Jagat

śrī-vṛndā-kānane'tyadbhuta-kusuma-lasad-ratna-vallī-nikuñja- prāsāde puṣpa-candrātapa-caya-rucire puṣpa-palyaṅka-talpe | rādhā-kṛṣṇau vicitrau smara-samara-kalā-khelinau vīkṣya vīkṣyā- nandād vihvālitaṁ saṁluṭhad avani-tale vandyatām āli-vṛndam || In the Vrindavan forest in a palatial grove filled with most wondrous blossoms, where, upon a bed of petals, under garlanded awnings and and glistening vines , Sri Sri Radha and Krishna are engaged in a wonderfully playful amorous battle,   Watching over and over, Radha's sakhis are overcome and roll about on the ground in bliss! May they be ever venerated! As we have seen, the VMA has four principal subjects the supreme subject and object of divine love, Radha and Krishna. The other two are the  sakhī s and the dham itself. Together they form the single tattva . So far, we have gone into some detail about sakhī-bhāva or  mañjarī-bhāva , which distinction Prabodhananda does not make, in the fo...

Traditionally, Indian poets like to conclude their works with a phala-śruti , a summary of the benefits that accrue to the person who hears or chants it. In the case of this poem, it seems that Dhruvdas’s enthusiasm to glorify Vrindavan could not stop at his intended 100 verses and he simply added a few more restating the glories of the Dham and his desire to glorify it, even while knowing it is an impossibility. The true goal is stated in verse 114: The purpose of bhakti is bhakti itself. Bhakti has no ulterior motive. One engages in bhakti only so that one can experience bhakti more fully, for by bhakti one knows the Supreme, and by knowing the Supreme, one attains the parā bhakti, as stated in the Gita and Bhāgavata and all the devotional scriptures. Have faith in Vrindavan. Have hope for Vrindavan vasa. Your heart will be filled with love and you will become immersed in the amazing ocean of rasa that is the Divine Couple’s holy Dham. कुँवरि किसोरी नाम सौं उपज्यौ दृढ़ ...

śrīmad-vṛndā-kānane ratna-vallī- vṛkṣaiś citra-jyotir-ānanda-puṣpaiḥ | kīrṇe svarṇa-sthaly-udañcat-kadamba- cchāyāyāṁ naś cakṣuṣī gaura-nīle || In Vrinda's beautiful forest, sprinkled thickly with jewel vines and trees, their flowers shedding colorful joyful light, under the shade of a kadamba tree risen from golden ground, that fair and dark couple now fills our eyes. This verse strikes me as a bit of an interlude, a reversion to te kind of meditation that we saw in verses 2.30-32 , so it fits a general movement here to a meditation on the eternal abode. This is especially so since the next few verses continue a theme to which it seems Prabodhananda has been building. I have always found it difficult not to play a role in my own explanation of these verses, though it is, for all intents and purposes, freeing oneself of one's worldly identity, even that of the sādhaka-deha itself, to become immersed in that mood of the divine madhura-rasa . But I have to...

Although Hit Dhruva Das is already giving the example of how to reside in Vrindavan, as we saw in the previous installment of Vrindavana-sata-lila , here he specifically takes the voice of the teacher and advises those who have been attracted by the glories of the Dham on how they need to behave, in other words, he tells us about the nature of Vraja-vāsa sādhanā . He describes an amazing spiritual practice that seems contrary to logic: The material vision is to see Vrindavan as a part of this material world. But, in fact, it is the bridge to the spiritual world of Divine Love. It is impossible to convey this to someone who has not experienced the bliss of chanting the Holy Names, who has not experienced the joys of singing the glories of the Divine Couple. Such acts of devotion open the doors to grace, and bestow upon one such powers of perception that when the devotee lies flat in sāṣṭāṅga-daṇḍavat praṇāma in Vrindavan’s dust, s/he can feel the power of unlimited millions of dev...

Dancing for Radha Raman in Vrindavan . Vrindavan Today . śyāma-prāṇa-mṛgaika-khelana-vana-śreṇī sadā śyāmalot- khelan-mānasa-mīna-divya-sarasī śyāmāli-sat-padminī | śyāmānaṅga-sutapta-hṛc-chiśiratā-kāri-sphurac-candrikā śyāmānanya-sunāgareṇa viharaty ekā mama svāminī || My Swamini is the forest where gambols the black buck of Shyam's life-breath ; she is the divine clear lake where glides the fish of Shyam's mind ; she is the lotus flower garden where plays the Shyam honeybee, and the brilliant moonlight that cools Shyam's burning, passionate heart. She alone dallies with Shyam, her peerless lover. This verse is unusual in the Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta because it does not fit the usual pattern of specifically mentioning Vrindavan by name. Instead Radha is herself identified with the forest in the first line where the word vana does appear. But throughout the verse, all the manifestations of Nature, whether the lakes or lotus flower garden, o...

