Friday 22 May 2015

The Cowherd Boy is now a King

                                                                                           
CC Madhya Lila 1.56  Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to sing this song [♪ ♫ ♪seita parana-natha♫ ♪ ♫] especially during the latter part of the day, and He would think, "Let Me take Krishna and go back to Vrindavana" This ecstasy was always filling His heart.

"It is there alone [in Vraja] that You attract us by wearing peacock feathers in Your turban and playing enchanting music on Your flute.  We can be saved only by seeing You in Vraja and not by any other kind of meditation or theoretical knowledge of the self." Commentary by Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur on Sarartha Darsini 82.48


After long separation from Vraja  Krishna resolves to meet the Brijvasis in Kurukshetra and He goes there from Dwarka with all His royal entourage......

So long ago
light left our eyes,
the Moon disappeared
from our nights,
and many times
our minds, like honeybees, 
flew to the flowers of Your pastimes;
So the wings of our hearts
have not dried
in the intense heat of lamentation
but have led us in this ride.

Now you have come
under this alien moonlight                    
adorned with royal garments
seeming now a king,
not as we see You
in our dreams,
decorated without gems,
but with flowers,
not parading majestically
but wandering and longing
under the bowers,
your stick and bugle
tucked under your sash
on your curls a headband
and playing your flute,
harmoniously bent.
Is this bulky turban to hide
the feathers and the pearls?

As simple cowherd girls,
what your messenger said before   (1)
and what You just spoke 
about yoga and mind control 
is not what our hearts are hankering for.

we do not know meditation
how can we ...?
this love, this agitation,
this thinking of You ~ always
forces us to embrace
the dark trunks of trees,
and in rainy cloud-like lakes      (2)
we behold You and faint;
You have stolen our minds...
under many amorous moonlights,
by the many broken promises
You made ~
How can we be wise, like sages?

These royal heroes and the Queens,
the noble friends and relatives,  
and You - bedecked like a king,
have faded our hopes
to see You, as our cowherd friend
among the groves,
back to Vraj,                      (3)
in the land of our love,
still resounding with the tapping
of your feet in dance
and always combed
by Radha’s loving
searching glance.



1)  The messenger was Uddhava. 

2)  Once in Premadana the Gopis went to fetch water in a lake -Krishna Kunda-. The reflection of           dark clouds in the water sparked in the Gopis such intense feelings for Krishna that they fainted. -       Lila retold from Nava Vraja Mahima Vol. II p.44

3) KS Anuccheda 170 "Since we cannot meditate on your feet in our minds and it is impossible for us to come to Dvarka -or we do not want to come - we will be saved only if you come personally to Vrindavana."




2 comments:

  1. ... and the musical version of this wonder....? already on soundcloud? Mauro prabhuji?

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    Replies
    1. No, Prabhu, we did not put this poem into music ..as of yet. Thank you for appreciating. Haribol.

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