Saturday, 4 November 2017

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.

Saturday, 5 August 2017

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."

Sunday, 9 July 2017

Season of surrender

From Hayasirsa pancaratra quoted in Gopala Campu Ch.1.35 "Description of Goloka" :
The pleasurable nature of material objects like flowers with fragrance and taste exist in the spiritual world as the very essence of pleasure.  Because the objects are devoid of any inferior qualities belonging to material objects they are the very form of pleasure.  Know that the faulty portions of a fruit like skin, seed and tough sections exist in material objects.  Nothing in the spiritual world is made of material elements."

Srila Prabhupada : "whether it is unripe or ripe a mango is a mango"

Wednesday, 7 June 2017

AKRURA CAME



Lalita Madhava - Act Three "Vrnda : (After remaining silent for a few moments, she exhales hot air and speaks in confusion.)
If Akrura takes Krsna to Mathura, why should I prepare new bowers in the forest?
Why should I attractively prepare flower beds? Why should I make the fragrant creepers bloom out of season?"
SBB Vol.III 5.164 "Somehow or other the wise Akrura, desiring to promote the welfare of the Yadus, took Him from Vraja to Madhupuri as if by force."

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

IN the CAVERN OF the HEART - Prayers of Mucukunda

Comment by Visvanath Cakravarti Thakura to SB 10.51.29 : "Mucukunda said, "With Your effulgence You dispel the darkness of this mountain cave, and with Your jewel-like knowledge You destroy the darkness of ignorance in my heart."  In Sanskrit, the heart is sometimes metaphorically referred to as guha "cavern" a deep and secret place."

SB 3.29.5 [Devahuti said] "My dear Lord, You are just like the sun, for You illuminate the darkness of the conditional life of the living entities.  Because their eyes of knowledge are not open, they are sleeping eternally in that darkness without Your shelter, and therefore they are falsely engaged by the actions and reactions of their material activities, and they appear to be very fatigued."

I was inspired to write this poem by an article written by my friend and writer HG Vishoka das Prabhu and with whom I found to have an affinity for the pastime of King Mucukunda.
https://vishoka.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/bad-to-the-bone-bugsy-and-bubbles-in-the-sea/.  

Monday, 10 April 2017

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.

Thursday, 2 March 2017

Debt of Love

CC Antya Lila 7.43 "The conjugal love of the gopīs is the most exalted devotional service, surpassing all other methods of bhakti. Therefore Lord Krishna is obliged to say, 'My dear gopīs, I cannot repay you. Indeed, I am always indebted to you."
Prema-vilas - Ch 7. Text 126-127  by Srila Nityananda Das
"Feeling separation from Me, Radha and the gopis have given up Their lives.  Now I shall also give up My life for her.  You will see me in that condition, O Lokanath."

Excerpted from Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu Issue No134

"With that prema they [gopis] have given up everything. [...] By their love, Krishna's promise was broken. His pormise is -'As someone approaches me I reciprocate accordingly' {Bg 4.11} Krishna never becomes indebted, He always repays his debts. But this promise of his was broken by the gopis, because the gopis do not want anything, how will he repay them?
[...] {Bhag. 10.32.22} "I have become completely indebted to you. I cannot pay you back, because you don't want anything. What shall I do?"
To pay back his debt he became Gaura, assuming the mood of Radharani is crying and feeling acute pangs of separation from Krishna. This is Gaura. [...] As Radharani is crying, crying, crying and drowning herself in this unfathomable ocean of separation, similarly Gaura is burning himself with the fire of separations from Krishna."