Nitai is Balaram

The many aspects of the eccentricity of Nityananda defeat the madness of illusory existence without the Lord.  Without Balaram we will believe the uniqueness of Maya. For the mercy of Lord Nityananda we can realize the existence of the Lord in  mantras. Balarama embodies the  quality of omnipresence of the Lord.  For the grace of Lord Nityananda we receive the Mahamantra and for His grace we hear it while we chant it.  By developing infinitesimally one quality of one  mouth of Ananta Sesa, Lord Balaram, we transcend the material energy.  The intent of the creation as enacted by Lord Balaram is spiritual. Lord balarama is in constant expansion through each sound which is uttered to glorify the Lord. Whatever form re-establishes the existence of the Lord is Balaram. Lord Balaram when manifests His lila in the material world is often furious because the refusal of the Lord, present only here, is the  challenge to Him, who is the very existence of the Lord.

"The Sesa who is the adhara-sakti (supporter-power) of the bedstead of Visnu (Wielder of the Sarnga bow), is in the category of God (Visnu-tattva).

The Sesa who bears the globes is an avesa-Avatara (absorption-avatara) of Krsna (or Sankarsana), and therefore He is (also) known as Sankarsana. The bedstead feature of Sesa always considers Himself to be an eternal servitor and friend of the Lord Sarngadhara (wielder of the Sarnga bow)."Bhaktisiddhanta S. Thakur

           Nitai is Baladev         ⁽¹⁾

without chess board

but with a love load

abandoning all rules

has become an avadhut.

Balaram is the throne,

the umbrella, the flute  

Nitai is the servant of Mahaprabhu,

Nitai is Baladev and Ananta Sesa,

with thousands mouths

chants "Hari Hari" in Gaudadesha;

Nitai is Balaram

the sustainer of the worlds

catches Nimai

who in love sways and falls, ⁽²⁾

always by His sides

Nitai holds his crackedling throne. ⁽³⁾

Nitai is Baladev, unarmed

shooting love through His glance

brings the river of prem,

without a plow in His hand;

Balaram constantly, repeatedly

expands in sound

Nitai graces all entities

with the Great Mantra

and the abilitity to hear it

as the Paramatma.

Balaram is Nitai, 

who carries a staff

His clothes are blue

wears one earring

and has become an avadhut.

Balaram has the gait of an elephant

reveals force and power

but Nitai, with the soft feet of a dancer 

intoxicated by sweetness, meanders;

Nitai is Balaram causing an ocean to rise

the heart cannot stop to dance and to cry

leaving the ego and the pride

to drown and die.

Nitai is Balaram the upholder of rules

but now is an avadhut.

1         1)    CC Adi 5.6 "That original Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in Navadvīpa as Lord                       Caitanya, and Balarāma appeared with Him as Lord Nityānanda."

2)    ”As the powerful Nityananda caught hold of the Lord, Advaita secretly took the dust from the Lord’s feet.”  Caitanya Bhagavata MK 8.143

3)    “He (Caitanya) sat down upon Vishnu’s throne.  The seat crakled under His weight.  Nityananda quickly rushed to hold up.” Caitanya Bhagavata MK 8.283

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."

One step away ....

-The dance of Chandrakanti-

SCS p.103 "A young girl who danced with joy all night invoked the mercy of the Lord." Padma Purana 

"The woman who attained bhava mentioned in the Padma Purana is an example of bhava through Raganuga bhakti."

BRS 1.3.14 "A young girl, having great joy in the heart and being very enthusiastic to dance, spent the whole night dancing in order to please the Lord."

Krishna Katha

SB 2.2.37 "Those who drink the sweet pastimes of the Lord and his devotees held in the cups of their ears clean their hearts of all contamination and attain the lotus feet of the Lord for service."

SBMM 20.59 "O great hero, kindly allow us to drink the nectar of Your lotus lips This nectar increases one's love for You, destroys one's lamentation, is constantly relished by Your enchanting flute, and it transforms the living entities' material attachments."

This poem was inspired by the following excerpt from a commentary of Srimad B. Narayana Goswami Maharaja where he explains about the adharamrita or the nectar from Krishna's lips.

"The deer and cuckoos are indeed fortunate, but the most fortunate are the gopis, who can directly taste Krishna's original adharamrita.  The deer and the cuckoos cannot relish this adharamrta directly, but they can listen to Krishna's flute-song.  And there are others, who can hear about Krishna's pastimes.  They hear that Krsna is playing His flute and that all human beings, animals, birds and other creatures in Vrindavana are hearing His flute-song. As a result of listening to narrations of His pastimes, these persons, too, develop the ambition to hear His flute." Gopi Gita commentary by Srimad B. Narayana Goswami Maharaja.

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) 

Rasa Dance

Sri Krsna Samhita Txt 18 by Bhaktivinoda Thakura : "[...] there is an energy known as attraction in all material atoms.  By the strength of this energy atoms are attracted to each other and they thus create a globular planet.  When these planets are attracted to a larger globular planet, they begin to move around it. [....]  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.  [...] ...we say that in the material world the sun along with the planets are constantly moving around the Dhruva constellation (pole star) by the strength of its attraction just as all pure living entities eternally circle around Krishna by the strength of His attraction."

