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."

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.

RED DUST

- The song of the Pulindi girl of Vraja

SBB Vol.III 7.119 Purport."Seeing the kunkuma on the ground reminded them first of Krishna and then of His intimate affairs with the gopis. Thinking about these things agitated their minds [...] And how were the aborigine women relieved of this agitation?  By picking up the red powder and smearing it on their faces and breasts, which were burning with lust.  Having done this, the Pulindis felt completely satisfied."

SBB III 7.146 Purport " [...]...the aborigine women lacked the assets of knowledge, good birth, good behavior and devotion to God. They were ignorant of their own eternal identities as spirit souls, and because they had never come close enough to Nanda Maharaja's village to see Krsna with their own eyes, they were also ignorant of Krsna's all-attractive beauty.  None the less, in the forest, the aborigine women of Vraja accidentally came in contact with grass and leaves smeared with kunkuma from the bodies of the gopis   [...] even though indirect, it infused them with sublime devotion for Krishna ...[...].  Having had some contact with the gopis, the aborigine women of Vraja all attained a perfection similar to theirs, if not in this life then in the next."

SGS 1.4.56 "When they saw Him, some aborigine girls became tortured with lust."

Captive of Love

SKS Ch 5 Txt 7 "The wives of the ass-like brahmanas represent people who are subordinate to those with undeveloped faith. Being under the control of the sweetness of Krishna, Who is the Supersoul, they went to the forest and offered themselves to Him." Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

Sri Gaura-ganoddesa dipika Text 191 "She who was the wife of the brahmana

who was attached to performing fire sacrifice in Braja has now appeared as Suklambara Brahmacari.  Sri Gauranga begged for and ate rice from him."

This is one of the poems inspired by the continuity between Krishna Lila and Gaura Lila.  The speaker of this poem is one of the Brahmana's wives who later became Suklambara Brahmacari in Gaura Lila. 

Because they all resided on the outskirts of Vraja towards Mathura, along with the other Brahman wives, she had never met Krishna before but only heard about Him and His wonderful activities. 

Krishna, Who always knows His devotees' hearts, arranged for the Gopas to go and beg for some food from the Brahmanas. But the Brahmanas, full of pride about their rituals, their higher varna and false prestige, refused to give them food and forbade their wives as well, to fulfill Krishna's desire. Together with the other wives, she neglected this restriction, and carrying sweets and other preparations, ran into the forest to meet Krishna. After transgressing her relatives' order, she believed in her heart that she would never have to return home again. But Krishna asked her and the others to go back to what she felt was like a prison. When this Lila continued into Gaura Lila, Lord Gauranga went to beg food from her ~ Suklambara Brahmacari. He was now the captive of her love.

Sound ~ 
soaked in the honey of His name

filled my ears

when the boys came,

and the constraints

surrounding my soul,

imposed as duties and roles

crumbled in that moment 

for which I had craved so long.

Since I was first told

about the King of groves,

 my household chores, the hymns

and the reins of kin

dissolved in a longing,

made me indifferent to everything,
and when my heart, 
ensnared among pillars
 of silent loving desires
became finally free,
 no longer muted,
I grasped the sweets,

breads, cakes and creams

and I ran, 
ran into the forest

of my sweetest dreams,

the jars heavy 

with love delights.

The outrage, the restrictions

of faithless relatives,
lapping like shadows at dusk
against my bare feet 
running down a road of no return,

within yet without my heart,

the ribbon-like path

unfurled endlessly ahead of my eyes

like anxious gazelles,

and time crystallized,

when suddenly 
a fragrance of musk

wafted in the air,

and my senses were stunned,

embracing Krsna
as He entered the door of my eyes,
 leaning on his friend
     while He smiled.   

I stood still, astounded ~
sweet was my load of love

 that I placed on the leaves
at his feet,
where I left also my being,
so sour was the way back
with my emptied pots,
salty and silent the tears
in the bitter bite of separation
when I surrendered my dreams
by going back home,
to please with my love Him.

In time, time took away

that imprisonment,

when the Beauteous Cooling Moon
appeared amongst other groves,

and came to my door

begging for food,
now He has become
the captive of my love.

