīya-Rasa
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: In this verse, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya describes the sweetness of the parakīya-rasa of the beautiful young girls of Vraja in the context of reflecting upon the charming sound of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s anklets. The sound of the anklets on Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet is very pleasant, like the cry of a swan. When female swans are attracted by the call of a male, they move quickly in that direction. In the same way, when the virtuous girls of Vraja hear the tinkling of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s anklets, they also are unable to remain in their homes. The female swans who are devoted to their mates go with deep affection in their hearts to meet with them. In the same way, the girls of Vraja abandon their family traditions and run with intense love to unite with Śrī Govinda. In this verse, the words kulabadhū marālinī kulera dharama gela dūre are understood to refer to the vraja-sundarīs, who are Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s parakīya lovers, meaning they are married to other men. Those who are Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal lovers, his hlādinī-śakti, are by their powerful affection naturally one with him, like fire and its burning power. By the influence of his yogamāyā-śakti, who makes the impossible possible, these eternal lovers believe they are married to others. They would never even look at a man other than Śrī Kṛṣṇa, not to mention thinking of one. Nor do they ever even see the shadows of those whom they think are their husbands, not to speak of meeting or touching them. Still, yogamāyā has extended such indescribable power that Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal lovers mistake the gopas to be their husbands and their true husband Śrī Kṛṣṇa to be their paramour. By the influence of his own yogamāyā-śakti, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose knowledge is unimpeded, also thinks of himself as the paramour of his eternal lovers, the vraja-sundarīs. Therefore, even though they feel themselves to be the wives of the gopas rather than of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, in truth, their chastity remains intact and Śrī Kṛṣṇa is not an adulterer. Only by the power of yogamāyā do the girls of Vraja think of themselves as wives of other gopas; and their friends and relatives as well as Śrī Kṛṣṇa all think the same thing. Therefore, when they saw Śrī Kṛṣṇa, their family traditions were destroyed and this consciousness arose in them. Śrī Kṛṣṇa also thinks of himself as the companion of other men’s wives. This is all an illusion: it has no beginning and it will remain eternally the same. Because this illusion is created by yogamāyā, it is not an act of ignorance. It is a particular function of the cit-śakti. Through this illusion, ānandamaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa and his ānandinī-śakti, the girls of Vraja, experience a deep mutual attraction and enjoy ever-fresh, love-saturated delights. Therefore, the following is written in Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta Ādi 4.47:
parakīya-bhābe ati rasera ullāsa |
braja binu ihāra anyatra nāhi bāsa ||
“There is a great increase of rasa in parakīya-bhāva; this exists only in Vraja.” An extraordinary natural quality of parakīya-bhāva is that a boundless variety of enjoyment is revealed through it. In Śrī-Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ 1.20, after quoting a statement by Bharata Muni, Śrīmad Rūpa Gosvāmipāda ascertained the cause for this enjoyment:
bahu vāryate khalu yatra pracchanna-kāmukatvaṁ ca |
yā ca mitho durlabhatā sā manmathasya paramā ratiḥ ||
“The highest rati, śṛṅgāra-rati or erotic love, contains many impediments to the lovers’ meeting; their amorous moods must remain hidden and there is much difficulty for both of them.” Because there are many restrictions regarding them meeting with each other, and because such doe-eyed girls are very rare, the hearts and minds of the nāyakas (the heroes) become profoundly attached to this rati. When extreme eagerness is also awakened in the nāyikās (the heroines), their meetings are filled with intense love and sweetness.
