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Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 32 (comm. by Śrī Anantadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

संकेतकुञ्जमनुपल्लवमास्तरीतुं

तत्तत्प्रसादमभितः खलु संवरीतुम् ।

त्वां श्यामचन्द्रमभिसारयितुं धृताशे

श्रीराधिके मयि विधेहि कृपाकटाक्षम् ॥ ३२ ॥

saṁketa-kuñjam anu pallavam āstarītuṁ

tat-tat-prasādam abhitaḥ khalu saṁvarītum |

tvāṁ śyāma-candram abhisārayituṁ dhṛtāśe

śrī-rādhike mayi vidhehi kṛpā-kaṭākṣam || 32 ||

“O Śrī Rādhikā! Please cast your merciful glance upon me. To quickly get your blessings, I want to spread a bed of fresh leaves for you in the trysting-bower and then bring you to the moonlike Śyāma.”

Śrī Rādhā’s Merciful Glance

Rasa-Varṣiṇī-Vyākhyā: In the previous verse, Śrīpāda received Śrīmati’s compassion after serving her in his svarūpa. At the end of his mystic vision, he wept. He felt great suffering in the absence of sevā. Service to Śrī Rādhā is more desirable than service to Śrī Bhagavān. The desire in Śrīpāda’s heart for rādhā-dāsya caused an uncontrollable outburst of emotion. His intense longing for sevā has made him impatient. Weeping, he prayed, “O Rādhikā! When will I become your dāsī?” Deity worship will awaken the sādhaka’s consciousness as much as possible. Observing the sādhaka’s emotion, it seems that his iṣṭadeva is taking him by the hand. Realization is inevitable in rāgānugā-bhajana, particularly in rādhā-dāsya-bhajana. If there is no realization, sādhana-bhakti will seem lifeless. “Thus is the plight of a jīva like me. My svarūpa has not awakened and I am deeply engrossed in this body, the opposite of bhāva. If I cannot get to know her even a little, then what a big failure my sādhana-life is!” The sādhaka’s intense desire to be near Śrī Rādhā will pull him toward his goal. The eager sādhaka can never relax blithely into the bliss of food and sleep. An incessant prayer awakens: “O Svāminī! If you would just once enter my thoughts or dreams, I would feel reassured. Please respond, Svāminī! Just once, say, ‘You are mine.’ This is my only hope!” Compared to this yearning desire, everything else becomes insignificant. Through experience, the sādhaka is gradually pulled toward her lotus feet. 

Śrīpāda’s strong feelings of separation are the apex of longing. Weeping, he says, “Śrī Rādhikā! When will I become your dāsī?” Suddenly, the goddess of Śrīpāda’s mystical vision appeared before his eyes with boundless beauty. He experienced a vision of Śrī Rādhā’s most affectionate abhisāra-līlā.(1) The passionate girl has walked to the trysting-bower to meet her lover. Śrīpāda walked behind her in his kiṅkarī form, carrying articles for sevā such as candana, kuṅkuma and tāmbūla.(2) Svāminī feels anxious and looks nervously about. Vṛndāvana is beautified by the beauty of her eyes. The kiṅkarī encourages her, “Why are you afraid? Let’s go; if you get scared, just look at me.” Svāminī’s dāsī gives her courage. She causes the abhisāra by transferring her śakti (energy) into the heart of the mūla-śakti (original energy). Love-struck Śrī Rādhā has arrived at the meeting bower. At Śrīmatī’s signal, the dāsī prepared a comfortable pleasure-bed of fresh sprouts and leaves. Śyāmasundara has not yet arrived. Śrīmatī longs for her lover. tvāṁ śyāmacandraṁ prati abhisārayituṁ dhṛtāśe, yadvā tvāṁ tathā śyāmacandram abhisārayituṁ dhṛtāśe. “I want to lead you to Śyāmasundara,” or, “I want to bring you and Śyāmasundara together.” Seeing Śrīmatī’s distress, the kiñkarī went to search for Śyāma. Śrī Rādhā’s viraha-afflicted lover had forgotten the path to the bower and was searching for her in a different direction. A Vṛndāvana breeze carried Svāminī’s bodily fragrance from a distance and caused it to enter Śyāma’s nostrils. The aroma brought him to his senses and led him to the path. The kiṅkarī spotted the anxious nāgara from not far away. She was gratified to see Śyāma so eager to find Rādhā. The nāgara’s pain of separation was evident in his face and eyes. From her hiding place, the kiṅkarī relished the sweetness of Śyāma’s form. In her eyes, Śyāma is very handsome when he longs for Śrī Rādhā. Suddenly, the nāgara’s searching gaze fell upon Rādhā’s kiṅkarī and hope returned to his despondent heart. Delighted, he ran to the kiṅkarī and said, “O friend! Where is your leader? I was so eager and anxious to see her that I forgot the path to the meeting bower. Now I am walking around looking for her. Where is she? Please take me there!” Wanting to see Kṛṣṇa show a little more longing, the maidservant of rasa said, “O king of gallants! Your wish will remain unfulfilled. The jewel of nāgarīs is staying home today.” Distressed, Kṛṣṇa asked, “Will she not come to the forest?” The kiṅkarī replied, “She is doing housework today on the order of her elders.” Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “What is she doing right now?” The kiṅkarī: “She churned a pot of water, thinking it to be yogurt.” Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “What happened then?” The kiṅkarī: “When Jaṭilā saw her churning the water, she thought that perhaps it was her love for you that caused her mental disorder, so she scolded her and confined her to the house.” Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “But I can smell the aroma of her body.” The kiṅkarī: “O Nāgarendra! I am wearing her prasādī clothing and her aroma has clung to it. This is what you smell.” Considering the kiṅkarī’s words to be true, Kṛṣṇa felt dejected and said, “Alas, will that lightning in the form of Rādhā not beautify my cloud-like heart today?” When the kiṅkarī saw that Kṛṣṇa was beginning to slip into a swoon, she infused hope into his burning heart to reassure him. Śrī Rādhā’s kiṅkarī is shining a light of hope into the dark, despair-filled heart of an entity made of condensed transcendental joy. Such is the greatness of her kiṅkarī. She must infuse joy into the heart of the one made of joy, so how much power is in her heart? Mādanākhya-mahābhāva is the product of their hands, so great is the glory of Rādhā’s kiṅkarīs.

