गत्वा कलिन्दतनया-विजनावतार-
मुद्वर्तयन्त्यमृतमङ्गमनङ्गजीवम् ।
श्रीराधिके तव कदा नवनागरेन्द्रं
पश्यामि मग्ननयनं स्थितमुच्चनीपे ॥ २४ ॥
gatvā kalinda-tanayā-vijanāvatāram
udvartayanty amṛtam aṅgam anaṅga-jīvam |
śrī-rādhike tava kadā nava-nāgarendraṁ
paśyāmi magna-nayanaṁ sthitam ucca-nīpe || 24 ||
“O Rādhikā! When, after going with you to a secluded Yamunā ghat and massaging you with saffron and musk, will I see your youthful king of lovers sitting high in a kadamba tree gazing at your nectarous form, which gives life to the god of love?”
A Secluded Ghat on the Yamunā
Rasa-Varṣiṇī-Vyākhyā: In the last few verses, while absorbed in his svarūpa, Śrīpāda has obtained a vision of Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s ardent journey to meet Śrī Kṛṣṇa. When the vision ended, Śrīpāda wailed. He yearned for the object of his desire. The behavior of the gosvāmīs is like a polestar for the sādhaka and the best example of the path of sādhana. A sādhaka should not spend his life thinking his sādhana will be spontaneous like that of a siddha-bhakta. A little eagerness is required to attain one’s desired object. “I am satisfied with whatever little I am doing” is not the method of progressive prema-dharma. Insatiability is the nature of bhakti. If complacence comes to your bhajana, you must understand that your bhajana life is waning and your bhajana-vigraha (form) has become lifeless. Then you must hear and chant the stavas and stotras of the gosvāmīs, which are full of eagerness and longing. Their words have great power. By hearing and chanting these great teachings, the sādhaka also will be filled with eagerness. The gosvāmīs are nitya-siddha-parikaras, but the eagerness of the sādhaka-siddha-premikas is also wonderful. Filled with anguish, Govardhana resident Siddha Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja has prayed,
hā-hā prāṇeśvari! tuyā biccheda anale |
nirabadhi prāṇa mora dhikidhiki jvale ||
e duḥkha sāgara haite uddhāra kariyā |
śrī-caraṇe rākha more kiṅkarī kariyā ||
hena dina ki habe taba śrī-mukhera bāṇī |
karṇete śuniba āra nūpurera dhvani ||
tomāra lābaṇyāmṛta nayana-caṣake |
kabe bā kariba pāna parānanda sukhe ||
āghrāṇa kariba taba aṅga-parimala |
pulake pūrṇita habe mora kalebara ||
kabe tabocchiṣṭāmṛta dibe kṛpā kari |
pāiyā kṛtārthā habe e naba-kiṅkarī ||
tumi mora japa-tapa tumi mora dhyāna |
janmābadhi tomā binā nāhi jāni āna ||
kāntāli sahita tumi yathāya bihara |
kṛpā kari sei sthāne more dāsī kara ||
kāṅde dīna kṛṣṇadāsa dante tṛṇa dhari |
abhilāṣa pūrṇa mora kara hema gauri ||
“Alas, O Goddess of my life! My heart smolders endlessly in the fire of separation from you. Please rescue me from this ocean of misery, keep me at your lotus feet and make me your kiṅkarī. Will the day ever come when I hear the words from your lovely mouth, along with the tinkling of your anklets? When will I blissfully drink the nectar of your beauty from the chalice of my eyes? When will I be covered with goosebumps after inhaling the sweet fragrance of your body? This new kiṅkarī will feel herself successful when you kindly give her the nectarous remnants of your food. You are my japa and my tapa. You are my meditation. I have known only you since birth. Be merciful and make me your dāsī in the places where you sport with your lover and your friends. Weeping, this humble Kṛṣṇadāsa holds a straw in his teeth. O golden one! O Gaurī! Please fulfill my desire.”