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) 

TEARS of SMARANA

CC Antya lila 17.49  “Only the most fortunate ears can hear these four nectarean sounds – Krishna’s words, the tinkling of His ankle bells and bangles, His voice and the vibration of His flute. If one does not hear these sounds, his ears are as useless as small conchshells with holes.”

kṛṣṇaṁ smaran janaṁ cāsya preṣṭhaṁ nija-samīhitam
tat-tat-kathā-rataś cāsau kuryād vāsaṁ vraje sadā

Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu 1.2.294  - Kṛṣṇaṁ smaran is the first injunction: “think of Krishna.” Next, janam cāsya: “In  thinking of Krishna, also think of his people.” 

My Lord, please give this unworthy person Your darshan through the nectarean sounds of Your words, the tinkling of Your ankle bells and bangles, Your voice and the sweet sound of Your flute, and make me worthy of remembering You and Your eternal associates.

I am unworthy and not qualified

to see You with these eyes,

my heart tormented not

by thirst, cannot even cry

in separation from You,

nor swoons

into waters mirroring

the rain clouds, ⁽¹⁾

nor is anxious

like an animal of Vraja at night ⁽²⁾

when you leave the forest

along with the sunlight.

Yet this pretender

might use the other senses,

if You allow, to remember ….

let me hear, perhaps,Your bells

where the butter jars hang,

and of the love Yasoda sings

while churning or boiling the milk;

 let me smell the camphor from your breath 

meandering out of your flute, 

while I wander about

on these day dream plains,

where at dawn resounds

the tinkling of bangles

from all corners of the valley;

let me hear the sound

of your bugle,

waking everyone around

to join You into the forest, ⁽³⁾

and traversing the secret pathways,

I wish to come to that place

patterned by the Gopis' toes

and to overhear from the dust

Your loving words; ⁽⁴⁾

then enwrapped by dusk

I will take off at a run,

 letting my heart in a state of agitation

transport me to that forest 

amidst whose trees,

 I can hear perhaps

your voice calling

the cows one by one,

or that single melodious fluted note

that attracts and stuns

movable and immovable beings;

let me walk into this dream

as the cows and calves

stir up the dust that covers your skin,

and fantasizing - I'll roll - so rapt,

as if I was just behind

the cruel wheels of Your chariot

where stones and wood

melted into rills of tears. ⁽⁵⁾

This longing to see You

swells up

tears of smarana,

dripping

in a hoof-print on the soil of Vraja

from my soaked heart

as if it is hanging

from a sentient tree

like an ecstatic parrot.

NOTES

1. NVM p.44 "Once in Pramodana the Gopis went to fetch water in a lake -Krishna Kunda-.

The reflection of dark clouds in the water sparked in the Gopis such intense feelings for Krishna that they fainted." 

2. SBB III 6.77  “The forest animals were miserable because now they had to part from Him,  Unable to go anywhere without Him, they simply stood at the entrance of the village, ready to spend the entire night there in the hope of seeing their Lord again the next morning.” 

3. SB 10.21.1 "O King one day Krishna decided to take His breakfast as a picnic in the forest.  Having risen early in the morning, He blew His bugle made of horn and woke all the cowherd boys and calves with its beautiful sound. Then Krishna and the boys, keeping their respective groups of calves before them, proceeded from Vrajabhumi to the forest.”   

4. NVM pg.312 "In Umrao in Vraja there is a holy spot where this pastime is remembered, when the Gopis ran to see Krishna and taken by shyness started to draw in the dust with their toes. "

"And with those same blessings one can aspire to overhear Krishna's affectionate words to the gopis [even today]."  

5. Bhakti Ratnakara Ch.5  p.144 "What can I say?  Only those who saw the scene can understand.  All the damsels of Vraja came running to see Krishna with tears flowing like rivers from their eyes.  Seeing that scene even wood and stone melted.  No one could describe this even with millions of mouths." 

