Twentieth Sarga: Relishing the Night Pastimes

Twentieth Sarga: Relishing the Night Pastimes

Following the sequence of compositions, the beloved girls beautifully performed song, dance, and instrumental music. After Kṛṣṇa and the girls had sported, each resumed her own garments and appearance, which had been exchanged before, and entered the grove. (1)

Vṛndā gathered dates, plantains, jackfruit, mangoes, rose apples, and other fruits whose sweetness never diminished. Through each fruit's particular beauty and fragrance, the Lord of the mountain praised the tree from which it came. (2)

The companions then brought the delicacies famous among those girls through the camphor pastime and other delights: balls of Love, rolls of bodiless desire, playful wine of nectar, and immortal confections fit for a festival of ambrosia. (3)

Mukunda, whose teeth were white as kunda flowers, tasted each item with His beloved. As laughter danced upon His face, gaining radiance from their smiles, He accepted betel rolls wrapped in excellent golden leaves and offered by the maidservants. (4)

Did the Creator wash two moons in the ocean of blue sweetness and place within them constellations held by affection? Growing moist with love, did they attain the form of the beloved Couple's faces? (5)

Then patience became darkness within Their faces, modesty became a lotus entering blue contraction, the transformations of Love became kumudas blossoming at night, and Her glance attained equality with a moonstone. (6)

'Restless-eyed girl, behold the particles of moonlight falling through exceedingly fine holes in the leaves of these trees as the wind makes them tremble. They seem like people honoring Cupid. (7)

'The moon sent his own rays to repay Vṛndāvana. Does our friendly wind strain them through sieves formed by rows of moving leaves and then respectfully collect only the purest light?' (8)

'Let Us rest for a moment upon this flower bed, fashioned with boundless skill within the grove of wish-fulfilling trees.' Speaking thus and holding His beloved's hand, the reservoir of every art of play shone brilliantly. (9)

When Hari reclined upon the excellent couch with Rādhā's arms bound around His neck, the desires of the maidservants were fulfilled through the blissful service of massaging Their feet. (10)

Two maidservants seated at the end of the bed successively placed the lotus feet of their Lord and Lady upon the golden seats of their own thighs. With drops from their eyes, they seemed to offer water for washing those feet. (11)

Rows of newly arisen shoots of horripilation became their offering of arghya. Yet even those maidservants grew apprehensive as they contemplated the tenderness of the feet, and with their lotus hands seemed only to worship rather than press Them. (12)

They at once prepared fragrance from the fine nectar-paste of musk upon their own breasts. In proper sequence they delighted the Couple with the incense of their sighs, the jeweled lamps of their nails, and garlands formed from their glances. (13)

Making the breasts and hands accepted through touch into offerings of food, they performed a lamp ceremony in the fullness of love with the lamps of their life airs mingled with the moons of their smiles. (14)

Upon tender leaves resting above golden plantain trunks, excellent red lotus buds filled with the humming of rows of bees seemed to dance again and again under the pretext of massaging Their feet. (15)

Other maidservants fanned Them with flower fans, while the ringing of their bracelets sang Their praise. Had Their own embodied glories, described by hosts of poets, become dancers and begun delighting the two sovereigns? (16)

Others stood beside Their faces and placed betel rolls into Their mouths with both hands. The rolls were golden in color and bore portions of the radiance of areca nut, camphor, nutmeg, cloves, and powdered spices. (17)

Did two golden vines repeatedly worship two spotless full moons, bathed in the nectar of their own rays, by taking flower buds within their tender shoots and waving them in ceremony? (18)

'Beloved, send these girls away to sleep. Their eyes are rolling and their bodies are now covered with perspiration. If the fatigue in Your feet has still not subsided, I alone shall hold them for that purpose.' (19)

Merely hearing His statement, the wise maidservants understood that the desired purpose had already been fulfilled. They worshiped the Divine Couple like deities, received the blessing they sought from the temple of the grove, and departed. (20)

Already expert in bathing within the lake at Love's sacred ford, Hari thrilled with horripilation, every radiant limb trembling. Skilled in performing every distinctive rite arising from remembrance, He entered the observance with eagerness. (21)

At the very beginning, the destroyer of Agha sipped the nectar of Her face three times. Through that act alone, faith quickly arose, the rite became complete in every limb, and bodiless Love too became embodied as the flawless sacrifice. (22)

Joyfully arranging many offerings, extending the bond of hope, and removing all obstacles, Love placed the charming Couple together and performed the placing of hands upon the golden, jeweled vessel of Her body. (23)

Drawing the figure of Soma, He worshiped the deity and bestowed the honor of covering the twice-born. As though smiling beneath waves carrying a great burden of bliss, He attained union of His own body with the body of His beloved. (24)

When Rādhā said within Herself, 'How can My companions sport this way through love?' He brought their forms into manifestation, and by Her own desire He delighted with Her through those very expansions. (25)

The companions could not even breathe without seeing Their pastimes, and so they gathered at the lattice windows. One of them said, 'Look at the astonishing condition that has arisen here between the two of Them!' (26)

For a moment Their bodies remained bound by each other's arms and became motionless. Then trembling arose, and crying indistinctly, 'Alas! Alas!' beneath an overpowering flood of feeling, They bathed one another in hot tears. (27)

