VERSE 3:

 

   TAVĀRAṆYE DEVI DHRUVAM IHA MURĀRIR VIHARATE
SADĀ PREYASYETI ŚRUTIR API VIRAUTI SMṚTIR API
ITI JÑĀTVĀ VṚNDE CARAṆAM ABHIVANDE TAVA KṚPĀṀ
KURUṢVA KṢIPRAṀ ME PHALATU TARṢA VIṬAPĪ

O Vṛndā-devi! The śrutis (Upaniṣads) and smṛtis all proclaim that Kṛṣṇa Murāri always sports in your forest Śrī Vṛndāvana with His dearest Śrī Rādhikā! Knowing this, I praise your lotus-feet. Please make the tree of my desire (to love Them) bear fruit!

ĀŚĀ TARUḤ  (A Tree Of Aspirations):

Makaranda Kaṇā Vyākhyā:

Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī’s heart is agitated by strong divine desires that are unprecedented in this world. He is Vraja’s eternally perfect Rādhā-kinkarī, and therefore he dwells in the kingdom of mahā bhāva.

How anxious is a devotee whose love has awoken and who misses his beloved Godhead! His condition is described as follows in the eighth shower (chapter) of Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī’s “Mādhurya Kādambinī”:

“If anybody could be so hungry that his hunger would still not be satisfied even after eating unlimited amounts of the four kinds of most delicious food day and night, then it would somewhat resemble the divine thirst of love of a pure devotee. Although he has already obtained the sweet vision of the Lord’s form and qualities and he has already relished it incessantly and fully, he can still not be satisfied due to his continuing powerful desire to see the Lord.

Then he considers his relatives to be like a waterless well, his house a thorny forest, his food like getting a beating, the praises of the righteous like the biting of a snake, his daily rituals like death, his bodily limbs like a great burden, the consolations of his friends like a shower of poison, wakeful state like an ocean of regret, sleep like the dissolution of life, remaining alive like the persecution of God, meditation like the repeated frying of paddy, that which was always dear before like an annoyance, and even thinking of the Lord like self-destruction.

When such an anxious devotee attains the darśana of the Lord he feels as happy as someone who reaches an oasis of cool nectar under the shade of a large Banyan-tree after having wandered through a desert scorched by the midsummer sun, like an elephant that suddenly reaches an endless waterfall after having run through a blazing forestfire, or like a greatly diseased person who hankers for some nice flavours and suddenly gets to drink delicious sweet nectar.

Actually, there is no happiness in the world that can compare to the joy of meeting God, because sense pleasures are the effect of the Lord’s illusory potency and transcendental pleasure comes from His internal potency. The two are completely different from each other. The most merciful Lord makes the devotee burn in the fire of separation from Him simply to make them enjoy the indescribable ecstasy of once meeting Him.”

Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī has offered his life to the lotus-feet of Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava and He cannot tolerate the pain of separation from Them for one more moment.

Nevertheless his great humility awakens and his heart burns in the fire of despair as he remembers his own unworthiness. Suddenly he remembers the mercy of the caretaking goddess of Vraja’s forest, Śrīmatī Vṛndā-devī, and he prays: “O Vṛndā-devi! In your forest Kṛṣṇa Murārī always sports with His beloved Rādhikā!”

Murāri means the killer of the demon named Mura, but this is all aiśvarya-kathā (an explanation in the light of the Lord’s prowess). Here it is –  murā kutsā tad aris tad rahitasya parama sundarasyetyarthaḥ (Sāraṅga Raṅgada commentary on Kṛṣṇa Karṇāmṛta by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī).

“The word Murā means ‘ugly’, and the enemy of ugliness is most beautiful.”

He enjoys with Śrī Rādhā while illuminating the forests of Vraja with His sweetness and beauty.

When the sweetness of His naturally beautiful body comes close to His Priyājī, His form, flavour and sweetness become manifest as a limitless decoration of beauty. As it is with Śyāma, so it is with Svāminī.

O Vṛnde! Your forest is inundated by the nectarean flood of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa’s great sweetness and beauty!

The śrutis (Upaniṣads) and smṛtis (Purāṇas) testify that your Vṛndāvana is Their eternal playground!”

