Saturday 21 December 2019

CRUEL WHEELS



krūra krūreti cakrūram

Calling out "Cruel Cruel!" they jeered Akrura.


Sri Lalita Madhava - Distraught Radha: - "Become conscious for a moment and look.  What misfortune! Merciless Akrura urges on the horses."

When you go to Gokula it is possible that someone tells you this story ....

I was there,
with sleepless eyes,
could not hold back the sun
so not to rise,
when the tearful whispers
of the night became cries
but I could hear no sound
since my heart lamented
more loud,
but the cruel voice
amid my numbness, rose
                              in an averse prayer    (1)                  
when it urged the horse
to move on,
I swooned,
my bangles, dress, rings
like petals of a withering flower,
loosened and slipped
I was there,
distraught,
that day at dawn
yet I saw not the horizon
but the hooves, the ground
the rims, the spokes of the wheels,
cruelly ready to leave,
my hand outstretched, desperate
to grasp, to pull back, to halt,
...once more ~ to touch...
for I had not enough
of His fragrant embraces
nor of His dancing hips
or His Tulsi-scented chest
and of His tempting hands,
nor of His camphored breath,
nor my eyes had enough
of the piercing love of His glance,
of the sweat streaks
on His sandal-smeared skin,
nor of the sweetness
of His cherry red lips,
nor of His impudent words and tricks
no, no,  I had not enough
of the hidden groves, the secret trysts
            the nights of moon-glow...       (2)
but suddenly I was there,
calling out behind His wheels,
the stones, the trees, melted 
flowed with my tears in streams
I slumped in the dust
holding  my unfinished wreath,
fated to never adorn Him.

I was there, stunned,
the cruel wheels started,
distance became unbearably true
I saw the flag, His silhouette    (3)
fading in a fog of dust
           "I'll return"           (4)
resounded as the last note 
from His flute
and still echoes
in my heart, in the groves,
in the eyes I meet on the roads,
it's the only rope of hope
for this
I still unashamedly breathe.



1) SLM (Purnamasi) "... before Akrura mounts his chariot and begins chants auspicious prayers for departure.."

2) Laghu B. Txt 508, 511-512 "Though astonishing Gokula, the essence of Mathura, seems like a limited area, it expands and contracts according to the pastimes of Krsna."
"According to the particular pastimes there is a suitable appearance of various places which can be seen by those participating in the particular pastime and not by the unqualified."
"It is astonishing that at one time these forms of the abodes exist factually without mixing with each other at all."
When Krishna leaves, Vrindavana expands into the separation of Navadvip and later into the ecstasy of meeting after long separation of Kshetra Dham, because there is no meaning to separation in love if it is not followed by meeting, union and separation and in this way the waves of love flow to never ebb, and swell again and again thus increasing eternally.
3) SGS 5.4.37 "As long as the chariot, its flag, or the cloud of dust the running horses made could be seen, the stunned gopis stood like painted pictures on the path.  Then, remembering Lord Krsna's words, they became hopeful."

4) SGS 5.4.35 "Girls, don't cry.  At sunset I will return."




Saturday 6 July 2019

IF...


Visnu Purana "One gopi looking at Govinda became extremely joyful and began to repeatedly sing His name "Krsna! Krsna! Krsna!"  She could say nothing else."

This poem was inspired by the power of chanting for transforming the heart, but also to  suggest the need to be active in this process where many micro-results, like the stages of a ripening fruit,have to be achieved in order to steadily adding mature insights to our surrender. 

Caitanya Bhagavata M.L. 28.27 "You all go now, utter the name of Krishna, chant the name of Krishna, do krsna-bhajana.   Don't think of anything else but Krishna."
  
If I do not call out to you
Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,
how could I stop listening
the whispers
      of the weaknesses of my heart?   (1)
while my deluded mind
repeats deceitfully
 "you are just fine".

If I do not cry for You
Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,
feeling helpless,
how could  I place in your hands
                  my days ?               (2)
       and increase my faith     
perceiving Your benevolence
in events and people
fostering Your aid.

If I, within myself,
do not continue chanting
Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,
how could I carry my heart
to the tender of Bhakti?
        while the iron boat of conceit     (3)
sinks into the eerie abyss
of treacherous hedonists ,
where I was again tricked.

If my whole being does not resonate
Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,
how could you, in my heart,
awake me to the emotion
so to accept the truths
about my soul, the creation and You?
         I would have no memory of         (4)
nor could I make of them any use.

But if my tongue calls
Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,
without your name
resounding in my soul,
it would not desist
from useless talks, 
the Ego's soliloquy
the invective words,
how then could it dance free
to the sweetness of the songs
about your names and forms?




1) There are four kinds of Anartha (Vani Vaibhava of BVThakur) : 1) identifying the body with the self 2) thirst for material enjoyment 3) offensiveness 4) weakness of the heart.
Anarthas produced from weakness of heart.
1) laziness 2) subordination to insignificant objects; 3) bewilderment of heart due to lamentation; 4) distraction from pure devotional service due to false argument; 5) miserliness in offering all one's energy to the cultivation of Krishna consciousness; 6) rejection of humility due to the pride of caste, wealth, education, followers, beauty, and strength; 7) willingness to be misguided by irreligious propensities and instructions; 8) disinterest in rectifying prejudice; 9) abandonment of compassion due to anger, illusion, envy; 10) intolerance; 11) false identification of the self as a Vaisnava due to the desire for name, fame, and the cheating propensity; 12) and the torture of other living entities that arises from the desire to enjoy women, wealth and other forms of sense gratification.

2) Skanda Purana "If a person rises in the morning and chants 'Krishna, Krishna', I shall bestow all welfare upon him." 

When faith become deep (first tender then firm) transforms into steadiness (nishta), taste (ruci), attachment (rati or asakti) and bhava.

3)  ".....boarding a stone boat, and so too are those who blindly follow them. A stone boat would be unable to float and would sink in the water with its passengers. Similarly, those who mislead people go to hell, and their followers go with them.- Srimad Bhagavatam, Purport, 6.7.14

4) Prema Bhakti-chandrika "Dhyana is another word for smarana "                                     




Saturday 4 May 2019

Thief of the Soul

This poem was inspired by the Gopis speaking to Krishna when they met for the Rasa Dance and Krishna disappeared like a thief after stealing their souls. But what really churned the ink were the many slokas in the Bhagavatam and other Bhakti literature that refer to Krishna as a thief. The reader will find few of them after this intro and in the footnotes.
So the conclusion that came to the heart is that the Lord in whatever form He manifests for His devotees, among the sublime qualities He always displays, there is the one of being a thief, since He enters His devotees mind and steals it. " 

SD 10.29.34 Comm. "O king of thieves! We did not come here with any other purpose than to recover the treasure that You stole from us. You have stolen our minds, but unlike other thieves You did not have to make any great endeavor. You did this simply by blowing on Your flute."