Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 11 (comm. by Śrī Anantadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

 

यत्पादपद्म-नखचन्द्रमणिच्छटाया 

विस्फूर्जितं किमपि गोपवधूष्वदर्शि ।

पूर्णानुराग-रससागर-सारमूर्तिः 

सा राधिका मयि कदापि कृपां करोतु ॥ ११ ॥

yat-pāda-padma-nakha-candra-maṇi-cchaṭāyā 

visphūrjitaṁ kim api gopa-vadhūṣv adarśi |

pūrṇānurāga-rasa-sāgara-sāra-mūrtiḥ 

sā rādhikā mayi kadāpi kṛpāṁ karotu || 11 ||

I have seen the indescribable effulgence of her moonstone toenails while she was among the countless gopīs. When will Śrī Rādhikā, the embodiment of the essence of the ocean of fulfilled love, give me her mercy.

The Luster of Śrī Rādhā's Toenails

Rasa-Varṣiṇī-Vyākhyā: In the previous verse, Śrīpāda had a vision and tasted the sweetness of one wonderful pastime while absorbed in spiritual consciousness. At the end of his vision, his mind was afflicted with pangs of separation. Separation for Śrī Rādhārāṇī will inevitably awaken to some degree in the heart of a sādhaka who is absorbed in his svarūpa. If someone feels no separation from another, he can also feel no longing for their union. The Gosvāmīs have taught that, “First you must feel separation; then you can taste the rasa of union.” Separation, viraha, does not arise in a mind that is absorbed in the body. In the mind of one absorbed in his svarūpa, the thought is always, “When shall I get my Svāminī’s mercy?” The prayers of a sādhaka absorbed in his svarūpa are so beautiful, and that beauty is experienced somewhat in Śrīmad Rūpa Gosvāmipāda’s Stavamālā, Śrīmad Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmipāda’s Stavāvalī and Śrīla Sarasvatīpāda’s Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ. Floating in the waves of his prayers, now and then his heart and mind go to the realm of līlā and in a vision are blessed with a taste of his beloved’s līlā-mādhurī. Moreover, at the end of the vision, deep lamentation, humility, distress and anxiety awaken in his heart. Then, the waves of his prayers of yearning flow on. The sādhaka’s ultimate desire is to attain this state.

Śrīpāda had previously obtained a vision of the springtime rāsa-līlā while absorbed in his svarūpa, and now he has experienced it once again. The rāsa dancing has begun and within the circle, a gopī, then Kṛṣṇa, then another gopī, then Kṛṣṇa again and so on. Śrī Vṛndāvana is illumined with beauty. Śrī Śuka Muni, enchanted by that beauty, described it in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.33.6:

tatrātiśuśubhe tābhir bhagavān devakī-sutaḥ |

madhye maṇīnāṁ haimānāṁ mahāmarakato yathā ||

One mahājana has skillfully given us a serving of the sweetness of this verse:

kāñcana maṇi-gaṇe, janu niramāyala, ramaṇī-maṇḍala sāja |

mājhahi mājha, mahāmarakata-sama, śyāmaru naṭabara rāja ||

dhani dhani aparūpa rāsa bihāra |

thira bijurī sañe, cañcala jaladhara, rasa bariṣaye anibāra ||

“The dark lord of dance appeared among the beautiful young women like a magnificent emerald strung between each two golden beads of a necklace. The blessed rāsa dance is wonderful! Steady bolts of lightning have joined with restless clouds to shower incessant rasa.” (Govinda Dāsa)

How sweet is the dancing of the gopīs!

pāda-nyāsair bhuja-vidhutibhiḥ sasmitair bhrū-vilāsair

bhajyan madhyaiś cala-kuca-paṭaiḥ kuṇḍalair gaṇḍa-lolaiḥ |

svidyan-mukhyaḥ kavara-rasanāgranthayaḥ kṛṣṇa-vadhvo

gāyantyas taṁ taḍita iva tā megha-cakre virejuḥ ||

“As the vraja-gopīs danced with Kṛṣṇa in measured steps, they shone brightly like streaks of lightning in a mass of clouds. Their arms swung about as though leaves fluttering in the breeze and they laughed and playfully moved their eyebrows as their waists bent slightly, their breasts shook and their garments swayed. They joyfully sang of Kṛṣṇa’s traits, with earrings dangling on their cheeks, faces perspiring and braids and sashes loosened.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.33.8)

maṇḍalī-bandhe gopī-gaṇa karena nartana |

madhye rādhā-saha nāce brajendranandana ||

“The gopīs all dance in a circle. In the center, Vrajendranandana dances with Śrī Rādhā.” (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Antya 14.19)

In his kiṅkarī form, Śrīpāda observes how wonderfully sweet Śrī Rādhā’s dancing is. The kiṅkarī’s sight is completely fixed in the direction of Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet. Those dancing feet are like newly blossomed red lotuses. Each of her toes is a petal and at the tip of each petal the nail sparkles like a jewel. The kiṅkarī’s heart and mind are completely enchanted by such sweetness. Even the sādhakas are blessed with a taste of this sweetness in their meditations. The primary goal of sādhanā is to relish the sweetness of one’s beloved deity. Contemplating līlā by laboriously following all the rules and regulations does not constitute smaraṇa (meditation) on the path of rāga-bhajana. Through smaraṇa, we want to have as much realization of the sweetness of the beloved’s form, qualities and pastimes as possible. The sādhaka must pay special attention to this from the very beginning. Otherwise, once one becomes habituated to following rules and regulations, even enjoyment (āsvādana) will become subservient to those rules. The state to be desired is that in which rules are subservient to enjoyment.

In his kiṅkarī form, Śrīpāda is witnessing the wonder of Rāseśvarī’s sweet dancing. How delightful to see the luster of her jewel-like toenails and hear the jingling of her jeweled anklets! We have all seen noisy displays of lightning: our eyes are dazzled and our hearts pound in fear. But the sheen of Śrī Rādhā’s toenails accompanied by the sound of her anklets cools our eyes and causes a wave of unprecedented joy to play within our hearts.

At this moment the kiṅkarī perceives Śrī Rādhā as the embodied essence of the ocean of fulfilled love.

anurāgaḥ svasaṁvedya-daśāṁ prāpya prakāśitaḥ |

yāvad āśraya-vṛttiś ced bhāva ity abhidhīyate ||

“If one’s love, previously known only to oneself, becomes manifest to others and serves as a shelter for them, that is called mahābhāva.” (Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇi 14.154)(1) The ocean surges majestically with a continuous series of new waves. In the same way, when love surges in continuous waves of emotion, it is called mahābhāva. Śrī Rādhā is the embodied essence of that mahābhāva, the ocean of love. At the end of Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Sandarbhaḥ, Śrīmat Jīva Gosvāmipāda has written, tad evaṁ parama-madhura-prema-vṛttimayīṣu tāsv api tat-sārāṁśodrekamayī śrī-rādhikā, tasyām eva premotkarṣa parākāṣṭhāyā darśitatvāt. The meaning is that even though mahābhāva is abundantly present among all the gopīs, Śrī Rādhā possesses its essence to the highest degree. The state of mahābhāva known as mādana, which is the apex of love, exists only in Śrī Rādhārāṇī. Śrī Rādhā is the nectar-filled icon of mādana-rasa. This kiṅkarī is beside herself from relishing the sight of Śrīmatī’s beautiful toenails, not to speak of the loveliness of the rest of Rādhā’s body during the rāsa dance. The radiance of Śrī Rādhā’s gemlike toenails outshines even the incomparable luster of the countless gopīs dancing within the circle. For this reason, Śrīpāda says he has seen the unprecedented luster of Śrīmatī’s toenails while she was amidst the gopīs. Suddenly, his vision ended. In sādhaka consciousness he humbly prayed, sā rādhikā mayi kadāpi kṛpāṁ karotu: “When will Rādhikā give me her mercy? When, by her mercy, shall I get to see that sweet līlā again?” This is the gist of it.

Or, the sweetness of this verse may also be relished in the following way. In the previous verse, the king of lovers, enticed by Rādhā’s sweetness, had fallen anxiously at her feet as she stood with her sakhīs and mañjarīs, begging for just one embrace. At that time, the beauty of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the embodiment of the ocean of fulfilled love, was increased tenfold as it reflected from Śrīmatī’s ten gemlike toenails. Śyāmasundara’s ten splendorous forms being reflected from Śrī Rādhā’s ten gemlike toenails increased the pleasure of the sakhīs and mañjarīs’ eyes. The reason for calling Śrī Kṛṣṇa the embodied essence of the ocean of love is that when Kṛṣṇa, excited by experiencing Śrī Rādhā’s sweetness, fell at her feet and begged for a hug, a very powerful wave of love for her was playing in his heart. That love was expressed in his beautiful face, eyes and every part of his body. The sakhīs and mañjarīs then regarded him as the embodiment of love for Rādhā. It seemed that because of his overflowing love for Rādhā, just falling at her feet was not enough, so he divided himself among her ten gemlike toenails and took their shelter. The characteristics of anurāga are described in Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇi 14.146:

sadānubhūtam api yaḥ kuryān nava-navaṁ priyam |

rāgo bhavan nava-navaḥ so’nurāga itīryate ||

“The love that causes one to always perceive his or her beloved in ever-fresh ways and which is itself always being renewed is called anurāga.”  Anurāga produces an ever-new variety in the perception of objects and circumstances. In anurāga, the lover has such a powerful thirst that he thinks his beloved’s form, qualities and so on are at every moment new to him. This type of intense hankering is a measure of one’s taste for something. Even though someone may have an ocean of nectar before him, if he has no thirst, he will have no taste for it. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the embodiment of the desire to embrace Śrī Rādhā. Moreover, the mutual submissiveness of the nāyaka and nāyikā is also one effect of anurāga.(2) After seeing the ultimacy of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s submissiveness toward Śrī Rādhā, the author has called her “the embodiment of the essence of the ocean of love.” At the end of his vision, he prayed, “When will Śrī Rādhikā give me her mercy?”

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1. Though the word bhāva has been used in the text itself, the author has used mahābhāva in his comments.

2. paraspara-vaśī-bhāvaḥ prema-vaicittyakaṁ tathā |

āprāṇiny api janmāptyai lālasā-bhara unnataḥ ||

vipralambhe’sya visphūrtir ity ādyāḥ syur iha kriyāḥ || (Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ 14.149)