JUST A MILK-FED BOY ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

SB 10.46.22 “When we see the places where Mukunda enjoyed His sporting pastimes –the rivers, hills and forests he decorated with His feet – our minds become totally absorbed in Him.”

Inspired by HH Gour Govinda Maharaja’s class “Uddhava Sandesa”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrTMAIYeNS8

Uddhava went to Vraja and met with Nanda Baba as asked by Krishna.  Nanda Baba and all the Brajvasis are burning in the fire of separation from Krishna, so Uddhava tries to console Nanda Baba by telling him that Krishna is God, Bhagavan and is not his son.

SB 10.46.42 "The Supreme Lord Hari is certainly not your son alone. Rather, being the Lord, He is the son, Soul, father and mother of everyone."

GEMS FROM VRAJA

GEMS FROM VRAJA

Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 8.181  

"Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is a mine filled with valuable jewels of love for Kṛṣṇa. Her transcendental body is complete with unparalleled spiritual qualities."

My friend has come from Vraja

with a casket of jewels

given by Radha,

at times she opens it,

takes a coloured gem in her hand

and thus walks the dusty streets

of that magic land.

In a whisper

and with pearly tears in her eyes

she opens the box

with the key of her desire.

One stone with its halo of green

envelopes us in the mist

of a forest of sentient trees, ⁽¹⁾

sweetness pervades the air

and

what is to be said there, 

must be spoken as a prayer;

when our eyes melt with tears

the jewel oozes sugarcane

that falls on our tongues

in the form of the Holy Name.

Once again she takes a gem ~

the shimmering prism of colours

mesmerizes her,

as she holds it in her hand,

rivers of enchanting pastimes

flow from her tongue

~ cannot stop ~

the more of the fluid nectar I hear

the more and more

drizzle of glittered saffron dust ⁽²⁾

floods my cupped ears ~

it is only about this land

that I wish to hear,

in this way the drizzle

grows into gems, deeply  sown

in the cavern of my heart,

where, once studded with jewels of love

 might become like the Dham,

brilliant and shining, ~

so that from my tongue

 will appear many songs

to which I will dance,

blissful and mad.

____________________________________________________

1) Ter Kadamba

2) SB 4.20.25 "My dear Lord, You are glorified by the selected verses uttered by great personalities. Such glorification of Your lotus feet is just like saffron particles. [...]  "

The Canticle of Union

The Canticle of the Creatures written by St Francis in 1225 AD is an ode to theCreation in praise of the Lord as the Creator of the universe. It is poetry of bhakti where St Francis expresses his love for the Lord by revealing his perception of Him in the amazing  harmony of the universe.  This juxtaposition of the Lord of the Universe to the theme of creation in the ode, has inspired this combination between this pastime  of Lord Jagannath, His abode and activities with hints about the esotericism of creation in a wholly Vaisnava flavor.   Since Krishna, in this mood and form as Lord Jagannath - of supreme overflowing Divine Love - reveals that He is the Personality exchanging and  reciprocating the love of the devotees in whatever form they most cherish in their hearts, He is addressed as the Lord of the Universe.

SBB Vol.III 5.211 "His transcendental form, the one source of all incarnations, expands all of His various pastimes.  Whichever of His forms a devotee finds attractive, that form the Lord shows him."

  The Creation is an act of love and therefore is pervaded by His love and attraction for Radha, and expresses metaphysically Their union.  

The heart is not a shore

for the ocean of longing,

the body swayed drunk,

He could not give up

thinking of the dying swan,

of Her agony

as He once saw while she sat

on His lap; ⁽¹⁾

dazed He crossed the night

to the doorway at her bedside,

floating in waves of love,

His eyes opened wide

and full of both joy and surprise

He fainted, mesmerized ~

His love so intense,

that His limbs lignified.

A waft of scent from His cloud-like skin

awoke the Lover,

 touching Her dreams ~

Krishna Krishna!

By seeing the lotus of His face,

at once, of that burning agony

there was no trace,

Radhe Radhe!

the scented breeze roused Him,

Their eyes embraced,

and in rivers of Prem

Their union took place …

and from His mind

reflecting His desire

 it pervaded the universes

in the way all beings unite,

and just as one serves another

as trees give fruits and flowers,

similarly this mood of service

 binds together all lovers.

Union happened that night,

and when the cooing announced

that the sun would shortly rise,

the Sakhis, drumming

and plucking strings, started to sing

the canticle of this Love,

cause and true origin of everything ~

 is the attraction binding the atoms ⁽²⁾

and the variety that attracts all beings.

