Sri Vilapa Kusumanjali of Srila Raghunatha  Dasa Gosvami – verse 11

(with  the patha of Sri Ananta Dasa Babaji Maharaja spoken on the occasion of the virahotsava of Sri Krishna Dasa Madrasi Babaji Maharaja)

verse 11 

svapne’pi kim  sumukhi  te charanambujata rajat paraga patavasa vibhushanena shobham param atitaramahahottamangambibhrad bhavishyati kada mama  sartha-nama

svapne – in a dream;   api – even;  kim – what;  sumukhi – O fair-faced one!;  te – Your; charana – feet;  ambuhata – lotus;  rajat – silvery pollen; paraga – supreme moving substance; patavasa – veil of fragrant powder;  vibhushanena – by decoration;  shobham  – beauty;   param – most; atitaram – great; ahaha – O!; uttamangam – the highest or most impor tant limb of the body; vibhrad – holding; bhavishyati – will become; kada – when;  mama – mine;  sartha nama – properly named

“O beautiful fairfaced girl! Can I be justified, even if only in a dream, in calling my head the most important limb of my body by having it decorated with the silvery fragrant cosmetic powder like pollen that has stuck on Your lotus- feet?”

For three days (including this one) we shall be very fortunate as we shall relish bhagavat-katha  (topics about Krishna). The assembly of Vaishnavas has gathered today on the auspicious occasion of the opening of the samadhi-mandir (temple-tomb) of the late Shri Shri Krishna Dasa Madrasi Baba. The object of Shri Shri Krishna Dasa Madrasi  Baba’s grace is a couple named Karunamayi  Dasa and Karunamayi Dasi, who have spent a lot of money for the erection of this samadhi-mandir.  As they want to live at Radhakunda  close to the vicinity of the remembrance of Shri Krishna Dasa Madrasi Baba, their abode was erected close to the samadhi-mandir.

Shri Narottama Dasa Thakur Mahashaya has written ‘Shri Guru charane rati,  ei se uttama   gati’: “The attraction and loving attachment to the Guru’s lotusfeet is the supreme goal of life.” Ye prasade pure sarva asha : “By his grace all transcendental  desires will be fulfilled.” What is ‘uttama gati’ (The supreme goal of life)? The answer is that the transcendental  loving service to Shri Shri Radha-Krishna in the nikunja (bowers) of Vraja is the highest goal of human life. Neither in the revealed scriptures or in the ‘mahajana vani’ (great words of the great ‘ acharyas’) one can find a description of any higher goal than this one. Here it seems that the loving attraction and attachment to the Guru’s lotusfeet and the transcendental loving service to Shri Shri Radha-Krishna in the ‘nikunja’ of Vraja, are both the supreme goal of life. It means actually that the supreme goal of life, the transcendental  service to Shri Shri Radha-Krishna in the ‘ nikunja of Vraja’ is attainable through the attraction and loving attachment to the lotusfeet of the Guru.

How it can be reconciled, here in this saying the cause and the result are considered to be nondifferent? The very classic exemple given by the ‘acharyas’ is ‘ayur ghritam iti’ (clarifed butter is life). The meaning of it is that by eating clarifed butter one’s life span increases. For this reason clarified butter and life span are considered identical. In other words, when one is lovingly attached  to the lotusfeet of the Guru it is inevitable that one achieves this transcendental loving service to Shri Shri Radha-Krishna in the ‘ nikunja’ of Vraja.

Commenting on verses 22 to 25 of chapter 15 of the 7th Canto of Shrimad  Bhagavata, that describe how one can overcome by certain ‘upaya’ (means) the different obstacles hampering the development of ‘bhakti’ (devotional service), Shrimat Jiva Goswamipada wrote in his Bhakti Sandarbha : ‘tat prasado hi sva sva nana  pratikara  dustyajanartha- hanau  bhagavat parama  prasada siddhau  ca mulam’:  “These different obstacles, that are very difficult  to overcome by their corresponding means by one’s own endeavours, can be destroyed all at once if the Guru is pleased by the disciple. If the disciple pleases the Guru then Lord Hari (God) is also most pleased.“ The last of the above verses of Shrimad  Bhagavata  ends saying:   ‘…etat sarvam gurau bhaktya purusho hyanjasa jayet’ – “By simply being devoted to the Guru one can destroy all these obstacles at once without any separate endeavours.” Divine love and service for and to the lotusfeet of Shri Shri Radha-Krishna are achieved by having this loving service attitude  to the lotusfeet of the Guru. Otherwise these obstacles are ‘dustyaja ’ (difficult to cast off). The practitioner may try to conquer them by his own strengh but he will not be able to do so. The main cause of liberation from obstacles is the grace of the Guru.

