VMA 2.44-46 :: Vrindavan is the celestial stage for the Divine Couple's dance of love

This is also a sandānatikā, or a group of three verses forming one syntactical sentence..

ekaṁ citra-śikhaṇḍa-cūḍam aparaṁ śrī-veṇī-śobhādbhutaṁ

vakṣaś candana-citram ekam aparaṁ citraṁ sphurat-kañcukam|

ekaṁ ratna-vicitra-pīta-vasanaṁ jaṅghānta-vastropari

bhrājad-ratna-sucitra-śoṇa-vasanenānyac ca saṁśobhitam||2.44||

itthaṁ divya-vicitra-veśa-madhuraṁ tad gaura-nīlaṁ mithaḥ-

premāveśa-hasat-kiśora-mithunaṁ dig-vyāpi-citra-cchaṭam |

kāñcī-nūpura-nāda-ratna-muralī-gītena saṁmohayat

śrī-vṛndāvana-cid-ghana-sthira-caraṁ raṅge mahā-śrīmati ||2.45||

anv-ālī-mukha-śabdake maṇimaye mīlan-mṛdaṅga-dhvanau

protsāryaiva praviṣṭavaj javanikām utkīrya puṣpāñjalīm |

atyāścarya-sa-nṛtya-hastaka-mahāścaryāṅga-dṛg-bhaṅgimot-

tuṅgānaṅga-rasotsavaṁ bhajati me prāṇa-dvayaṁ kaḥ kṛtī ||2.46||

One wears a peacock feather crown,
and the other has wonderfully braided hair.
One's chest is decorated with sandalwood designs
and the other wears a splendid bodice.
One wears jewel-studded yellow garments over his hips
while the other is beautified with a colorful red jewel-studded cloth.

In this way the fair and dark young couple
are sweetly costumed in stylish apparel,
laughing, absorbed in their love for each other,
their wonderful splendor pervading all directions.
With the sounds of tinkling belt and ankle-bells,
and with the music of the jewelled flute,
they enchant the moving and non-moving spiritual creatures
of Vrindavan on this beautiful decorated stage.

There, surrounded by the songs of the sakhis,
accompanied by the beating of mrdangas,
they enter, as if pushing aside a curtain,
throwing handfuls of flowers in the air.
They dance with fascinating hand mudras
and graceful motions of all their limbs and eyes,
creating a lofty festival of Cupid's sweet love. 

What virtuous person would not worship
this Divine Couple, my life and soul?

---

What a wonderful picture Prabodhananda Saraswati has painted for us of the Divine Couple who dance the dance of divine love on the celestial stage of the Vrindavan forest! In the previous group of verses, various services of the sakhis and manjaris were described. In this verse, Prabodhananda seems to enter directly into the lila and describes further how he participates in that divine play as both a participant on the stage and as a direct witness of that great dance.

Krishna is often compared to a dancer or an actor. In the last of the verses in this trio, Prabodhananda Saraswati says that the Divine Couple enters the stage throwing aside the curtain that covers them. Kunti Devi uses a similar example in the First Canto:

māyā-javanikācchannam ajñādhokṣajam avyayam

na lakṣyase mūḍha-dṛśā naṭo nāṭya-dharo yathā

Hidden by the curtain of the illusory energy, beyond the capacity of the ignorant person's senses to perceive, the Infinite Being is not observed with the eyes of a fool, like an actor who is costumed for the stage. (1.8.19)

In verses similar to this (1.15.35) it is stated that the Supreme Lord takes different forms like that of Matsya and Kurma to perform some task in the world and then again disappears off stage. This metaphor is again used at the end of the Eleventh Canto to describe Krishna's disappearance when his lila comes to an end.

rājan parasya tanu-bhṛj-jananāpyayehā
māyā-viḍambanam avehi yathā naṭasya
sṛṣṭvātmanedam anuviśya vihṛtya cānte
saṁhṛtya cātma-mahinoparataḥ sa āste

My dear King, the Supreme Lord’s pastimes of appearance, disappearance and activities among the Yadavas only resemble the birth and death, etc., of conditioned souls, but you should know them to be merely imitation, like the performance of an actor on stage. Having created this universe by himself and then entering it, sporting in it, and finally annihilating it, he remains indifferent to all of it, being firmly established in his own glory. (11.31.11)

In a way, this aspect of being a player on the stage is equally applicable to all individuals, as in one of William Shakespeare's most famous poetic passages describing the life of everyman, from As You Like It,

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts...

Of course, an ordinary jiva is only partially in control of the roles that he plays in life, as Krishna tells Arjuna in the Gita (4.5), whereas Krishna is fully aware and fully in control of where and when and how he appears, etc.

Nevertheless, we should not misunderstand that Krishna has no form and then takes form, and then again becomes formless. An actor has his own personality and personal life, but may appear on the stage to act a particular role. Then afterwards he returns to his regular life and becomes indifferent to the role that he has played. On the other hand, when Krishna comes onto the stage known as Vrindavan, where Vrinda Devi has decorated it with all the natural beauties that are suited for his play as the Rasaraj in the companionship of his beloved Radha, the embodiment of Mahabhava, then it is the divine drama of romantic love. Here he dresses up to enhance his beauty and the very mood that is at his heart and that serves as the medium for the exchanges of love. His role-play as the Rasaraj is the very essence of his true being.