A question may arise here. In the traditional rasa-śāstras, parakīya-rasa is not accepted and is rather considered to be defective because of the fault of rasābhāsa. Therefore, how can we accept the rasa of the girls of Vraja who are married to other men? For this reason it has been said, braja binu ihāra anyatra nāhi bāsa. Other than for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s beloved vraja-nāyikās, a nāyikā being married to another man is rasābhāsa, or something that impedes rasa. But in the vrajadevīs, this is not so; it has become the essence of rasa. In Śrī-Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ 5.3, Śrīmad Rūpa Gosvāmipāda has quoted the words of a previous ācārya: neṣṭā yad aṅgini rase kavibhiḥ paroḍhā tad-gokulāmbuja-dṛśāṁ kulam antareṇa. The scholars have declared that in madhura-rasa, a woman married to another man is an impediment to rasa. This is applicable to nāyikās other than the beautiful girls of Vraja. The reason that the parakīya-bhāva of the vraja-nāyikās is not defective is that they are the ultimate forms of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s hlādinī-śakti, being of his own nature and always saturated with joyful, spiritual rasa. They are Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal lovers; their parakīya-bhāva is only an illusion imposed by their friends and families, who are bewildered by yogamāyā. Therefore, they are parakīya in mood only; in truth, they are his eternal sweethearts. This is yogamāyā’s arrangement for causing the king of rasikas Śrī Kṛṣṇa to taste a particular extraordinary rasa. Instead of vraja-parakīya-bhāva being a corruption of rasa, it has become the highest ornament of rasa. For this reason, great sages like Śrī Uddhava have with joy and wonder repeatedly praised the vraja-sundarīs’ parakīya-bhāva. When devotion toward the gopīs appeared in their hearts, the sages prayed to be born as grass, shrubs and so on in the forests of Vraja, hoping to be sprinkled with just a particle of dust from the girls’ lotus feet. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.47.61:
āsām aho caraṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syāṁ
vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām |
yā dustyajaṁ svajanam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā
bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām ||
“Ah! Let me become a shrub, herb or creeper in Vṛndāvana so that I may worship the foot-dust of the girls of Vraja, who have resorted to the path of loving devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, a path difficult to obtain even for the Vedas. These girls have forsaken their friends and relatives, as well as the path of the virtuous, all of which are very hard to abandon.” In his Laghu-Toṣaṇī commentary on this verse, Śrīmat Jīva Gosvāmipāda has written, śrutibhiḥ kartrībhir vimṛgyāṁ parama-puruṣārthatayānveṣaṇīyām. kiṁ kṛtvā bhejuḥ? svajanam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā, loka-maryādāṁ veda-maryādāṁ ca tyaktvety arthaḥ. tat tu dustyajaṁ pūrvokte śrī-prabhṛtibhiḥ sarvair apy atyājyam. te khalu sarva-loka-sarva-mahāveda-puruṣārtha-sāra-buddhyaiva bhajantīty ato na teṣu rāgotkaṭyam eva kāraṇam ity etā evāsamorddhva-rāgā iti bhāvaḥ. tad evaṁ mukunda-padavīm iti tatrāpi śrutibhir vimṛgyām iti tasyā nityatvaṁ sarvottamatvaṁ ca gamyate. The essence of the commentary is that the śrutis must search for the way to obtain prema-bhakti for Mukunda, which they perceive as the highest human goal. The gopīs abandoned their friends and relatives as well as the path of the virtuous (devotion to their husbands), meaning they transgressed the popular customs and the Vedic customs, and adopted the path of devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. To transgress these customs is extremely difficult. In the verse prior to this one, Śrī Uddhava Mahāśaya proclaimed the superiority of the vraja-sundarīs over even Lakṣmīdevī. Accordingly, it is impossible for Lakṣmī and the other celestial damsels dear to Śrī Hari to transgress these customs because they worship Śrī Kṛṣṇa with the mentality that he is the ultimate goal of all the great knowledge of all the worlds. Therefore, an abundance of affection or love-filled thirst is not the cause of their worship of Śrī Hari. The implication is that the beautiful girls of Vraja are unequalled in their love. It is also understood from this that the means of attaining Mukunda, which is to serve the vraja-sundarīs, is to be sought by the śrutis. This reference indicates the constancy and superiority of their abundant love and parakīya-bhāva. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.32.22, Śrī Bhagavān acknowledges his deep absorption in the parakīya-bhāva of the gopīs and his indebtedness to them: na pāraye’haṁ niravadya-saṁyujām. Therefore, we see that Śrī Uddhava Mahāśaya, the crown jewel of sādhus; Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the crown jewel of scriptures; and Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the crown jewel of the forms of Bhagavān are all deeply absorbed in the parakīya-bhāva of Vraja.
