VMA 2.47-49 : May that pair of adolescent lovers manifest before my eyes

Today's three verses are grouped together around the theme set by the words kiśorayor dvayam, "the pair of adolescent lovers." Syntactically, they are separate sentences and so are not a sandānitaka, but nevertheless, we have decided to take them as a single unit. Later in this book there are several cases of long groupings of verses with as many as 50 verses to be taken as a single unit. These are called kulaka.

ananta-ratimat priya-cchavi vilāsa-saṁmohanaṁ
mahā-rasika-nāgarādbhuta-kiśorayos tad dvayam |
vicitra-rati-līlayā nava-nikuñja-puñjodare
smarāmi viharan-mahā-praṇaya-ghūrṇitāṅgaṁ mithaḥ ||

kadā kanaka-campaka-dyuti-vininditendīvara-

varaṁ nava-kiśorayor dvayam agādha-bhāvaṁ mithaḥ |

puraḥ sphuratu manmatha-kṣubhita-mūrti vṛndāṭavīṁ

mamādhivasato mahā-sarasa-divya-cakṣur-yujaḥ ||2.48||

premānandojjvala-rasa-maya-jyotir-ekārṇavāntas
tādātmyena sphuratu bahudhāścarya-vṛndāvanaṁ me |
kuñje kuñje madhura-madhuraṁ tatra khelat-kiśora-
dvandvaṁ gaurāsita-ruci manas tad-rasārhaṁ kriyān me ||2.49||

I remember that duo of adolescent lovers,
that pair of amazing great rasika nāgaras,
whose loves are unlimited,
whose image is so pleasing,
and whose movements so enchanting;
with all their various love dalliances
in the newly blossoming groves of Vrindavan forest.
they mutually cause each other's
mind and bodies to spin with affection.

When will that duo of adolescent lovers,
whose bodily luster respectively rebukes
the splendor of the golden champak and blue lotus,
who are filled with fathomless love for each other,
and whose forms are churned by erotic desire for each other
appear before me as I dwell in Vrindavan forest,
my eyes made divine by this great taste of prema?

May the wonderful Vrindavan forest,
which is manifest in the ocean
uniform in the brilliant light
of transcendental bliss and romantic love,
appear abundantly before me,
making me one with it.

And may that duo of adolescent lovers,
fair and dark, that plays there
in its groves and pleasure gardens
in ever increasing sweetness
make my mind worthy to relish that taste.

---

In these three verses Prabodhananda emphasizes the Divine Couple's kiśora age. In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Goswami goes through an extensive discussion of Krishna's age when describing the uddīpanas. First on the list of these exciters for rasa are Krishna's virtues, which are subdivided into qualities related to his body, words and mind. First of his bodily qualities is his age (vayaḥ).

vayaḥ kaumāra-paugaṇḍa-kaiśoram iti tat tridhā ||
kaumāraṁ pañcamābdāntaṁ paugaṇḍaṁ daśamāvadhi |t
ā-ṣoḍaśāc ca kaiśoraṁ yauvanaṁ syāt tataḥ param ||

Krishna's age is divided into three: kaumāra, up to the age of five, paugaṇḍa, up to ten, and kaiśora or adolescence, up to the age of 16. After that, comes yauvana, or youth. (BRS 2.1.308-9)

Sri Rupa goes on to explain that the first of these is suitable for the vātsalya-rasa or parental affection, the second for sakhya, and the third for the ujjvala-rasa, but is also appropriate for the other moods of love, which is why it is the best (311). He does not further explain the first two ages any further, but kaiśora is again subdivided into three periods, early, middle and late (śeṣa-kaiśora). Sri Rupa goes on to describe the characteristics and give examples for each of these age-periods.

varṇasyojjvalatā kāpi netrānte cāruṇa-cchaviḥ |
romāvali-prakaṭatā kaiśore prathame sati ||
vaijayantī-śikhaṇḍādi-naṭa-pravara-veśatā |
vaṁśī-madhurimā vastra-śobhā cātra paricchadaḥ ||
kharatātra nakhāgrāṇāṁ dhanur āndolitā bhruvoḥ |
radānāṁ rañjanaṁ rāga-cūrṇair ity-ādi ceṣṭitam ||

The characteristics of the first stage of adolescence is that his bodily hue becomes more brilliant, there is an appearance of redness in the corners of his eyes and there is the growth of hair on his body. He wears the costume of an expert dancer on the stage, decorated with a victory garland and a peacock feather. He develops expertise in the playing of the flute and is made particular attractive through his dress. His fingernails start to get hard and his eyebrows move like a bow, his lips are made to shine with red colored powders (BRS 2.1.313, 315, 317).