And it is the same for the eternally liberated associates of the Lord in Vrindavan. The sakhas and sakhis are both participants and observers, like supporting actors who sing and play music, thus serving the leading hero and heroine by means of their performance, and at the same time they enjoy their commanding displays of beauty and talent. This is their true role and true identity. In fact, we may say that we are always playing a role on stage, but when we are in our true eternal nature, then that performance is closest to our heart because our audience is the Divine Couple and their devotees. That is when life is one of play alone and not of work. Similarly, one can see the state of progress in sādhana by the extent to which hearing and chanting and playing the role of a devotee are work and not play. This is also why some scholars recognize the debt that rāgānugā-sādhana has to the Nāṭya-śāstra by calling it "acting as a way of salvation."


In the Bhagavatam the cowherd boys are described as on stage, cheering each other on with calls of bāḥ! bāḥ!:

gopa-jāti-praticchannā devā gopāla-rūpiṇam |

īḍire kṛṣṇaṁ rāmaṁ ca naṭā iva naṭaṁ nṛpa ||

O King, the gods disguised as cowherd boys glorified Krishna and Balaram, who were also in the form of cowherd boys, just as one dancer praises another. (10.18.11)

And for this performance, Krishna dresses himself up with the flowers and peacock feathers, painting himself with the colored clays of Vrindavan. This is the incomparable beauty of his innermost pastimes. The gopis describe this same scene in more detail in the Veṇu-gīta, where they lament that the cowherd boys have the good fortune to see Krishna and Balaram in all their beauty, which is augmented by the decorations that have been given them by the forest itself.

cūta-pravāla-barha-stavakotpalābja-

mālānupṛkta-paridhāna-vicitra-veśau

madhye virejatur alaṁ paśupāla-goṣṭhyāṁ

raṅge yathā naṭa-varau kva ca gāyamānau

Costumed in charming colorful garments,
covered with garlands made with peacock feathers,
lotuses, lilies, mango twigs and flower bud clusters,
Krishna and Balaram reign glorious
over the cowherd boy assembly,
sometimes dancing, sometimes singing
like the best of dancers appearing on stage. (10.21.8)

Perhaps the best known verse in this spirit is that sung by the gopis at the very beginning of the Veṇu-gīta. where they describe him entering Vrindavan. The previous verse quoted above appears just a couple of verses after it. Krishna enters the forest with Balaram where, it seems, he can truly be himself, playing instruments, singing, dancing and performing with his friends.

barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ

vibhrad-vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīṁ ca mālām |

randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayā pūrayan gopa-vṛndair

vṛndāraṇyaṁ sva-pada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ ||

Krishna, whose glories were sung to the world by the cowherd boys,
dressed as a dancing performer,
a peacock feather decorating his topknot,
karṇikāra flowers behind his ears,
a golden cloth covering his body,
and a victory garland around his neck,
entered Vrinda’s forest,
the pleasure garden of his auspiciously marked feet,
while he filled the holes of his flute
with the nectar of his lips. (10.21.5)

We can complete our collection of such verses where Krishna is described as a dancing actor with the portrayal of Krishna when the wives of the sacrificing brahmins first beheld him in the forest:

śyāmaṁ hiraṇya-paridhiṁ vana-mālya-barha-

dhātu-pravāla-naṭa-veṣam anuvratāṁse

vinyasta-hastam itareṇa dhunānam abjaṁ

karṇotpalālaka-kapola-mukhābja-hāsam

His complexion was dark blue,
his garment golden.
He wore a peacock feather,
and was painted with colorful minerals,
sprigs of flower buds,
and a garland of forest flowers and leaves.
Dressed just like a dancer on stage,
he rested one hand on the shoulder of a friend
and with the other, twirled a lotus.
Lilies graced his ears,
his hair hung down over his cheeks,
and a smile adorned his lotus face. (10.23.22)

Of course this is not the end of Krishna dressing up and playing on the Vrindavan stage. That mood culminates in the Rasa-lila, the crowning event of Krishna's Vrindavan lila as indicated by Prabodhananda Saraswati's verses under discussion. There, he describes Radha in a form equal to his and appropriate for the dance of divine love. Jai Sri Radhe!

VMA 2.41-43: The service activities of the manjaris.
VMA 2.40 : Taking shelter of the handmaids of Radha
VMA 2.39 May Radha's sakhis be ever venerated
VMA 2.38 A fair and dark couple now fills our eyes
VMA 2.37 : My Swamini and her peerless lover, Shyam
VMA 2.36 : Churning the Shyamsundar ocean to extract his essence
VMA 2.35 : The play at the center
VMA 2.34 : The fortunate, the more fortunate, and the most fortunate of all
VMA 2.33 : Vrindavan, on the divine island
VMA 2.30-32 : The ever youthful Divine Couple sport in the kunjas of Vrindavan