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."