Sunday, April 19, 2009

Shri Radha Kripakataksha Stotra: 10th shloka


Anekmantranaadmanjunoopurarvaskhalat

Samaajraajhansvanshnivachnaatigaurave.

Vilolhemvallreevidambichaaruchankrame,

Kadaa karishyaseeh maan kripakatakshabhaajnam.


Anklets laced with tiny bells adorn Shri Shri Radha's glowing feet and tinkle melodiously. Narrating the enchanting tale of their great good fortune, they resonate with the sound of several mantras. But the incantations are not the ones written in shastras and vedas; they make us ardently long to unite with the realm of passionate love. Its sound has the distinctive trait of taking dedicated devotees to Radha, the Godhead in female form. Thus her loving followers, infatuated by her lotus feet, feel that she controls Krishna with her love and that perfect spiritual life is unattainable without her grace.


'Anekmantranaad' likens the tinkling anklets to a bell, their sweet sound enflames the desire of the individuated soul for union with God. For sages the melody is interpreted as the composer of Saamdhvani (chanting verses of the Saam Veda, one of the three principal vedas or scriptures). But truly speaking this mellifluous resounding tinkle gives the message of some romantic episode. It seems as if a herd of flamingos singing sweetly; detail the grand love-play of Shri Radha-Krishna, which resonates in all directions.


Swans are the chief love messengers of Shri Radha-Krishna.The swan like anklets sounding like the chanting of several mantras...inform the supreme lover of Priyaji's auspicious arrival, as he waits expectantly in some nikunja or bower.Aavat jaat bajavat noopur, soon enough, Krishna the supreme rasika is startled. Priyaji walks with her anklets tinkling...making Krishna ardently long to relish romantic dalliances; his love-struck enigmatic persona gives in to freedom, spontaneity and intense passion.


So the repository of passion,Krishna, peeped out of the shrine-like nikunja and... his eagerly desirous eyes beheld...the beloved coming...her delicate limbs move with some charming breeze tugging at her heart-strings...Mesmerized, the blue-hued god adulated Radha with a fixed gaze...The repository of mischievousness adored her steadily.


'Here she comes, putting to shame an intoxicated elephant's gait...moving delightedly like a golden creeper...the goddess who reigns over my heart...the supreme object of my passionate love...my love incarnate,' exults Krishna...( Shri Radha is the very embodiment of that irresistibly attractive feminine principle towards whom the masculine power encompassed in the god is drawn.) The tinkling anklets are not quiet after the love- message...but chirp spiritedly.


Alluding to the rush of romantic sentiments,spirited antics and amorous frolics of Shri Radha-Krishna as they move into the mazes and mysteries of love, the anklets broadcast their glory with joyous abandon...and the enraptured lover and his beloved are eagerly desirous to develop an all-consuming intimacy with each other.('We have two bodies but the soul is identical...I created you for the sake of joy,' Krishna tells Radha.)


An enchanting melody constantly brings the frenzied lovers close. Construed as the musical instrument of love-play, it instinctively absorbs the skilled lovers in this terrifying rush of love and Shri Radha-Krishna are helpless. Spurred by a charming breeze, Radha the golden creeper snuggles in the blue-hued tree's (Krishna) loving arms; delighting his impassioned form.


The composer makes a prayer,' The one whose tinkling anklets wind around her lotus feet, giving rise to several chantings of mantras (incantations) as if flamingos are singing their glories...whose moving delicate limbs seem like waving golden creepers, living sentient beings...when will Shri Radhika, supremely tender-limbed, and compassionate, our softhearted svamini or devotional ideal...be moved and make me a worthy recipient of her grace or favour?'

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