TOKEN of LOVE

SD 1.3.34 Comm. "He [Lord Krishna] thinks  'Let this jiva see me'.  If the merciful desire of the Lord arises, then he acts in this way."

I was seen ~

for a minute fraction of time,

in less than an instant

I felt stripped,

the talkative thoughts of my mind

were choked,

for in that single moment,

the blind obscuring my soul

dropped,

and time, as I usually perceive,

was not,

the walls, the shadows,

a labyrinth of beliefs

about "me",

just stopped,

and knots known

to be binding my heart

were dissolved.

I was seen ~

then skies of emotions

distilled in one drop of time,

just like the heart

condenses

the immensity of love

in one tear,

and I felt intensely loved,

I was seen ~

there was light

meant not for the eyes

but for my heart.

When that dot of time had elapsed,

I became greedy,

and I wept,

for one more

token of love.

Disturbances in Vraja

SD 10.22.34  "These trees fulfill one's desires with their leaves, flowers and fruits, their shade, roots, bark and wood, and also with their fragrance, sap, ashes, pulp and shoots."

This sloka is spoken by Krishna to the cowherd boys.  He is describing the pleasure that the trees give to him for their nature of using their life and qualities to serve others.

"Disturbances in Vraja" is the way Bhaktivinoda Thakura called the anarthas, which are the greatest impediment for the conditioned jiva to enter the spiritual world. The tree of the ego that we have grown in lifetimes of vicious activities carries the leaves of bad qualities and egotistical mind set.  So the devotee by sadhana bhakti with faith, devotion and concentration, should let all these leaves to go and transform the tree of envy, the anchor to material life, into one of the trees that give happiness to Krishna, because everyone's happiness is in Krishna's happiness.  This realization can start the process for clearing the anarthas (or anartha nivrtti).

Ripe and ready

for the transforming wind

of the autumn season,

that clears the sky, the waters    

            and the mind,         ⁽¹⁾

I let go the leaves

from the tree of my ego,

I'll not feel pain

letting go the dead leaves

of arguments and conflicts,

growing instead a soft smile within,

while the emptiness of my heart

rustles and is blown away like a dry leaf.

I will look at untruthfulness,

false pretense, hypocrisy

and desire for superiority,

as brown parched leaves

releasing them with joy

into the purifying gusts

of this wind,

feeling peaceful and free

as the leaves of deception

and conceit

drop from my tree;

without hesitation

I will look into layers

of memory

       from where unwanted results       ⁽²⁾

life after life have sprouted,

and now are yellow stale leaves

ready to be detached from the tree

by this wind of mercy.

My heart will rejoice

when finally Krishna,

seated in my heart,

crushes with His weight

of sweetness

the remaining hard-shelled

acorns of pride, vanity

and the stardom-me

then with consciousness filled

with devotion,

in bliss and relieved

that I, like the tree,

now denuded of envy,

am ready to sprout anew,

and give happiness to Krishna

               with leaves, shoots,             ⁽³⁾

flowers and fruits.

1) SD 10.20.32-33 "... the fall season arrived, when the sky is cloudless, the water clear and wind gentle.

"The autumn season, which regenerated the lotus flowers, also restored the various bodies of water to their original purity, just as the process of devotional service purifies the minds of the fallen yogis when they return to it."

2) Literal translation of the word "anarthas".

3) CC Adi Lila 3.63 " [...]His smiling glance at once drives away all the bereavements of the world, and His very words enliven the auspicious creepers of devotion by expanding their leaves."

In the Sound of a Breath

KS Anu 157 :  "The Supreme Lord beyond the gunas, without fault, the original creator, having many forms, becomes one again and rests."  Sri Madhavacharya

Stavavali pg 223 - Txt 91 : "I pray that Lord Krishna, who also places His lotus feet on the hoods of Ananta Sesa, will permit me to reside in His land of Vraja."

Morning Love

 "Another gazing in his face,

sits wistfully apart,

searching it with those  

looks of love that leap from   

heart to heart;"

Her eyes afire with shy desire, 

 veiled by their lashes black, 

speak so that Krishna cannot choose 

but send the message back, ..."

                                                 from the Gita Govinda

    This poem narrates the playful exchanges of glances between Radha and Krishna during the morning pastimes. The daily pastimes of Radha and Krishna are occurring in eight sections (asta-kaliya-nitya lila) during the day and the Acharyas have sung repeatedly about them as a confidential meditation. Breakfast is part of the morning pastimes where the situation finds Radha and Krishna exchanging glances to send hidden messages.                    

 Morning Love

The bright morning rays

shone on golden plates and trays,

reflecting the hue of her face,

which he searched for and embraced

with the limbs of his gaze.

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 ...." 

The Water of Mercy

mukam karoti vachalam

pangum langhayate girim

yat-kripa tam aham vande

shri-gurum dina-taranam

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, the deliverer of the fallen souls. His mercy turns the dumb into eloquent speakers and enables the lame to cross mountains." CC Adi Lila 1.15 (Lecture in 1975)

The mercy is often compared to rain because it down pours to every living entity equally and unconditionally for the reason that there is not real cause for it, it is of transcendental origin and Krishna and His pure devotees are the independent bestowers of this mercy.

The reservoir of this water is the spiritual master who makes this mercy reach everyone. The disciple act just as a mere pipe, bound by love to speak. (re-phrased from "The process of Inquiry" pg 71 by Srila Gaur Govinda Goswami.

Gurudev,

A wanderer has come

to the door to ask

and as you told,

I took from your hands

the water to quench

his thirst,

but I’ve faulty hands

and when I cupped them,

inept as I am,

much was lost;

It was an ocean

I could not hold.

