Krishna's Prema-vaicittya
I think that my entire day could go in Rādhā-rasa-sudhā-nidhi. I start the day with meditation, thinking about what I am going to say, preparing, preparing, preparing. Then the time for class comes and who knows what I am going to say? Probably not what I prepared. And then afterward, I want to write about it. Like now. And that would take a couple more hours.
I am stretching myself to my limits really. My Hindi is not so adequate that I feel that I am expressing myself with the poetic force that I should be able to have at my command. I want to sing songs I don't yet know. Half verses come to my mind. I scratch the surface of lilas that I know are much deeper. I point vaguely to the significances for sadhana, for real life.
But somehow or other I am muddling through. And today they put up a mike in the ashram so that my voice is joining in the sound pollution of an Indian holy town. There is already some patha-kirtana going on down the road. I guess the mike helps drown out the ambient noise for my listeners and other people in the ashram--keeps them from making noise and shouting to each other while I am talking...
Today, the tika-kara brought up the idea of prema-vaicittya, refering to verse 46.
अङ्कस्थितेऽपि दयिते किमपि प्रलापं
हा मोहनेति मधुरं विदधत्यकस्मात्।
श्यामानुरागमदविह्वलमोहनाङ्गी
श्यामामणिर्जयति कापि निकुञ्जसीम्नि॥
aṅka-sthite'pi dayite kim api pralāpaṁ hā mohaneti madhuraṁ vidadhaty akasmāt | śyāmānurāga-mada-vihvala-mohanāṅgī śyāmā-maṇir jayati kāpi nikuñja-sīmni ||
There was the example of the elephant being bound, the needle with a hole so small only a single thread can pass through it. I tell you, I am only reading in Hindi, but my reproductions seem pedestrian in comparison.
The actual text of the commentary, still explaining the words dhanyātidhanya that have been used to describe the breeze from Radha's cloth, is as follows:
यद्वा कदापीत्युक्तेः सर्वदा तु सन्निकृष्ट एवेति परं तु कदाचित् प्रेमवैचित्त्यमपि सङ्गमं स्यात् यथा-अङ्कस्थितेऽपि दयिते किमपि प्रलापं ४६ इति वक्ष्यमाणवत् प्रियस्य तस्या विप्रकृष्टव्यवहितत्वमनने ध्यानाविष्टस्य समीपस्थायास्तदानीं पवनेन वसनाञ्चलपरिशीलितचरपरिमलप्राप्त्या घ्राणज्ञानेन-अहो दूरस्थाया वसनवातो मद्भाग्येनैवायं प्राप्तो धन्योऽस्ति मां विरहिणं कृतार्थयति इति तदनन्तरं प्रियया सप्रसादद्रवं तत्सावधानीकरणार्थं स्ववसनाञ्चलचालनं कृतं तेन समागतां ज्ञात्वा वातेऽतिधन्यत्वमननम्।
I am stretching myself to my limits really. My Hindi is not so adequate that I feel that I am expressing myself with the poetic force that I should be able to have at my command. I want to sing songs I don't yet know. Half verses come to my mind. I scratch the surface of lilas that I know are much deeper. I point vaguely to the significances for sadhana, for real life.
But somehow or other I am muddling through. And today they put up a mike in the ashram so that my voice is joining in the sound pollution of an Indian holy town. There is already some patha-kirtana going on down the road. I guess the mike helps drown out the ambient noise for my listeners and other people in the ashram--keeps them from making noise and shouting to each other while I am talking...
Today, the tika-kara brought up the idea of prema-vaicittya, refering to verse 46.
हा मोहनेति मधुरं विदधत्यकस्मात्।
श्यामानुरागमदविह्वलमोहनाङ्गी
श्यामामणिर्जयति कापि निकुञ्जसीम्नि॥
Though Krishna was embracing her, sitting on her lap [even], Radha suddenly called out, "Oh Mohana! Oh Bewilderer! [Where are you?]" Creating this sweet mood Radha herself took on a bewildering form of madness in anuraga. May that Shyama Mani be ever victorious on the borders of the kunja.So I explained the four kinds of vipralambha, and which ones are relished in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya and why, and which ones are acceptable in the Nitya-vihari or Sakhi sampradayas and why. But that everyone accepts the concept of viraha to a greater or lesser degree. Then I explained about dūra-pravāsa in the Bhagavata and what it was all about.
There was the example of the elephant being bound, the needle with a hole so small only a single thread can pass through it. I tell you, I am only reading in Hindi, but my reproductions seem pedestrian in comparison.
The actual text of the commentary, still explaining the words dhanyātidhanya that have been used to describe the breeze from Radha's cloth, is as follows:
यद्वा कदापीत्युक्तेः सर्वदा तु सन्निकृष्ट एवेति परं तु कदाचित् प्रेमवैचित्त्यमपि सङ्गमं स्यात् यथा-अङ्कस्थितेऽपि दयिते किमपि प्रलापं ४६ इति वक्ष्यमाणवत् प्रियस्य तस्या विप्रकृष्टव्यवहितत्वमनने ध्यानाविष्टस्य समीपस्थायास्तदानीं पवनेन वसनाञ्चलपरिशीलितचरपरिमलप्राप्त्या घ्राणज्ञानेन-अहो दूरस्थाया वसनवातो मद्भाग्येनैवायं प्राप्तो धन्योऽस्ति मां विरहिणं कृतार्थयति इति तदनन्तरं प्रियया सप्रसादद्रवं तत्सावधानीकरणार्थं स्ववसनाञ्चलचालनं कृतं तेन समागतां ज्ञात्वा वातेऽतिधन्यत्वमननम्।
Alternatively, the word "sometimes" refers to the fact that though Radha is always right next to Krishna (sannikṛṣṭa) [Harilal Vyasa is obviously familiar with Ujjvala-nilamani--he quotes it as well as Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Here the language is directly taken from UN 15.147.], she is sometimes overwhelmed by the mood of separation known as prema-vaicittya, as will be shown later on in verse 46.Jay Sri Radhe!
Similarly Krishna also undergoes this experience and sometimes gets absorbed in meditation and thinks that he is separated from her, even though she is right next to him. At that time, she waves her cloth and when he smells the breeze that is perfumed by her bodily fragrance, he thinks, "Oh how glorious (dhanya) is this breeze that has come from the cloth of my beloved, who is so far away. It has come here to bless me, who am suffering so from her separation."
Then afterwards, when Radha becomes even more merciful to him, in order to make him aware of her presence, she flutters her cloth again with more force until he realizes that she is right there. Then at that time, Krishna considers the breeze to be even more glorious (atidhanya).
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