Someone may think that because parakīya behavior is accompanied by a sinful mentality, the minds and hearts of those who hear, sing and remember such pastimes could be negatively affected. After expressing his unhappiness toward the people who are antagonistic to the parakīya-bhāva of the girls of Vraja, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda said, āḥ kiṁ vānyad yatas tasyām idam eva mahāmuniḥ. jagau pāramahaṁsyāṁ ca saṁhitāyāṁ svayaṁ śukaḥ (Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ 3.22). “Why speak of anyone else? In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sacred book of the paramahaṁsas, the great sage Śrī Śukadeva, who is the epitome of the liberated man, has with great devotion described the parakīya behavior of the Vraja girls in songs and poems in an assembly of high-minded souls.” kṛtvā tāvantam ātmānaṁ yāvatīr gopa-yoṣitaḥ. rarāma bhagavāṁs tābhir ātmārāmo’pi līlayā (Bhāg. 10.33.20). “Though being self-satisfied, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the possesser of six opulences, assumed as many forms as there were gopīs and began to sport with them.” Was he not clearly describing sambhoga-rasa? Anyone can be blessed with prema by hearing, singing and remembering these pastimes of great love. After explicitly describing this in the phala-śruti at the end of the rāsa-līlā, in verse 10.33.40 Śrī Śukamuni loudly proclaimed the great power of this premamaya-līlā in bestowing love:
vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ
śraddhānvito’nuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ |
bhaktiṁ parāṁ bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ
hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ ||
“After constantly hearing and narrating Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā and other love-sports with the girls of Vraja, a person with a faithful heart obtains supreme devotion for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, gives up the disease of the heart (lust) and quickly attains the ultimate serenity.”
Some people say, “In the manifest pastimes, Śrī Kṛṣṇa enjoys the delights of rasa while absorbed in parakīya-bhāva with the gopīs; but in the unmanifest pastimes, there is no parakīya-bhāva, so those who worship in this way attain svakīya-bhāva. Even Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda concludes his book Śrī-Gopāla-Campūḥ with svakīya-bhāva pastimes after he finishes those regarding parakīya.” Such comments are not logical. Why should one who has tasted the superior rasa of parakīya-bhāva in the sādhaka state be so misfortunate as to be deprived of such enjoyment in the siddha state and be left to taste a comparatively inferior rasa? Previously, through statements like sādhane bhābiba yāhā, siddha-dehe pāba tāhā, rāga-pathera ei se upāya and sādhane ye dhana cāi, siddha-dehe tāhā pāi, pakvāpakva mātra se bicāra, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya has described the oneness of that which is sought in the sādhana stage and that which is attained in the siddha stage. How can there be any deviation in that? The eternality of each of Śrī Bhagavān’s līlās has been repeatedly described in the śruti-śāstras and in the words of the mahājanas. Therefore, if a person thinks that the preeminent pastimes of Vraja’s parakīya-rasa are transitory, he recklessly disagrees with the śruti-śāstras and the mahājanas. The existence of parakīya-bhāva in the unmanifest has been clearly described in the Śrī-Sanat-Kumāra-Saṁhitā and in the fifty-second chapter of the Pātāla-Khaṇḍa of Padma-Purāṇa:
yathā prakaṭa-līlāyāṁ purāṇeṣu prakīrtitāḥ |
tathā te nitya-līlāyāṁ santi vṛndāvane bhuvi ||
gamanāgamane nityaṁ karoti vana-goṣṭhayoḥ |
gocāraṇaṁ vayasyaiś ca vināsura-vighātanam ||
parakīyābhimāninyas tathā tasya priyā janāḥ |
pracchannaiva bhāvena ramayanti nija-priyam ||
“Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s manifest pastimes in the earthly Vṛndāvana have been narrated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Viṣṇu-Purāṇa and so on, and his unmanifest pastimes are in accord with those descriptions. In nitya-līlā also, Śrī Kṛṣṇa goes to the forest daily with his friends to graze the cows and returns to the village in the evening. His demon-fighting pastimes alone do not exist in the aprakaṭa or unmanifest. The vrajadevīs, absorbed in the parakīya mood, also meet secretly with their beloved Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the unmanifest līlā.”