O languishing souls,

take up this song

chant the names,

of Radha and Shyam

reuniting in Nidhuvan;

it's all about love,

coming in waves, 

into the heart,

 opening wide 

'The Door Ajar' into Puri Dham. ⁽³⁾

^(1) Ref. Pastimes at Prema Sarovara

⁽²⁾ Sri Krishna Samhita 5.18  "In the spiritual world the ever existing attachment extends love up to mahabhava, and in the material world the reflection extends as an inconceivable material attraction that creates variegatedness." 

⁽³⁾ Gopala Campu  ^"As many petals as has a lotus so many are the doors into Vraja Dhama." 

SBB Vol III 5.212 "Eternally as dear to Sri Krsnadeva as His beautiful Mathura-   dhama is that Purusottama-kshetra.  There the Lord displays His supreme opulence and yet charms His devotees by acting like an ordinary person of the world."

~~~

The Story of the First Ratha Yatra – excerpted from the booklet on a lecture of Sri Gour Govinda Maharaja titled “Three logs of wood”.

Krishna in Dwarka feels terrible pains of separation from the Gopis and Radha.  Once He fell unconscious and Narada and Uddhava came to His aid.  Then with Balarama and Subhadra they decided, before Krishna was to regain consciousness, to prepare His chariot to ride Him to Vraja, but Subhadra went ahead in Her chariot followed by Balarama’s to inform the Brijibasis of His arrival.  Radha is on the verge of death, laying on a bed of petals in a secluded place on the banks of the Yamuna.  Krishna came back to His senses by the music of Narada and knowing in His heart the deep pains of love of Radha, intoxicated by love He could barely walk, so is put on the chariot by Uddhava and Narada. He suddenly arrived at the doorway where Radha was lying feebly breathing. He sees her and submerged by love was stunned and fainted like a piece of wood.  But the scent of Krishna reached Radha’s nostrils and Lalita whispered in Her ears : Krishna has come! 

She awoke and seeing Krishna she immediately forgot all her pains, and then Krishna was brought back to consciousness by whispering in His ears :”Radhe Radhe. They looked  in each other eyes and finally there was union.

MESSENGER OF LOVE

"Dear gentle Uddhava, go to Vraja and give pleasure to My parents.  And also relieve the gopis, suffering in separation from Me, by giving them My message." SB 10.46.3

"Krishna wanted to send a message of love to his dear devotees, His father Nanda Maharaja, His mother Yasoda-mata and the most beloved gopis headed by Radharani. Krishna thought "Who will take this message? Whom shall I send?" He chose Uddhava." Mathura meets Vrindavana pg129

The recurring visualization that inspired this poem is of Krishna feeling desperate in separation from Vraja and the Vrajavasis, and taking Uddhava's hand in His hand, speaking His heart.  He was his friend and could carry this message of love to His beloved devotees suffering from separation.  But when Uddhava returned he was not the same person, he had experienced pure love.

When His heart needed telling,

He sent a messenger of love

MADE BY LOVE - The Creation of Nava Vrajavana

CC Adi 4.83: "The transcendental goddess Srimati Radharani is the direct counterpart of Lord Sri Krishna. She is the central figure for all the goddesses of fortune. She possesses all the attractiveness to attract the all-attractive Personality of Godhead. She is the primeval internal potency of the Lord."

saptame gaura-varna-vishnor ity anena sva-saktya caikyametya prante pratar avatirya saha dvaih svam anusikshayati 

In the seventh manvantara (Vaivasvata Manu), the Supreme Personality of Godhead Shri Gaura-Vishnu will accept a golden complexion due to attaining oneness with His pleasure potency Shrimati Radhika and descend on this earth [...]" Purusha-bodhini Upanishad-Atharva-veda, 6th Prapathaka 

ONE SPECK OF DUST!

SB 4.20.25 "My dear Lord, You are glorified by the selected verses uttered by great personalities. Such glorification of Your lotus feet is just like saffron particles. When the transcendental vibration from the mouths of great devotees carries the aroma of the saffron dust of Your lotus feet, the forgetful living entity gradually remembers his eternal relationship with You. Devotees thus gradually come to the right conclusion about the value of life. My dear Lord, I therefore do not need any other benediction but the opportunity to hear from the mouth of Your pure devotee." 

SECRETS IN VRAJA

“Listen to the unsaid things

