Krishna's was not an eight year old at the rasa dance
Although Krishna is generally thought of as an adolescent, sometimes This picture follows the idea that Krishna was only 11 years old when he left Vrindavan, as stated in the Bhāgavatam:
tato nanda-vrajam itaḥ pitrā kaṁsād vibibhyatā |
ekādaśa samās tatra gūḍhārciḥ sa-balo’vasat ||
Thereafter, His father, out fear of Kaṁsa, carried Him from
prison to Nanda’s Vraja. He lived there with Balarāma for eleven years, like a hidden
fire. (3.2.26)
2020
This video is about Sachinandan Das Bhakti Prabha, who was my godbrother, a disciple of Lalita Prasad Thakur. Jayadebji is his disciple and a popular speaker of the Bhāgavatam in West Bengal. Sachinandan was quite a character, some of which comes through very nicely in this short talk. Radhe Radhe.
2015 Rishikesh
It is a bit like a state of shock. Short circuits in the brain.
2011
mithyā jalpatu te kathaṁ nu rasanā sādhvī-sahasrasya yā
bimboṣṭhāmṛta-sevanād agharipo puṇyā prayatnād abhūt |
kasmād eva balāt-karotu ca karaḥ soḍhuṁ kṣamaḥ subhruvāṁ
raktaḥ suṣṭhu na nīvi-bandham api yaḥ kā vānya-bandhe kathā ||
2011
Spoken by Lalita in Dāna-keli-kaumudī (90) when Krishna swears that his tongue has never spoken a
lie, nor his hands ever engaged in any kind of aggressive act:
bimboṣṭhāmṛta-sevanād agharipo puṇyā prayatnād abhūt |
kasmād eva balāt-karotu ca karaḥ soḍhuṁ kṣamaḥ subhruvāṁ
raktaḥ suṣṭhu na nīvi-bandham api yaḥ kā vānya-bandhe kathā ||
How could your tongue ever speak a lie, O enemy of sin,
when it has been purified by drinking the nectar
of a thousand chaste women's bright red lips?
And how could your hands possibly tolerate engaging in force?
Out of their love for the beautifully browed girls,
your hands cannot stand to even see their girdle knots bound,
what to speak of other kinds of bonds [like their braids, for instance].
of a thousand chaste women's bright red lips?
And how could your hands possibly tolerate engaging in force?
Out of their love for the beautifully browed girls,
your hands cannot stand to even see their girdle knots bound,
what to speak of other kinds of bonds [like their braids, for instance].
This is an example of narma-lalita-māna.
Krishna is lying because a few sentences further, he will say:
Krishna is lying because a few sentences further, he will say:
Krishna: All this talk is simply procrastination. The tolls are supposed to be collected quickly. I must have payment right away, even if I have to take it by force. (steps toward Radharani)
Lalita: (laughing ironically) O gentle, innocent boy! I cannot believe that you have the arrogance to touch Radha's body directly in my presence, for I am well known to be responsible for keeping the gopis’ honor. I am very curious to see what you are going to do. Go ahead, I am waiting for you show me just how bold you are.
I like that one. Go, Lalita!
2011
One comedian said his Catholic upbringing taught him sex was “a horrible nasty business one should only do with a person they really, really love.” Equally contradictory is to think that sex is a nasty business that God himself as Krishna engages in with Radha. The omniscient and omnipotent God could surely find better ways of enjoying! Conclusion: the Divine Couple are meant to validate and sacralize human eros.
The other day I heard Thakurji Krishna Chandra Shastri, one of the top two or three Bhagavata speakers in Vrindavan, speaking on the vastra-haraṇa līlā. He also said Krishna was a five-year-old boy, so what is the problem?
I like that one. Go, Lalita!
2011
One comedian said his Catholic upbringing taught him sex was “a horrible nasty business one should only do with a person they really, really love.” Equally contradictory is to think that sex is a nasty business that God himself as Krishna engages in with Radha. The omniscient and omnipotent God could surely find better ways of enjoying! Conclusion: the Divine Couple are meant to validate and sacralize human eros.
The other day I heard Thakurji Krishna Chandra Shastri, one of the top two or three Bhagavata speakers in Vrindavan, speaking on the vastra-haraṇa līlā. He also said Krishna was a five-year-old boy, so what is the problem?
According to Dhyana Chandra's Paddhati, Krishna's age is given as follows:
mahārāja-kumāratayā bhogātiśayena samṛddhyā varṣa-māsa-dinānāṁ sārdhatayā sārdha-sapta-dinottara-nava-māsādhika-pañca-daśa-varṣa-parimitaṁ śrī-kṛṣṇasya vayo jñeyam (i.e., 15 years, 9 months, 7 1/2 days) | Radharani's age is given as 14-2-15.
