Sri Vilapa Kusumanjali of Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami – verse 12

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

verse 12

amritabdhi rasa prayais tava nupura sinjitaih ha kada mama kalyani badhiryam apaneshyate

amrita – nectar; abdhi – ocean; rasa – transcendental flavour; prayaih– great; tava – Your; nupura – ankle bells; shinjitaih – by the jingling;
ha – O!; kada; when; mama – my; kalyani – beautiful or auspicious girl; badhiryam – deathness; apaneshyate – will remove

“O beautiful auspicious girl of mine !
When will You remove my deafness by allowing me to hear the tinkling of Yours ankle bells,
which is like an ocean of transcendental flavour ?”

Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, who is one of the most intimate associates of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, is offering this 12th verse of his Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali to the lotus feet of Shrimati Radharani. In the previous verse Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami received a wonderful mercy of his ‘ishta-devata’ (choosen divinity, viz. Shrimati Radharani) by perceiving an astonishingly beautiful pastime, wherein the fragrant powder on Krishna’s chest got stuck on Shrimati Radharani’s lotus feet. Thus he had the darshan (heart’s vision) of this humorous pastime, being present there in his transcendental alter ego of Tulasi manjari, who was giggling with her mouth covered by her veil. Not understanding the reason of her giggling, Shrimati Radharani then punished Tulasi by gently kicking her on the head, thus making the fragrant powder of Her feet, that came from Krishna’s chest, stick on Tulasi’s head. In this way She blessed her. This type of mercy cannot be achieved by nobody else than a ‘ tad gata prana ‘ or a surrendered soul who is a maidservant of Shrimati Radharani. Not even every manjari can achieve this type of mercy received by Tulasi manjari! Especially for the sakhis this type of mercy is very rarely attained and they cannot even imagine getting it. Tulasi could then realize that the head, which is considered to be the highest limb of the body, had really become that highest limb.

After the sudden disappearance of the vision he considered that such type of mercy, as being kicked on the head by Shrimati Radharani, is rarely attained and for this reason he didn’t even have the courage to ask for another direct attainment of such a type of mercy within a transcendental vision. That is why he was praying: “Can I at least attain this in a dream?” There is such a wonderful eagerness coming from his heart. In order to keep his eagerness alive these transcendental visions are occasionally disappearing. This is because one can value such transcendental visions by the amount of eagerness one has to achieve them. The more relish there is, the more thirst there is, and also reversely the more thirst there is, the more relish there is. The reason why these ‘vilap’ (lamentation prayers) are offered by Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami to Shrimati Radharani is that he can then again perceive a lost transcendental vision. Such a constant succession of separation and union, which is like an continual alternation of light and darkness, is the devotee’s stream of consciousness. Naturally speaking one must become qualified to attain this type of transcendental visions by abandonning one’s bodily consciousness and adopting one’s ‘svarupa avesha’ (taking to one’s mentally conceived transcendental form of a gopi-manjari). It cannot be experienced when one is in bodily consciousness.

rupe gune dagamagi, sada hobo anuragi, vasati koribo sakhira majha
(Shrila Narottama Dasa Thakur’s Shri Prema Bhakti Chandrika, 53)

“If I live amongst the sakhis I shall always be passionately absorbed in Shri Shri Radha-Krishna’s forms, qualities and pastimes.”

The siddhas (devotees who are on the level of transcendental perfection or prema-bhakti, viz. Divine Love for Shri Shri Radha-Krishna) naturally perceive their manjari svarupa within these transcendental pastimes without any effort, but for the sadhaka (devotees who are on the level of their transcendental training course, or sadhana-bhakti, devotional service) these transcendental pastimes have to be meditated upon while adopting this ‘ svarupa avesha ‘. Of course this devotional practise has to be coupled with one’s exclusive surrender to the lotus feet of Shrimati Radharani. We should also listen to an other advise of Shrila Narottama Dasa Thakur wich says that we should take shelter of the ‘Vraja vanita’ or the women of Vraja, the gopis. Charana ashraya sara: “Shelter of their lotus feet is the essence”, para mana kantha kariya: “O mind ! Why aren’t you completely fixed on this ?”