Undoubtedly it is by their Guru’s grace that this couple Karunamayi dasa and Karunamayi dasi have erected this ‘samadhi mandir’ for him. Because they are organizing this great festival for the opening of the ‘samadhi mandir’ of their Gurudeva I bless them to have all their divine aspirations  fulfilled. Shri Shri Krishna Dasa Baba’s favorite book was Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami’s Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali that he wore as a garland around his neck, in other words he had completely memorised. We have now taken the opportunity to serve him by discussing something from this Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali. I shall explain the meaning of the 11th verse of this Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali by Shripad Raghunatha Dasa Goswami Charan, who is one of the most intimate associate of Shriman Mahaprabhu:

“What to speak of a wakeful state, could I at least in a dream be able to adorn my head with the fragrant cosmetic powder that comes from Your lotus feet? Can I then make my head, which is considered to be the most important limb of the body most beautiful with this type of decoration?”

‘Uttamanga ’  (the most important limb of the body) refers here to the head: “Can I really make this head of mine worthy of the name ‘uttamanga’?” Vaishnava historians claim that this Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali is the last composition of Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami and it is called his very life force. The more the time of his disappearance was approaching, the more urgent became this feeling of separation from the direct personal encounter and direct devotional  service of Shrimati Radharani. At that point he was lying and rolling on the bank of Shri Radhakunda day and night in great anguish.

In Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami’s ‘ Suchak kirtan’ (Bengali song summarising the life and teachings of an acharya) it is mentioned:

‘kande gosai ratri  dine’: “Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was weeping day and night”, “His body had become grey of dust because of rolling on the ground near Shri Radhakunda”, ‘chakhu andha anahar’: “He had become blind because he wasn’t eating any longer”, ‘apanar  deha bhar’: “His body became like a heavy weight imposible to carry”, “And he was suffering pangs of separation”. His body, mind and life airs were scorching in the fire of separation from Shrimati Radharani. His heart was filled with ‘ Vipralambha  rasa’ (transcendental flavour of divine love in separation for Shrimati Radharani).

As his ‘Prema  kalpa latika ’  (vine of divine love) was sprinkled  by this transcendental flavour of separation like water, flowers start to grow on it and each of these flowers is a verse from Shri  Vilapa Kusumanjali. With his own hand he picked each one of these flowers from this vine of divine love for Shri Shri Radha-Krishna and as a handful offered them to the lotus feet of Shrimati Radharani. This is why this book is called ‘Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali’, or a handful of lamentations like flowers. Each word, each syllable, and each sentence of this book is filled with the divine loving tears of Shripad Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. This was his loving service to the lotusfeet of his beloved deity Shrimati Radharani. Again these flowers are in their own turn filled with a lot of great longing, like honey. It is agitation and eagerness like honey that fills these flowers. On the one hand there was a great eagerness within his heart because he felt keenly the absence of the devotional  service of Shrimati Radharani, on the other hand his heart was melting because of this eagerness. He couldn’t wait for a second any longer.
Even if he would get a ‘spurthi’ (transcendental heart’s vision) in any of the three modes of consciousness (wakefulness, dreaming and deep sleep) it would not satisfy him (like a person dying of thirst cannot quench his thirst just by sipping a drop of water from an ocean of sweet water). He wanted Shrimati Radharani directly in person, not just in any type of heart’s vision, and he wanted Her immediately. He felt also very unqualified, thinking: “Can I really achieve this? It seems to me impossible, only those who are qualified will get it, but I am not at all qualified, so how can I get it?” Then he wept because he was really feeling completely devoid of qualification. This is called ‘rodan kavya’ (the poetry of weeping). He desperately thought: “Well, I am desiring this but I could never achieve this.” On the other hand he couldn’t give up the hope. So as soon as he had some heart’s vision of the attributes, the nature and the character of his beloved deity, then he immediately remembered that one of Her strongest characteristics is compassion and he couldn’t help but pray, however unqualified  he might feel he was. That is why he mentioning the words ‘svapne pi kim’ (even in a dream) in this verse. “Can I not at least experience You in my dream?” In this way his hope for a personal encounter with Shrimati Radharani was constantly increasing. This state of mind is the high- est goal of life, it is direct meeting with and personal service to the beloved deity. “But if this direct meeting is not possible, can I have it at least in a dream?”

