Meditate on the Meaning
Srila Gurudeva: Radha-kunda and Syama-kunda are very beautiful, surrounded by the many beautiful sweet groves of Lalita, Visakha and all others. We want the mercy of Radha-Krsna Conjugal. Srimati Radhika is our Svamini, our worshipable object. She is our aradhya, so we must please Her. How can you please Her? Not by glorifying Her. But if anyone is glorifying Her beloved, then She will very easily be so happy and She can bestow anything you want. So first we should try to please Srimati Radhika. How can you please Her? By glorifying Her beloved Krsna, Syamasundara. How? By reciting this astakam, “Namami Nanda-nandanam.”
If you can meditate on the meaning of these slokas, then you will feel so much ananda and your heart will melt. Do kirtana of these slokas while thinking about their meaning. Karena venu-ranjitam—Krsna keeps the flute on His lips and while smiling, He is looking towards His beloved. Gati karindra-ganjitam—Sometimes He walks like an elephant who, being immersed in self happiness, walks as if they are intoxicated from having drunk so much wine. Krsna walks like that, but even more beautiful and more sweet than that. Dukula-pita-sobhanam—’Du-kula’ means ‘two sides.’ Dukula pita means uttariya or chaddar.
It is very beautiful and more yellow than the mustard seed flowers we see in fields. It is much more, more, more yellow than this. It’s like a lightning bolt that is also sometimes flashing against the cloud-like color of His body. This very bright yellow color seen against the color of His body, oh, it is very beautiful, very beautiful. Then, “namami nanda-nandanam, namami nanda-nandanam.” All these slokas have very, very beautiful and sweet meanings. If anyone will do kirtana of this song and meditate on the meaning of these slokas, Krsna will come in their heart along with Radhika.
He will easily cross birth and death, sufferings and sorrows, lust and everything. He will easily cross over all these things. Labhet tad-anghri-yugmakam—Yugmakam means conjugal, Radha-Krsna together. Where? At Radha-kunda. When chanting ‘munindra-vrnda-vandite,’ try to know the meanings of the verses and thus you will feel so happy and you will be absorbed in thinking about these things. The mind will not go here and there.
It will automatically be absorbed in that. When you chant the holy name, you should think that “I am anywhere within the eighty-four krosas of Vrndavana.” You can be in the shade of Vamsi-vata or sometimes in Nandagaon at Ter kadamba. And if you like to weep bitterly, then go to Uddhava-kyari and see that all the gopis are there lamenting, feeling separation from Krsna. Sit there for some time and chant ‘Hare Krsna,’ feeling something of the gopis’ mood of separation.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on April 27th, 1998, France, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 27]