Srila Prabhupada Paris, Bhagavad-gita 13.1-2 "Ksetra means the platform on which, or the stage on which we are dancing. That is called ksetra. And ksetra-jna means the person who is dancing. That is ksetra-jna. When you, when you dance, you know that I am dancing on this ground, on this platform. So you are knower. Therefore ksetra-jna. And the platform on which you are dancing, that is ksetra. So we are all dancing... In the material world, we are all dancing. How we are dancing? Getting a particular type of body. That is ksetra. There must be some platform."

Mother Yasoda tells Krishna and Balaram : "My dear Rama and Damodar, dance more, dance more! I'll give you condensed milk, butter and cream!"

RASA DANCE

The day I wake up

from this reflection of my sleep,

I'll see the true attraction

that moves everything;

it is not the gravity

as the mundane mind perceives,

that holds down to the ground

movable and unmovable beings;

or the force that pulls the planets,

that brings closer the stars,

which moves galaxies
 around the pole star;

this force so strong

holds the heavens in place,

the neurons and the protons
and to this material cage
also the soul.

When the illusory reality

 slackens its grip,

the dance of the Sufi in me

will stop its selfish twirls, ⁽¹⁾

I'll see the Supreme Being

without and within,

and His love as the force

that attracts in dance all beings,

the planets, the stars and the universes

circling, rotating and revolving; 

it is a fact well-known

that nothing, no one dances alone,

'cause as the Lord and His consort,

in a suffusion of love, 
dance and whirl around,   ⁽²⁾

 then the myriad of dancers who surround

also move and spin around;

this attraction then reflects, 

and from the infinite
to the finite skies extends
far and beyond,

and inconceivably bonds

 clusters of globes

and rotates the worlds;

then it transforms

into gravity, into variety,

and attracts to one another

the living beings, the atoms,

         the moon and the sea,      ⁽³⁾   

and draws lovers to meet;

dancing, dancing 

the worlds are dancing,

when the lotus opens in the heart,

rhythm and pace

become infinite space,

and only love 
makes eternal time to pass,

in this way time is love
and love is dance.

___________________________________

(1) Sufi Whirling or Dervish Dance is a spiritual practice, a meditation, a mystical abandon to the Divine Love through the mind.   Because the Sufi dancer spins around his centre for long time it is referred to in the poem as "selfish whirls" symbolizing the self-centredness that characterizes the ego of those unaware of their identity as spirit soul as well as their interconnection and interrelation in the dance of God.

2) NVM Vol. III pg 375 "This rasa dance, which is rarely heard of and even more rarely seen, happens when Radha and Krsna, dissatisfied with being a single couple, expand Themselves to become many dancers at once."

3) Vaubhava Vani pg.170 "[..]; and the ebb and flow of the tide, caused by attraction."

-Excerpted from a class on modern physics on YouTube

"[...]  they [the scientists] just do not understand. How two particles are going to move we do not understand, we might understand "pushing" but we do not understand "pulling" from a distance. Quantum will never be able to answer "pulling" or what keeps a neuron bound to a proton.
Physics says that there is a field of attraction, but how does work? why the protons do not fly away? what is the mechanism?"

-Excerpted from Cosmology on Trial  pg 105

"In the experiment of the double-slit raised the awareness that the particles had some sort of information.  Reality seems to be a product of some form of consciousness.  More amazing is the mysterious phenomenon of entanglement of particles.
When two atoms are entangled with one another they share a peculiar connection that is instantaneous and unaffected by distance.  Experiments establish  that even over a vast stellar expanse, the atoms remain connected [...].  This behavior is so synchronized, like a choreographed dance ...." 

Krishna Delights Everyone's Eyes

SB 10.21.7 {Venu Gita} "[...] For those who have eyes, we think there is no greater object of vision."

Another gopis said : “Oh Sakhis! We intensely desire to relish Krishna’s dancing, singing and flute playing and to see all those beasts, deer, doves and birds assembled on the hill slopes who become stunned in bliss.”  Sarartha Darsini Pg230

“All the cranes and swans in the water are being enchanted by the melodious song of Krishna’s flute. They have approached and are worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead with full attention. Alas, they are closing their eyes and are becoming completely silent.” SB 10.35.11

"Seeing Him, the cows birds, bushes, creepers and trees all became ecstatic." SBB Vol. III 5.109 

"Seeing His beauty, people would curse Brahma, the creator of eyelids, and praise Indra who has a thousand eyes, and hanker for all their senses to become eyes." SBB Vol. III 5.110

The Moon Prelude

NOD  Ch. Qualities of Krishna[Krishna said] "The most opportune time is the full-moon night in autumn, like tonight.  The best place within the universe is Vrndavana, and the most beautiful girls are the gopis.  So, My dear friend Uddhava, I think I should now take advantage of all these circumstances and engage Myself in the rasa dance." 

Mādhurya-kadambini, 1.11

Here are some further highlights from Viśvanātha Cakravartī’s commentary on this verse in Śrīmad-bhāgavatam, 10.33.39:

"One who continuously hears, glorifies or writes poetry about this autumnal rāsa-līlā and similar pastimes of Kṛṣṇa described by other poets, first of all, even if he has the heart disease of material lust, he becomes imbued with prema. Then, by its effect, the disease of the heart is destroyed. Thus, it is understood here that this prema is independent; it is not weak or dependent like jñāna-yoga."