The Raganuga Trail and Other Classics

I.

This website is a cheat? That's pretty neat!
Who here's the culprit who must take the heat?
So go ahead, sell books out on the street--

That's where shastra tells us we shall meet
a rasika guru at whose lotus feet
bhakta bees taste the raga honey treat.

II.

kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvita-matiḥ 
kriyatāṁ yadi kuto’pi labhyate |
tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ 
janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate ||

O friend, if you should find it anywhere,
that heart absorbed in Krishna rasa so rare,
be quick to buy, how much the soul’s in need!

In that bazaar is posted just one price;
millions of pious works will not suffice,
the cost is to be paid in coins of greed.

III.

You should have asked your GBC
before you came and talked to me.
Then you’d have known I’m dangerous--
you know--the Sanskrit knowledge curse.

And then I went and made things worse
by giving answers just in verse.
So now you think, “That’s aparadh.
He thinks he’s better than Prabhupad.”

It’s silly just to write in rhyme.
Sorry, promise I won’t next time.
But you be good, do what you’re told,
and stay away to save your soul.

That’s good advice: just stay away
from asat-sang like me, and pray
to Radha, then you’ll be O.K.

But I think it may be too late,
the horse is gone, why lock the gate?
The fish has swum off with the bait.

IV.

O Great Fish!
My sakhi baited the hook of her heart
with the delicacy of love just to catch you,
casting it into the ambrosial waters.

Not only did you swallow up
both bait and hook,
but you broke the string of her reason--
Alas, what can the poor girl do now?


(GD Aug. 14-15, 2004)

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