Actually the whole thing is ‘sva prakash’ (self manifested) that is to say it is not enough for a sadhaka (spiritual practitioner) to endeavour on his own to assume his mentally conceived transcendental form of a gopi-manjari, but it can only be revealed. And the way to have it revealed is one-pointed surrender that causes Shrimati Radharani’s compassion to descend. Then the sadhaka will be able to relish his ‘svarupa avesha “. For this reason one must exclusively surrender. O mind! Why don’t you surrender exclusively? Because there is no way to surrender to the Lord without surrendering to the ‘gopi’ one should take shelter of Mahabhava Herself. Without becoming this tad gata prana (surrendered soul) one cannot achieve this. The very intimate and deep feelings that are expressed in these songs, that are related to the shloka under discussion, cannot be relished simply by surrendering to the Primary Personality of Godhead Krishna.

tavaivasmi tavaivasmi na jivami tvaya vina
iti vijnaya devi tvam naya mam charanantikam
(Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali, 96)

“I am Yours, I am Yours ! I cannot live without You! O Splendid girl (Shrimati Radharani)! Please acknowledge this and take me close to Your lotus feet.”

It is only in such a frame of mind (as Tulasi manjari) that Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was praying: “May I have the vision, even in a dream, of You bestowing the fragrant and coloured powder of Your lotus feet on my head.” In the present verse under discussion Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami shift his desires and aspirations to the desire to hear the jingling of Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells. In the successive verses he is longing to once more hear, touch, taste, smell and see Shrimati Radharani in so many different ways. The sadhaka should have a strong desire to relish the different transcendental sense objects connected with Shrimati Radharani through the knowledge-acquiring senses.

Govardhana’s Siddha Shri Krishna Dasa Babaji sings: “O Mistress of my life! My heart is constantly burning in the fire of separation from you. Please keep me at your feet as Your maidservant, because this is for me the only way to cross the ocean of pangs of separation from You.” Here Siddha Baba also expresses the desire to hear the tinkling of Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells, and similarly he wants also to experience Her sweet voice. Now he shifts his desire to the knowledge-acquiring sense of sight and says: “When can I drink the elegance of the luster emanating from Your body through the cups of my eyes? In this way it will result in experiencing the topmost happiness.” He also wants to fill his nostrils with Shrimati Radharani’s divine bodily fragrance and is praying for it accordingly. Then he is asking: “When will my whole body be filled with goose pimples as a result?” Now he shifts his desire to the knowledge-acquiring sense of taste, saying: “When can I taste Your nectarean food remnants?” In this way this young maidservant will feel completely blessed and fulfilled. “You are my japa (recitation of prayers), my tapa (performance of austerities) and my jnana (knowledge) (or in other words, my whole sadhana is centered around You). From my very birth I have not known anybody else but You. Wherever You are enjoying Yourself with Your ‘kanta’ (Krishna) and Your sakhis (girl-friends), please engage me there as Your maidservant. Please fullfill these aspirations of mine, I am humbly begging You with a straw between my teeth!” These ‘adarsha ‘ (transcendental visionary) acharyas (teachers) are exemplary for the ‘sadhaka’ (devotee practitioner) who should adopt the feelings which they have expressed in their writings.

The sadhaka is already happy if he can relish only one drop from the ocean of relish experienced by these siddha premika acharyas. When one attains svarupa avesha certainly that relish will also awaken. Slowly, slowly the sadhaka will ascend to the ‘asvada rajya’ (the kingdom of transcendental relish). For example, how is the sound of Shrimati Radharani’s jingling ankle bells? Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami says that it is like a nectar ocean of transcendental flavours. In the mundane world nectar was churned out of the milk-ocean and one can only imagine how much relish there must be in drinking such a churned nectar. But there is much more relish in Shrimati Radhrani’s jingling ankle bells! It is said to be the flavour of the greatest transcendental nectar ocean. How can we ever understand or even imagine such a thing ? Her jingling ankle bells also resound, but this is not a mundane sound; that is a completely different thing. By hearing the sound of Shrimati Radharani jingling ankle bells one gets a full relish of transcendental nectar. One can get a drop of this ocean of tanscendental nectar by taking shelter of Govinda’s lotus feet.

