The Path of Divine Love
I had the unique privilege and pleasure of witnessing and enjoying the musical play Radha bhakti [Radha’s devotion] that Baba wrote. It was performed by the children studying at the Vedashastru Pathashala [one of Swami’s schools], during Dassara [festival of the triumph of good over evil]. He had composed the songs and He had Himself trained the children to sing and act their roles. In the play, Baba has depicted the path of divine love that is referred to in Hindu texts as madhura bhakti. This path developed to a great extent in Bengal [an Indian state] and spread from there to all provinces of India. It was extolled and elaborated and exemplified by Chaitanya, Chandidas, Vidyapati, Jayadeva, and many other poets, singers, and saints. They shared the nectar with mankind and gained immortality for themselves.
Baba has declared, in the tradition established by other proponents, that Radha [Krishna’s devotee] is the symbol of prakriti [nature] and Krishna is the Purusha [universal consciousness]. The Lord and master is the charmer-with-the-flute, of whom it is said, “His music is sweet; His flute is sweet; and His every thought, word, and act is sweet beyond compare.” Radha is ever looking for Him, seeking Him in her mind’s eye, for as Purusha He is the very breath, substance, and sustenance of Radha, who is prakriti, the manifested world. The love that binds prakriti to Purusha is thus eternal, enlightening, elevating, and elemental. It is the purest and the most powerful form of devotion or bhakti.
Poets and saints plunge into the translucent waters of song when they taste that love. The very contemplation of the virtue, beauty, and glory of Krishna sends them into such ecstasy that every word that they use in painting His splendor is resonant with supreme ananda [bliss]. “Anandaambhudhi varadhanam prathi padam,” [He expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life] says Chaitanya. They see Krishna as the only Purusha; the rest are all stri, feminine as prakriti is.
To the aspirants adept in madhura bhakti, the world is transmuted into Brindavan, the home of inexhaustible peace and in expressible sweetness of a magnificent temple of the Lord. As Baba writes in the drama, Radha bhakti, “He is all forms, He is in all places; no name is alien to Him; and no place is foreign to Him.” “In the love of Krishna, all beings are enveloped in one supreme kinship. They see their Lord in the setting sun, in the rising moon, in the refreshing breeze playing with the tendrils of a flower-laden creeper, in the streaks of lightening adorning the dark shimmering clouds, and in everything grand, awe-inspiring, good, simple, and sweet; infact, Krishna is in every atom of the universe.”
Each flower that blooms is, for example, a lovely letter that the Lord has sent out of His infinite love to Ravindranath Tagore! When every molecule is inundated with His infinite glory, the bhakta [devotee] finds no evil, cruelty, hatred, and poison in this world. It is this that made Meera quaff quietly and with a smile the cup of poison that the Rana [her husband] sent to bring about her death. When the whole world is filled with love, insults cannot cause a groan, falls do not make one falter, and burdens are gladly borne. Whether you win or lose, you are the loved one and He the Lord; there is no reason to feel thankful or sad; He knows, He gives, and He takes. Chains that bind become garlands that gladden; burdens that overwhelm become bouquets that emanate joy.
Meera is the outstanding example of madhura bhakti. Many of the rest are males and so, they could not rise to the height of love that she reached. Meera sang of the pangs of separation from the master, as much as the thrill of communion with Him. She sang, “I shall be born as Krishna and you as Radha; then you will know the agony of the soul striving to reach you.” She sang, “You cannot escape me, Lord, for, I shall be with you, whatever may happen. If you are a lake, I am the fish in its depths; if you are the green hill, I am the peacock among the trees; if you are a tree, I am the bird taking shelter on its bough; if you are a pearl, I am the string that goes through it; and if you are the moon, I am the chakora bird reveling in the cool comforting rays. If you are gold, I am the glitter; if you are the Lord, I am the attendant; I shall be where you are, inseparable, ever.” Thus she widens and deepens love into a universal garment.
No other thought or idea can intrude into the mind. Meera sings of the gopis [milk maidens] who went along the streets of Mathura, with the curd pots on their head; they were so fully immersed in Krishna, that they could not cry out, “curds” to sell their ware and bring out the customers from their houses; they knew only one name, and they cried out that name: “Giridhari [another name of Krishna]! Giridhari!”
Bhaktas of this path will not relish the advaitic [non-dual] awareness of Godhead. They are only filled with ananda [bliss] when they feel themselves instruments dear to the Lord. They long to sing the name of the Lord; they extol the heart that is saturated with the sweetness of that name as ananda-dhamam, the abode of bliss. They know that the cool showers of His praise alone can quench the agony of worldly toil and travail.
~ Chathurvedi NarasimhaSastry
(A translation from Telugu)
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, January 1967
