Hari-katha inspired by the Guru-varga
All the gopis were burning in the fire of separation. They talked to the swan, “Hey Raja-hamsa, Krsna forget all of us and is now staying happily staying in Mathura. We want to send a message to Krsna. You should listen attentively and then go to Krsna and request Him on our behalf. The people of Madhupuri appear to be very sweet. They are nicely decorated and are smiling, but they do not think of anybody else than themselves. The Vrsnis and Yadavas are very cruel. If you go there, you should be careful not to forget us. There is a lot of opulence and facilities to enjoy in Madhupuri and therefore people do not come back once they go there. Be aware of this and don’t go there to enjoy and forget us. Whoever resides in Madhupuri will soon become hardhearted and selfish. Madhupuri is near Vraja-mandala, but there is no foot dust of the Vrajavasis, and therefore there is no sweetness and softness.”
Lalita-devi then blessed the swan, “Raja-hamsa, your journey will be very easy and without any obstacles. May all auspiciousness be with you. When you go to Krsna, don’t contemplate on Him or chant His names, otherwise He will steal your heart and keep you with Him. Therefore the Vrajavasis only think about Srimati Radharani and chant Her names. Krsna’s name is so powerful that the world will become void to anybody who chants it. However after someone received darsana of Krsna, he will become intoxicated and unaware of his external surrounding. When you will fly in the sky on your way to Mathura.”
Lalita-devi continued, “When Krsna left, the cruel Akrura did not give a chance to anybody to meet with Krsna. He stole Krsna away from the Vrajavasis and left very quickly. The Yadu-vamsi now acquired Krsna and bound Him to them. Krsna never remembers Vraja-dhama or the Vrajavasis. Please be careful that this does not happen to you.”
When Lalita-devi spoke in this way, tears streamed from her eyes. Seeing this love, the hearts of the sakhis and manjaris melted and everyone began to cry so much that they finally fainted. The swan looked at the state of the Vraja-devis and thought, “It would not be proper to leave them while they are in such distress.”
The swan saw the tracks left by Akrura’s chariot and thought, “How cruel Akrura is to take Krsna to Mathura. I will follow these tracks to Mathura. I should be careful not to lose my heart following these tracks to Mathura. I will not forget the names of Lalita-devi and Srimati Radharani.” He was chanting, “Radhe Radhe, hey Lalite, hey Visakhe!” He looked at the gopis. Some of them were senseless while others were crying streams of tears that resembled the water that streams down from Yamunotri and forms the dark-colored Yamuna that flows via Vraja to Mathura.
The swan thought, “If I will go there to serve Lalita-devi. I shall not eat until I brought back Krsna. Once I return, I will take the blessings of the Vraja-devis, and then sip the water of the Yamuna and eat the stems, seeds, and honey of the lotus flowers that grow in the Yamuna. I will not eat anything other than this.”
Lalita-devi said, “O Rajahamsa, you do not know how cruel Akrura is. He took Krsna from Nandagrama to Mathura.” Sometimes Lalita-devi chanted the name of Krsna and cried out loudly and became senseless. She could no longer tolerate this pain. She requested the swan, “Please take the path the vraja-gopis followed as Krsna got taken away on Akrura’s chariot.”
When the vraja-gopis followed this path and reached the Yamuna, they did not proceed one step further. There they started to chant, “Hey Govinda, hey Damodara, hey Madhava, where are You. Why don’t You look at Srimati Radharani, the Vraja-devis, and the Vrajavasis? Why are You so cruel? Even the sun is sad that Srimati Radharani is being deprived of Your darsana, and therefore he is no longer distributing his sunlight and sun-heat. The sun is crying so much that he closes his eyes and only tears come from them. Therefore there are many clouds that always cover him and shower rain. The land has been overcome by darkness. Don’t You think about this? Everybody is suffering from separation. While You are there, the residents of Madhupuri are very happy and because of their selfishness they do not think about the Vrajavasis who are devoid of such selfishness and always eager to serve. The Vrajavasis were serving and worshiping You for a long time. Is this the deserved result they get for been so devoted to You? What will be the state of Vraja-bhumi if You will keep depriving us of Your darsana?”
Before Krsna left to Mathura, He had a sweet relation with the kadama and tamala trees and all other trees in the gardens and forests of Vrndavana. They were closer than relatives and dear friends. All the residents of Vraja-bhumi were very happy having the association of Krsna, and nobody thought that He will be so cruel that He would leave and reject them. When somebody attains some wealth after suffering from poverty for a long time, he gets happy, but when this wealth gets stolen away again, he will suffer even more.
Lalita-devi said, “Hey Hamsaraja, you do not know the secrecy of prema. This love cannot be shown to anyone. The day Krsna stole the clothes of the Vraja-devis, He climbed up a kadamba tree and called them from there. In this way He made them all surrendered to Him. Whatever He says everyone follows. The Vrajavasis never did anything opposed to His service, but He rejected all of us. What fault did we do? He never mentioned that He was displeased with us, and just left us at once.”