Having obtained such an ācārya-mahājana, how am I spending my days? True sādhana will bring a transformation in one’s life—the heart becomes eager. How Śrīpāda wails! “When will I get to see your sweet līlā?” After looking and looking, a vision came.
Śrīpāda sees himself in his kiṅkarī form, in the company of Śrī Rādhā in Yāvaṭa. It is summertime, in the morning, and Śrīmatī wants to bathe in the Yamunā. They will bathe at a secluded ghat on the Yamunā. As a kiṅkarī, Śrīpāda is walking to the Yamunā with Śrī Rādhā. No other sakhīs or mañjarīs are with them. The kiṅkarī is enchanted by Śrīmatī’s movements as she walks. Śrīmatī looks all about. “I wonder if Kṛṣṇa is watching.” Vṛndāvana is made more beautiful by the beauty of her eyes. Meanwhile, in Nandīśvara, Śrī Kṛṣṇa and his friends have been playing games since they finished milking the cows. Then a parrot secretly told Kṛṣṇa that Śrī Rādhā had gone to bathe at a secluded ghat on the Yamunā with only one dāsī. After getting that information, Śrī Kṛṣṇa told his friends he was going alone to see the beauty of a garden near Nandīśvara. Instead, he went to that secluded ghat on the Yamunā before Śrī Rādhā and her dāsī arrived. He climbed a tall kadamba tree and hid himself in an area densely covered by leaves.
Śrīmatī soon arrived at that Yamunā ghat with her kiṅkarī. Her delicate body was tired from walking. She sat on the gem-studded steps, her hair and clothing disheveled. The golden beauty of her form illuminated the Yamunā ghat. Śyāmasundara was excited to see the water of the Yamunā. Śrīmatī was overwhelmed by love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa; he pervaded her through and through. From his hiding place in the high treetop, Śyāmasundara is tasting without obstruction the sweetness of the embodiment of bhāva. At this solitary ghat, the kiṅkarī is preparing to anoint Śrīmatī’s body with oil. First, she untied Śrīmatī’s dark hair, moistened it with fragrant oil and then dressed it with a jeweled comb. Each hair is as precious to her as millions of her lives. Such heartfelt sevā! After combing her hair, she uncovered Śrīmatī’s lovely body and affectionately massaged her with nārāyaṇa and other fragrant oils. On some days, even the all-knowing Śyāma cannot get news about her. The one who bears a peacock feather atop his head has now resorted to a treetop, longing to relish the sweetness of her form. The kiṅkarī has deep insight into oil massages. She knows how Śyāma touches Śrīmatī with his hands, so she touches her in the same way. Svāminī is overwhelmed. After the oil massage, the kiṅkarī massages her with lotus and other flower pollens. Śyāmasundara is silently enjoying the beauty of Śrīmatī’s uncovered body from a branch of the tree. A stream of sweetness appears to be dripping from her lovely form. So much astonishing beauty! Her body is like nectar, an icon of nectar. Śyāma is drinking that nectar freely through the chalices of his eyes. In verse seventy-five of this book, Śrīpāda says, gaurāṅge mradimā smite madhurimā netrāñcale drāghimā vakṣoje garimā ityādi. Śyāma perceives her mādhurya in the softness of her golden form, the sweetness of her smile, the breadth of her eyes and the heaviness of her breasts. He relishes her languor from the rasa in her heart. gātre koṭi-taḍic-chavi pravitatānanda-cchavi śrī-mukhe (verse ninety-nine). Her body is more splendorous than millions of lightning bolts; joy radiates from her beautiful face. He enjoys it all unimpeded. He is tasting nectar through his eyes; therefore, his eyes are immersed in pleasure. This is not the nectar of heaven; this is mahābhāva, the supreme form of nectar. This is why sac-cid-ānanda is so enjoyable. mahābhāvojjvala-cintā-ratnodbhāvita-vigrahām (Premāmbhoja-Marandākhya-Stava). “Her form is born from the radiant thought-jewel of mahābhāva.” mahābhāva-cintāmaṇi—rādhāra svarūpa (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 8.165). “Śrī Rādhā’s form is a thought-jewel of mahābhāva.”(1) Śrī Rādhā is unknowingly performing unprecedented service to Śyāmasundara with the sweet nectar of her beautiful form. Thus, the significance of the name Rādhikā. Another attribute of her form is given: anaṅga-jīvam. It gave Anaṅga, the god of love, a body and restored it to life; thus, anaṅga-jīvam. Anaṅga manifests the desires for sense-gratification in the hearts of worldly people. Therefore, kṛṣṇa-bhaktas try to give up their relation with Anaṅga in the beginning of their bhajana. If Anaṅga is not a medium for pure love, his vilification does not disappear, nor does he obtain a body. Because Śrī Rādhā’s prema is devoid of all kinds of limitations, her loving embraces and so on with Kṛṣṇa manifested Anaṅga’s form. It was as though his stain had been removed and he had been blessed with life and a body. When the transcendental young God of Love and enchanter of Anaṅga saw Śrī Rādhā’s body, it seemed as though the function of Madana had come to life in his heart. Therefore, her body is now anaṅga-jīvam.
