Fourteenth Sarga: Relishing the Water-Sport Pastime

Fourteenth Sarga: Relishing the Water-Sport Pastime

As lotus-eyed Kṛṣṇa wandered with lotuslike Rādhā through the lovely summer forest, He saw Madhumaṅgala and asked, 'Friend, why have you remained here alone for so long, deprived of rasa and abandoning Us, upon the ground beside this mango and jackfruit grove?' Madhumaṅgala replied as follows. (1)

'You consider Yourself a great connoisseur of rasa. Therefore I challenge You today: tell me, what is rasa? Let these venerable mango trees, truly praised by the twice-born birds, serve as witnesses and judge both Your learning and mine.' (2)

'Friend, purchased by the rolling eyes of the women of Vraja, You roam fruitlessly through forests of blossoming mālatī and mallikā flowers. Yet You are proclaimed the foremost connoisseur of rasa. Indeed, when someone follows the path of the famous, even his faults shine as virtues.' (3)

'As for me, I take shelter of jackfruit and mango trees and make my belly a reservoir of juice, yet in Your proud opinion I possess no rasa. If I wander behind You from forest to forest tormented by hunger, perhaps I too shall acquire the reputation for connoisseurship that You have created.' (4)

'Vṛndāvana alone bears incomparable fruit unattainable in the three worlds, and You proclaim Yourself eternally fond of sporting here. Yet You have become wholly absorbed in just the rising nectar of one particular fruit. Friend, this alone causes me sorrow; nothing else does.' (5)

'On a summer day this single forest beneath the banyan tree abundantly delights all my senses with the juice of cool cascades, breezes dancing over lotuses, the sweet fragrance of mallikā flowers, fresh palāśa leaves, and the charming calls of forest pigeons. (6)

'Kṛṣṇa, this array of fruits is emerald-green outside, bears a radiance that shames the color of lotuses, and is filled within with liquid nectar. Its fragrance, softness, and sound have earned it the very name mango, the abode of rasa, and have instantly made all my senses intensely thirsty.' (7)

Vṛndā said, 'Mādhava, look ahead. After passing these radiant forests, whose splendor resembles fresh jewels in the crown of the three worlds, behold this grove, the ground of all Your pastimes. Even the speech of the sovereign among great poets seems unable to describe it.' (8)

Filled with delight, Vṛndā spoke these words, whose nectar was like moonlight producing a vast lake for their rising thirst. With rasa leading the way and great eagerness awakening, the two beloveds reached Their two ponds, which had become homes for Their own pastimes. (9)

Among the two, Rādhā's lake possesses even greater fame. In due order, rows of groves belonging to Lalitā and the other companions surround it. In the eight directions they bear the individual names of the guardians of wealth, death, Indra, the waters, fire, blood, the wind, and Śiva. (10)

At every moment the rows of forest guardians worship the lake, adorning it with flowers, jewels, mirrors, and powerful archways. There the foremost playful Couple enjoy honey festivals, secluded swinging, flower battles, mock combat, diving, and games upon both water and land. (11)

There They taste hundreds of excellent fruits that humble the pride of nectar, play dice with mutual teasing, enjoy many kinds of laughter and dancing, relish the rasa of poetry, and enact diverse moods of loving anger and reconciliation. Thus the lake is always an abode of beauty that enchants every eye and mind. (12)

Each of its four banks bears stairways made from different jewels, and between them are further descents fashioned in sequence from other gems. On either side are courtyards shaded by pairs of trees, and above them stand four pavilions fitted with swings. (13)

In the direction of the lord of wealth, a bridge extends from the bathing place toward the center of the lake. There a spotless moonstone residence shines, surrounded by lovely groves. During the hot season, Rādhā rests there happily with the lifter of the mountain, laying Her younger sister Anaṅga-mañjarī, whose name the place bears, nearby. (14)

In the southeastern direction, a golden bridge connects the two lakes and provides the setting for pastimes at all their bathing places. Beyond it lies the great Ariṣṭa-kuṇḍa, unequaled upon earth and surrounded by a garland of groves accepted by Subala and the other friends. (15)

Peacocks adorned with splendid trains dance in intoxication upon the bank. Female swans call sweetly upon the water, praising the excellence of melody. Crowds of bees wander through the sky with spotless humming. Seeing this extraordinary scene, the lotus-eyed Lord said: (16)

'Flocks of cuckoos, lapwings, and cātakas, assemblies of swans, rows of parrots, and groups of green pigeons all sing at once, yet each in its own mode. With rasa they make even My ears apprehend a harmony possessing sixfold meaning.' (17)

