Śrī-Śrī Utkaṇṭhā Daśakam – Ten Anxious Prayers
(Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī)

VERSE 1:

chinna-svarna-vinindi-cikkana-rucim smeram vayah-sandhito
ramyam rakta-sucina-paṭṭa-vasanam veshena vibhrajitam
udghurnac-chiti-kanṭha-pincha-vilasadvenim mukundam manak
pashyantim nayanancalena muditam radham kadaham bhaje

“When will I serve Śrī Rādhā, whose complexion rebukes the splendor of molten gold, who is a smiling girl in Her puberty, who is beautifully dressed in a glossy, red silken sārī, whose braid is as beautiful as the tail of a blissfully dancing peacock and who blissfully casts sidelong glances at Mukunda?”

Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā:

In the following ten verses Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī strongly covets the worship of and the meeting with his most beloved Śrī Rādhārāṇī, hence this stotram is named utkaṇṭhā daśakam.

A strong hankering for something is called utkaṇṭhā. Just as it is a scientific fact that we get whatever we really hanker for, it is also a fact that we can not relish these things unless and until we become eager for it, even if we have already gotten it. For instance, a thirsty man who wanders through the sun-scorched desert with a parched throat considers a glass of cold, sweet water to be a great gift, but those who do not have any thirst to start with will also not feel the need to drink.
Especially on the path of bhakti sādhana this thirst or eagerness is the very life-force of bhajana. In the attainment of the Lord’s grace all the endeavors of the sādhaka bhakta will become fulfilled, and this eagerness of the devotee will unleash the limitless grace of the Lord upon him. The great teachers say that just as a child is born through the meeting of man and wife, similarly the devotional service of and the direct meeting with the Lord are attained when love meets with this kind of eagerness.

The root cause of Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī’s great longing for his beloved Śrī Rādhārānī’s personal devotional service is the wonderful attractiveness of Her sweet forms, qualities and pastimes.

In this verse he prays for Śrī Rādhārānī’s devotional service while simultaneously recollecting the sweetness of Her form (rūpa-mādhurī).
First of all he says chinna svarṇa vinindi cikkaṇa ruciṁ – “Her brilliantly shimmering body defeats the beauty of lacerated gold.” 

When the goldsmith cuts a piece of heated gold with a sharp knife, a brightly shining kind of gold comes out from within. Śrī Rādhā’s bodily lustre is even more glossy and brilliant than this, for this lustre consists of Mahā Bhāva. How mean is the ordinary worldly substance named gold in comparison to this! There is no comparison to this lustre in this world, but still the Mahājanas try to make some comparison for the people of this world.

Śrī Vidyāpati sings: gorī kalevara nūnā janu – āṅcare ujora sonā – “Her slender body is shining with a golden splendor.”

kāñcana kamala pavane ulaṭāyalo aichana vadana sañcāri (Govinda Dāsa) – “Her face shines like a golden lotus flower turned upside down by the wind.” 

Then it is said: vayah sandhito ramyāṁ – “Her puberty is attractive and enchanting.” 

The conjunction of childhood and youth is called vayah sandhi or puberty in Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi: bālya yauvanayoh sandhir vayah sandhir itīryate. Seeing Śrī Rādhikā’s vayah sandhi, Śrī Kṛṣṇa became enchanted and told His friend Subala:

vādyaṁ kiṅkiṇim āharaty upacayaṁ jñātvā nitambo guṇī
svasya dhvaṁsam avetya vaṣṭi balibhir yogaṁ hrasan madhyamam
vakṣaḤ sādhu phala-dvayaṁ vicinute rājopahāra kṣamaṁ
rādhāyās tanu-rājyam añcati nave kṣauṇī-patau yauvane
(Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi)

    “O Friend! Look! Look! Now that the king of fresh adolescence has taken possession of the kingdom of Śrī Rādhā’s body, Her qualified buttocks, knowing how elevated they are becoming, blissfully begin to play instrumental music in the form of Her jingling waist bells, Her chest is offering two excellent fruits (Her growing breasts) as a present for the king of youth, and Her waist, afraid that it will be destroyed completely by the entering king of youthfulness, takes shelter of the three lines on Her belly as a border stop. How wonderful is the power of the king of youth!”

