Beauty of Real Love

Recorded India 2017

nicitaṁ ghana cañcalā-tater
anukūlena dukūla rociṣā
mṛganābhi rucaḥ sanābhinā
mahitāṁ mohana paṭṭavāsasā

“O Kṛṣṇa! You are decorated with a dress that shines like dense rays of lightning! O Rādhe! You are beautified by a bluish silken dress that is as enchanting as musk!”

DIVYA VASANA RUCIḤ  (The Lustre Of Divine Garments):

         Makaranda Kaṇā Vyākhyā:

After praising the sweet luster of the Divine Couple’s bodies, Śrī Rūpa now notices the beauty of Their garments.
Their clothes and ornaments all become as sweet as nectar by touching Their nectarean limbs.

The great poet Karnapura has written in his “Ananda Vṛndāvana Campū (11.169)”: mādhurya sindhum adhi yasya bhaven nipātas tat kevalaṁ madhurimānam urīkaroti” –  “Whatever falls into the ocean of sweetness (touching Govinda’s divine body) becomes only full of sweetness”.

These are not just garments – they are external signs of Their beautiful inner love for Each other! In Gopāla Campū (Pūrva 15,2) Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī writes:

imau gauri śyāmau manasi viparītau bahir api
sphurat tadvad vastrāv iti budha-janair niścitam idam
sa ko’py accha premā vilasad ubhaya sphūrtikatayā
dadhan mūrtibhāvaṁ pṛthag apṛthag apy āvirud abhūt

“Seeing Śrī Rādhā-Śyāma seated on Their throne in Goloka’s nocturnal assembly, Śrī Madhukaṇṭha said: ‘This golden and bluish pair, that sit facing me on Their throne, are reversed both internally and externally. Internally They live in Each other’s hearts, and externally They wear garments the color of Each other’s complexion. Observing this, intelligent persons have ascertained that some kind of indescribable expression of the purest love has decided to manifest as two inseparable forms to enjoy loving pastimes together.’ “

One may ask here: “Is it not deceitful of Them to show one form on the outside and another on the inside?”
To destroy such doubts Śrī Rūpa says here: “By externally wearing blue clothes Śrī Rādhā shows that: ‘Śyāma lives within Me’ and Kṛṣṇa, by wearing yellow clothes, also shows that ‘Gaurāṅgī Rādhā lives within Me!’ 

Here one may argue that: “If Śyāma lives within Gaurī and Gaurī lives within Śyāma, then how can the Two be staying separately?”
To answer this it is said: “Some indescribable love has assumed a tangible form with Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the object and Śrī Rādhā as the subject, and that love has again revealed Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Śrī Rādhā’s heart and Śrī Rādhā in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s heart.”

In this way love has revealed Them in a dual and a non-dual form. The full form of love’s subject is Śrī Rādhā and the full form of love’s object is Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Of them, Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the form of all nectarean flavours and Śrī Rādhā is the form of full ecstatic love, mahā bhāva.
They are called ‘one and different’ because mūrti and prema are nondifferent, and the object and subject of prema are different. The love of Śrī Rādhā for Śrī Kṛṣṇa has Śrī Kṛṣṇa as object and Śrī Rādhā as subject, and the love of Śrī Kṛṣṇa for Śrī Rādhā has Śrī Rādhā as object and Śrī Kṛṣṇa as subject. In this way Their bodies are the object and subject of Their mutual love. The beloved is the vessel and prema is being placed in that vessel.

         Prema wants the object of love to be always nearby and happy with its service, but this is not possible in the extra-marital relationship of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, therefore this Divine Pair always meditates on Each other within Their hearts. But this is not satisfying enough; They want to show it externally also and therefore They wear Each other on the body in the form of Their blue and golden garments, colours that match with Each other’s complexion. When, after conquering many obstacles, They finally have a passionate meeting, Śrīmatī says: tuyā anurāge hām pori nīla śāḍī – “Out of passionate love for You I wear My blue sārī!” and Śyāma says: tuyā anurāge hām pītāmbara dhārī – “Out of passionate love for You I wear My yellow dhotī!” 

Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī now sees the splendour of these love-filled garments and he compares Kṛṣṇa’s clothes with the lightning and Śrī Rādhā’s blue silken garments with musk.

Of course, these garments are incomparible and this is a mere indication. mohanatā anubhavāntaram ācchidya ākarṣitā – The lustre of these garments removes the experience of any other object and causes the viewer to become wonderfully absorbed.

saudāminī dyuti hara,          śyāma aṅge pītāmbara,
jhalamala kore nirantara.
anurāge vinodinī,              aṅgete parilā dhani,
kasturī varaṇa paṭṭāmbara. 

         Śyāma wears a yellow cloth on His limbs that steals the lustre of the lightning and that constantly shimmers, and Vinodinī (delightful Rādhikā) lovingly wears a silken garment with the colour of musk.”

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