A certain bee continually drinks from blossoming fresh mālikā, tender mallikā and yūthikā, lotuses, kuruṇṭaka, excellent kunda, and rows of vines. Like a householder with many wives who observes the vow of visiting each in her proper season, he approaches them one after another every day. (18)

'Beautiful girl, the dense array of trees and vines surrounding Your lake on every side interlace their hundreds of vast, high branches overhead. They cover the midday sun so perfectly that none of his rays can touch the water. (19)

'Yet breezes enter freely from the four directions through the four uncovered gateways, constantly seeking and obtaining the fragrance of the generous lotuses. Even when threatened by the renewed bhabha humming of the lordly swarms of bees, they never abandon their gentleness. (20)

'This lovely lake resembles You: its face is a blossoming lotus, its eyes are lively, bending fish, its charming smile is the fine foam born from rising waves of sweetness, its graceful braid is a circling swarm of bees, and its beauty ripples like a bodice loosened at the breasts. (21)

'Beloved, You are always the Yamunā, a river of amorous rasa. At times Sarasvatī arises within You and fills the sacred texts with rasa. Again and again You appear upon My shoulder as My own Narmadā, giver of delight. Yet You are always this lake, revealing the rise of complete fullness. (22)

'Therefore, from deep affection I shall wash the cloud-bright circle of cloth upon Your lovely hips with dense streams of water.' As the destroyer of Madhu spoke and pulled Her hand, making Her bracelets ring and showering radiance from His teeth, His beloved laughed with delight. (23)

'This is no lake. She is a stone of extreme contrariness toward the enemy of Agha. Leave her and take Him elsewhere.' Saying this, the forest guardians forcibly freed Rādhā from the moon of Vraja's hand and led Her to another place, where they dressed Her and the others in fine garments suited to water play. (24)

The bee of Hari's eye slipped secretly through gaps in the rows of leaves and seized the budding lotuses of Her breasts. Her limbs uncovered, His beloved cast startled glances in every direction, suspecting that bee everywhere, and wrapped Herself in fine Chinese silk. (25)

Pulling one another in their restlessness, the girls swayed like vines shaken by the mighty wind of bodiless Love and fell into the lake. The beloveds, fond of dense rasa, began a contest rich with flowing delight, while their eyes drank the beauty of each other's limbs and they appeared wholly licked by Love. (26)

With hands linked together, the beautiful girls gently pushed the water and created an increasingly joyful garland of round waves resembling their breasts. Hari stood at the center of their broad circle, shining with a lovely smile whose radiance conquered the central whorl of a thousand-petaled lotus. (27)

'O destroyer of Agha, for the sake of seeing and touching those hard-to-renounce breasts, You constantly cause the respectable women of Vraja to stain their family honor. Now those breasts have emerged from the water and become readily accessible. Today delight both Your eyes and the palms of Your hands with them.' (28)

Their minds agitated by the elephant of Love, the women answered as they had been told, 'Yes.' Then the beloved Lord asked, 'Are these not those breasts?' With extraordinary lightness He placed His lotus hands both upon the water and upon their chests. (29)

The deer-eyed women of Vraja then withdrew and stood upon the bank, while the two restless fish of their great eyes continued playing in the water. Eager to learn the lovers' skill in the water battle colored by Love's intoxication, Kundavallī at once spoke. (30)

'You, dark as a cloud, are the water-bearer, while these beautiful girls bear water in their hands. O Hari, wage a water battle with the young women, moment by moment. Dear friends, as the two sides strive for victory, successively exchange the roles of agent and object between them.' (31)

When Mādhava asked, 'What did you say?' Kundavallī, confused before her teacher, recited the words in reverse. The beautiful-browed girls exclaimed, 'Only truth has suddenly emerged! Alas, today Sarasvatī herself has come under your control, auspicious lady, and has made the order otherwise.' (32)

'If I win after the wager is made, I shall take the role of agent by the strength of My arms, and you will openly enjoy the happiness you desire. But if fate makes Me the defeated object, where shall I flee to find relief from the suffering I must undergo?' (33)

'First tell us what the wager will be.' Thus addressed by the destroyer of Agha, Nāndīmukhī respectfully stated the rule: 'At the beginning, the stake is recorded from memory. Then the possessor's wealth is seized, and finally the victor firmly binds the defeated person.' (34)

'We are the possessors, and our abundant wealth is our lockets, waist bells, bracelets, and other ornaments. The binding will be accomplished with the serpent-nooses of arms.' Hearing their beloved's words, the dear girls shook the charming bows of their restless eyebrows and uttered countless cries of defiance. (35)