Hit Dhruvdas Maharaj’s great love of Vrindavan and his understanding of the power of the Holy Dham comes through full strength in these next verses.”The only indestructible abode of intense happiness is Vrindavan.” Dhruvdasji understands Vrindavan as the embodiment of Radha-Krishna’s love, as non separate from Them, and as joy incarnate. When Dhruvdasji says that Vrindavan is better than liberation, this seems like a paradox because, surely we would have to be at least partly liberated in order to understand the glory of Vrindavan. But, upon reflection, we get a glimpse the depth of his understanding of Vrindavan – Vrindavan is the savior, the one who, “makes even death auspicious”. Dhruvadasji’s Vrindavan bhakti is so strong that he says that even if his limbs are torn apart by living here, leaving would be a great mistake. We get no sense of any ambition in these verses, even the ambition to become a great devotee worthy of associating with the Supreme Lord is largely absent...

Radha and Krishna playing Holi. India, Kangra, circa 1800. Opaque pigments and gold on paper śrī-śaṅkara-druhiṇa-mukhya-surendra-vṛnda-durjñeyaṁ rādhā-mānasa-divya-mīna-nilayaṁ tad-vaktra-candrocchritam| tat-kandarpa-sumandareṇa mathitaṁ sakhy-akṣi-pīyūṣadaṁ kañcic chyāma-rasāmbudhiṁ bhaja sakhe vṛndāṭavī-sīmani || Within the boundary of Vrindavan forest, O friend, there is a dark ocean of ambrosia, the abode of the divine fish of Radha's heart, unknowable to the gods headed by Shiva and Brahma. That ocean's tide surges with the rising of her moon face; Cupid is the churning stick, the beautiful Mandara Mountain, all to create amrita for the eyes of her sakhis. Worship that black ocean of rasa. The churning of the ocean is a theme that is loved by Sanskrit poets for its many metaphorical possibilities. The idea that by churning one thing, its essential elements are extracted, and that there are various roles in the process that can be assigned is...

Crossposted from Vrindavan Today Now Hit Dhruvdasji turns to the glories of living in the Dham. This is the lengthiest section of the short book, with 40 verses dedicated to this theme, so we are breaking it up into two postings. There are many people who believe that “Vrindavan is everywhere.” We hate to break it to you, but it is not. At least, not for those who are not on the highest platform of uttama bh ā gavata . The shastras sometimes say like that to encourage those whose fortune is not so good and who are bereft of Brajavas. The same scriptures, or the writings of devotees like Prabodhananda or Dhruvdas, know that those with better fortune feel separation from Vrindavan. The most unfortunate are those who prematurely think they have attained Vrindavan when they are far away, not just physically but spiritually. Dhruvdasji would rather you thought yourself unfortunate and pined for the day, in this life or in some other life, when you will be able to l...

One of my favorite pictures . Ramesh Baba at dawn with his dancing dervishes on 84-kos parikrama. ekaṁ sakhyāpi no lakṣitam urasi lasan-nitya-tādātmya-kāntaṁ tad dṛśyaṁ dūrato’nyad vratati-nava-gṛhe’nyat tu tan-narma-śarma | anyad vṛndāvanāntar-viharad atha paraṁ gokule prāpta-yogaṁ vicchedy anyat tad evaṁ lasati bahu-vidhaṁ rādhikā-kṛṣṇa-rūpam ||2.35|| In one form, unseen even by the sakhis, Radha and Krishna hold each other to their hearts, losing themselves in mutual oneness. In another, they may be seen from far away in a cottage of newly blossoming vines. In another, they enjoy playful joking words. In yet another, they wander the forest of Vrindavan, enjoying its beauty. In one form they meet in Gokula, and in another are separated again. In this way that Supreme Truth in the form of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna manifests itself in many different ways. In a section of the Bhāgavatam that is often cited by Jiva Goswami, Narada famously visited Dwarka and saw its...