Friday, May 8, 2009

The Two Circle Dances
















viharati vane rādhā
sādhāraṇa-praṇaye harau
vigalita-nijotkarṣād
īrṣyā-vaśena gatā'nyataḥ
kvacid api latā-kuñje
guñjan-madhu-vrata-maṇḍalī-
mukhara-śikhare līnā

dīnāpy uvāca rahaḥ sakhīm

When Radha saw Hari frolick in the forest,
treating all the women with equal affection,
she felt her own special status melt away.
Jealousy and rage arose in her, and off she went.

Somewhere, in a vine covered bower,
where bees buzzed in circles overhead,
she hid, and forlorn in her solitude,
began confiding in a friend.

kaṁsārir api saṁsāra-vāsanā-baddha-śṛṅkhalām
rādhām ādāya hṛdaye tatyāja vraja-sundarīḥ

Krishna, the enemy of Kamsa,
took Radha to his heart, knowing she
is the link that bundles all his worldly wants,
and left the other girls behind.

itas tatas tām anusṛtya rādhikām
anaṅga-bāṇa-vraṇa-khinna-mānasaḥ
kṛtānutāpaḥ sa kalinda-nandinī-
taṭānta-kuñje viṣasāda mādhavaḥ

Madhava looked for Radhika everywhere,
his mind burning with the wounds
inflicted by the arrows of Cupid.

Overcome with remorse, he came to a bower
by the banks of the Yamuna
and began to lament.


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And so the eternal cycle begins.
What is the difference between
the Rasas of the autumn and the spring?

The first tells of God and the jiva,
the second of God and his hladini;
the former, an archetype of the spiritual path,
the latter, of the divine comedy.

Both are circle dances,
revolving in opposite senses:
The Bhagavata is the circle without,
Gita Govinda, the one within.

Krishna is the axis of the outer,
Radha, of the inner.

Together, They are
the center of both.


==================================

Without the balance of the two circles,
like unaligned gears, they cause
the machine to wobble and shake:
There is a frenzy of duality,
a great missing of the point,
a great failure of madhurya.

Become a god to worship God.
While God becomes a man.
Whirl a while in both those circles,
but look for the eye of the storm.


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Revised and updated from HERE, where there is also some additional info.

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