While desribing the bhāva mādhurī of Śrīmatī’s puberty, the poet Vidyāpati has sung:

khane khana nayana koṇa anusarai; khane khana vasana dhūli tanu bharai
khane khana daśanaka chaṭāchaṭa hāsa; khane khana adhara āge koru vāsa
coṅki caloye khane, khana calu manda; manamatha pāṭha pahilo anubandha
hṛdayaja mukulita heri heri thora; khane āṅcara dei, khane hoy bhora
bālā śaiśava tāruṇa bheṭa; lakhai nā pārai jeṭha kaneṭha
vidyāpati koho – śuno vara kāna; taruṇima śaiśava cihnai nā jāna

    “Sometimes She casts restless sidelong glances, sometimes She is rolling with Her clothes in the dust, staining Her whole body. Sometimes She laughs, showering Her glittering teeth and sometimes She makes Her teeth reside behind Her lips. Sometimes She walks quickly, and sometimes slowly. For the first time She studies the science of eros. I see Her breasts are beginning to bud slightly. Sometimes She covers them with a shawl, sometimes She forgets to conceal them. Childhood is now offered to adolescence and now we don’t know if childhood or adolescence is prominent. Vidyāpati says: “Listen, O excellent Kṛṣṇa! You cannot see the signs of childhood or adolescence.” (The restless glances show adolescence, the playing in the dust childhood; showing the teeth shows childhood, smiling with the teeth covered adolescence. A fast gait shows childhood, a slow one adolescence, covering the breasts with a shawl shows adolescence and forgetting to cover them shows childhood.)

Then it is said rakta sucīna paṭṭa-vasanām – “She wears a glossy red silk sārī.” anurāge rakta sāḍī. The red colour of Her sārī expresses Her passionate feelings towards Kṛṣṇa.

Then udghūrṇac chiti-kaṇṭha piñcha vilasad veṇīm – “Her braid shines like the tail of a blissfully dancing peacock.”

In Govinda Līlāmṛta (11.116) it is said:

vilāsa visrastam avekṣya rādhikā
śrī keśa-pāśaṁ nija puccha-piñchayoh
nyakkāram āśaṅkya hriyeva bhejire
giriṁ camaryo vipinaṁ śikhaṇḍinah

    “Seeing Rādhikā’s loosened braid when She reclines after enjoying with Kṛṣṇa, the peacocks shyly and fearfully flee into the forest, and the deer flee into the mountains, seeing that the luster of their feathers and tails is defeated!”

mukundaṁ manāk paśyantīṁ nayanāñcalena –  “She casts sidelong glances at Mukunda.”

There is no comparison to the way Śrīmatī Rādhārānī worships the god of love Mukunda with Her glances, that are colored by Her Mādana rasa. Even Śrīmatī’s slightest glance can steal Nāgara’s heart and mind. The Mahā Janas sing the words of Srī Kṛṣṇa as follows:

sajani! so dhanī citaka cora.
corika pantha bhori daraśāyali cañcala nayanaka ora
(Govinda dāsa)

“O friend! This girl stole My heart with Her restless sidelong glances!”

Finally Śrī Raghunātha says: smerāṁ muditāṁ veśena vibhrājitāṁ śrī rādhāṁ kadāhaṁ bhaje – “When will I worship and directly serve that Rādhā, whose face is always beautified by a slight smile, who is always most blissful and who is always decorated with various ornaments and clothes as well as with bhāva-ornaments like hāva, bhāva, kila kiñcita and so on?”.

chinna svarṇa vinindita ujjvala varaṇa; jhalamala sucikkaṇa aṅgera kiraṇa
hari citta camatkārī vayaḤ sandhi-kāla; dyotamānā nava-gaurī mūrati rasāla
unnata ujjvala rase koriyāche snāna; anurāge rakta sāḍī kori paridhāna
udghūrṇa nṛtya śīla śikhi candrikāte; beṅdheche vicitra veṇī vicitra chāṅdete
netrāñcale mukundera dṛṣṭipāta kore; kobe vā bhajibo āmī sei śrī rādhāre

    “Her body emits rays of a bright, glossy complexion that mocks the splendor of lacerated gold. Her puberty astonishes Hari’s heart and Her luscious youthful golden form is greatly effulgent. When will I worship that Śrī Rādhā, who has bathed in the elevated erotic rasa and then puts on a red sārī of anurāga (constant, passionate Hari-prema), whose braid is wonderfully bound like the tail of an intoxicated dancing peacock, and who casts sidelong glances at Śrī Mukunda?”