Simultaneously in Goloka

This poem is the poetic rendition of a pastime of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu as narrated in Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 229-235 (See page n. for the whole story). It belongs to the category of poems related to my personal search for the continuity and simultaneous vision of the pastimes of the Lord as both Krishna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

CC Madhya Lila 11.221-224 "In His own pastimes in Vrindavana, when Krishna used to eat on the bank of the Yamuna, every gopa would perceive that Krishna was looking at him.

In the same way, when Caitanya Mahaprabhu observed the dancing, everyone saw that Caitanya Mahaprabhu was facing him.

When someone came nearby while dancing, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu would tightly embrace him." 

"Upon seeing the great dancing, great love and great sankirtana, all the people of Jagannatha Puri floated in an ecstatic ocean of love."

Jaiva Dharma Ch.17   "Then there are devotees who in their period of sadhana worship both Sri Krishna and Sri Gauranga. After obtaining liberation they acquire two transcendental forms and serve Sri Krishna in Krsna-pitha and Sri Gauranga in Gaura-pitha simultaneously.  This is the divine and confidential mystery of the inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference of Sri Krishna and Sri Gauranga." 

Radiant like the air

at dusk,

the sweetest Lord,

with as much rice

as His hand could hold,

filled each plate.

In a row everyone sat 

and after Him, they ate,

then amidst them

He started to dance

and any shadows were dispelled;

From the blue town

people flocked

and crowded around,

as the sweeping waves of love

crashed Him to the ground,

while an ocean of tears

washed upon and drowned

the shore-like eyes

of all who came nearby.

Anyone close to the Lord,

within the reach

of His limbs,

was embraced by Him,

and all the dancers

in all directions,

and the singers

 on all sides, near and far,

everyone who was present,

met his eyes

in the same moment,

and each one,

at the same time,

felt to be the only one

beheld by that glance. 

O reader, now please

see this same scene,

the same youth,

but with blue skin

 as He sat on a rock,   ⁽¹⁾

in the blossoming of spring,

yogurt and rice in His hand

  and dates to share  ⁽²⁾

with His friends.

While they ate

He gazed at them

one on one,

facing each friend,

eye to eye

in the same moment,

and each one felt

at the same time

to be the only one

beheld by His glance.

And so, in the way

only the soul can

walk into Vraja and Navadvip

at the same time,

because in the spiritual realm

the two sacred places

simultaneously exist,

here it is difficult to conceive,

there just one chord weeps

 in separation and in union ~

this is the secret gift

of the Golden Lord appearing in Navadvip.

________________________________

(1) Gopala Campu “In the monsoon, Krishna with his friends takes shelter under a tree to avoid the rain and eats dates grown in beautiful valleys.  He sits on a stone slab near the water eating rice mixed with yogurt and calls the cows that are far away.  These activities attract our [Gopi's] hearts.”

(2) SBB 5.30 Comm. "Holding in His hand a very nice preparation of yogurt and rice, with pieces of suitable fruit between His fingers, He sat like a the whorl of a lotus, looking forward toward all His friends ..."

Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 11. 229-235 

.... in the middle of them the Lord Himself, known as the son of mother Saci, began to dance.(215)

When the tumultuous vibration of sankirtana resounded, all good fortune immediately  awakened ...(217)

When the congregational chanting began, ecstatic love immediately overflooded everything, and all the residents of Jagannatha Puri came running.(218)

(229-235):

When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu fell down to the ground, Sri Nityananda Raya Prabhu lifted Him up.

The tears from the eyes of the Lord came out with great force, like water from a syringe. Indeed, all the people who surrounded Him were moistened by His tears.

While kirtana was going on, there was a transformation of ecstatic love and much tears, jubilation, trembling, perspiration and deep resounding in the body of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Upon seeing this transformation, all the people present became very much astonished.

While this dancing was going on, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu watched them and performed a miracle. 

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu stood in the middle of the dancers, and all the dancers in all directions perceived that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was looking at them.

Wanting to see the dancing of the four great personalities, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu exhibited this miracle of seeing everyone simultaneously.

Everyone who saw Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu could understand that He was performing a miracle, but they did not know how it was that He could see on all four sides.