तन्नः प्रतीक्षण-चमत्कृत-चारुलीला-
लावण्य-मोहन-महामधुराङ्गभङ्गि ।
राधाननं हि मधुराङ्गकलानिधान-
माविर्भविष्यति कदा रससिन्धुसारम् ॥ ७ ॥
tan naḥ pratīkṣaṇa-camatkṛta-cāru-līlā-
lāvaṇya-mohana-mahāmadhurāṅga-bhaṅgi |
rādhānanaṁ hi madhurāṅga-kalā-nidhānam
āvirbhaviṣyati kadā rasa-sindhu-sāram || 7 ||
“When Śrī Rādhā sees Śrī Kṛṣṇa, many wonderful, charming and playful expressions appear on her beautiful face. When will that incomparably sweet moonlike face, the essence of the ocean of rasa, appear before us?”
Śrī Rādhā's Face is the Essence of the Ocean of Rasa
Rasa-Varṣiṇī-Vyākhyā: In the previous verse, Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatīpāda, absorbed in his svarūpa, perceived his beloved Goddess as nikuñjadevī. The word devī means “to be worshipped.” The worship that Rasikendra(1) performs within the kuñja is even more astonishing than that of the sakhīs and mañjarīs. Therefore, she who is worshipped by Rasika-Śekhara Śrī Kṛṣṇa is called devī. When Kṛṣṇa entered the well-decorated kuñja with Priyājī, his heart filled with love for her. He has perceived Priyājī as kuñjadevī, so now he wants to do some sevā for her. After washing Priyājī’s feet with the help of a kiṅkarī, he affectionately dried them with his yellow cloth. Knowing Śyāmasundara’s mind, a kiṅkarī had brought some flower petals. Saying jaya premamayī, Śyāma offered the flowers at Śrīmatī’s feet and bowed before her! Tears streamed from his eyes. pāda-sparśa-rasotsavaṁ praṇatibhiḥ (verse 61). “Bowing to touch Śrī Rādhā’s feet is a festival of rasa for Śyāmasundara.” Śrīmatī revealed her incomparable beauty when she saw her devoted lover’s face! So much erotic līlā emerged from her own sweet face! Many wonderful, charming and lovely expressions appeared in her eyes, eyebrows and so on. From Śrī-Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ, Uddīpana 28:
muktā-phaleṣu chāyāyās taralatvam ivāntarā |
pratibhāti yad aṅgeṣu lāvaṇyaṁ tad ihocyate ||
“If a luster or radiance emerges from the different parts of the body, like the splendor from a pearl, that is called lāvaṇya.” A beautiful radiance emerges from Śrīmatī’s countenance. What wonderful facial expressions! She is adorned with the ornament of charm. From Śrī-Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ, Anubhāva 56:
vinyāsa-bhaṅgir aṅgānāṁ bhrū-vilāsa-manoharā |
sukumārā bhaved yatra lalitaṁ tad-udīritam ||
“The appearance of alluring, playful movements of the eyebrows along with attractive gestures of the limbs of the body is called lalita, the ornament of charm.”
Moreover, Śrī Rādhā’s moonlike face is the essence of the ocean of rasa. Just as during the churning of the ocean of milk, its essence manifested as the nectar-bearing moon, in the same way, the essence of the ocean of prema-rasa is Śrī Rādhā’s spotless moonlike face. At the appearance of just one drop of prema-rasa, even the brahmānandīs’ minds are immediately drawn away from the joy of brahman and intoxicated with premānanda(2).
