IF...

Visnu Purana "One gopi looking at Govinda became extremely joyful and began to repeatedly sing His name "Krsna! Krsna! Krsna!"  She could say nothing else."

This poem was inspired by the power of chanting for transforming the heart, but also to  suggest the need to be active in this process where many micro-results, like the stages of a ripening fruit,have to be achieved in order to steadily adding mature insights to our surrender. 

Caitanya Bhagavata M.L. 28.27 "You all go now, utter the name of Krishna, chant the name of Krishna, do krsna-bhajana.   Don't think of anything else but Krishna."

  

If I do not call out to you

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,

how could I stop listening

the whispers

      of the weaknesses of my heart?   ⁽¹⁾

while my deluded mind

repeats deceitfully

 "you are just fine".

If I do not cry for You

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,

feeling helpless,

how could  I place in your hands

                  my days ?               (2)

       and increase my faith     

perceiving Your benevolence

in events and people

fostering Your aid.

If I, within myself,

do not continue chanting

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,

how could I carry my heart

to the tender of Bhakti?

        while the iron boat of conceit     (3)
sinks into the eerie abyss
of treacherous hedonists ,

where I was again tricked.

If my whole being does not resonate

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,

how could you, in my heart,

awake me to the emotion

so to accept the truths

about my soul, the creation and You?

         I would have no memory of         ⁽⁴⁾

nor could I make of them any use.

But if my tongue calls

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,

without your name

resounding in my soul,

it would not desist

from useless talks, 

the Ego's soliloquy

the invective words,

how then could it dance free

to the sweetness of the songs

about your names and forms?

1) There are four kinds of Anartha (Vani Vaibhava of BVThakur) : 1) identifying the body with the self 2) thirst for material enjoyment 3) offensiveness 4) weakness of the heart.

Anarthas produced from weakness of heart.

1) laziness 2) subordination to insignificant objects; 3) bewilderment of heart due to lamentation; 4) distraction from pure devotional service due to false argument; 5) miserliness in offering all one's energy to the cultivation of Krishna consciousness; 6) rejection of humility due to the pride of caste, wealth, education, followers, beauty, and strength; 7) willingness to be misguided by irreligious propensities and instructions; 8) disinterest in rectifying prejudice; 9) abandonment of compassion due to anger, illusion, envy; 10) intolerance; 11) false identification of the self as a Vaisnava due to the desire for name, fame, and the cheating propensity; 12) and the torture of other living entities that arises from the desire to enjoy women, wealth and other forms of sense gratification.

2) Skanda Purana "If a person rises in the morning and chants 'Krishna, Krishna', I shall bestow all welfare upon him." 

When faith become deep (first tender then firm) transforms into steadiness (nishta), taste (ruci), attachment (rati or asakti) and bhava.

3)  ".....boarding a stone boat, and so too are those who blindly follow them. A stone boat would be unable to float and would sink in the water with its passengers. Similarly, those who mislead people go to hell, and their followers go with them. " - Srimad Bhagavatam, Purport, 6.7.14

4) Prema Bhakti-chandrika "Dhyana is another word for smarana "                                     

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."

The Song of Pingala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_
continue=54&v=NMrRzDJ3Wuc

Uddhava Gita 2.28 "Now please hear from me the song sung by [Pingala] the prostitute ..."

Pingala is a prostitute.  This might rise the query from the reader how one can gain by hearing a poetry describing the greed and miserable life of a prostitute, but 

Pingala's story is told by Lord Krishna to Uddhava and sastra so instruct about this type of narration : Itihasa-samucchaya [SD 3.5.12 Comm.]  "What result can be attained by describing the lust of lusty men and the greed of greedy men, except to sent them into the darkness of a well? In the Mahabharata, lust and greed are described to purify people's hearts, and are moreover condemned by stories with pure meaning.  Otherwise, why would the most merciful and learned Vyasa describe lust and greed, the cause of bondage to terrible material existence?"

Pingala's is just one of the sixteen stories that an avadhuta brahmana told to King Yadu. Every story is a lesson about material life and Krishna retells the whole narration to Uddhava ~ in the section of the Bhagavatam (11th Canto) called "Uddhava Gita" ~ during His final instructions before closing up His pastimes on Earth.  Therefore so auspicious and beneficial is hearing and learning from this story.

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."

FACING the UNWANTED

GB 1.46 "Speaking in this manner, Arjuna, giving up his bow and arrow, his mind disturbed with lamentation, sat down on his chariot amidst the conflict."

This poetry expresses the feelings and realizations of being  one " Arjuna"  who after hearing the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam (for many years) still is looking at his toes in ignorance. Then someone, a wise seer, speaking to my heart, unveiled the path from where I got stuck, infused me the faith in the scripture, in the process of bhakti, so to rise and combat.

"Facing the unwanted" is the time of introspection when the "unwanted" - the egotistical aspects of the ego - are recognized as the stumbling blocks to firm faith and to steadiness on the path of bhakti.