Moreover, we see in the Bṛhad-Vāmana-Purāṇa that the śrutis prayed to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, longing to see his parakīya-bhāva pastimes with the gopīs in nitya-līlā.
kandarpa-koṭi-lāvaṇye tvayi dṛṣṭe manāṁsi naḥ |
kāminī-bhāvam āsādya smara-kṣubdhāny asaṁśayaḥ ||
yathā tval-loka-vāsinyaḥ kāma-tattvena gopikāḥ |
bhajanti ramaṇaṁ matvā cikīrṣājani nas tathā ||
“O Kṛṣṇa! When we see your beauty, surpassing that of millions of Cupids, our hearts become excited with passion like lovesick girls. There is no doubt of this. As your vraja-gopikās worship you in parakīya-bhāva, thinking you to be their paramour, we also want to worship you in such amorous love.” When he heard their prayer, Śrī Kṛṣṇa replied,
durlabho durghaṭaś caiva yuṣmākaṁ sumanorathaḥ |
mayānumoditaḥ samyak satyo bhavitum arhati ||
āgāmini viriñcau tu jāte sṛṣṭy-artham udyate |
kalpaṁ sārasvataṁ prāpya vraje gopyā bhaviṣyatha ||
pṛthivyāṁ bhārate kṣetre māthure mama maṇḍale |
vṛndāvane bhaviṣyāmi preyān vo rāsa-maṇḍale ||
jāra-dharmeṇa susnehaṁ sudṛḍhaṁ sarvato’dhikam |
mayi samprāpya sarve’pi kṛta-kṛtyā bhaviṣyatha ||
“Your heart’s desire is very good, but it is something that is extremely rare and difficult to attain. Nevertheless, I give my consent; let your wish become true. In a future universe, when Brahmā is born and prepares to begin creation, in that sārasvata-kalpa all of you will become vraja-gopīs. You will obtain me as your beloved in the rāsa circle of Śrī Vṛndāvana, in the district of Mathurā in the country of Bhārata, planet Earth. Having attained me through that highest mood of an affectionate and absolutely unwavering paramour, you will be crowned with success.” By such statements, the eternal existence of parakīya-bhāva in the unmanifest Vraja has been firmly established. Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmipāda also has written, ataeba madhura-rasa kahi tāra nāma, svakīyā-parakīyā-rūpe dvibidha-saṁsthāna. The word saṁsthāna means ‘existence in all respects,’ so it is understood that madhura-rasa exists eternally in two ways: svakīyā and parakīyā.
The critics say that after describing the parakīya-bhāva pastimes in his book Śrī-Gopāla-Campūḥ, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda reveals his conclusion in svakīya-bhāva, referring to Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava’s wedding and other pastimes. It seems they are unable to determine the true meaning of this profoundly deep book. Śrī Jīva himself has written the following in its beginning: tatra ca prakaṭāprakaṭa-prakāśamayasya vṛndāvanasya bahu-vidha-saṁsthānatayā bahu-vidha-śāstra-śrutasyāprakaṭa-prakāśamaya-vaibhava-viśeṣa eva samprati varṇanīyaḥ. sa ca gokula-pradhāna eveti sva-vivakṣita-hitā brahma-saṁhitānusaṁhitā kriyate. tad-vacanāni tu bodha-kramāya kramam atikramyānukramyante (1.1.29). “There are unlimited manifestations of the spiritual Vrajadhāma, and all of them exist in two ways. One type is manifest within the range of human eyes and the other is not. The manifestations that are sometimes visible to the human eye are called prakaṭa-prakāśa; the manifestations that never come within the range of an ordinary person’s eyes are called aprakaṭa-prakāśa. We receive information about all those prakaṭa and aprakaṭa manifestations from many śāstras and in many ways. Among them, I shall now describe the glorious unmanifest Śrī Goloka. The description will predominantly relate to gokula-līlā, relying upon statements in the Brahma-Saṁhitā as the primary authority for the subject I wish to discuss. To help explain these statements from the Brahma-Saṁhitā, I will enumerate them according to subject matter rather than in their original order.” This very clearly demonstrates that wherever Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda has described the existence of svakīya in Gopāla-Campūḥ, he is referring to the Vṛndāvana pastimes of the splendorous, unmanifest Goloka. Moreover, it is not that svakīya-bhāva exists in Gokula in all manifestations of the divine Goloka. While describing the pastimes of Goloka in Śrī-Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛtam, Śrīmat Sanātana Gosvāmipāda has shown the existence of parakīya-bhāva in verse 2.6.109:
