Jagat

kiṁ krīḍaiva śarīriṇī ? smara-kalā kiṁ dohinī ? kiṁ ratiḥ svābhā mūrtimatī ? kim adbhuta-manojanmāstra-vidyaiva vā ? kiṁ vā jīvana-śaktir eva satanuḥ śyāmasya ? na jñāyate sā rādhā vijarīharīti hariṇā vṛndāvane'har-niśam||2.20|| Is this that appears before me nothing other than play possessing a body? Or is it the art of erotic love, yielding its gifts? Or is it the pleasures of love, taking an effulgent form? Or is it only the science of Cupid's wondrous weaponry? Or perhaps it is Shyamasundara's life energy embodied:   I do not know. It must be Sri Radha, who is dallying with Hari day and night with eternally increasing intensity in Vrindavan. This verse follows the formula of sandehālaṅkara , based on doubt. One speculates about the nature of the object being perceived by pointing to its qualities and those things to which they can be compared. In this case, it is the third kind of sandehālaṅkara called niścayānta , in which the doubt is resolve...

Part I 5. My day of fasting যে দিন তোমার ভকতের সাথে একত্র না হয় বাস যে দিন তাদের হরি-কথোদয়ে বঞ্চিত থাকে এ দাস আমার সেই দিন উপবাস ye dina tomāra bhakatera sāthe ekatra nā haẏa bāsa ye dina tādera hari-kathodaẏe bañcita thāke e dāsa āmāra sei dina upabāsa The day that I do not have the company of devotees, the day that I am deprived of their wondrous Hari katha, that, for me, is a day of fasting. যে দিন রসনা রসে না বসে না রসময় হরি-নামে যে দিন সুখের কীর্তন রসে বঞ্চিত বিষয় কামে জীবনের পরিহাস আমার সেই দিন উপবাস ye dina rasanā rase nā base nā rasamaẏa hari-nāme ye dina sukhera kīrtana rase bañcita biṣaẏa kāme jībanera parihāsa āmāra sei dina upabāsa The day that my tongue does not relish, does not touch the delectable syllables of the Holy Name, the day that I do not experience the joy of kirtan, cheated by my desire to enjoy sensual pleasures-- my life turns into a joke; that, for me, is a day of fasting. যে দিন যুগল রাঙ্গ শ্রী-চরণে স্মরণ করে না মন যে দি...

(2) Krishna, the Lover of Radha Our second verse is taken from Gīta-govinda 's third chapter— kaṁsārir api saṁsāra-vāsanā-baddha-śṛṅkhalām | rādhām ādhāya hṛdaye tatyāja vraja-sundarīḥ || Krishna, the enemy of Kamsa, took Radha, who is the link that makes all his hopes for happiness possible, into his heart and left aside all the other cowherd beauties. (3.1) The context in GG is provided by the next verse we will cite. Radha has seen Krishna as described in verse 1.48 and is not pleased. She has become overwhelmed by jealous anger and has left the scene of the rāsa . We shall discuss this further in the appropriate place. In Rupa Goswami's categorization of the madhura-rasa in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu , this verse is given as an example of kṛṣṇa-rati, which in this case does not mean (as is customary in BRS) love for Krishna, but Krishna's own love for another, in this case Radha. Although from the theological point of view it goes without saying that God ...

Radha's superiority is not because she is a woman. And Chaitanya's taking Radha bhava shows what is meant. It is about love. Radha's superiority comes because she is more expert in loving; she is an āśraya , whereas Krishna is the  viṣaya , the object of love. In my experience of my own personal character and observing other men, I think that it is true that men, by virtue of both nature and nurture, tend to be more driven in the direction of being a  viṣaya  than an  āśraya  of love. But it is better to love than to be loved. Better to give than to receive. This is the clichéd truism that lies at the basis of the myth. At the same time, no woman is free from the desire to be loved. No one is so selfless. And in fact, it is wrong to be selfless in such a way. The normal spiritual state is to experience the reciprocation of God, and all love seeks reciprocation, otherwise it is not in fact love. Love of necessity invites reciprocation, and if it is appropr...

