VMA 1.35 :: The unlimited mine of nectar

vṛndāṭavī nahi kavīśvara-kāvya-koṭi-
sambhāvyamāna-guṇa-ratna-gaṇa-cchaṭaikā |
etām apāra-rasa-khānim aśeṣa-khāni
saṁrudhya mitra matim adhyavasīya yāhi ||

Not even a spark of the jewel-like virtues of Vrindavan
can be described in the poetic works
of millions of the greatest philosopher-poets.
So, my friend, with single-pointed intent,
controlling all your senses and focusing your mind,
go there, for it is an unlimited mine of nectar.

Commentary


This comment was written on Radhashtami, so it occurred to me that even though Radha’s name is not directly mentioned in this verse, remembering Vrindavan means remembering Radha. And just as the glories of Vrindavan cannot be described, neither can those of Radha, even though great poets like Prabodhananda himself have made ample effort. But that is the poet’s knowledge of his own limitations. There are not sufficient superlatives, nor adequate metaphors that can describe that which lies beyond the limits of the world of immediate perception.

Krishna is the embodiment of unlimited joy, expressed in the various moods of love. And the pinnacle of that love is in the mood of sweetness, that which he experiences in his romance with Radha, the archetype of all romantic love, and which is inadequately expressed in the world by imperfect individuals who love imperfectly, but whose every attempt to love, whose every insight into the phenomenon of love, whose every effort to express the ineffable phenomenon of love, is a pointer to the Truth of that Perfect Love.

Here, Prabodhananda once again betrays his background in the Upanishads and yoga by his use especially of the word khāni, playing on its double meaning. The first meaning is a “mine,” the second means spaces, or holes [kham in the neuter plural], and from that it comes to mean the senses, the gates of perception to the outer world, as in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad:

parāñci khāni vyatṛṇat svayambhūs
tasmāt parāṅ paśyati nāntarātman
kaścid dhīraḥ pratyagātmānamaikṣad
āvṛttacakṣur amṛtatvamicchan
"The Self-born Creator pierced holes [i.e., the senses] facing outward; therefore humans look outward and do not see the true Self within. Some wise man, desiring immortality, turned his eyes inward and saw the indwelling ātmā." (Kaṭha Upaniṣad, 2.1.1)

So, Prabodhananda, here in his sādhakāveśa, is telling us that we must turn inward, just as one has to dig deep into the ground to mine gold and jewels and precious metals, or dive deep into the ocean for pearls, even in the bhauma Vrindavan, to find the brilliant divine rasa of Radha and Krishna’s prema-līlā, one has to focus, like a yogi.

At the end of the Lalita-mādhava play by Rupa Goswami, Radha prays for a boon from Krishna in two verses. In the first verse, which could apply to both to the gopis and to the sādhakas living in Vrindavan, she begs for Krishna to reveal himself in his youthful form .

cirād āśā-mātraṁ tvayi viracayantaḥ sthira-dhiyo
vidadhyur ye vāsaṁ madhurima-gabhīre madhu-pure
dadhānaḥ kaiśore vayasi sakhitāṁ gokula-pate
prapadyethās teṣāṁ paricayam avaśyaṁ nayanayoḥ

"O Krishna! Kindly bless all those who have abandoned everything but the hope of attaining you to remain steadfastly committed to residence in the region of Mathura, which is filled with intense sweetness. O Lord of Gokula! You must show them friendship and reveal yourself to them in your form as a charming cowherd youth." (Lalita-mādhava 10.37)

The gopis, even after encountering Krishna in his form as the prince of Dwaraka were not satisfied and asked for Krishna to reveal his supreme form, his akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti, which exists only in Vrindavan.

yā te līlā-rasa-parimalodgāri-vanyā-parītā
dhanyā kṣauṇī vilasati vṛtā māthurī mādhurībhiḥ |
tatrāsmābhiś caṭula-paśupī-bhāva-mugdhāntarābhiḥ
saṁvītas tvaṁ kalaya vadanollāsi-veṇur vihāram||

That land of Braj is most glorious, for it is filled with forests that emit the sweet fragrance and flavors of the lilas you performed there and is thus enveloped by this sweetness. [Therefore we ask for the boon that] with the flute brightening your face, you engage in those pastimes there along with us, who are completely identified with the mood of simple, emotional cowherd girls. (Lalita-mādhava 10.38)

So the poets are hard pressed to describe this divine manifestation of rasa, or its place of manifestation, fully. It is something that is only truly accessible intuitively, to the totally committed. Nevertheless, the devotee poets go on trying to squeeze that rasa out, drop by drop, to the great joy of the sādhakas and siddhas both. To say that Vrindavan is beyond the power of poets to describe is not to deny its manifold variety of form, but only that their descriptions can only prod the imagination, so that the reality becomes fixed in that part of our psyches. That is the meaning of the last descriptive verse of the Rasa-lila:

evaṁ śaśāṅkāṁśu-virājitā niśāḥ
sa satya-kāmo’nuratābalā-gaṇaḥ |
siṣeva ātmany avaruddha-saurataḥ
sarvāḥ śarat-kāvya-kathā-rasāśrayāḥ ||
"In this way Krishna, making true his promise [to the gopis] and to whom all those women were fondly attached, enjoyed all those nights illumined with the full moon rays. He relished all the charms peculiar to the autumn season as depicted in poetry, accepting all the manifestations of erotic love within himself."  (10.33.26)

The poets could describe all the beauties of all the seasons and only give a tiny indication in the direction of Vrindavan's glories.

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VMA 1.34 : The Vrindavan Desire Tree
VMA 1.33 : The most fortunate person residing in Vrindavan
VMA 1.32 : VMA 1.32 : Meditate on that Eros-addled Couple of colors black and gold
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?