A similar verse expressed by Lila Shuka (Bivamangal Thakur) in his Shri Krishna Karnamritam describes Govinda’s jingling ankle bells. In the same way Lila Shuka prays in this verse for a manifestation of such a sound in a transcendental vision. He is using the words ‘vallabi’ (the gopi) ‘vibho’ (Radha Raman the lover): “Let me perceive this in my heart”. Within ‘Kalinda kanyaka ‘ (the Yamuna, or the daughter of the Kalinda mountain) there is a patch of lotus flowers and within that patch there are ‘raja hamsas’ (lordly swans) swimming. In his commentary on this verse Shrila Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami wrote that these lordly swans are very dear to Shrimati Radharani and are very fond of the golden stems that are carrying these lotus flowers. In this verse Bilvamangal Thakur also compares the sweet subtle sounds produced by the singing swans that are nourished by the golden stems of lotus flowers, with Shri Krishna’s jingling ankle bells. These lordly swans lament: “Alas! If only our voices, that are considered topmost sweet, could produce just one drop of the nectar ocean which is produced by the jingling sound of Krishna’s ankle bells! But unfortunately it is impossible.”

There is a second commentary on Shri Krishna Karnamrita, which is written by Shri Chaitanya Dasa who is mentioned in Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita as one of the three sons of Shivananda Sena and therefore a brother of Shri Kavi Karnapura. Shri Chaitanya Dasa mentions in his commentary that Shri Krishna’s jingling ankle bells are particularly sweet when He is together with Shrimati Radharani, because then it mixes with Her own jingling ankle bells. That is why it is so relishable and this is why in this verse of Shri Krishna Karnamrita Shri Krishna is called ‘vallabi vibho’. Returning to the commentary of Shrila Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami on that same verse, it is mentioned by him that an intimate pastime of Shri Shri Radha-Krishna is taking place within a forest’s grove. At that time also the jingling of Shri Radha-Raman’s ankle bells produces a great relish. One can imagine how much relish there must be in a single jingle of Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells! Those who are worshipping Shrimati Radharani considers Her more attractive than Krishna. Shrila Prabodhananda Sarasvatipada has relished some of this as well: Shrimati Radharani is going to Yamuna. In his book Shri Radharasa Sudhanidhi he is describing one pastime in which Shrimati Radharani goes to meet Krishna on the pretext of fetching water from the Yamuna and on the way Her ankle bells are jingling. When She sees from a distance the face of ‘Rasikendra’ (Krishna the king of relishers) She immediately becomes shy, starts to stare at Her own toe-nails and slows down Her pace. Shrila Prabodhananda Sarasvati prays: “When can my eyes ever perceive Her at that moment when the jingling of Her ankle bells becomes extremely attractive?” As Shrimati Radharani sees Krishna, the ocean of Mahabhava that is dwelling in Her heart makes high waves that inundate Her feet. When these waves of Mahabhava pound down at Her feet then there is a special relish in hearing Her jingling ankle bells. That amazing sweetness of Shrimati Radharani’s jingling ankle bells astonishes even Krishna. “When I (Krishna) hear the jingling of Your (Radha’s) ankle bells then My heart becomes pacified.” (Bengali song). Then Shrila Prabodhananda Sarasvati continues to say that the jingling of Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells is sprinkled with Her Mahabhava, that is flowing out of Her heart.

In this shloka of Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami adresses Shrimati Radharani with the astonishing name of ‘Kalyani’. The meaning of ‘Kalyani’ is ‘mangala-mayi swamini’ or ‘fully auspicious mistress’. It is like this in the world of Vraja, the whole world is praying for auspiciousness from Govinda, but the Vrajavasis have just the opposite attitude. People are praying to Krishna for all kinds of benefits but the Vrajavasis are doing it the other way around and don’t ask what Krishna can do for them, but what they can do for Him. For example, Krishna’s father Nanda Maharaja is giving many jewels and gold in charity to the local sages and ‘brahmanas’, hoping that they will bestow their blessings on Krishna so that He may find all auspiciousness on His path. Although the whole world is asking blessings and benefits from Him, the ‘Vrajavasis’ are working only for His benefit. When Krishna’s mother Yashoda binds Him up to punish Him it is also for His benefit.