To the second of these verses Rupa Goswami here gives the example of BhP 10.21.5 (barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ), which was part of the discussion to the previous verses.

ūru-dvayasya bāhvoś ca kāpi śrīr urasas tathā |
mūrter mādhurimādyaṁ ca kaiśore sati madhyame ||
mukhaṁ smita-vilāsāḍhyaṁ vibhramottarale dṛśau |
tri-jagan-mohanaṁ gītam ity ādir iha mādhurī ||
vaidagdhī-sāra-vistāraḥ kuñja-keli-mahotsavaḥ |
ārambho rāsa-līlāder iha ceṣṭādi-sauṣṭhavam ||

In the middles stage of adolescence, Krishna's thighs, arms and chest all take on a fresh beauty. His face is adorned with the play of his smiles, and there is a restless movement his eyes. His singing enchants the three worlds and other kinds of sweetness are manifest in him. The essence of grace expands in him and he begins to perform his grand festivals of play in the Vrindavan kunjas. This is the time when he begins the Rasa-lila and other activities. (BRS 2.1.320, 322, 324)

And finally the śeṣa-kaiśora is described as follows:


pūrvato’py adhikotkarṣaṁ bāḍham aṅgāni bibhrati |
tri-vali-vyaktir ity ādyaṁ kaiśore carame sati ||
idam eva hareḥ prājñair nava-yauvanam ucyate ||
atra gokula-devīnāṁ bhāva-sarvasva-śālitā |
abhūta-pūrva-kandarpa-tantra-līlotsavādayaḥ ||

In the final part of adolescence Krishna's limbs develop a greater beauty than even in the earlier stages. The three lines appear on his belly, and so on. Wise people also call this stage nava-yauvanam, or "new youth." For the goddesses of Gokula, this is the form that absorbs the totality of their being and it is the time that Krishna's erotic dalliances are manifest in an unprecedented way. (BRS 2.1.324, 330-1)

It is during this period that Krishna manifests the heroic characteristics of the dhīra-lalita--

vidagdho nava-tāruṇyaḥ parihāsa-viśāradaḥ |

niścinto dhīra-lalitaḥ syāt prāyaḥ preyasī-vaśaḥ ||

The charmer is suave, ever youthful, clever in the arts of flirtatious humor, always carefree and usually under his mistress’s thumb. (BRS 2.1.230)

This is the Krishna who is the rasika-nāgara of Prabodhananda's verse. The exemplary verse that Srila Rupa Goswami composes for the dhīra-lalita confirms this:

vācā sūcita-śarvarī-rati-kalā-prāgalbhyayā rādhikāṁ

vrīḍā-kuñcita-locanāṁ viracayann agre sakhīnām asau |

tad-vakṣo-ruha-citra-keli-makarī-pāṇḍitya-pāraṁ gataḥ

kaiśoraṁ saphalī-karoti kalayan kuñje vihāraṁ hariḥ ||

With his words, Krishna made Srimati Radharani close her eyes bashfully before her friends by hinting at their amorous activities from the previous night, all the while demonstrating the greatest expertise by painting pictures of playful dolphins on her breasts. In this way, Hari made the most of his youth by enjoying these pastimes in the forest bowers. (2.1.231, See also this post.)

Thus, is it any wonder that Rupa Goswami approvingly cites Raghupati Upādhyāya is Padyāvalī, a verse that Kaviraj Goswam also repeats, 

śyāmam eva paraṁ rūpaṁ purī madhu-purī varā |

vayaḥ kaiśorakaṁ dhyeyam ādya eva paro rasaḥ ||

Black Shyama’s form of all is best;
Of abodes, Braj Dham outdoes the rest;
Contemplate Krishna in new youth;
his rasa of love’s the highest truth. (Padyāvalī 82, CC 2.19.106)

There are some who have not yet received the grace of a rasika saint and so feel

defensive about or even repulsed by Krishna's śṛṅgāra-rasa. For the Braj rasika sampradayas, however, Krishna gives his total being to the mood of love for Radha.

