Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Entering the Lord’s mind, darling and Beloved devise the wonder of playful delight.
In the water’s sport every reserve disappears, while many graceful games of affection arise.
With lotus hands they fling up water, and the supple companions cast jets from lotus flowers.
Bees fly up humming with the spray; seeing it, even the poetess Sharada begins to dance.
It is as though moons above a city broke apart and serpent-children gathered to plunder their nectar.
Or as though golden cups enclosed the rasa and quick companions crowded together to seize it.
The Lord splashes them again; when the water strikes, it seems that jars filled with nectar burst.
Ramcharan says: so the bond of Kama and Rati is released within the city of Sita’s heart.

In this way lover and beloved play affectionately in the water.
Garlands of joy surge; darling and Beloved laugh and splash. Lip touches lip, and each beholds the beauty of the other’s face.
Wet curling locks mingle; nose-ring and great earrings become entangled, while the companions’ curls, earrings, and bulāq pendants tangle in incomparable beauty.
Twin moons, quick deer, the teachers of serpents, the sun, and Love’s enemy all seem gathered there; serpents and cords are drawn together, abandoning their ancient enmity in overwhelming happiness.
One companion frees the entanglement, clapping and laughing; many sing teasing rāgas, each pleasing the mind and none alien to it.
Joining hand to hand, all dance nimbly upon the water; their moving feet touch and scatter the surface while anklets ring.
Strange ornaments glitter within the pure water like masses of lightning flashing throughout a cloud-filled sky.
Chum-chum, theī-theī—the waves sing as lover and companions move together; the world’s Love grows shy and withdraws while hand-clappers sound.
A few companions of the proper inner form behold this wondrous, incomparable rāsa. Sri Ramcharan asks: how could four blind worldly eyes ever see it?

Many rhythms sound; feet grow quick, and body, hands, and faces become wonderfully agile.
Pearl clusters fall from the anklets, like many moons rising upon a lake of nectar.
Pairs of companions dance with Rama standing between each pair.
Fragrant movements of music and tāṇḍava arise in countless forms.
They sing the six rāgas with their rāginīs, rhythms, and tonal scales.
Rama assumes every companion’s form and enters for the sake of the rāsa.
Sri Jānaki and Raghunandana delight one another’s hearts, while the divine assembly becomes absorbed.
Sri Ramcharan says: every living being there attains supreme bliss.
Although the female companions are boundless, the principal heroines are distinguished by their virtues;
and each individual companion has thousands upon thousands of maidservants.

Ubhaya-prabodhaka Rāmāyaṇa

Composed by Sri Banadas

Mahatma Banadas

Many works by Mahatma Banadas have now been identified. Their distinctive emphasis is spiritual practice—especially knowledge, detachment, devotion, remembrance of the Name, and the life of purity.