yasya sphūrti-lavāṅkureṇa laghunāpy antar munīnāṁ manaḥ
spṛṣṭaṁ mokṣa-sukhād virajyati jhaṭity āsvādyamānād api |
premṇas tasya mukunda! sāhasitayā śaknotu kaḥ prārthane
bhūyāj janmani janmani pracayinī kintu spṛhāpy atra me ||
“Even the experience of a slight blossoming of such divine love causes the introspective minds of the brahmānandī sages to instantly lose interest in the joy of liberation. O Mukunda! Who will be bold enough to pray for such love? Please, therefore, bless me that in birth after birth my longing for prema continually increases.” (Stava-Mālā)
Just one particle of prema-rasa has such great power! Prema is so very rare, and the essence of that vast ocean of prema-rasa is Śrī Rādhā’s moonlike face. The luminosity of her face is not like a light beam produced from some shiny object, but is rather a natural manifestation of mahābhāva-rasa. Such examples as “a face like the moon, eyes like lotuses and a nose like a sesame flower” are useless there. Mahābhāva must be understood through bhāva: there is no other language. Śrī Rādhā is the embodiment of prema. Her beauty is revealed in her amorous pastimes with Kṛṣṇa. Her beauty is the essence of all beauty. When, by the mercy of Śrī Rādhā, viśuddha-sattva(3) appears within the heart of a bhakta, he gets a slight realization of that self-luminous form. This is most likely the meaning intended by the phrase rasa-sindhu-sāram (the essence of the ocean of rasa). Her moonlike face is madhurāṅga-kalānidhānam (a spotless moon). Unlike the moon of this world, Śrī Rādhā’s face is unblemished by spots or pallor. Having returned to sādhaka-consciousness after his vision ended, Śrīpāda said, “Will that moonlike face ever appear before us?”
Or, the sweetness of this verse can be tasted in another way: “When will Śrī Rādhā’s moonlike face become visible to our eyes? Her sweet form is the repository of all artistic skills and is the essence of the ocean of rasa. It even causes Śyāmasundara’s sweet form to bend in three places, though he forever infatuates the world with his wondrous and captivating pastimes.” While in the form of a kiṅkarī, Śrīpāda witnessed Śrī Śyāmasundara’s service to Nikuñjadevī and realized his charming pastimes are amazing at every moment. The utmost wonder of Śyāmasundara’s līlā is revealed to the kiṅkarīs’ eyes. In that līlā, he remains thoroughly subjugated by Śrī Rādhā. All of Mādhurya-Mūrti Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s līlās are sweet, but in his romantic pastimes with Śrī Rādhā, the boundless attributes of his līlā-śakti are well-preserved. Moreover, when the kiṅkarīs see śṛṅgāra-līlā wherein Śrī Kṛṣṇa is completely submissive to Śrī Rādhā, their Prema-Mandākinī(4) surges toward the heavens in continuous waves through a fountain with a hundred mouths. In such līlā, there is wonder at every moment! Therefore it has been said that Śrī Rādhā’s moonlike face enchants even Kṛṣṇa, whose beautiful pastimes are astonishing at every moment, and causes his sweet form to bend in three places. Why does Śyāma bend in three places? Enchanted by seeing the sweetness of Rādhā’s face, he bends in three places to touch the border of her skirt with his heel. In this threefold bending posture, he leans slightly to the left and his eyes move slightly toward their corners. It seems as though his body bends in three places because it cannot bear the weight of tasting Rādhā’s sweetness. That pose is charming and most enjoyable. However, the bhakta experiences it according to his prema. āmāra mādhurya nitya naba-naba haya, sva-sva-prema-anurūpa bhakte āsvādaya (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.143). “My sweetness is always fresh and enjoyable to the bhakta, according to his love.”
Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s most exalted prema is the ultimate stage in the tasting of mādhurya. Because of her extraordinary mādanākhya-prema, her experience of Kṛṣṇa’s endlessly fresh sweetness is unsurpassed. ei prema-dvāre nitya rādhikā ekali, āmāra mādhuryāmṛta āsvāde sakali (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.139). “Through her prema, Śrī Rādhikā alone always tastes my sweet nectar in full.”
Rādhā’s love and Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness nourish each other such that both continually increase.(5) gopī-preme kare kṛṣṇa-mādhuryera puṣṭi, mādhurya bāḍāya premā haiyā mahā-tuṣṭi (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.198). “As a result of the gopīs’ love, Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness is nourished; his sweetness causes their love to increase and they become most satisfied.”
