VMA 1.53 : Take shelter of Vrindavan and merge into the ocean of rasa

Wall paintings in Nandagaon temple. 
yatrābhaṅga-smara-vilasitaiḥ krīḍato dampatī tau
gaura-śyāmau pratipada-mahāścarya-saundarya-rāśī |
sāndrānandonmada-rasa-mahā-sindhu-saṁmajjitālī
vṛndau vṛndāvanam iha mahā-durbhagā nāśrayante ||
Only the most unfortunate are unable
to take shelter of Vrindavan,
where that dark and light Divine Couple,
a mass of ever-increasing, amazing beauty,
sports in unbroken erotic dalliances,
merging their sakhīs into a great ocean
of the rasa of intense, joyous madness. (1.53)
Commentary

The idea of Radha and Krishna as a gold and blue effulgence has already come up in a previous verse (1.20) and will come up again often (E.g., see also 1.57). This is a frequent theme in Prabodhananda’s work though not entirely unique to it. As a former Brahmavadi, Prabodhananda remembers the affection that he used to have for the Brahmajyoti, and now he shows how he has come to recognize that light as having a dual form, which is personal, possessed of form and attributes, and having Vrindavan as its environment, which is the extension of that light, or dhāma.

Sri Jiva Prabhu has a very nice verse in the Gopāla-campū, which appears at the beginning of the descriptions of madhura-rasa, when Snigdhakantha and Madhukantha start their recitations in the assembly of Radha and the gopis along with the select priya-narma-sakhās. This is actually the first verse of their maṅgalācaraṇa, but as is often the case with Jiva Goswami, there is a big siddhānta involved:

imau gaurī-śyāmau manasi viparītau bahir api
sphurat tat-tad-vastrāv iti budha-janair niścitam idam
sa ko’py accha-premā vilasad-ubhaya-sphūrtikatayā
dadhan mūrti-bhāvaṁ pṛthag apṛthag apy āvirudabhūt
Wise persons have determined that
[though] these two are of a black and golden hue [respectively],
ln their minds they are of the opposite colors,
so externally, also, are their clothes.
This is some pure unblemished love that has become incarnate,
taking on this form with a dual manifestation,
which is both divided and a unity. (GC 1.15.3)
Radha and Krishna are absorbed in thoughts of each other, so their minds have each taken on the shape of the other and become entirely identified with their beloved. At the same time, Krishna wears a golden cloth, Radha a dark blue dress, which symbolize this absorption in mutual meditation.

But what I like is the hint (dhvani) found in play of ideas found in this verse: Love is being depicted as some kind of impersonal force (ko’py accha-premā) that has taken personal form in Radha and Krishna. The Vaishnava siddhānta is that the formless is dependent on the formed, and what impersonal love force exists originates with Radha and Krishna, and is also dependent on their forms to become manifest. The example could be given of electricity, which needs a positive and negative charged poles to come into existence.

A subsequent verse continues that idea with a new metaphor:

premā yo’sau rādhikā-kṛṣṇa-yugmaṁ
svānandena plāvayitvā sakhīś ca |
śaśvad viśvaṁ plāvayan suprasiddhaḥ
so’yaṁ buddhiṁ naḥ samiddhāṁ karotu ||

That love, which after inundating the pair of divine lovers, Radha and Krishna, in its own bliss, and their girlfriends too, is this same well-known love that constantly engulfs the entire universe. May that love inflame our intelligence. (GC 1.15.4)

Here the sakhis are introduced, for we have the same collection of vibhāvas that are the necessary ingredients for rasa. Radha and Krishna who are the mutual āśraya and viṣaya of the divine rasa of madhura-prema. The sakhis, who are the āśraya of the divine love as manifested in this dual form, and Vrindavan, which is the collection of uddīpana-vibhāvas, which are the stimuli for this experience of prema.

So as we progress in our understanding of rasa, all these things will be explained in greater detail. To be merged into the ocean of rasa, one must identify with the sakhis and with Vrindavan.


VMA 1.52 : Be indifferent to all other duties: go to Vrindavan!
VMA 1.51 : The intelligence of recognizing Vrindavan
VMA 1.50 : “Do you know the secret of defeating death?”
VMA 1.49 : Even while in Vrindavan, you wander about in externals!
VMA 1.48 : Never leave Vrindavan
VMA 1.47 : What can Vrindavan give you?
VMA 1.46 : Vrindavan: The ripe fulfillment of Krishna prema
VMA 1.45 :: Vrindavan, worshiped by munis, gods and divine beings
VMA 1.43 :: Those who die in Vrindavan are the greatest Vaishnavas
VMA 1.42 :: The Abode of the King of Rasa

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