He asked for more,

so I prayed silently

to you - this time before,

and compassion in a water form

found a way through

this stony heart

but could not fulfil,

because what I could give 

was but a few sips.

This soul became eager

held out his beaker,

and only then with faith,

as a parrot, I sang

that saffron dust

abiding in my heart

as it came to me

in a chain of love and mercy;

all I did was to repeat

selflessly,

as you did,

what I had I gave,

as I received,

what I drank through my ears

when I became thirsty to hear,

when my good fortune arose

and you passed it on

 to me.

Sleepless Night

Gopala Campu  33.17  "But how can I give up the cowsheds, the forest, the cows. the people of Vraja,my servants, my friends, my gopis, my father and mother and Radha?  Without me, they cannot remain sane for a moment.  Thinking of them, I will be completely burned up as if there were a fire within me."

"My heart is filled with anguish that burns like a host of fiery torches.   I lay down to sleep, but I could not sleep a wink.  It is only with great difficulty that somehow I have survived this night." Sri Lalita Madhava. 

"During the day Krishna's mind was preoccupied with many things, but at night, as He lay beside Balarama in Their bullock cart, His mind was filled only with thoughts of His father and friends.

How would He tell them that He would be staying in Mathura? How would He convince them to return to Vraja? If they did return, how would He and they remain alive, separated from one another?"  NVM p.278

On the day Krishna killed Kamsa, He realized that was not the end of His adventures away from Vraja, He could not go back.

That night Krishna went to sleep in the bullock cart with Balarama, at the edge of the forest on the outskirts of Mathura. Even in this familiar setting, his heart was troubled because the next day He would have to tell Nanda Baba and His friends that He had to stay in Mathura and could not go back with them to Vraja. The events of those last few days in Mathura came into His mind churning His emotions into pangs of love. He remembered also the words of Narada that foretold His long absence from Vraja.  What a sharp pain to His heart thinking of Their future in separation!  

Sleepless night

In the backwoods

with no sound around,

familiar feelings arise

and the turmoil of the heart

echoes loud,

lying in the bullock cart
in the stillness of the dark

many thoughts crowd

back to the day when He had come;

    The words the laundryman spoke    (1)

resounded from a time remote,

his malevolent grin

 swiftly erased

by the touch of His fingertips;

     then the weaver from the past   (2)

desirous to dress Him up,

and the florist with the softest buds  (3)

offering his loving service,

asking for nothing else;

But the feelings that churn

this night into a blend of flavoured remembrances

are the grimaces of grief,

the cries of friends and relatives 

and praises from ladies’ voices  (4)

 He had never heard before,

 how they distracted His mind 

recalling the gopis’ love,

~ its spell...

so that for just one instant, He almost fell,

but was brought back to His senses

by an outcry, far beyond the fences

 as Nanda Baba's love erupted 
"Oh my son!"
~ so intense!

 At once He killed

the wrestler, and then the demon king,

dragging him by the hair

all around for everyone to see,  (5)

for the wrong he did

to the doe-eyed maid

with aguru scented hair.

So, now, how to tell

 father and friends

that He is not going back?

A morrow of sorrow

lurks in His heart,

He feels the burning

        Narada once foretold:    (6)

 many events

would avert His return
for a long time,

and Vraja would turn

into a desert of oases without hope

for those He loves.

They will not live, nor breathe,

the gopis will hardly eat,

Baba will not even drink,

Mother will only sigh,

and what about Him…

alone, far from Vraja and Radha…

from the amorous moonlights,

the forest, the cows,

the river at twilight,

how many nights will come to pass

like this one!...

when due to love, sleep is lost,

since for pain or for pleasure alike

the heart weeps or delights

 in sleepless nights.

((   1)   From NVM p.235  “Krishna at once recognized the washerman as the same unfortunate soul who criticized Lord Ramachandra for having accepted Sita after she had “lived in the house of another man” the demon Ravana.”

(    2)   From NVM p.237  “In a previous life this weaver had been the best tailor of Mithila.  He was requested by Janaka Maharaja to make clothes for Rama and Laksmana on the occasion of Rama’s marriage to Sita.

But even thought the tailor had prepared the finest clothes for the sons of Dasaratha, he was not allowed to dress Them himself.  Thus he lamented, hoping that fate would favour him some day.”

(    3)   SB 10.41.49,51  " [...] Thus with great pleasure he {Sudama} presented Them {Krishna

and Balarama} with garlands of fresh, fragrant flowers."

Sudama chose unshakable devotion for Krishna, the Supreme Soul of all existence;

friendship with His devotees, and transcendental compassion for all living beings."

(    4)   NVM p.263 "Krishna heard the ladies' praise and remembered the gopis.  That momentary distraction gave Canura the upper hand.  Nandaraja, sensing Krishna was in danger, stood up and called out "Oh my son!". 

(    5)   NVM p267 "Holding Kamsa by the hair, Krishna proudly dragged the dead King's lifeless body...."  This to give assurance to the people and the Vrsni that now the demon was dead, but there was also something else that Krishna remembered for which He pulled Kamsa by his hair ...

"Sankhacuda : Now in order to fulfill the unfulfilled desire of my dear friend King Kamsa, I will grab the hair of the lotus-like girl on this throne and drag Her away ."  Sri Lalita Madhava Act II

"And because She dries Her hair with the smoke of burning aguru, the aroma of Her hair fortifies that feeling of Krishna's presence." NVM p. 390

(6)  Gopala Campu 33.109, 111-113 "Krishna said 'Why will I not go to                                                                                                                     Vraja...."

             [Narada] "When Kamsa will be killed, his many friends, just like                                            Jarasandha, will become like him, how will you be able to go?"

             "Krishna said, 'I will not go just to see them?' 

             "Narada said with a rough laugh,

                                 'No, no.'