चिन्तामणिर्जयति सोमगिरिर्गुरुर्मे
शिक्षागुरुश्च भगवान्शिखिपिञ्छमौलिः ।
यत्पादकल्पतरुपल्लवशेखरेषु
लीलास्वयंवररसं लभते जयश्रीः ॥
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.”
Commentary
saundaryātiśayena sarva-manoharatvam āha—śikhi-piñcha-maulir iti | śikhi-piccha-yukto mauliḥ kirīṭaṁ yasya | śikhi-piñchānāṁ maulir yasyeti vā saḥ | … śikhi-piñcha-maulir ity anena satsv api svarṇālaṅkāreṣu śikhi-piñcha-guñjā-dhatu-rāga-pallavādi-dhāraṇena śrī-vṛndāvane kiśora-vayo-vilāsavattvaṁ sūcitaṁ kaiśora eva śikhi-piñchābharaṇatvāt | śikhino hi sa-taḍid-ghana-buddhyā samullasitās taṁ vraja-sundarī-samāliṅgitaṁ dṛṣṭvā nṛtyanti | tataḥ premṇā ca tac-chirasi dhṛtam | vraja-sundarīṇāṁ keśa-kalāpa-smārakatvāc ca svaṁ paśyantīnāṁ gopāṅganānāṁ nirnimeṣa-nayana-rūpatvāc ca candrakānāṁ śirasi dhāraṇam | picchasya śikhi-piccha-vācakatvāc chikhi-śabdo viśiṣṭa-śikhi-prāpty-arthaḥ | viśiṣṭāś ca śrī-vṛndāvana-śikhina eva, ya mahāmunīśvara-duravagāha-viśuddha-śrī-kṛṣṇa-premāṇaḥ | uktaṁ ca śrī-bhāgavate daśama-skandhe pañcadaśādhyāye śrī-baladevaṁ prati śrī-kṛṣṇoktiḥ—‘nṛtyanty amī śikhina īḍya mudā hariṇyaḥ kurvanti gopya iva te priyam īkṣaṇena | sūktaiś ca kokila-gaṇā gṛham āgatāya dhanyā vanaukasa iyān hi satāṁ nisargaḥ ||’
(Kṛṣṇa-vallabhā-ṭīkā on Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta: 1)
“He describes [Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s] being captivating of all by virtue of [his being possessed of] a profusion of beauty [i.e., he describes Śrī Kṛṣṇa to be]: Śikhi-piñcha-mauliḥ, that is, he whose crest is furnished with a peacock feather, or, he who has a crest [made] of peacock feathers. … By this [mention on] Śikhi-piñcha-mauliḥ, that is, by [Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s] wearing peacock feathers, guñja beads, mineral colorings, blossoms, and so on even in when he has golden ornaments, [Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s] being possessed of the play of the age of adolescence in beautiful Vṛndāvana is indicated on account of [his] having a peacock feather adornment only during adolescence. Peacocks [of blessed Vṛndāvana] certainly become highly elated and dance upon seeing him embraced in full by the beauties of Vraja as a result of perceiving him [to be a fresh raincloud] accompanied by dense strikes of lightning [which the gopīs resemble], and thus, because of prema [i.e., out of prema for the peacocks, or because of the peacocks’ prema], those [i.e., peacock feathers] are worn on the head [by him]. [His] Wearing of the eyes in a peacock tail (candrakas) [i.e., his wearing peacock feathers that appear to contain ‘eyes’] on [his] head is also because of [their] being reminders of [the decorated] hair on the heads of the beauties of Vraja and because of [their] having the appearance of [i.e., their resembling] the unblinking eyes of the gopīs gazing at himself. Because of the word piccha being a signifier of a peacock feather, the word śikhi [i.e., ‘peacock’] has the meaning of a special peacock [since it would otherwise be redundant]. Those special peacocks [alluded to by the word śikhi], furthermore, are the peacocks of beautiful Vṛndāvana specifically, who are possessed of completely pure prema for Śrī Kṛṣṇa that is difficult to fathom [even] for the leaders of the greatest of sages. This is stated, furthermore, in the fifteenth chapter of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (SB 10.15.7) in a statement of Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Śrī Baladeva: ‘O Laudable One, for your arrival in their home, with delight these peacocks dance, and these does and cuckoos create pleasure for you with their glances and hymns like the gopīs since this is the nature of the virtuous.’”