na cantar na bahir yasya na purvam napi caparam purvaparam
bahis chantar jagato yo jagacca yah.
tam matvatmajam avyaktam martyalingam adhoksajam
gopikolukhale damna babandha prakritam yatha
(Bhagavata, 10.9.13-14)

Krishna has no inside, outside, bottom, top, left and right. Maharaja Parikshit was extremely astonished to hear from Shukadeva Goswami that this all-pervading and completely timeless and spaceless Personality of Godhead Krishna could be actually bound by the ropes of His mother Yashoda. As in Krishna there is no inside, outside, right, left, back and front, how is it possible to bind such a ‘vibhu vastu’ (timeless and spaceless entity)? But it has really happened, Yashoda has really bound Him and it was only possible because she considered Krishna to be her own son and not this All-pervading Truth which was just philosophically described. Just as an ordinary mother of this mundane world would bind up her son, she also bound Krishna. Similarly, when the cowherd boys play their games with Krishna they all do this for His pleasure, even if they have a fight with Him. Sometimes Krishna loses the fight and sometimes He wins it. When He is the loser He has to carry some other cowherd boy on His shoulder, in order to pay the wager of the fight, although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When they take rest sometimes Krishna serves the cowherd boys and sometimes they are serving Him. In Shrimad Bhagavata we find Lord Brahma saying in his prayers that he couldn’t find a limit to Krishna, but in Vraja mother Yashoda has a tailor brought to her house to measure Krishna because she wants to have a tailor-made shirt for Him. Unless the tailor takes the measurements of Krishna’s upper body how then will it be possible to ever make a shirt for Him? But when Brahma stole the cowerdboys and the calves he couldn’t have that vision of Krishna being measured by the tailor, instead he saw millions and millions of Vishnu-murtis emanating from the cowherdboys and the calves! Brahma was completely astonished by Krishna’s ‘aishvarya prakasha’ (display of divine prowess) and he said:

jananta eva janantu
kim bahuktya na me prabho
manaso vapuso vacho
vaibhavam tava gocharah
(Shrimad Bhagavata, 10.14.38)

“People may say that they know You, they may know or not know You, but I shall admit to You frankly that I have no idea where Your limits are. Nor with my mind, nor with my body nor with my words I am able to perceive the limits of Your glories.”

But because of the sweet love of Vraja the tailor will come and he will honestly wonder what is the size of Krishna’s limbs. And of course the gopis are heading all of Krishna’s associates in Vraja. Just like everyone else in Vraja they also endeavour for the benefit of Krishna, but not like the others, because they are the greatest. In the last song of Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita Shrimati Radharani prays:

more yadi dile duhka, tara hoilo mahasukha, sei duhka more sukhavarya

“The only thing I want is His happiness, and if He wants to make me unhappy then it is my greatest happiness.”

Other than a Vraja-gopi no one could say such a thing honestly, and above all of them is Shrimati Radharani. Nobody can endeavour for Krishna’s benefit like Shrimati Radharani; for instance during ‘purva raga’ (the point at which Shri Shri Radha-Krishna have not yet met Each other), remembering (seeing) Shrimati Radharani ‘s face Krishna becomes extremely eager to meet Her and the ‘duti’ (messenger girl) is taking Krishna’s message to Shrimati Radharani. While meeting Her the duti tells Her: ‘Champaka dama heri citta ati kampita locane bohe anuraga ….’: “When Krishna sees a garland of golden Champaka-flowers (that have the same colour as Shrimati Radharani’s bodily complexion), His body starts to shiver, tears of passion flow from His eyes, Your form is constantly awakening within His heart.” ‘Vrishabhanu-nandini japa hi rati dini’: “Day and night Krishna is doing ‘ japa’ (reciting while counting on a rosary) of Shrimati Radharani’s name.” Hundred of thousands of sweet and beautiful young girls are speaking sweet words to Him, but He doesn’t even turn a side of His ear to them. In this way Vrishabhanu-nandini is establishing the greatest welfare for Krishna. Krishna cannot even properly pronounce the word ‘Radha’ as His heart is completely breaking and thus He can only say

‘Ra’. As His voice is completely choked when He arrives at the second syllable ‘Dha’, it is impossible for Him to pronouce it immediately. He cannot pronounce in one strike this entire name

‘Radha’, which consists of only two syllables. If you turn this name around it becomes ‘dhara’ (stream) and then it becomes possible for Him because as the song writer here says: ‘dhara bohe lor’: “This stream is coming out of His eyes in the form of tears of love.” The name Radha produces ashru dhara (streams of tears). Who can describe the eagerness of Krishna, the jewel of men, as He is rolling over the ground of ectasy when He thinks of Shrimati Radharani. This is what the duti is saying to Shrimati Radharani about Krishna’s love for Her. Krishna considers Himself very low in comparison with Shrimati Radharani. This is the way She is working for Krishna’s benefit during ‘purva raga’.

