The Latest
- Read on →: kṛpā kari kahe śuna nityānanda dāsa
kṛpā kari kahe śuna nityānanda dāsa |
yei yei sthāne sadā kṛṣṇera vilāsa ||
padma-prāya yena vṛndāvanera ghaṭana |
śāstra vākye āche mahāprabhura sthāpana ||
mudita prakāśa haila dui ta prakāra |
vilāse mudita hana līlāya vistāra ||
ei-rūpe haya saba gamanāgamana |
tad-āśrita yei tāra haya ei mana ||
yogamāyā bale ihā ghaṭanā āchaya |
yāhāra gamana sei kichu nā jānaya ||
(Prema-vilāsa: 16)“Graciously, he [i.e., Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī, in response to a question as to how Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa, and the sakhīs can walk between sites in Vraja that are numerous miles apart in less than half an hour] said, ‘Listen, Nityānanda Dāsa. The formation of Vṛndāvana, that is, all the places in which Kṛṣṇa’s play continues forever, is nearly like a lotus. Mahāprabhu’s establishment [of this conclusion] is in accord with the statements of the śāstra. It [i.e., the lotus of Vṛndāvana] has two states: contracted and open. It becomes contracted in the case of pleasure (vilāsa) [i.e., when Kṛṣṇa has intimate exchanges with Rādhā and the sakhīs that require seclusion] and expansion [of it] occurs in the case of līlā [i.e., when they engage in their various other līlās in general]. In this way everyone’s [i.e., Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa, and their sakhīs’] coming and going occurs. One who is sheltered in them has this understanding. This phenomenon occurs by the power of yogamāyā, she who does not make known her movements at all [i.e., she who causes this expansion and contraction of Vṛndāvana without anyone noticing it].”
- Read on →: aprākṛte tu paroḍha-ramaṇī-ratir eva sarvottamatayā bhūyasī
aprākṛte tu paroḍha-ramaṇī-ratir eva sarvottamatayā bhūyasī śrūyate, na tasyā anaucitya-pravartitattvam alaukikatva-siddher bhūṣaṇam eva na tu dūṣaṇam iti nyāyāt, tarkāgocaratvāc ca, tathā ca ‘alaukikāś ca ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet’ iti ca | vraja-vadhūnāṁ kṛṣṇaikatāna-mānasatvena sva-pati-niṣṭhatvābhāvāt teṣāṁ ca māyā-kalita-tac-chāyānuśīlanena tad-aṅga-saṅgamāt, pratyuta kevalānurāga-mātropādhitayā ceto-rañjakatāyāḥ śuddhatvam eva |
(Alaṅkāra-kaustubha: 5.13)“In the case of the supramundane [i.e., supramundane rasa], however, love (rati) for a woman married to another is heard to be greater [than love for a wife] on account of [its] being the most excellent of all [types of love]. It’s not being prompted by impropriety is (1) because of the principle that its accomplishment on the basis of otherworldliness is verily an ornament and not rather a fault, (2) because of [its] being beyond the scope of argument (tarka), and (3) because [it is said in Mahābhārata], ‘Do not assess otherworldly states of being [e.g., such otherworldly love] with argumentation;’ on the contrary the veritable purity of that delighter of the heart [i.e., of that supramundane love (rait) which Kṛṣṇa has for a woman married to another] on account of [its] having an adjunct only of pure loving desire (anurāga) is (1) because of the ladies of Vraja’s absence of having attachment to their own husbands by virtue of [their] being of one-pointed mind upon Kṛṣṇa and (2) because of their [i.e., the gopīs’] contact with their [i.e., those husbands’] bodies [having occurred only] by means of lying with a shadow form of themselves fabricated by māyā.”
- Read on →: ataḥ prabhoḥ priyāṇāṁ ca dhāmnaś ca samayasya ca
ataḥ prabhoḥ priyāṇāṁ ca dhāmnaś ca samayasya ca |
avicintya-prabhāvatvād atra kiṁ ca na durghaṭam ||
(Laghu Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.5.515)“Therefore, because of the utterly inconceivable power of Prabhu’s dear ones, abode, and time, nothing is impossible in this regard [i.e., it is not impossible for time and space to expand and contract to accommodate innumerable participants in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s līlās in Vraja and their having simultaneously distinct perceptions of those līlās and their environs].”
- Read on →: cintāmaṇir jayati somagirir gurur me
cintāmaṇir jayati somagirir gurur me
śikṣā-guruś ca bhagavān śikhi-piñcha-mauliḥ |
yat-pāda-kalpa-taru-pallava-śekhareṣu
līlā-svayaṁvara-rasaṁ labhate jayaśrīḥ ||
(Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛtam: 1; cited in Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 1.1.57)“My guru,
The thought-jewel Somagiri,
Triumphs,
As does my instructing guru,
Bhagavān,
Whose crest is a peacock feather
And at the tips of the shoots of the desire-tree of whose feet
Jayaśrī playfully tastes the rasa of svayaṁvara.”