Of the song that Radha sings “

                                       Gita Govinda

SB 10.21.4 "The cowherd girls began to speak about Krishna but when they remembered His activities, O King, the power of Cupid disturbed their minds, and thus they could not speak." 

The Gopis spend their daytime speaking about Krishna.
He is in the forest and their feelings of separation churn their love while they wait anxiously for His return.  Gopis' love for krishna is kept secret because of social constraints. So, in silences and in bodily expressions and in crooked discourses and puns, lovers, unmistakably, conceal messages of deep love.
Therefore the Gopis talk  indirectly referring to their love for Krishna, by glorifying the birds, the clouds, peacocks, all the living entities of Vraja, who get His association.   So, after long talks their voices choke in recalling His activities and beauty to their friends and love inflames their hearts.  The Gopis' minds always reach out to Krishna enabling them to see Him through the love in their hearts, this makes the Gopis' love for Krishna the highest expression of Love of Godhead.

LOVE NEVER GOES UNHEARD

SB 10.53.2 — "The Supreme Lord said: Just as Rukmiṇī’s mind is fixed on Me, My mind is fixed on her. I can’t even sleep at night. [..]"

In the pastimes with Rukmini, Krishna enjoys to the extreme playing  the part of the human being in so many different ways.

"I WILL RETURN ...."

SB 10.39.35 - 36 "As He departed, that best of the Yadus saw how the gopis were lamenting, and thus He consoled them by sending a messenger with this loving promise : " I will return..."

"Sending their minds after Krishna the gopis stood as motionless as figures in a painting.  They remained there as long as the flag atop the chariot was visible and even until they could no longer see the dust raised by the chariot wheels."

WHEN I FELL FROM LOVE

WHEN I FELL FROM LOVE

"Eons of joy in eternal time seem one instant, one instant  of eternal time in wickedness are millions years of miseries."

This poem was inspired by the controversial subject matter of whether or not the jiva, the soul, fell originally from Vaikuntha.  While reading many arguments and essays on this subject, the conclusions of which are a matter for pandits and scholars, this poet became caught up in a vision of the emotions associated with such a fall, because ultimately it was a fall from love ...

Conversation after  Bhagavad-gita 3.27 lecture '74 in Melbourne -

[Srila Prabhupada] :    "Yes. You forced Krishna to allow you to come". 

THE DECEITFUL BOATMAN

THE DECEITFUL BOATMAN

With tantalizing words
the boatman left the shore,
yet His flute revealed 
He was the Moon,
He took the stars to the sky
and delighted, he desired
their milky load,
but tasting the sparkles
of their love
He drank it all. 

COME BACK TO VRAJA!

CC Madhya Lila 1.76 [Radharani said] - “My dear friend, now I have met My very old and dear friend Kṛṣṇa on this field of Kurukṣetra. I am the same Rādhārāṇī, and now We are meeting together. It is very pleasant, but still I would like to go to the bank of the Yamunā beneath the trees of the forest there. I wish to hear the vibration of His sweet flute playing the fifth note within that forest of Vṛndāvana.”

It was during a solar eclipse that Radha and the Gopis got to meet Krishna again, after long days of separation since He had left Vrindavana on Akrura's chariot to Mathura.  But now in front of their eyes they do not have the cowherd boy, covered of dust, wearing a headband and flowers amidst His curls. 

So, His turban appears to their eyes even more big and glitzy, all studded with gems, but eclipsing the image of that bluish boy, Who has stolen their hearts in the groves of Vraja and had accompanied their dreams and secret thoughts every day of their life.  

Even though the joy of seeing Him again is in no way reduced, this meeting, compared to the feeling of their rendez-vous  in Vraja, is missing some flavours. Radha and the Gopis resolute that it is because they are away from Vrindavana.  So, with the ropes of their love they put Krishna on the chariot of their hearts and pull it toward Vraja .... this is the churning emotion that moves the devotees around world during Jagannath Ratha Yatra.

Caitanya Caritamrta ML 1.82  [The Gopis thought ] "Dear Lord, if Your lotus feet again come to our home in Vrndavana, our desires will be fulfilled." - 

