Vrajadhāma: Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Go Home and to Bed
When the sakhīs saw Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s ārati in the Vraja bower, they danced and sang and forgot to go home. Alarmed, Śrī Vṛndādevī signaled the mynah named Śubhā to send them on their ways. Śubhā said, “O lotus-eyed one! Your mother-in-law has already risen from bed. She will soon say to you, ‘O Rādhā! Your husband is coming now with his servants as they carry milk from the cowshed. Quickly, get up and do your housework!’ O friend, before this happens, you must leave the kuñja and go secretly to your bedroom.” Then Śubhā said to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, “O Kṛṣṇa! Śrīmatī’s mother-in-law is always suspicious about her behavior. Abhimanyu also lives up to his name by constantly being angry and therefore rude in speech and critical of others. Moreover, her dull-headed sister-in-law is forever grumpy and uselessly slanders her. The night is almost over; why do you not part with this innocent girl?” When the Mandara Mountain of the mynah’s words came crashing down, the ocean of Śrī Rādhā’s heart began to churn and her eyes whirled about like restless minnows. Distressed that she must leave Śrī Kṛṣṇa, she rose from the bed with his yellow upper cloth still on her body. When Śrī Kṛṣṇa saw the fear and anxiety in Śrīmatī’s restless eyes and the pleasing luster of her lovely face, he took her blue cloth and also rose from the bed. Holding hands, they emerged apprehensively from the kuñja. Śrī Kṛṣṇa held Priyājī’s hand in his left hand and his flute in his right. They were beautiful, like a new raincloud beset with a streak of lightning. Then her devoted sakhīs emerged from the kuñja, carrying various things. Someone brought a golden pitcher; someone else brought a fan with a golden handle. Another sakhī carried a jeweled mirror, while another carried a tray of kuṅkuma and candana. Someone else brought a jeweled tray of tāmbūla, and yet another carried a caged mynah. Someone brought a small box of vermilion; someone else had gathered up the pearls from their broken necklaces and tied them in the border of her dress. Śrī Rati Mañjarī brought Śrīmatī’s ear-ornament from the bed and placed it on her ear again. Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī brought Śrīmatī’s bodice from the bed and gave it to her privately. Śrī Guṇa Mañjarī brought Śrī Yugala’s chewed tāmbūla from the spittoon and passed it out to the mañjarīs as she walked. Mañjulālī Mañjarī distributed the remnants of Śrī Yugala’s broken garlands, candana and so on to the kiṅkarīs. When the sakhīs saw the blue cloth on Śyāma’s body and the yellow cloth on Rādhā’s, they with great delight covered their mouths with their cloths and began to laugh and make eye-gestures at each other. Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa could not understand the reason for this, so they just looked at each other and stood there perplexed.
Then Śrī Lalitā Sakhī reproached the sun for disrupting their enjoyment of Śrī Yugala’s nectarous pastimes: “O Rādhā, look at that! Although Aruṇa’s legs have melted from leprosy due to his sin of ending the play of young lovers, he still cannot abandon his nature in the morning. Therefore, the mahājanas’ statement that ‘giving up one’s nature is difficult for everyone’ is true.” Śrīmatī replied with a smile, “Lalitā, although Aruṇa has no legs, within half a moment of sinking below the horizon, he crosses the sky and again rises in the east. If he had legs, the night would lose even its name.” After Śrī Kṛṣṇa saw Vṛndāvana’s morning beauty, he began to describe it to Priyājī in an erotic way. “O dear one, look there! When a nāyikā sees her lover arrive in the morning marked by the passion of another woman, she turns red with jealousy. In the same way, when the eastern sky sees her husband the sun arrive in the morning, his form tinged crimson from contact with another lover,* she turns red with jealousy. When a nāyikā is making love with her nāyaka, she sometimes makes a sound by quickly drawing in her breath.# This forest, under the guise of doves’ cooing, makes such a sound at the arrival of her lover the springtime. Look there! A ruddy goose longing for the arrival of her lover is joyfully kissing a red lotus brightened by the rays of the sun. A cool vernal breeze perfumed by lotuses blows gently to teach the creepers how to dance and to dry the perspiration of the beautiful girls.” Seeing that Śrī Yugala were engaged in playful banter with their sakhīs and had forgotten to go home, Vṛndādevī signaled for the old monkey named Kakkhaṭī. Kakkhaṭī sat up in a tree and began to speak. “A virtuous and honorable female ascetic has arrived as the morning twilight, dressed in red cloth and emanating rays of matted locks (jaṭilā).” As soon as Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa heard the syllables ja-ṭi-lā,^ they were filled with fear. They gathered up their disheveled clothes, hair and garlands and ran away on separate forest paths. Startled to see them running, the sakhīs also dashed off in all directions. Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava dreaded the separation from each other, so their lotus faces appeared ashen. Agitated by the unbearable pain of separation, they each anxiously drank in the sight of the other’s face.
Understanding the situation, the sakhīs tried to console them with assurances of their reunion. In this way they arrived in great distress at Kadamba-Khaṇḍi, where with a heavy heart Śrī Kṛṣṇa headed in the direction of Nandīśvara and Śrī Rādhā and her sakhīs headed toward Yāvaṭa.+ Naturally eager for love, Śrīmatī said to Lalitā, “Friend! After enticing me to get the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s touch, you took me from my home and now you’re bringing me right back again. Why?” The sakhīs understood that Śrīmatī had forgotten everything due to her powerful thirst for love, so they took her on home, joking all the way. In this way, Śrī Rādhā entered the village through a hidden back gate without her elders knowing. The sakhīs then also came through this gate and went to their respective homes. After Śrī Rādhā entered her home along with Viśākhā, the sādhaka-mañjarī sat her on a golden stool on her bedroom’s veranda. She washed Śrīmatī’s lotus feet with scented water and then affectionately dried them with her own scarf. Śrī Rādhā entered her bedroom and lay on a jeweled bed, where a kiṅkarī began to massage her lotus feet. Śrīmatī felt anxious about being away from Kṛṣṇa, so in hopes of seeing him in a dream, she fell asleep. Then the mañjarīs, the guru-mañjarīs and the sādhaka-kiṅkarī all went to their respective homes. The sādhaka-dāsī helped the mañjarīs and guru-mañjarīs get in their beds and one by one she massaged their feet until they went to sleep. Afterwards, she went to her own home and fell asleep.
* A different direction
# The Sanskrit word used here is śītkāra, which is described as a sound made by drawing in the breath to express any sudden thrill of pleasure or pain, and especially pleasurable sensations during sexual enjoyment. Monier-Williams
^ Jaṭilā means having matted hair, but is also the name of Rādhikā’s mother-in-law.
+ During the time Śrī Rādhā resides in Varṣāṇā they separate when they reach the Dyumana Forest.
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