GOPINATH

Another gopi said “ Yes! Let us see, touch, hear and smell Krishna……” Sarartha Darsini 10th Canto pg228

The Gopis met Krishna in Kurukshetra and expressed their trouble hearts in seeing Him dressed like a King, and therefore they tried to remind Him of Vraja because they wanted to attract Him to come back.

Dressed like a King,

encircled in this town by royal kin,

what you hide now 

we have seen ~

your true crown

of flowers, feathers and leaves.

We touched your skin,

smelled the fragrance

in the nocturnal breeze,

when cooling sandal paste 

covered your limbs,

streaked by rolling pearls of sweat

 like scented dew,

the colorful garland on Your chest

crushed against the blue.

We heard you sing to the moon

in the moonlight of that autumn night,

 your flute exhaling your desire;

we heard you cooing

like a cuckoo in the forest of Vraja

after tasting honeyed fruit,

so to attract again to a love tryst, 

your Radha;

we heard your laughs, your jokes

your herding calls

your persuading and your loving words,

we have touched your hands,

and with our faces, your chest,

your feet we placed on our laps,

our earring grazed your earring,

our cheek touched your cheek,

our limbs against your limbs

in a love dance.

We have seen your throne

when you sat on the soft sand

on our shawls, ⁽¹⁾

we know you

as the King of groves,

of lakes, of seasons, 

of the night skies,

of the forest, of dancers, 

of our minds;

We've seen you dressed in pollen,

in cow dung, 

in dust in the light of dusk,

and whirling among the trees,

with the peacocks, 

surrounded by honeybees,

playing in the pastureland,

the air filled with your scent,

and inebriated by mellows of love

on the riverbank.

Lotus among the lotuses

in a night without end,

Your reign is our land

o King of Rasa,

Dwarka is your solitude,

there is no kingdom of love

superior to Vraja.

(1)  Krishna sat twice on the shawls of the Gopis.  The first time just before the Rasa Dance, to which is referring this stanza, but also during the meeting in Kurukshetra where this poem is taking place.  Manohar Das in his book in Bengali "Vaidagdha-vilasa" reports that this Lila of sitting on the Gopis' shawls happened also in Kurukshetra to recall that intimacy. ( this Lila was also mentioned in a seminar of Madhavananda Prabhu on Kurukshetra)