SD 3.25.33 "Bhakti, devotional service, dissolve the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat."

My chariot has stopped

after jolting to and fro,

and I'm aware only of my toes

soaked in tears,

as I sit looking down

as if no sound is around,

and for so long not knowing

where I am.

My chariot has stopped

and with deep sorrow,

my head hanging down,

I sit with pity without piety,

surrounded by a throbbing silence

caused by the emptiness of my heart,

lamenting, unable to look up,  ⁽¹⁾

confused and oblivious to everyone.

Then a hand, a touch,

a benevolent voice,

calls forth 'the Arjuna'

ready to combat,

infuses in me the force

     with care and wise words   ⁽²⁾

to perceive how my chariot

got stuck,

by cumulated layers, life after life

        of unwanted results,     ⁽³⁾

to see that Krishna is in front,

ready to lead,

personal,

with qualities and shining limbs,

friend, well-wisher, eager

for a loving relationship,

and that between two forces,  ⁽⁴⁾

only by mercy, bhakti will appear

like a moon from an eclipse

dissolving the unfavorable duality. ⁽⁵⁾

My chariot has halted

but now I stand up,

without duplicity and ado  ⁽⁶⁾

assessing my heart

start my chariot anew.

1) SD 2.9.34 "One should understand my maya by whose power real objects are perceived through vidya and false objects are perceived through avidya, in relation to the self ..."

Pity for oneself, confusion and lamentation are expansions of the maya sakti through the function of avidya and are perceived as existent by the conditioned soul in ignorance (without piety or sattva).

2) Under the care, benevolence and guidance of guru.

3) "Unwanted results" is the literal translation of  anarthas.  SB 4.29.37 Purport  "Saṁsṛti, or material existence, begins with the illusioned bodily conception of life, and on the basis of this conception there ensues a series of unwanted things (anarthas). These unwanted things are actually mental desires for various types of sense gratification. In this way one accepts different types of bodies within this material world." 

4) Vidya and Avidya which were present in Kurukshetra as the two confronting armies : Yudisthira's  and Duryodhana's respectively. Bhakti is independent from the two and appears only by grace of Krishna, Bhakti-devi and pure bhakta.

5) Maya-sakti involves two functions and one is unfavorable to the jiva (avidya) and the other is favorable for liberation through knowledge (vidya).  Bhakti dissolves both being two aspects of the material energy because the Lord cannot be realized by sattva : SB11.14.21 "I am achieved by bhakti only".

6) Facing the unwanted starts by being truthful firstly to oneself.

ARROWS of LOVE

SD 1.9.38 "O Krishna! Let my only goal be Mukunda, Who, afflicted by my sharp arrows, armor broken, covered in blood, rushed towards me, His enemy, with great force, in order to kill me."

As much as this pastime of Krishna and Bhismadeva is meant to bewilder the mundane minds, it gives great ecstasy and inspiration to the devotees. This poem has been inspired by the prism of rasas in the pages of the Bhagavatam, which, just like those that speak of Arjuna, also expose the devotional sentiments of Bhismadeva. Here he drops the 'adherent-to-dharma' character of the Mahabharata and reveals himself as a pure devotee in a mix of service and chivalry rasas.

This is the moment that Krishna makes Bhismadeva's greatness, glories and devotion known to the world by coming to his side : -

BRS 2.1.134 [Krishna] "...because of Bhisma's remembrance of Him while laying on the bed of sharp arrows, immediately appeared, beyond His own control. He rushed towards Bhisma while forgetting His position as God, His body bathed in a shower of tears." 

WARRIOR for LOVE

SB 1.15.5  "Arjuna said : O King! The Supreme Personality of Godhead Hari, who treated me exactly like an intimate friend, has left me alone.  Thus my astounding power, which astonished even the demigods, is no longer with me."

 

Arjun remembering Krishna after
His departure

When Krishna decides to leave the planet, Arjuna  is left deeply aggrieved by a sentiment of separation.  Coming back from Dvaraka he speaks to Yudhisthira the pains of his heart now that his dearest friend has left.  Krishna has always enhanced the glories of his devotee and friend and now Arjuna reveals how Krishna was glorious in causing and facilitating all his victories, as he had not that power and ability without his friendship.

Four principles of friendship - 1) Trust; 2) knowledge about the friend; 3) to concede, ability to give out one's opinions and position to comply with friend's; 4) Opening one's heart are imbued in this poetry,as Arjuna speaks about his friendship with Krishna so that one can be inspired in cultivating the devotional service's anga -to become friend with Krishna - in the most personal and desirable way that Krishna appreciates and enjoys.

This is independently of the eternal sakhya-rasa, because friendship is developed during sadhana bhakti is based on respect.

The beauty of this passage in the Bhagavatam is the unveiling of the sakhya rasa of Arjuna in a time of separation revealing all the depth of his loving relationship with Krishna, which in Bhagavad Gita is presented veiled by the dasya mood.