Lalita-devi and the other gopis came back to their external senses and saw that they were near rasa-sthali. Lalita-devi remembered, “Krsna was displaying His cruelty before, when He disappeared from rasa-sthali.” She said to the swan, “Hey Rajahamsa, the creepers, plants, and trees present in rasa-sthali heard the flute that Krsna kissed during the rasa-dance. Krsna has a good friendship with this Murali, but He even left Murali who is now also crying and thinking what faults he may have made for Krsna to leave. Murali was serving Krsna by calling all of us, but not even he got left behind by Krsna. The Vrajavasis have a sweet friendship with Murali, and he distributes all the messages and understands our hearts. Krsna left Murali, as well as His peacock feather, His pitambara, and His vaijayanti-mala. Whatever Vraja-bhumi presented to Him, He now left and rejected. Krsna is now no more called Vraja-vilasi, He is Mathura-vilasi.”
Lalita-devi is speaking words and as she is remembering these things, she begins crying. Srimati Radharani was unconscious and never opened Her eyes. Her body was hot as if burning.
Lalita-devi said to Hamsaraja, “The rasa-sthali is a secret, pure, and sweet place. We all served there with heart-felt love. When the rasa festival took place, Vrnda-devi arranged kunjas made with varied forest flowers such as madhavi, malati, beli, cameli, juti, mallika, and hena. When Krsna entered this most peaceful and beautiful forest vines, He forgot that He is Parabrahma, situated in Vaikuntha as Lord Narayana. This very rasa-stahli is now completely lifeless. The sakhis cannot go back there for if they see the present condition and remember how it used to be, they would give up their bodies. They offered their hearts to Krsna who drank their nectarean love. He stole all our hearts and is now gone.”
Lalita-devi said, “O swan, no one is at fault for the lamentable situation we are in. I request you to go on your way without delay. Do parikrama of Vraja-mandala.”
Krsna-lila-bhumi is a holy place and pure outside as well as inside. There is no duplicity or selfishness and everybody only acts for Krsna’s happiness. In spite of this, Lalita-devi continued, “One who is virtuous by nature would not be rejected by Krsna. We must be lacking qualification and purity. Our senses and intelligence are not pleasing to Krsna, and therefore we are deprived of His association. He must be much happier where He is now, but how can we tolerate being separated from Him?
“O Hamsa, following this way you will pass by Giriraja Govardhana half way to Mathura. Flying by you should stop and rest for a while at the foot of Govardhana. He always listened to the flute of Krsna and invited us all to enjoy pastimes in His kunjas and caves. For the pleasure of Madana-Mohana, Govardhana would manifest pastures, waterfalls and ponds, shade, creepers, fruits trees, and minerals. Krsna forgot Giriraja Govardhana.
“Krsna is rasika-sekara. He himself never uses cakra, sanka, gada, or padma. But Giriraja Govardhana has many lotus flowers in his ponds and he is always protected by cakra sudarsana. In the absence of Krsna who will help and protect us now? Now that Giriraja Govardhana is lamenting in separation from Krsna, pieces of His body are slowly falling apart. Indra had the desire to destroy Govardhana, but while Krsna was here, it was not possible to even break one of his hairs.”
“Giriraja Govardhana is now weak and shrunken, and the tamal trees at Govardhana are bent down because of their separation. Weeping that Krsna left and rejected them, they are practically lifeless and devoid of strength to stand upright. None of them talks or plays with each other. Yamuna-devi is also suffering so much that her water became boiling hot from the heat of her separation. Since Krsna has left to Mathura the grass in Vraja-mandala is dried out and the animals in Vrndavana are no longer moving and playing. They do not eat fruits from the trees or drink water from Manasi-ganga. The tamal trees used to give shade with their leaves, but now they have no more leaves and are drying out. Everybody is burning in this fire of separation. Oh Hamsaraja, look at the scene in Vraja-mandala. Can you see how everybody is immersed in separation? When you see the moods the Vrajavasis are in, you will understand them and your body will heat up as well from the heat of separation. Then you can go to Krsna and when He looks at you, He will understand what condition the Vrajavasis are in. Otherwise, if you go to Krsna with a cool mind, He will not understand the urgency of your request.”
Lalita-devi continued to speak to the swan, “Hey Hamsaraja, the body of Giriraja Govardhana is decorated with a garden of kadamba trees. Look at this garden where Gopi-kanta Krsna used to sit and dance and in this way distribute rasa. He is not miserly and helps everybody. This kadamba garden used to be ornamented with rasa-sakti, but now it is dry and devoid of rasa. Giriraja Govardhana, Radha-kunda, Syama-kunda, Vrndavana, Yamuna-pulina, kadamba gardens, and nikunja-bhavana where all very pleased to serve the supreme lover and His beloved by facilitating places for the distribution of rasa, but now all these lila-sthalis are no longer lovely places and nobody is every going there. Ujjvala-rasa is absent in these dark places and no realizations about one’s eternal spiritual form can be obtained by going there. There is no cinmaya-rasa or rasananda.”
[CC-by-NDNC Bhakta Bandhav]