For those who are rasikas, the following verse will be sufficient to lay to rest the 5-year-old, 8-year-old, 10-year-old theory.
citraṁ cira-sparśa-sukhāya cūcuke
kurvantam akṣipram iyaṁ calekṣaṇā |
svinnāṅgulīkaṁ pulakāñcita-śriyā
savyena cikṣepa kucena keśavam ||106||
If anyone followed the outline of Sri Krishna Kirtan by Chandidas that I have been giving on my blog, you will see a fascinating development. It is a bit shocking for us that Chandidas represents Radha as a 10 year old in the beginning, being harassed by a Krishna who is not much older. Throughout SKK, Chandidas is at pains to show the maturing of Radha sexually and emotionally in that context. It is very interesting to say the least, and no doubt very specific to an outdated historical circumstance.
Rupa Goswami seems to start at the point where Chandidas leaves off in Radha-Krishna's maturation. In DKK or elsewhere, Radha and Krishna are in a kind of idealized state of love that is not the love of mature older married folks (which, believe me I think that mere mortals could do well to aspire to), but that of playful, innocent young lovers who have fully developed eroticism and emotional absoluteness of focus.
In my view, even older mature and successful couples would harbor this kind of love at the very core of their relationship.
The manjaris (9 is a little young, as far as I know) are the perfect audience. They are the sāmājikas [i.e., "the cultured audience"]. They are participant observers, but more observers than participants. They are not "players".
This is a very subtle aspect of Gaudiya philosophy that Rupa Goswami has developed at is quite difficult for most people to understand. Especially those who have been trained in the external forms of religiosity.
The great connection I made with these manjaris is when I thought of the girls who were following the Beatles. And then later the regular successors to the Beatles in the pop culture world. And yes indeed how in our Western society these "tweeny boppers" or preteen girls seemed to be the dominant group, so emotional and so absolutely identified with this novel experience of the erotic/sentimental. But not directly involved.
Here again, I think, the intensity of the identification is what is being intuited by Rupa Goswami. The goal of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a particular kind of bhava, not some external technical mastery of līlā-smaraṇam or external service, but identification with the universal mood of love that is experienced by God in the union of Radha and Krishna.
his will not be achieved by technical smaraṇa. Nor will it be achieved by hundreds of religious performances. It can only be attained through sahaja sādhāraṇī-karaṇa, or a natural identification with Radha and Krishna's love. Though 12-year-old girls are far from matching our vision of human perfection in an external way, internally it is this passion, this sense of total emotional identification that is somehow being identified as a perfection to be strived for.
Now, I must make the point that there are two sādhanas in rāgānugā bhakti: one internal and the ot
her external. The simplicity and innocence that make the entry into Love possible are (paradoxically) impossible without the full attainment of external maturity.
So basically you do have to grow up even as you hold on to this effulgent inner world of intense innocence.
Someone reading the Bhāgavatam for "juicy bits" in the modern climate of freely available hard-core porn will be very sadly disappointed.
But here is the translation (a bit juicy, as it were):
Krishna was drawing designs on Radha’s breasts with musk paste, but because he was taking so much pleasure in touching her nipples for a long time, his work was going slowly. Radharani started to get anxious, “What if someone comes and sees?” and so she started to move her eyes angrily. “What is the use of someone as inexpert as you doing this work? I will get one of my kinkaris to do it instead of you.” And with that she hit his sweating finger with her goose-pimpled left breast. [Because, according to VCT, the woman’s left side is stronger.]
Just saying, this is not an 8-year-old.
2010
mādhavena parirambha-paṇena |
bhugna-dṛṣṭir iha vipratipannā
taṁ kareṇa rurudhe pariripsum ||
In the gaming circle, though the doe-eyed beauty was defeated by Madhava after wagering a kiss, still she gave him a cross look, turned away and put up her hand to block him when he came to embrace her. (UN 14.102)
This is an example of vāmya-gandhodātta-māna, which translates roughly "loft loving anger, with a touch of refractoriness." Of the two kinds of māna, this is the kind that Chandravali, with her ghrita-sneha would be more likely to engage in.
2010
2010
The first really, really monsoon rainfall has hit. Constant cats and dogs, muṣalādhāra, for the whole day. The dining hall turned into an island. The cries lamenting about heat and water shortages will now turn into laments over flooding.
2009
Yamas and niyamas are the preparation for spiritual life, not its essence. Samādhi is, whether that is prema-samādhi or some other kind.
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