In this way, the sakhīs and mañjarīs enjoy tasting the constantly increasing mādhurya of Śrī Yugala-Kiśora. Therefore, it has been said that when Śrī Kṛṣṇa sees Śrī Rādhā, the sweetness of his tribhaṅga form becomes even sweeter. Hence, it is called mahā-madhura (really, really sweet)! From Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Karṇāmṛtam 92:
madhuraṁ madhuraṁ vapur asya vibhor
madhuraṁ madhuraṁ vadanaṁ madhuram |
madhu-gandhi mṛdu-smitam etad aho
madhuraṁ madhuraṁ madhuraṁ madhuram ||
Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s form is sweet, his face is sweet and the smile on his face is sweeter than sweet. Of the beautiful, everything is beautiful, and of the sweet, everything is sweet! madhurādhipater akhilaṁ madhuram. Such sweetness blossoms in the presence of Śrī Rādhā.
Also, rādhānanaṁ hi madhurāṅga-kalā-nidhānam: Śrī Rādhā’s face is the kalā-nidhānam (abode of fine arts) for Śrī Kṛṣṇa's sweet form, meaning it amplifies the romantic desire in his body. (By the combination of the letters ka and la, the kāma-bīja is indicated.) The twenty-four and a half syllables of the kāma-gāyatrī-mantra are present in the form of moons in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s bodily limbs. This means that even Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose sweet body radiates moonlight that fills the world with romantic desire, even he feels his kāma increased by seeing the beautiful face of Śrī Rādhā.
kāma-gāyatrī-mantra-rūpa, haya kṛṣṇa-svarūpa, sārdha cabbiśa akṣara tāra haya |
se akṣara candra haya, kṛṣṇe kari udaya, trijagat kaila kāmamaya ||
sakhi he! kṛṣṇa-mukha dvija-rāja-rāja |
kṛṣṇa-bapu siṁhāsane, basiyāche rājya-śāsane, saṅge kari candrera samāja ||
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ei cāṅdera baḍa nāṭa, pasāri cāṅdera hāṭa, binimūlye bilāya nijāmṛta |
kāṅho smita jyotsnāmṛte, kāhāke adharāmṛte, saba loka kare āpyāyita ||
bipula āyatāruṇa, madana-mada-ghūrṇana, mantrī yāra ei dui nayana |
lābaṇya-keli-sadana, jana-netra-rasāyana, sukhamaya gobinda-badana ||
“The kāma-gāyatrī is Kṛṣṇa in the form of a twenty-four and a half syllable mantra. These syllables are like moons that rise in Kṛṣṇa to fill the three worlds with romantic desire. O Sakhī! Kṛṣṇa’s face is the king of moons and his body is the throne from which he rules his kingdom of moons. (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 21.125-126)
“There is much dancing by this moon, and like a shopkeeper in a market of moons, he freely distributes his own nectar. The whole world is pleased, some by the nectarous moonlight of his gentle smile, some by the nectar of his lips. His broad reddish rolling eyes, drunk with desire, are this king’s ministers. Śrī Govinda’s joyous face is the abode of charming pastimes and the elixir for everyone’s eyes.” (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 21.130-131)
Moreover, just as when the moon appears, the ocean’s waves swell and surge, in the same way, when Śrī Kṛṣṇa sees Śrī Rādhā’s moonlike face, the waves of the transcendent young God of Love’s ocean of erotic desire also swell and surge! After experiencing this mādhurya while in his siddha-svarūpa in the realm of līlā, Śrīpāda’s vision ends and he once again enters sādhaka-consciousness. He prays, “When shall we see that beautiful moonlike face of Śrī Rādhā?” The deeper meaning of this prayer is that he is asking when he will be blessed to obtain his cherished sevā and taste the playful couple’s ever-increasing līlā-mādhurī, rūpa-mādhurī and prema-mādhurī(6), which arise as Śrī Kṛṣṇa sees Śrī Rādhā’s moonlike face and his desire for vilāsa(7) grows stronger. By saying “present before us” he is praying that all the yugala-rasa-bhaktas of the world may be blessed with such devotion. This profound āśīrvāda(8) gives us a glimpse of Śrīpāda’s deep compassion.
(2) The joy of divine love
(3) Pure goodness
(4) Mandākinī is another name for the Gaṅgā, which usually flows from the heavens to earth, but here, the kiṅkarīs’ prema flows toward the heavens.
(5) And Kṛṣṇa’s love and Rādhā’s sweetness nourish each other and they both increase.
(6) Pastime sweetness, form sweetness and love sweetness
(7) Amorous sport
(8) Blessing, benediction
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