śṛṅgāra-rasa-sarvasvaṁ śikhi-piccha-vibhūṣaṇam
aṅgīkṛta-narākāram āśraye bhuvanāśrayam

I take shelter of him who is the shelter of all the worlds, who has accepted human form, the totality of whose being is given to śṛṅgāra-rasa and who is decorated with a peacock feather on his crown. (Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta, 93)

Therefore, even though according to the Bhagavata Krishna performed the Rasa-lila when he was 11 years old, this age is recalculated by the Gaudiya acharyas to closer fit the ideal age, the adolescent age which is really the only period when Krishna can fully realize śṛṅgāra-rasa, Therefore it is said that Krishna's original form (svayaṁ-rūpa) is that of a teenager of 15 years, 9 months and 7 1/2 days.

The Gaura-govindārcana-smaraṇa-paddhati, tells us that Krishna's age, though officially according to the Bhagavatam is only 10-6-5, should be increased by 50% to get his actual, functional age as 15-9-7 1/2.. In the same way, Radha's age, though established as 9 years, 5 months and 20 days, her actual, functional age of 14-2-15, The reason given is that because they are royalty and their capacity for enjoyment is exceedingly great, their functional age is to be so multiplied. .

mahārāja-kumāratayā bhogātiśayena samṛddhyā varṣa-māsadinānāṁ sārdhatayā sārdha-sapta-dinottara-navamāsādhika-pañcadaśa-varṣa-parimitaṁ śrī-kṛṣṇasya vayo jñeyam (15-9-7 1/2) |

atraiva śeṣa-kaiśore ṣoḍaśa-hāyane sadā |

vraje vihāraṁ kurute śrīmān nandasya nandanaḥ ||123||

Therefore Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaj, eternally enjoys his pastimes in Braj as a 16 year old at the end of his adolescent period (śeṣa-kaiśore).

Obviously everyone in Braj worships Radha and Krishna in these forms spirit of rāgānugā bhakti. There are no deities of Radha Krishna in bālya or paugāṇḍa. In Braj, the lilas are depicted by young boys, originally pre-pubescent in order to preserve the innocence and to prevent misinterpretation. Nowadays, of course, you have older boys and that often results in rasābhāsa, especially for those who are not culturally attuned to it.

Romantic love is also known śuci, ujjvala, madhura -- "pure, brilliant, sweet," even in the material concept of the Indian poeticians. If they had not established it as the purest rasa, there would have been no scope for madhura-rasa-bhakti. Thus, even though the perception of śṛṅgāra-rasa may be different according to the adhikāra of the audience, the vastu-śakti of Radha-Krishna's name, form and lila, even imperfectly depicted, is still a net positive.

nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād

bhavauṣadhāc chrotamanobhirāmāt |

ka uttama-śloka-guṇānuvādat

pumān virajyeta vinā paśughnāt ||

The virtues of the Lord
who is glorified in the greatest poetry
are sung by those who know no thirst;
it is the medicine for the material disease
and it is a joy to hear;
other than the soul-killers,
who then will care nothing for them? (BhP 10.1.3)

A nice touch in Prabodhananda's verses here is to speak of "divine vision" (mahā-sarasa-divya-cakṣur-yujaḥ ) just like in the Gita where Krishna awards Arjuna the eyes to see his universal form. It is a prayer to Vrindavan Dham, just like in the third verse, to give him the necessary qualifications -- the mind and senses -- to perceive Radha and Krishna's form and pastimes, which are ever present in the Dham.

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

I worship Govinda, the original person,
the black Lord possessed of inconceivable attributes and form,
whom the saints behold without end in their hearts
with the eyes of devotion, cleansed with the salve of love.

Remember that Vrindavan IS the devotee's heart! Jai Sri Radhe!!!

VMA 2.44-46: Vrindavan is the celestial stage for the Divine Couple's dance of love
VMA 2.41-43: The service activities of the manjaris.
VMA 2.40 : Taking shelter of the handmaids of Radha
VMA 2.39 May Radha's sakhis be ever venerated
VMA 2.38 A fair and dark couple now fills our eyes
VMA 2.37 : My Swamini and her peerless lover, Shyam
VMA 2.36 : Churning the Shyamsundar ocean to extract his essence
VMA 2.35 : The play at the center