A couple of years ago, I started summarizing the three ratis from  Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi   I never completed the series, but the first two articles can still be found here: Samañjasā and Sādhāraṇī . I will now try to complete this project by working on  samarthā rati . This may require more than one article, and I intend to tie it in with some other ideas. I will start off this discussion by simply quoting verbatim my translation of  Mañjarī-svarūpa-nirūpaṇa , completed in 1983. ======== The dominant mood of erotic sacred rapture is also given the name of samarthā rati (“competent affection”). Kṛṣṇa is the greatest lover in the supernatural affaires-de-coeur of the sacred land of Vrindavan and there, the supreme among his lady-loves are the cowherd girls. Here Viśvanātha Cakravartin makes some relevant comments about samarthā rati in his commentary on Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi : This samarthā rati is extremely potent and exists eternally in the gopīs; it does not dep...

In the viṣkambhaka (or introductory interlude) of Dāna-keli-kaumudī , Vrinda Devi speaks a couple of verses in glorification of Radha. She starts out with an expression of humility, anālocya vrīḍāṁ yam iha bahu mene bahu-tṛṇaṁ tyajann īrṣāpannāṁ madhuripur abhīṣṭām api ramām | janaḥ so’yaṁ yasyāḥ śrayati na hi dāsye’py avasaraṁ samarthas tāṁ rādhāṁ bhavati bhuvi kaḥ ślāghitum api || , Even though to give me honor, the enemy of Madhu shamelessly abandoned the Lakshmi Devi he cherishes, like nothing more than so much grass, despite her jealousy, I have never had the opportunity to serve Radha. Who then on this earth can possibly praise her adequately? (DKK 11) Vrinda Devi appears to be refering to her marriage to Shalagram in the form of Tulasi Devi, with whom she is identified. Here, though, she shows that like Radha's other sakhis, despite their own personal glorious attainments, she has put aside any such claims in order to give recognition to Radha’s vast superiority...

brahmānanda-rasād ananta-guṇito ramyo raso vaiṣṇavas tasmāt koṭi-guṇojjvalaś ca madhuraḥ śrī-gokulendro rasaḥ | tac cānanta-camatkṛtiṁ pratimuhur varṣad rasānāṁ param śrī-rādhā-pada-padmam eva madhuraṁ sarvasva-bhūtaṁ mama || Countless times more relishable than the flavor of Brahmananda is that connected to Vishnu. Millions of times brighter than that is the sweet rasa related to the Lord of Gokula. Raining down infinite astonishment are the topmost of all rasas, the sweet lotus feet of Srimati Radharani. They alone are my life and soul. Following on from the previous posting . Check the label " hierarchies of prema " for more on this general subject.  By the way, the word "raining down" is appropriate, as today was the first day of the real monsoon here in Rishikesh. We had plenty of pre-monsoon rain, but the sky today is grey, the atmosphere is almost clammy with humidity, and the mountains will be covered in mist for the next fe...

In an earlier post, Bankim Chandra and Sri Krishna Charitra , I started a discussion on a rather good book on Bankim by Sudipta Kaviraj, T he Unhappy Consciousness . Kaviraj is a historian and political scientist who teaches and writes mostly on Indian and Bengali politics. He is an excellent writer--dense in ideas and insight, and eloquent in expression. I hardly expect to do justice to his work and will have to be selective in what I quote and what I discuss. Kaviraj's primary interest is understandably Bankim Chandra's political thinking, but since Bankim was not actually a political actor, but a novelist and essayist, Kaviraj has done a great deal of thinking about literary theory, both Western and Eastern, in order to better understand his subject. The main theme is Bankim's imagining of history in the name of creating a vision of India. What is primarily interesting to me, and us, in all likelihood, dear readers, is Bankim's reshaping of the character of Kri...