~~~

                                                                                                                          

In these days of eclipsed sun rays

has also the Moon lost its radiance?

Your moonlike face  

beneath this grandiose turban

full of gems    
seems shaded.

Where is the moonlight of our desires

and the flute tormenting our minds,

the mineral colors, the dust, the perspiration

that adorned the blue luster of Your skin,

the pearls and feathers swaying in the wind,

the blue flowers graciously embracing your face,

the You, that ocean in which our eyes used to bathe?

.... It is only there, under the bowers,

loitering on the sands of the Yamuna

and  always within the hearts,

of Your women in Gokula.

Now dressed in silvery veils,

recalling the stars

of the nights in Vraja,

with raised arms

to attract Your smiling glance

we’ll move in circling steps

to remind You of our dance

by the riverbank,

we'll move along on the way to Vraja

singing and waving our hands,

pulling the ropes of our Prem

to draw You back,

with trembling  skin,

with anticipation,

 of the sweetest moment

to see You,
coming down the large road

entering Vraja
at dusk,
like so many times before.

But now ~ 

nothing will ever be the same

since You might leave again.

CHALLENGED TO LOVE - The Song of Rukmini ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.60.58 "Sukadeva Goswami said : And so the self-satisfied Supreme Lord of the universe enjoyed with the goddess of fortune, engaging her in lovers' talks and thus imitating the ways of human society."


From Sri Caitanya Mangala Ch.2 : " 'My dear Lord, You are the crest-jewel of all transcendental qualities. Within Your heart You can't know why I'm crying, even though everything else is known to You"


Krishna visits Rukmini in Her palace and she starts to cry profusely.  The Lord wonders what has caused these tears and if He has done anything wrong. Rukmini slightly angry but with an affectionate tone explains to the Lord :

"...You know everything there is to know, but how is it that You don't understand the heart of one who loves Your lotus feet? "

The conclusion of this pastime is that Krishna will take up the advice of Rukmini Devi and announce His appearance as Lord Caitanya by  taking the mood of Radha - as suggested by the Queen - and experience the love of whom loves Him.

"You will understand the intensity of the love I feel if you cultivate Radha-bhava, the mood of Srimati Radharani's selfless love, within Your heart.'

In the poem I refer to Radha as "the One in Your dreams" because Rukmini had witnessed, while Lord Krishna was asleep, that She was coming in His dreams, since He would call Her aloud and cry.

This poetry has been put into music, to listen click :
♫ ♪ ♫ ♪       https://soundcloud.com/mauro-auaro/challenged-to-love    ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

You know everything, 

all there is to know

but You do not know

what love is,

the one in Your dreams

She knows

It’s a storm

unleashed by Your limbs,

how can you understand

the touch of Your hand

the fragrance of Your skin

a never ebbing tide,

so, this heart now weeps

soon, again - You’ll leave.

The Queen of your dreams

She does know,

Her love owns You,- no,

you do not understand

the love of one who loves You

You don’t know how dense

the honey of this love for You

Have you ever tasted love tears?

It’s a sweeping ocean of emotions

the sweetest of dances

clasped in your glances

no heat or cold, nor day or night

or sense of within or outside

the roads of love for You

become so wide.

the Moon of your dreams 

tastes the intensity of love,

that You need to know, 

take Radha's heart into Your heart

beg Her love, giving Your love,

because She never stops loving You.

Lyrics - Challenged to Love

You know everything there is to know

Can you understand love at all?

You don’t know what love is

The One in your dreams She surely knows

It’s a storm ... unleashed by your limbs

A never ebbing tide of the heart

Now weeps ‘cause you’ll go away again

(1)   You don’t understand the love of those

                                                         ...who love You!

                                         (R) The Moon of Your dreams, She knows

You don’t know ...what love is.

Take Radha’s heart ....

That’s you need to know ...taste Her love

because She knows ...what love is

because she knows...ooohh She knows

...what love is.

Nor heat or cold, nor day or night

Nor sense of in or outside

Roads of love for You are so wide

The Queen of Your dreams She does know

She owns You ... with Her honey-like love for You

a sweeping ocean of joy and tears

The sweetest dances raptured in Your glances.

(1)   + (R)

IN ITALIAN

Tu sai tutto quello che c'è da sapere

ma non riesci a capire l'amore ?

Tu non sai cos'è l'amore

Colei che e' nei tuoi sogni sicuramente sa

Si tratta di una tempesta scatenata

dalle Tue membra

Una marea del cuore  che non scende mai

Ora [il cuore]  piange perche' andrai via di nuovo

(1) Non capisci l'amore di chi ti ama!

 (R) La Luna dei tuoi sogni, Lei sa

Tu non sai ... cosa sia l'amore.

allora prendi il cuore di Radha ....

E' tutto quello che devi sapere ... assaggia il Suo amore

perché Lei sa cosa sia l'amore ...

perché Lei sa ... ooohh lo sa

... cos'è l'amore.

Ne' caldo ne' freddo, nè giorno ne' notte

Né senso di dentro o del fuori

Le strade d'amore per Te sono così ampie

La regina dei tuoi sogni Lei lo sa

Ti possiede ... con il suo amore simile al miele

un oceano travolgente di gioia e lacrime

Le danze più dolci rapite tra i tuoi sguardi.