There are three modes of consciousness – wakefulness, dreaming and deep sleep (without dreaming). When an ordinary human being is awake he thinks that his body, his bodily relationships and all his bodily conditions are the reality, and he enjoys this material existence through the medium of his senses. Through  his eyes he sees these things, through his ears he hears them, through his skin he touches them, through his nose he smells them and through his tongue he tastes them. In this way his senses are playing with the sense objects. This is called ‘ jagrata dasha ’, or the wakeful condition. The dreaming condition  are ideas created in the mind. At that stage of consciousness the knowledge-acquiring  senses (eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue) and the active senses (hands, feet, mouth, genitals, anus) are inactive, but the mind, intelligence, sense of identification (ahamkara) and psychic heart (citta) are still awake. The gross senses cannot intervene at that moment with the dream, the mind doesn’t have a hold over them. Just as an ocean is always filled with waves that are going up and down, similarly the mind registers all kind of impressions received by the gross senses and reacts in their favour or disfavour. During the wakeful state we cannot experience all those impressions at once because our intelligence is at that moment fixed on the external world. During the dreaming state the gross senses don’t have any more influence and the only experience left is ‘samkalpa’  (mental impressions). It is like a picture of human thinking. Nothing  else can pervade the dreams of a materialist but sensual impressions, memories and hopes. There is an other state of consciousness which is called ‘turiya’ or ‘the fourth one’, which is ‘brahma’-consciousness and which is achieved by the ‘jnani’ and ‘yogi’. For the devotees it is different: when they become beautified by ‘prema-bhakti’ their state of consciousness is called ‘ prema vastu’ (condition of love divine). At that stage the devotee relishes and experiences the forms, attributes and pastimes of his beloved deity. This is the type of dream that Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami is having and not the materialistic type.

It shouldn’t be thought that a devotee who is situated on the level of transcendental consciousness cannot dream at all. Rather such a devotee has transcendental  dreams as in the case of Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. He is always absorbed  in ‘lila  rasa’ (transcendental flavour of Shri Shri Radha-Krishna’s pastimes) and his dreams are not products of this material world. He is always absorbed in thoughts of Shrimati Radharani whether he is deeply sleeping, dreaming or awake. The ‘mahajanas’ (great teachers) have written many beautiful songs about Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami and the other ‘Goswami’ of Vrindavana: ‘chira matra   kanta gai…’: “He was only wearing a torn-up chadar and a torn up outer cloth. Either laughing or crying he was in any case floating in an ocean of ‘prema ananda’ (transcendental bliss of divine love for Shri Shri Radha-Krishna).  Sometimes he was fasting,  sometimes  he begged the ‘Vrajavasis’ for food. He was always thinking  of Shriman Mahaprabhu’s attributes and always glorified Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami. 22½ hours a day the ‘Goswamis’ were engaged in hearing, chanting and remembering Shri Shri Radha-Krishna’s forms attributes and pastimes and the remaining 1½ hour  they were dreaming of Shri Shri Radha-Krishna.” Although they were dreaming they saw Shri Shri Radha-Krishna even then. This song is proving that the dreams of the ‘Goswamis’ are not the same as the dreams of materialists.

The ‘Goswamis’ never wasted their time – they meditated even in their sleep. This is called ‘ avyartha kalatva’ (one of the nine symptoms of a person who is on the level of bhava-bhakti and consequently also  prema-bhakti). None of the  Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali-verses can be considered an ordinary prayer. These prayers are full of concentrated ‘rasa’ (transcendental flavour) and came from very deep within the heart. These transcendental pastimes are arising within Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami’s heart one after the other. When the perception of one transcendental pastime vanishes he burst out in tears, praying that the vision of this pastime returns to him and so this prayer is not an ordinary prayer. It is not some mental speculation but a prayer from deep within the heart. Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali is so relishable because after each vision has disappeared there was a prayer, and this book consists of these prayers.

Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was rolling on the bank of Sri Radhakunda, muddying the ground with his tears of divine love. He was speechless and his eyes were filled with tears: manda manda jihva nore, prema ashru netre pore: “His tongue was moving slowly and his eyes were filled with tears.” By the mercy of his divine mistress  Sri Radha he is perceiving a very sweet pastime within his transcendental  heart. He sees a mind-stealing  bower and doesn’t see himself any longer as Shrila Raghunath Dasa Goswami but as Tulasi manjari. Shrila Raghunatha das Gosvami in his manjari-svarupa  is officially known  as Rati manjari but her nickname is Tulasi manjari. Within the temple, which is in this bower of Vraja, she sees a very beautiful transcendental pastime of Shri Shri Radha-Krishna.  She is directly relishing the sweetness of this pastime by looking through a slit in the wall. After their transcendental pastimes Shri Shri Radha-Krishna are sitting on Their bed of flowers and Tulasi manjari understands that her time to serve has come. When  she enters the temple she can see how sweet Shrimati Radharani looks. Shri Govinda Himself is also relishing the sweetness of Her face:

lila ante sukhe ihar ye anga madhuri taha dekhi sukhe ami apana pasari

“When I see Her sweetness after we had these loving pastimes I forget myself out of ecstasy.”