etat-pāda-nakhāgraika-saundaryasyāpi nārhati |
saundarya-bhāraḥ sarvāsām āsāṁ nīrājanaṁ dhruvam ||
Commentary: nanu anya jano mā bhavatu nāma imās tu gaurāṅgyaḥ śrī-rādhādyāḥ parama-sundaryas tatrāha–etad iti. sarvāsām āsāṁ śrī-rādhādīnāṁ saundarya-bhāraḥ etasya madīya-śyāmasundarasya yat-pāda-nakhāgrasya ekam ekataraṁ saundaryaṁ tasyāpi nīrājanaṁ nārhati. dhruvaṁ niścitam. bhāra-śabdasyāyam abhiprāyaḥ yac ca kiñcit saundaryam āsāṁ vidyate, tan-madīya-śyāmasundarasya vadhūtvābhāvena vaiphalyāpatter bhāra eveti. The purport is that in Śrī Goloka, situated above the paravyoma (spiritual sky), Mother Yaśodā said to Mukharā, “Needless to say, no one is as beautiful as my Gopāla, not even the lovely Śrī Rādhā or the other fair-skinned gopīs. Their burdensome beauty cannot outshine even a drop of the splendor of the tips of my Śyāmasundara’s toenails. This is for sure.” The significance of the words burdensome beauty being used here is that Śrī Rādhā and the other gopīs are no doubt very beautiful, but because they cannot become Śyāmasundara’s wife, their beauty is fruitless. Therefore, that beauty has become a burden for them. From this description we can understand that parakīya-bhāva is also present in Śrī Goloka. For this reason, the mahājanas have said that in Goloka it is avivikta-svakīyā-parakīyā, meaning it is difficult to determine exactly whether the bhāva is svakīyā or parakīyā.
However, it is clearly understood here that parakīyā exists eternally in the aprakaṭa manifestation of Śrī Vṛndāvana. Now the question will be, if parakīya-bhāva is forever present in the aprakaṭa manifestation, what will produce the desire in Śrī Kṛṣṇa to relish the astonishing nature of parakīya-bhāva when it appears in the prakaṭa manifestation? The answer to this is that in the aprakaṭa Goloka manifestation, whenever Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava’s love sports are described in svakīya-bhāva, Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s self-conception and absorption are that “I am the husband of the gopīs and they are my eternal wives.” Absorbed in this way, the desire to taste the rasa of parakīya-bhāva in the prakaṭa manifestation is born in his heart. goloke brajera saha nitya-bihāra (CC. Ādi 3.5). Here, the word saha (along with) is understood to mean that Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s eternal amorous pastimes exist in both locations, Goloka and Vraja. The Lord of Goloka and the Lord of Gokula do not see the different pastimes manifested in one place. Whenever līlā becomes perceptible to worldly humans, Golokanātha resolves to taste parakīya-rasa in prakaṭa-līlā and the desire awakens in Gokulanātha to relish the astonishing nature of parakīya-rasa in the sequence of pūrva-rāga and so on. The reason is that if there is no manifestation of his pastimes with his companions in the phenomenal world, the rasa of pūrva-rāga and other līlās will never come forth. Therefore, the desire awakens in both Golokanātha and Gokulanātha to experience the wonders of parakīya-rasa in prakaṭa-līlā. This is why the statement se se līlā kariba yāte mora camatkāra is seen in CC. Ādi 4.28. “I shall perform pastimes that amaze even me.”
After observing Śrī Golokanātha, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda narrated the pastimes of svakīya-bhāva in Gopāla-Campūḥ. At the end, after the wedding of Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava, he quoted a verse from Kāvya-Prakāśa (yaḥ kaumara-haraḥ sa eva hi varas tā eva caitra-kṣapāḥ) and then discussed his dissatisfaction regarding svakīya-bhāva and confirmed the superiority of parakīya-bhāva.
*A defect characterized by semblance of flavors or introduction of opposed flavor. (Saṁsad)
**Sambhoga-rasa is a subdivision of the śṛṅgāra or erotic sentiment, described as ‘successful love leading to union.’ MW
***See Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 1.58.