The meaning is that in Vṛndāvana, there is no worldly god of love. Here, Śrīman Madana-Gopāla himself is the transcendental young God of Love. She who is the root cause of existence for both the worldly and transcendental Kandarpa is like a billowy ocean of naturally sweeter than sweet and boundless charm. Still, Śrī Brahmā said in his prayers to Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, “We eleven devatās are blessed to taste the nectar of your sweetness through the eleven sense-organs of the Vrajavāsīs.” Even though the worldly deities do not reside in the spiritual forms of the Vrajavāsīs, it seems that Brahmā has described it like that. There is no place in Śrī Vṛndāvana for the worldly god of love, so when Śrī Kṛṣṇa sees Śrīmatī’s beautiful form, he is transformed into Madana. Thus, her form has been called anaṅga-jīvam. Or, her form is the life of the transcendental young God of Love, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Thus, anaṅga-jīvam. Whatever greatness the transcendental young God of Love possesses is due to the beauty and sweetness of Śrīmatī’s form. Otherwise, it is the ultimate defeat of his greatness.
rādhā-saṅge yadā bhāti tadā madana-mohanaḥ |
anyathā viśva-moho’pi svayaṁ madana-mohitaḥ ||
“When Śrī Kṛṣṇa is with Śrī Rādhā, he is Madana-Mohana. When he is not with her, even the world-enchanting Śrī Kṛṣṇa himself is enchanted by Madana.” (Govinda-Līlāmṛtam 8.32) caḍi gopīra manorathe, manmathera mana mathe, nāma dhare madana-mohana. “The one named Madana-Mohana churns the mind of the god of love as he rides in the chariot of the gopī’s heart.” (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 21.107) The beautiful form of the one who enchants the mind of Madana-Mohana gives him life. After drinking nectar, a dying man regains his life and becomes active. In the same way, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, dying in the fire of love, feels the touch of Śrī Rādhā’s body and once again becomes alive and active.
mora aṅga-saṅga āśe, lālasā pāiyā baise,
rase pahuṅ bale ‘jiluṅ jiluṅ’ |
nija-anugata-jane, gaṇiyā rākhiha mane,
e tanu tomāre diluṅ diluṅ ||
“My Lord sits, longing for the touch of my body. Overcome by emotion, he says, ‘I have been rescued, I have survived!’ Regarding me as your own, keep this in mind: I gave this body to you.” (Govinda Ācārya)
Suddenly, the kiṅkarī caught sight of Śyāmasundara. Śyāma prayed to the kiṅkarī with folded hands, “Please just give me a little taste.” Seeing his condition, the kiṅkarī immediately sank into rasa and the vision ended. In sādhaka-consciousness, Śrīpāda wailed and prayed to see the līlā again.
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1. A thought-jewel or cintāmaṇi is a “fabulous gem supposed to yield its possessor all desires.” MW