In the Ṛk Veda Pariśiṣṭa, for instance, it is stated rādhayā mādhavo devo mādhavenaiva rādhikā janeṣv āvirbhrājante ” Mādhava-deva is with Rādhā and Rādhikā shines among the people (of Vraja) with Mādhava”.

In the Gopāla Tāpanī Upaniṣad it is said atha gokulākhye māthura maṇḍale vṛndāvana madhye, describing how Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa eternally sport in Vraja-bhūmi. Again, in the Purāṇas (smṛtis) it is said:

atra yā gopakanyāś ca nivasanti mamālaye
yoginyas tā mayā nityaṁ mama sevā parāyaṇāḥ
dvi-bhujaḥ sarvadā so’sti na kadācic catur-bhujaḥ
gopaikayā yutas tatra parikrīḍati nityadā
(Bṛhad Gautamīya Tantra)

“The cowherdgirls that eternally dwell in My (Kṛṣṇa’s) abode are all yoginīs (they are never separated from Me). Here My form always has two arms, never four, and I eternally play here with one cowherd-girl
(gopī-śiromaṇi Śrī Rādhā).”

Śrī Vṛndā-devī decorates naturally beautiful Vṛndāvana with a wonderful and variegated treasure of beauty and then personally shows the beauty of the forest to Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava, who are eager to sport in that forest, saying: “O Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava! Look, look! This Vṛndāṭavī is just like Your girlfriend that wants to make You happy with its own treasures, therefore it is beautified by the sweet opulence of various sweet leaves, sprouts, fruits and flowers! Look how Vṛndāṭavī, seeing You coming to her abode, sweetly and blissfully dances through its trees and vines, that are moved by the wind, making their flowerpollen fly up in the sky!

Just as a red carpet is rolled out over the road to welcome an important person, similarly, seeing Your auspicious arrival, this Vṛndāṭavī welcomes You by strewing flowers of various colours over the forest paths!”

In this way Vṛndā-devī shows Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava the beauty of the forest on the pretext of describing Vṛndāraṇya’s service to Them with sixteen paraphernalia. (See Chapter 12 of Śrī Govinda Līlāmṛtam).

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī prays:

“O Vanadevi (sylvan goddess)! In this way the Vilāsī Mithuna (playful Pair) Rādhā and Mādhava have given Themselves to you by engaging you in so many different services! If you want you can give (me) that treasure also! Please make the tree of my aspirations bear fruit.

In other words: Please bless me with the vision of Śrī-Śrī-Rādhā-Mādhava! phalatu nitarāṁ tarṣa-viṭapī –

Just as on your order the trees and vines of Vṛndāvana bear fruits and flowers even untimely, for the pleasure of the Playful Pair, similarly you can also make me see the lotus-feet of the Divine Pair untimely (viz. even though I was not so fortunate to have done so much sādhanā), and thus cause the tree of my aspirations to bear fruit.”

śuno śuno vṛndā-devi,         guṇa gāya śruti smṛti,
cāri veda purāṇa sakala.
tomāra e vṛndāvane,        līlāmṛta variṣaṇe,
nitya vihariche śrī yugala. 

“Listen O Vṛndā-devi! The śrutis, smṛtis, the four Vedas and the Purāṇas all sing your glories and the Divine Pair always showers the nectar of Their pastimes over this Vṛndāvana of yours!” 

ei kathā śuni āmi,            prathamete vṛndā-rāṇī,
tava pade loinu śaraṇa.
phelibe ki āśā taru,          milibe ki kalā guru,
śrī rādhikā madana mohana?

“Hearing this, O Vṛndā-rāṇī, I have first taken shelter of your lotus-feet.
Will this tree of aspirations bear the fruit of the art-teachers Śrī Rādhikā and Madana Mohana?”

ei nivedana dhara,            viśeṣa karuṇā koro,
bolo more yugala sandhāna.
uccaiḥ-svare ārtanāde,          śrī rūpa gosvāmī kānde,
kāhā gelo juḍāibo prāṇa. 

“I pray to you, be specially merciful to me!
Tell me where to find the Divine Pair! Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī loudly and anxiously cries:
“Where will I go to soothe my heart?”