With both hands they repeatedly released their fingers, gathered water in closed palms, and then discharged it with pressure from their wrists. Standing on every side, the beloved girls pierced Him with streams like arrows issuing by themselves from the mouths of quivers shaped like red lotuses. (36)

Observing the rules, He moved lightly in every direction and repeatedly loosed the all-facing arrows of Love from His face. Though alone, by His strength He simultaneously defeated hundreds of thousands of beloved girls, like a chariot warrior overcoming foot soldiers. Frightened, they retreated from Him. (37)

'Defeated! Truly defeated! Hī, hī! O cowherd girls whose pride has proved fruitless, why have each of you fled and taken shelter behind your dense companions? Friend, overpower them, strip away their lockets, waist bells, and bracelets, seize them, and place them upon the palms of My hands.' (38)

'Today I shall quickly sell these in Mathurā and bring back a most pleasing abundance of sugar candy.' When the brāhmaṇa boy standing on the bank said this, Lalitā shook her forefinger and threatened him: 'You crooked fellow, stay where you are! Stay there!' (39)

Then Madhusūdana approached the lotuslike girls and forcibly drank from them. Entering with strength even the cage formed by the arrows of their sidelong glances, He seized their tinkling jeweled ornaments amid the great tumult of doe-eyed girls, peacocks, and cuckoos. (40)

In the hand-to-hand and nail-to-nail battle of Love that followed, the accumulated modesty and fear of the girls were submerged beneath dense waves of rasa. After three or four moments they slipped from the binding serpents of one another's arms and shone as they struck their beloved with cut lotus flowers for weapons. (41)

Then the young women approached Nāndīmukhī. Their bellies resembled tender leaves trembling with their rapid breathing, and their faltering voices carried choked syllables. Though their upper garments had been taken by their beloved and their ornaments were gone, they bore an immense sweetness as they began to complain. (42)

Covering their bodice-less, nail-marked breasts with both arms, their faces anointed with the script of long, motionless locks, and their moon-crested heads bound by fierce nooses disguised as lotus fibers, they appeared not as a gathering of lotus women but as the very army of Love. (43)

'Nāndi, why did crooked conduct arise while we were playing with this lawless person?' At the young women's words, she called out, 'Lifter of Govardhana, why did You act unjustly?' The thousand-faced Lord at once came before her and boldly replied. (44)

'Today, as the victor, I went to collect the wager. What offense did I commit by smelling a row of golden lotuses plainly covered by bees, or by playfully drawing toward Me and holding with both hands a pair of cakravāka birds?' (45)

'Hari, if You speak no falsehood, these angry cowherd girls bear witnesses upon their own lips and rows of breasts: the wounds You made.' He replied, 'Believe Me, Nāndi, these girls are caskets of deceit. Or, if I unknowingly committed an offense, let its blame be considered very small.' (46)

'At that very moment this entire assembly of noble girls loudly introduced themselves to Me: These are our faces, and these indeed are our breasts. They did not forbid Me at all. Why do they now become angry with one who merely pretends?' (47)

'Let the quarrel cease. Enough. Play again for the wager. But what skill can there be merely in the croaking of water frogs?' Thus challenged, they struck the water and produced many kinds of instrumental sounds in sequences of varied rhythms and dances. (48)

As the echoes along the bank surpassed the roar of clouds, flocks of cātakī birds wheeled about. The brāhmaṇa boy cried, 'Hī, hī!' and joyfully beat time at his side, dancing together with peacocks maddened by graceful calls. (49)

Bees moved repeatedly through the sky, praising them with humming, while the cloud-bearing trees joyfully poured uninterrupted streams of tears in the guise of honey. Completing Their water pastimes in the lake, the oceans of rasa came to the bank and at once shone as rows of maidservants attended Them. (50)

Entering the jeweled residence, They affectionately fed one another rows of mangoes, jackfruits, and other fruits brought by the forest guardians, fruits that put nectar to shame. Cupid then suddenly engaged Them in tasting the wine upon the coverings of each other's teeth, Their lips. (51)

Their sweet bodily ponds, every limb filled to overflowing with the nectar of beauty, had sprinkled one another with rasa and grown tired from the exuberance. They rested upon a tender flower bed while the maidservants attended Their bodies with betel, fans, water, mirrors, splendid adornment, and massage. The beloved Couple slept for a moment. (52)

Thus ends the Fourteenth Sarga, entitled 'Relishing the Water-Sport Pastime,' in the great poem Śrī Kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta.