Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 22 (comm. by Śrī Anantadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

सत्प्रेमसिन्धुमकरन्द-रसौघधारा-

सारानजस्रमभितः स्रवदाश्रितेषु ।

श्रीराधिके तव कदा चरणारविन्दं 

गोविन्दजीवनधनं शिरसा वहामि ॥ २२ ॥

sat-prema-sindhu-makaranda-rasaugha-dhārā-

sārān ajasram abhitaḥ sravad āśriteṣu |

śrī-rādhike tava kadā caraṇāravindaṁ 

govinda-jīvana-dhanaṁ śirasā vahāmi || 22 ||

“O Śrī Rādhikā! A stream of nectar from the eternal ocean of love always pours from your lotus feet upon those who have taken shelter of you. When shall I bear those lotus feet, the treasure of Śrī Govinda’s life, upon my head?”

Rādhā’s Feet: The Treasure of Govinda’s Life

Rasa-Varṣiṇī-Vyākhyā: The divine stream of Śrīpāda’s visions has been flowing! His intense longing and anxiety for sevā have been expressed in each verse. It is universally accepted that one acquires a desired object according to the degree he longs for it. tīvra-saṁvegānām āsannaḥ (yoga-śāstra). The meaning is that samādhi is imminent for those who are able to intensely perform dhyāna and dhāraṇā (meditation and concentration). The degree of a bhakta’s desire determines the degree of his delight. Through this intense thirst, Śrīpāda has received visions of divine līlā and directly tasted sevā-rasa in his siddha-svarūpa. Even at the sādhana stage, one can have some experience of it. If the sādhaka gets some realization during meditation, he thinks, “I got a little response.” The ācāryas have also experienced sevā-rasa and propagated it. Just as Śrīpāda is getting wonderful experiences of rādhā-rasa through his visions, the bhāva-filled, charming madhura poetry and knowledge of līlā-rasa flowing from his pen are attracting the admiration of the great rasika devotees of the world.

In the previous verse, Śrīpāda has done wonderful sevā by calling out to Śrī Rādhā and expressing his feelings to her. By addressing her in such terms, he brings the līlā to her eyes. Śrīmatī has been running like a madwoman to meet with Śyāma. She has lost all sense of direction. The kiṅkarī is distraught, thinking that Śrīmatī’s lotus feet may be injured. The prospect that her dear one’s tender feet may suffer pain was truly unbearable. When Śrī Kṛṣṇa disappeared from the rāsa-līlā, the vraja-sundarīs became distressed and anxious to see him. Disturbed that he may hurt his tender feet while roaming through areas of Vṛndāvana that were strewn with gravels and thorns, they said,

yat te sujāta-caraṇāmburuhaṁ staneṣu 

bhītāḥ śanaiḥ priya dadhīmahi karkaśeṣu |

tenāṭavīm aṭasi tad vyathate na kiṁ svit 

kūrpādibhir bhramati dhīr bhavad āyuṣāṁ naḥ ||

“O darling! We fear that as you roam through the forest tonight, you may injure your delicate lotus feet, those beautiful feet that we held so gently upon our firm breasts. You are our life, and our minds reel with the thought that you may be pained by stepping on stones or thorns.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.31.19)

One manifestation of mahābhāva is that wherever there is the possibility of happiness, there is also the anxiety that there may be pain. For this reason, the vraja-sundarīs hold Kṛṣṇa’s feet gently to their bosoms, concerned that his feet may be injured by the touch of their firm breasts. It is easy to deduce that in a situation where there may be genuine pain, their minds become very disturbed. Particularly, when there is the possibility of some type of pain for Śrī Rādhā, who is the wish-yielding creeper of kṛṣṇa-prema, the soft-hearted sakhīs and mañjarīs, who are like her branches and leaves, feel truly indescribable misery.

Absorbed in his kiṅkarī-svarūpa, Śrīpāda said, “O Rādhā! In your rapture of serving Śrī Kṛṣṇa, you have forgotten your own body. But your feet, more delicate than śirīṣa flowers, are being injured by walking where there is no good path.” Thinking like this, the poor dāsī is losing her mind.

yo thala-kamala paraśe ati komala jhāmara bhai upacaṅka |

so aba yāṅhā tāṅhā kaṭhina dharaṇī māhā ḍārata bhai niśaṅka ||

“Those same delicate feet that turn pale when startled by the touch of a land-lily are now being placed fearlessly upon the hard earth.” (Rādhāmohana Ṭhākura)

These lotus feet, which are more precious to her than millions of lives, always remain within her gentle heart. How can the kiṅkarī’s love tolerate such hardship for them? She says, “O Rādhikā! Please place your lotus feet upon my head! Do not step on the hard ground of Vraja again. I shall take those feet to Śyāmasundara, bearing them on my head as though they were millions of my lives.” At the appearance of pure devotion to her lotus feet, by the mercy of those feet, their qualities are spontaneously revealed within the heart. This has been described in the verse by two adjectives. sat-prema-sindhu-makaranda-rasaugha-dhārā-sārān ajasram abhitaḥ sravad āśriteṣu. The meaning is that a stream of nectar from the ocean of eternal love flows through her lotus feet to continuously shower those who have taken shelter. Here, the words sat-prema should be understood to mean absolutely pure love, devoid of any desire for one’s own enjoyment and devoted to the beloved’s happiness. Actually, only the mādhurya-saturated love of Vraja is completely pure. biśuddha brajera prema, yena jāmbū-nada hema; ātma-sukhera yāṅhā nāhi gandha. “Vraja-prema is completely pure, like gold from the Jambū River. There is not even the scent of desire for one’s own happiness.” 

This pure love reaches its zenith in the mañjarīs. Because they have taken exclusive shelter of Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet, a stream of nectar flowing from the ocean of pure love continuously rains upon them. They have reached the highest stage of purity. They are called mañjarīs, and by nature they are also mañjarīs. The mañjarī, or sprig, does not give enjoyment to the bee. Just as a creeper’s sprig increases a bee’s desire for its fully bloomed flowers, in the same way, these mañjarīs, by their skillful sevā and charming natures, increase Madhusūdana Śyāmasundara’s desire for Śrī Rādhārāṇī. This is the power of taking exclusive shelter at Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet. The nectar of pure love always falls from Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet, and this nectar does not consist of just a few drops like the nectar of a lotus of this world. This nectar pours like a waterfall in an endless stream upon those who have taken shelter.

sāndrānanda-ghanānurāga-laharī-nisyanda-pādāmbuja-

dvandve śrī-vṛṣabhānu-nandini sadā vande tava śrī-padam |

“O Daughter of Vṛṣabhānu! I forever adore your lotus feet, from which waves of concentrated joyful love flow like nectar.” (Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 94)

Or the word sat could mean Śrī Kṛṣṇa. From Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet comes a continuous flow of love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In his Svasaṁkalpa-Prakāśa-Stotra, Śrīpāda Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmicaraṇa has written,

anārādhya rādhā-padāmbhoja-reṇum 

anāśritya vṛndāṭavīṁ tat-padāṅkām |

asambhāṣya tad-bhāva-gambhīra-cittān 

kutaḥ śyāma-sindho rasasyāvagāhaḥ ||

“One who does not worship the dust from Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet; or who has not taken shelter at her feet; who does not take shelter of Śrī Vṛndāvana, which is marked with her footprints; or who does not associate with the profound rāga-mārga-sādhakas whose hearts long for rādhā-dāsya, will never be able to taste the sweet rasa of the ocean that is Śyāma.” Śrīpāda has himself said,

rādhā-dāsyam apāsya yaḥ prayatate govinda-saṅgāśayā

so’yaṁ pūrṇa-sudhā-ruceḥ paricayaṁ rākāṁ vinā kāṅkṣati |

kiṁ-ca śyāma-rati-pravāha-laharī-bījaṁ na ye tāṁ vidus

te prāpyāpi mahāmṛtāmbudhim aho binduṁ paraṁ prāpnuyuḥ ||

“One who tries for a relationship with Govinda without serving Śrī Rādhā is like one who wants to experience the nectarous splendor of the full-moon without the full-moon night. Alas, unmindful of her being the source of the waves in the river of love for Śyāma, they are able to obtain no more than a drop of the great ocean of nectar.” (Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 80)

Moreover, those feet are the treasure of Govinda’s life. Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s senses are always submerged in the mādhurya of Rādhā’s form, rasa and so on. For this reason, his name is Govinda.

nirdhūtāmṛta-mādhurī-parimalaḥ kalyāṇi bimbādharo

vaktraṁ paṅkaja-saurabhaṁ kuharita-ślāghā-bhidas te giraḥ |

aṅgaṁ candana-śītalaṁ tanur iyaṁ saundarya-sarvasva-bhāk

tvām āsvādya mamedam indriya-kulaṁ rādhe muhur modate ||

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said to Śrī Rādhā, “O prosperous one! Your lips, red as bimba fruits, are sweeter and more fragrant than nectar. Your lovely face is sweet-scented like a lotus, and your speech is sweeter than the cooing of a cuckoo. Your body is cooler than sandalwood paste; indeed, it is the reservoir of all beauty. Having tasted your sweetness, O Rādhā, my senses rejoice again and again.” (Lalita-Mādhava 9.9) Even though Govinda always desires Rādhā like this, to nourish the rasa, Yogamāyā utilizes parakīya-bhāva to make Rādhā extremely hard for him to get. kabhu mile kabhu nā mile daibera ghaṭana: “Whether they meet or not is a matter of luck.” Whenever the nāyikā is hard to get, a strong attachment arises in the heart of the nāyaka. Therefore, hoping to embrace Nāgarīmaṇi Śrī Rādhā, Nāgara-Śiromaṇi Śrī Kṛṣṇa entered the nikuñja-mandira meditating on her lotus feet like the king of yogīs. kālindī-taṭa-kuñja-mandira-gato yogīndravad yat-pada-jyotir dhyāna-paraḥ (Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 96). Once, to calm sulking Rādhā’s anger by holding her feet on his head like an ornament, he requested, dehi pada-pallavam udāram: “Please give me your lovely lotus-bud feet.” When Govinda desires the touch of her lovely feet, a wave of rasa rises in his heart: hiyāra mājhāre uṭhe rasera hilloli, (yabe) paraśite cāhi tomāra pāyera aṅgulī. After tasting all this rasa-mādhurya in līlā, Śrīpāda declared that Śrīmatī’s lotus feet are the treasure of Govinda’s life. Loving devotion to God, who is eternal, omniscient and ever blissful, has been celebrated for a long time. His acceptance of the feet of the one who loves him most as his greatest treasure is the very lifeblood of his divinity. This in no way diminishes him, but is rather a sign of his nobility.

“O Rādhā! How can I bear knowing that your feet, the treasure of Govinda’s life, might be pained by the hard ground of Vraja? Please climb on my head; I will carry you to meet your lover. Your beautiful body is as light as a ball of cotton, so it’s not hard for me to carry you. Besides, I’ll be bathed in a constant stream of prema-rasa.” If Śrī Rādhā says, “I’ll know whether my feet hurt or not; why do you worry so much?” In response, I will say, “You’re delirious; you won’t even know your own condition! You are going to meet Govinda to serve him, but the treasure of his life is feeling pain. Have you considered that? So just put the treasure of Govinda’s life on my head and he’ll be happy.” Longing to get Śrīmatī’s lotus feet on her head, the kiṅkarī points Śrī Rādhā in the direction of Govinda’s happiness. Countless figurative expressions like this have been placed in these ślokas. Blessed is the kiṅkarī; blessed is her sevā!