Also Shrimati Radharani’s daily afternoon-performance of ‘Suryapuja’ (worship of the sun-god) is for Krishna’s benefit because it is only a pretext for Her to meet Him for His satisfaction. She has to suffer walking all the way to Suryakunda in the stong heat of the sun and when She arrives there She becomes so absorbed in wanting Krishna’s welfare that She starts praying to the Sungod: “Please take care that Krishna will never become sick and let His quality of ‘dhira lalita’ (the most carefree beautiful lover) always increase so He can always enjoy with me.

ratri dine kunja krida kore radhar sange kaishor boyos saphal koilo krida range
(Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.189)

“Krishna makes his adolescence a success by enjoying with Shrimati Radharani in the forest groves of Vraja day and night.”

In the morning Shrimati Radharani is going to Krishna’s abode Nandishvara to cook for Him, taking all Her girlfriends along with Her. This is because once Durvasa Muni gave Her the boon that whatever She would cook would be as tasty as nectar, increase the life span of whoever would eat it, and would protect such a person from all diseases and danger. In the morning, before She goes to Nandagram, the manjaris are dressing Shrimati Radharani, and at one point She orders a manjari to put on Her nose pearl. The belief is that if there is no gold on the nose of a wife (this pearl is attached to the nose by a small golden chain) then the out-going and in-going breath that passes through her nose will not establish the welfare of her man (in this case of Krishna). This is the belief of women. So the Vraja gopis only want to make Krishna happy and establish His welfare by arranging for His blissful pastimes with them. Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami is on the stage of perceiving all these things and when such a vision disappears from his heart he once again prays for another vision like that. And so it goes one after the other. What type of pastimes? For instance, the Rasa lila is taking place and this is called the ‘nitya rasa’, Shri Shri Radha-Krishna are dancing with the sakhis.

kancana manigana janu niramayalo ramani mandala saj;
majha i majh mahamarakata sama syamaru natavara raja.
dhani dhani aparupa rasa bihara

“The Vraja gopis are compared with golden ornaments, and the different forms of Krishna that are dancing in the Rasa dance with ‘marakata’ (emeralds).”

Naturally during this Rasa dance Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells are also tinkling and that is wonderfully sweet. This is flowing in Govinda’s ears like a stream of nectar. Along with the tinkling of these ankle bells Krishna is playing His flute and it is a nice symphony. This is where we can find the nectar ocean of transcendental flavours which has been described by Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami in this verse. Such a vision was achieved by Shrila Rupa Goswamipada in his Utkalika Vallari.

dhvasta brahma marala kujita
bharair urjeshvari nupura

“Shrimati Radharani’s tinkling ankle bells are destroying the pride of the sweetness of the swans’ songs.”

Here Shrila Rupa Goswamipada has become Shri Rupa manjari in order to relish this type of sound. Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami as Tulasi Manjari relishes exactly the same in this verse of Shri Vilapa Kusumanjali, which runs parallel to the one of Utkallika Vallari. Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells start to jingle one after the other. First one, then two, three, four, five and so on and it increases all the time, She has full control over it. And again, as described before, these sounds are sprinkled with the mahabhava rasa coming from Her heart. Just then by fate’s arrangement one of Shrimati Radharani’s ankle bells loosens and falls of of Her foot. This incident put an end to the harmony of the Rasa dance. Krishna realises that even the sound of his flute is not matching so nicely anymore with Shrimati Radharani’s jingling ankle bells. He then tucks His flute in His sash while continuing to dance and at the same time investigates why there is no more harmony like before. He is so expert in dancing that when He finds the problem, He is able to replace the missing ankle bells on Shrimati Radharani’s foot unnoticed, without disturbing the least the whole symphony that is accompaning the Rasa dance. As soon as the second anklebell was replaced on Shrimati Radharani’s foot, Krishna took His flute out of His sash, began to play again and everything was back to normal.