Shri Govinda is relishing the sweetness of Shrimati Radharani like nectar, drinking it with the cups of His eyes. He is relishing the nectar of Her smile, drinking it with the cups of His eyes. He is doing it again and again. That is why Shrila Raghunatha  Dasa Goswami is using here the name ‘Sumukhi’ (beautifully faced girl). Shri Shri Radha-Krishna  are relishing Each other’s sweetness and Tulasi manjari picks up that relish inbetween. Shrimati Radharani is called here ‘beautifully faced girl’, in reference to Krishna who is relishing the beauty of Her face. Krishna says to Shrimati Radharani’s girlfriends: ‘ ki dekhilo aparupa rama?’: “What an amazing girl I have just seen!”, ‘harina hin chandra…’: “Her face is like a spotless full moon, and it is supported by a golden vine which is Her body. In this spotless full-moon-like face we can find two wonderful restless eyes like  ‘khanjan’ (wagtail) birds. Just as the ‘Chakora’-bird is only interested in the moonlight, so also the ‘ kajjal’ (eye-liner) around Shrimati Radharani’s eyes is compared with ropes that capture the ‘Chakori’-birds of Krishna’s eyes. In this way He is relishing the nectar of Shrimati  Radharani’s face as if it were the moon. These eyes not only defeat the restlessness of the wagtail-bird but also the dark blue color of the ‘Indivara’ lotus flower.

He is pondering that one must be very fortunate to have such a vision. Maybe if one performs penances for hundreds of years one may get such a vision. Being endowed with such a type of passionate attraction, Tulasi manjari (Raghunatha  Dasa Goswami) used the word ‘Sumukhi’ in this transcendental vision. Where is Govinda sitting? He is submissively sitting at the footsoles of Shrimati Radharani, Who Herself sits on a jeweled bed. He is holding Her feet and admiring their elegance with tears in His eyes. Sometimes He puts these feet on His chest so He may study their elegance more closely. Tulasi manjari sits close by, watching everything. Meanwhile Govinda gets ‘sattvika bhavas’  (ecstatic bodily transformations like shivering, crying, perspiring, etc.) simply by studying these feet. As He is sweating, the typical dried ointment  like fragrant pollen which is on His chest starts to become muddy and sticks on Shrimati Radharani’s footsoles. As Shrimati Radharani’s maidservants are very proud of Her, always wanting  to establish Her glories, so Tulasi manjari starts to laugh when she sees Her mistress getting Her foot-soles stained with the ointment from Krishna’s chest. Although  she slightly giggles, hiding  her mouth with her veil out of shyness, still we can detect it on her forehead and her eyes. Not understanding why Tulasi is laughing Shrimati Radharani asks her: “Why  are you laughing?”, and gently kicks her on the head to punish her. Thus Krishna’s oinment, which is stuck to Shrimati Radharani’s footsoles, gets printed on Tulasi’s forehead. Shrimati Radharani’s feet are compared to lotus flowers, and as lotuses contain pollen, so, according to Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, Her lotusfeet are also smeared with pollen, and this transcendental pollen comes from Krishna’s chest. It has an extraordinary fragrance because it emanates from Krishna’s transcendental chest and is taken over by the ecstatic feet of Shrimati Radharani.

How fortunate is Tulasi to get such a pollen on her head! Who can get such a ‘danda kripa ’ (mercy in the form of punishment)? This is what he desires. On the pretext of punishment, Shrimati Radharani is actually giving great mercy.

Shrila Raghunatha  Dasa Goswami is saying that this type of punishment  will really make his head the most important limb of the body. The head is considered the most important limb of the body because all the knowledge acquiring senses (nose, tongue, eyes, ears, skin) as well as our psychic heart (citta) and brain are all present there. Our psychic heart receives the informations gathered in our brain through these knowledge acquiring senses and then decides what to do. This is why the head is considered the most important limb of the body. But the devotee doesn’t just accept the head as the highest limb of the body without that head somehow achieves the grace of the Lord. (Shrimad Bhagavata, 2.3.21):

bharah param patta kirita jushtam apyuttamangam na namen mukundam

“Even if the head is decorated with a very opulent  and luxurious turban but is not bowing down to the lotusfeet of Mukunda it is just a heavy burden  (although  all the knowledge acquiring senses and brain are in there).”

