VMA 1.32 :: Meditate on that Eros-addled Couple of colors black and gold

na kuru na vada kiṁcid vismarāśeṣa-dṛśyaṁ
smara mithuna-mahas tad gaura-nīlaṁ smarārtam|
bahu-jana-samavāyād dūram udvijya yāhi
priya nivasatu divya-śrīla-vṛndāvanāntaḥ ||

My dear mind!
Don’t do anything else, don’t say anything else.
Forget everything that is supposedly worth seeing.
Just meditate on that Eros-addled Divine Couple
of colors black and gold.

Being indifferent to the general masses
and staying far away from them,
just remain within the confines
of divine, beautiful Vrindavan Dham.

Commentary

The curious relation between physical reality and mental perception plays out in the Holy Dham. And this play of “reality” and “image” is at the center of the bhakti-sādhanā as conceived by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The word dṛśya is Vedantic in tone, one speaks of the world perceived by the senses as paridṛśyamāna, the world of perception. Prabodhananda says, in true yogic fashion, to withdraw the senses from the world of perception and focus on the Divine Couple, whose aureole is the Dham, and expanding outward from the Dham, the entire universe.

The Dham is the axis mundi, it is the place where the highest truth of Divine Love becomes manifest in its most pure and perfect state, and when the Dham manifests in the material plane, it is so that the effulgent center, Radha and Krishna, can become manifest to the consciousness of the people of the world.

But the object of the devotees in Vrindavan is not just to meditate on Radha and Krishna, to experience them within the mind, or to stop the functions of the mind to experience some “higher” truth. They aim to experience this Vrindavan as pervaded by the transcendent Vrindavan, as non-different from it. They strive to experience the reality of the all-pervading truth of Divine Love as concretized (not in concrete, of course) in the Dham.

That is expressed by Radha when she sees Krishna outside of Vrindavan in Kurukshetra:

anyera hṛdaya mana, mora mana bṛndābana
mane bane eka kari jāni
tāhāɱ tomār pada dvaya karāha yadi udaya
tabe tomāra pūrṇa kṛpā māni
O lord of My life! Kindly hear my submission. Vrindavan is my home, and if I cannot have your company there, I will not be able to survive. O Krishna! For the materialistic person, the mind that accepts and rejects sense objects is considered to be his heart. My mind, however, is free from all such desires for material sense objects and knows nothing but the desire to please your senses. It is thus a place that is fitting for you to conduct your pastimes, for it is of the same nature as your eternal abode, Vrindavan itself.

To give my heart instructions in philosophy and mystical practice is a waste of time. Previously you gave such instructions to us through Uddhava and now you are personally doing the same thing here in Kurukshetra. Our hearts are naturally full of love for you and so we need no such advice. Yogis work hard to detach their minds from material sense objects and fix them on you in your form as the indwelling Supersoul. We, on the other hand, have to work hard to forget you for even a moment so that we can fix our mind on our daily household duties. We try with great efforts to do so, but our minds are so imbued with thoughts of you that we cannot manage it. So when you instruct us to meditate on you, it makes us laugh.

We gopis have completely left bodily consciousness behind. This is our natural state. So how can the words “dark well of material existence” apply to us? In fact, our suffering comes of having fallen into the ocean of separation from you, where the great sea monster of desire to serve you is swallowing us up. If you want to save us, then save us from that monster’s gaping mouth. In other words, You must save us gopis from your separation and not from material existence as such.

It is most surprising to us that in spite of being the pinnacle of virtue, you have forgotten Vrindavan, Govardhan, the banks of the Yamuna River and the forest bowers where we had our pastimes. Worse still, you seem to have forgotten all those who love you, including your own father and mother, your friends and the other people of Vraja, none of whom can live even a moment without you. You too seemed to love them once and yet, alas, you have forgotten them. Forget about us, we are not important. But we cannot comprehend how you could become indifferent to the people of Vraja, who suffer so much in your absence.

Perhaps you have no sympathy for us and our distress. We do not ask for it, but think for a minute about your mother, the Queen of Vrindavan. When the people of the cowherd community see her suffering, their hearts break. Do you not feel the slightest twinge of remorse when you see her in this state?

I don’t want to blame you for all this. We can only say that Providence has treated us unkindly and that is why you have become so indifferent to us all. It is simply our destiny. We Vrajavasis find absolutely no pleasure in seeing you in your royal garb, living in a foreign land, or your attachment to new companions. Even so, we cannot leave Vrindavan to follow you. That is impossible, even if we have to come face to face with death itself as a result of not seeing you. Can you come up with any solution for our predicament?

Sometimes you kill us with Your separation and then sometimes, like today, you revive us by giving us the hope that we may be reunited again. Why do you do this? You are keeping us alive simply to kill us by again destroying our hopes.

You are the very life of Vrindavan. You are Nanda Maharaj’s life’s treasure. You are the only wealth the people of Vrindavan cling to. You are compassionate by nature, so please come and revive the people of Vrindavan by placing your feet in this land once again. (Summary of Caitanya-caritāmṛta 2.13.133-148)

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VMA 1.31 : Pull up the root of material hopes.
VMA 1.30 : Know Suffering here to be joy
VMA 1.29 : Real life is to take refuge in Vrindavan
VMA 1.28 : I will raise my ears to hear the sweet flute sounds
VMA 1.27 : …where a swarthy, lusty youth leans on a kadamba and plays the flute
VMA 1.26 : May Vrindavan be like a nourishing mother
VMA 1.25 : What business do we have with kings or gods?
VMA 1.24 : Take pleasure in the eternal joys within Vrindavan
VMA 1.23 : When will I roam in Vrindavan?
VMA 1.22 : The Upanishads do not reveal Vrindavan