Another girl exclaimed, 'Alas!' Striking their own palms together, They released the embrace and stood face to face. Yet torrents of tears made Them unable to see one another, and tormented, They grew thin. (28)

The heavy waves of this prema-vaicittya, the experience of separation even in the beloved's presence, created an obstacle to the rasa of Love. Yet do not the riches of deep attachment both delight and torment immediately through their crooked waves of rasa? (29)

After a moment another companion said, 'Friends, do not grieve now. Look upon Them with joy!' As They embraced each other again, those same streams from Their eyes became exceedingly cool. (30)

'Where were You, proud beloved, after abandoning Me?' 'Beloved, why did You ridicule Me by hiding?' Watching the Couple relish such conversation, the companions shone with smiles rising upon their faces. (31)

One companion said, 'Even if questioned by any girl here, this clever friend alone can establish the truth of rasa, for Her own self is illumined by Their moods and She knows everything within Their hearts.' (32)

Burdened by meditation born from separation, each appeared before the other in a sudden vision. They extended Their arms to embrace, and when They experienced actual touch, Their separation subsided. (33)

'Behold the fruit of that separation: longing increased a millionfold, and renewed union swiftly attained abundance through the exceedingly prolonged burden of enjoyment.' (34)

The beloved Couple cast off Their coverings and, from fear of separation, forcibly restrained one another with Their arms. Each seemed intent upon making the other enter within the chamber of the heart. (35)

'I shall enter and sport within this heart where You always hold Me.' Speaking in this way, did They now strive to fulfill that purpose through Their tight embraces? (36)

Their self and consciousness are one, and only Their bodies appear as two. Is this same bodiless Love, foremost among the wise, now swiftly making the two playful lovers one? (37)

'I alone stand lofty in this world, yet these two pitchers seek to conquer even Me. I shall make them small.' Out of such pride, do Her breasts press upon Hari's chest? (38)

Seeing the enmity between his friend the moon and the lotuses, Cupid forcibly brought about this friendship by making them taste the rasa of mutual embraces. (39)

Or is this the joyful embrace of two lotuses rising within this deep, brilliant lake of rasa? The sound heard between them, filled with sighs, is like the humming of bees stirred by a windstorm born from Cupid. (40)

Are the two spotless full moons that arose forever within the creation of Love now battling one another? Around them an increasingly bold mass of youthful darkness surges upward. (41)

'Who placed black pigment here upon this charming moon face, and upon the lotus too? Alas!' Distraught, did He grasp the pair of bimba fruits and color them further with His own attachment? (42)

'How can four bandhūka flowers gather in one place and wrestle as though each would plunder the other's nectar?' As if asking this, King Cupid strikes the scene with white arrows formed from kunda flowers while the companions watch. (43)

Did Cupid bind Śambhu with two fresh nooses of tender shoots and pierce him with crescent arrows? Frightened by this, hundreds of drops from the Gaṅgā fell from him to the earth. (44)

When lightning and cloud, light and dark radiance, rose above one another in succession and Love proudly brought forth his strength, the nets of the companions' eyes became rows of lattices forcibly flooded by waters of joy. (45)

Outside, the maidservants continuously fanned Them with mechanical fans, their own eyes flooded with tears. Unable to see the immeasurable love unfolding at that moment, they became distressed and angry with it. (46)

The moon eagerly drank the wine of a blossoming blue lotus. Unable to tolerate this, did the pair of bees present there at once forcibly drink even the nectar belonging to those two? (47)

Within a cloud a rising, restless sun disc appeared, and a pearl necklace danced in great delight. Two swans, tossed aside, took shelter of a golden row and vigorously played wondrous music. (48)

Then Śrī Madhusūdana produced an unprecedented song dear to the ears. Through it, the vine-like limbs of the connoisseurs in the assembly melted, trembling and taking the guise of perspiration. (49)

The young strands of hair, bearing crookedness and moving restlessly here and there from excessive eagerness, attached themselves to the ears and appeared in each act. Intoxicated, they stood within the lunar disc of the face. (50)

Proud from drinking nectar without restraint, Their fresh armor of bodices shattered, and They employed the moving serpent-nooses of Their arms. Through every increase of fortune, the young Couple's desire to conquer one another continually grew. (51)

As They disputed, each claiming foremost skill in the battle of flower arrows, a certain companion invited fatigue itself to appear. That very moment she brought sleep and settled the quarrel. (52)

I worship Sanātana and Rūpa, who have arisen upon the earth bearing within their hearts the Lord and Lady of Vraja's forest, and the rows of loving companions who forever delight in harmony with the sacred revelation of Their wish-fulfilling pastimes. (53)

I take refuge in the dense cloud of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, who at once destroys the entire expanse of darkness and nourishes the whole universe through successive streams of radiance from countless billions of Cupids. (54)

May this Śrī Lokanātha arise and shine through his abundant rays of mercy. With his illumined glances he repeatedly lifted us from an exceedingly deep well of darkness and showed every direction of the path of his own love. Taking shelter of that path, rich with the jewels of divine pastimes, we too have privately attained Śrī Govardhana. (55)

Thus ends the Twentieth Sarga, entitled 'Relishing the Night Pastimes,' in the great poem Śrī Kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta. The poem Śrī Kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta is complete.