Just like the head of a king, which would also be nothing but a wasteful burden  if it would not bow down to the lotusfeet of Mukunda. The materialistic plans wrought by the head (brain) and carried out by the senses result in innumerable future births in this material world, but the same head can put an end to all this and there is no other way than by bowing it down to the lotusfeet of Govinda. So it is a heavy burden if the head is not bowing down to Krishna, Sadhu and Guru. That verse from Shrimad  Bhagavata is of course describing someone on the level of practicing devotional service in an external  way; the description of this verse from Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali is not the same, because Shrila Raghunatha  Dasa Goswami is ‘siddha’  (eternally accomplished in devotional service) and has a completely different conception of the use of his head which he wants to utilize in catching Shrimati Radharani’s kicks.

For him the purport of the head being the most important limb of the body can only be true if he gets such kicks. He considers this to be the proper decoration for his head instead of, for example, a silken turban. Other decorations and ornaments that the maidservants wear are all the personal clothes and ornaments that Shrimati Radharani  leaves to them.

Shrila Raghunatha  Dasa Goswami says; “This fragrant powder is the real pollen that is supposed to emanate from Your lotusfeet.” Krishna is considered ‘sat cit  ananda’ (the personification of eternal transcendental bliss) and Shrimati Radharani ‘Mahabhava’ (the personification of the greatest transcendental love). This fragrant powder was first on Krishna’s ‘sat cit ananda’ chest, was then transferred to Shrimati Radharani’s ‘Mahabhava’ lotusfeet and then it came on Tulasi manjari’s head. Who can be more fortunate than her? Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami used the word ‘ vibhushana’ (a special ornament) here and not merely ‘ bhushana’ (an ornament). The maidservant accepts that and thinks that it is the most beautiful thing to be decorated with. For this reason he used the word ‘ahaha’, which is a cry of astonishment. ‘ shobham param atitaram  vibhrad rajat pattavasa’, all these words indicate that it is a special type of beauty. He thinks: “My head is now carrying the greatest beauty.” In the kingdom of transcendental flavours there can be no greater beauty than this.

Shri Shri Radha-Krishna are lying in a bower at the end of the night, and female and male parrots are reciting and singing different poems and songs to Them. But They cannot get up despite it. Although Krishna is the non dual full transcendental knowledge, still Shrimati Radharani keeps Him submerged in complete transcendental ecstatic ignorance. The parrots are warning Him: “Your mother may arrive here at any moment, it is better that You quickly get up !” When Shri Shri Radha-Krishna hear that Jatila or Mukhara will come (when Shrimati  Radharani  lives in Barshana, Mukhara may come and when She lives in Yavat, Jatila may come) They get alarmed and go away. An ocean of love is swelling up in Their hearts as They look at Each other when They get up from bed and They leave the bower to go to Their individual homes. Both Shri Shri Radha-Madhava are fainting of agony when this moment arrives. All Their girlfriends are crying and speaking out Krishna’s name. Nobody can awaken such feelings in Krishna’s heart than Shrimati Radharani. In order to understand this He has accepted the feelings and complexion of Shrimati Radharani and has appeared in the world again as Shriman Mahaprabhu  Gaura Sundara in order to relish the sweet divine love of Shrimati Radharani for Krishna. Krishna Himself  has taken the golden complexion of Shrimati Radharani. As Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami’s transcendental vision suddenly disappears and he sees himself on the bank of Shri Radhakunda he starts to anxiously weep again. For this reason he says in this verse: “Ahaha! Whether  it is in a dream, in a vision or any other mode of consciousness, let me see ‘Sumukhi’ (The beautiful-faced Shrimati Radharani).” He is praying to get that punishment, which is actually a pretext to get kicked on the head like this. He says: “If I could just get such a punishment in a dream, that would already make my head truly the highest limb of my body.” What happens next, after this transcendental vision disappears, will be discussed in the next verse.

Thus  ends Sri Ananta  das Mahantaji’s patha on the 11th  verse of Vilapa Kusumanjali at Radhakunda  on January  5, 2001  at the occasion of 108 Shri Krishna  Dasa Madrasi Babaji’s samadhi-mandir  prathishta