After reassuring Śyāma, the kiṅkarī brings him to Śrīmatī’s kuñja. Meanwhile, Śrīmatī is also delighted by Śyāmasundara’s aroma. She praises the wind: “O fragrance-bearer! What austerities have you performed that led you to touch the body of Śrī Gokulacandra? This is very rare. If I had known about these austerities, I would have tried performing them to obtain good fortune like yours.” In Śrī-Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ, 14.149, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda has said that the powerful desire to take birth even in an inanimate form just to smell Kṛṣṇa’s aroma is a type of affection.(3) The kiṅkarī has succeeded in bringing the eager couple together and Śrīmatī is thoroughly pleased. Some reward must be given. Śyāmasundara places his chewed tāmbūla lovingly in Śrī Rādhā’s mouth. Śrīmatī scrunches up her face and says, “No way! I will not drink the nectar of your lips, which bear the remnants from a hundred lustful girls.” After glancing at her kiṅkarī, she placed that chewed tāmbūla on a leaf that had fallen into the bower house. This is rasa’s reward to rasa’s dāsī. tat-tat-prasādaṁ śrī-śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇayoḥ prasāda-nirmālyam abhitaḥ śīghraṁ prāptavyam ity arthaḥ. In this way, the kiṅkarī obtains rasa through Śrī Yugala’s prasādī garlands and so on. Or, prasāda could mean ājñā-sevā, or service based on an order. Śrī Yugala ask the kiṅkarī to perform various kinds of service out of affection for her. ājnāya āniyā kabe bibidha phulabara, bacana śunaba duṅhu miṭhi (Ṭhākura Mahāśaya). “When will I hear their sweet speech after bringing the flowers they requested.” The phrase saṁketa-kuñjam anu means “in each kuñja.” The pleasure-bed has been crushed. With an eye gesture, Śrīmatī directs the kiṅkarī to perform sevā: “Go make another pleasure-bed in the kuñja.” At Śrīmatī’s direction, the kiṅkarī again made a bed with soft leaves and sprouts. The rasika couple sported freely from bower to bower like an elephant king and his queen. Along with seeing the sweet pastimes, the kiṅkarī was blessed with śrī-yugala-sevā. Śrīpāda’s vision of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa has ended. Sobbing, he prays, “I wait here hoping to serve you; please make that tree of hope fruitful. O Rādhā! Without your mercy, it is impossible for my tree of hope to bear fruit. Therefore, śrī-rādhike mayi vidhehi kṛpā-kaṭākṣam: Cast your merciful glance on me.”

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1. Rendezvous with her lover

2. Sandalwood paste, saffron and betel

3. paraspara-vaśī-bhāvaḥ prema-vaicittyakaṁ tathā | aprāṇiny api janmāptyai lālasā-bhara unnataḥ | vipralambhe’sya visphūrtir ity ādyāḥ syur iha kriyāḥ ||