Shrila Rupa Goswami calls this a great wealth, prowess of sound.

Krishna’s flute sound is pervading all directions. This is of course ‘shabda brahman’ (transcendental original sound of the absolute) and that sound is pervading the whole universe, piercing through the layers of ‘Vaikuntha’ (spiritual world). Everybody goes crazy from the sound of Krishna’s flute, specially the young girls. It is described in Shri Chaitanya Charitamritam how Mahaprabhu was relishing it Himself. Even the Goddesses of fortune of ‘Vaikuntha loka’ (the planets of the spiritual world) are attracted to the sound of this flute, so what to speak of the Vraja gopis? Even in the presence of their husbands their ‘nivis’ are slackening and falling off. They give up their household duties and are forcibly brought to Krishna. Their modesty, awareness of religious principles and even knowledge are all lost when they hear Krishna’s flute sound: “The trees began to produce goosebumps and the unmoving living creatures began to move. Everything changed its nature as a magical wonderful result of hearing Krishna’s flute sound.” The meditations of sages like the four Kumara and Shriman Mahadeva are all disturbed. This is described in Shrila Rupa Goswamipada’s Vidagdha Madhava Nataka . In this way the whole world becomes like full of honey. The cows are raising their heads while hearing Krishna’s flute sound and as a result start running all other the place. The Yamuna river cannot flow downwards anymore towards the ocean, its current reverses and the waves start to flow upwards. Even the clouds and birds are affected by it. The housewives bring disgrace on themselves and their husbands, whom they give up to run after Krishna. They become unaware of what is good and what is wrong and their ‘nivis’ are slackening. Even the dead trees are revived and new sprouts and leaves start to grow again. As soon as their dead trunks give life to new buds of flowers, bumblebees become immediately attracted and start to drink the honey which is oozing from them. Everything becomes full of honey. If this sound of Krishna’s flute, which has been described in this beautiful song, is added to the sound of the nectar ocean of Shrimati Radharani’s jingling ankle bells that had been described before, then one can better understand the experience which Shrila Rupa Goswami had when he wrote this verse in Utkallika Vallari. The ‘Goswamis’ of Vrindavana had trouble in finding the proper words to express this nectar ocean of sound which is produced by this flute and these ankle bells. ‘Samasta nada nagari’ : it is like a whole city of all sounds in existence. And within that city of sounds there is some ‘Raja Lakshmi’ (presiding queen). All the sweet sounds that can possibly exist, all the ‘raga’ ‘raginis’ (all types of beautiful melodies), even this ‘Raja Lakshmi’ and the most amazing sound that is called ‘shasta’ are defeated. The sweet flavour of Shrimati Radharani’s jingling ankle bells and Krishna’s flute song is ‘sva prakash’ (self-manifest).

Then Shrila Rupa Gosvamipada says: “When I have the desire to hear these beautiful sounds, am I actually qualified for it ?” He calls his ears ‘manda’ (dull, foolish). This is not something depending on devotion in practise, or on having or not having dull ears (although here Shrila Rupa Goswami calls his ears dull), but it is´’sva prakash’ or something which is manifesting by itself independently. By Shrimati Radharani’s grace that self manifestation will take place within the ears of the sadhaka (practitioner): “When will these beautiful sounds become worshipable by my foolish ears?” As this relish is achieved then suddenly this vision disappears. That is why Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami is praying: ‘badhiryam apaneshyate’: “When will you remove my deathness?” In this verse that is parallel to Shrila Rupa Goswami’s verse which is speaking about dull ears, Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami mentions here deafness. In which way Shrimati Radharani can be ‘kalyani’ or the welfare bestower on Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami? The answer is very simple: by making him hear again Her tinkling ankle bells and in this way removing his deafness (of not hearing it).

Thus ends Sri Ananta das Mahantaji’s patha on the 12th verse of Vilapa Kusumanjali at Radhakunda
on January 6, 2001 at the occasion of 108 Shri Krishna Dasa Madrasi Babaji’s samadhi-mandir prathishta