Kanha Graduates/ Gopastami.

"Krishna Govinda Govinda Gopal Nandlal...."HH Lokanath Maharaja's kirtan streams from the speakers. Its a dream come true to actually celebrate Gopastami and dress up Srimati Radharani as a Gopa. This Kartika, the deities seemed to have understood my pleas for extra mercy and we were were surrounded by a host of transcendental visitors. First came Gaura Nitai from one devotee who was away on yatra, They are dressed in pink in the picures, then came two laddu Gopals, from another devotee, and then twice this Kartika, Radha Vrindavanchandra, Nitai Gaurasundar and laddu Gopal visited...to give us some extra mercy. In Kaliyuga the most fallen get the most mercy. Along with our own Big Jagannath, little Jagannath, the Salagram Shilas and Nimai Nitai, the whole house wore a festive look...it was as if a host of stars had converged to witness a graduation ceremony of the most loved cowherd boy, KRSNA. Our Acharyas say that on Gopastami day,Krishna received the honor of grazing cows. He coaxes his parents to let Him become responsible for the cows and finally wins their approval and graduates from herding calves to cows. My reflection and meditation on this festival was the subject of Eagerness.The pastimes of the Lord, Srila Prabhupada said are like a sweetball, anywhere you bite in it is sweet. Srimati Radharani,the epitome of service, the topmost devotee, displays her eagerness to witness this pastime, so much so that she exchanges clothes with Krishna's cowherd friend Subala and appears at the graduation ready to assist Krishna in His cowherding pastimes. In some temples, Srimati Radharani's lotus feet are visible for darshan on this specific day. The eagerness of Srimati Radharani set me praying at Her lotus feet for a drop of that same eagerness to participate and serve in the pastimes of Krishna be it in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the alluring Nikunjas of Vrindavan, in the pastures of Gokula or in forests of Vrindavan. They set me praying to Gurudeva and Srila Prabhupada to be enthusiastic to serve the mission of Lord Caitanya without any personal preference and to do what is pleasing to Them. we also prayed to the cows to bless us so that we may eternally follow Krishna, bound by His ropes of love, waiting for his call, for a pat on the nose, to run gleefully to Him with tails waving in the air like flags of an army band. Here is a small passage from Srila Jiva Goswamipad's Gopal Champu which describes the unique unparalleled beauty of Radha and Krishna: I have no power to describe how Shri Krishna has all splendor, all handsomeness, all sweet fragrance, and all soft and delicate grace. Is He decorated by ornaments, or is He Himself the ornament that makes the ornaments look beautiful? Are similes and metaphors to spoken comparing Him to other beautiful things, or should beautiful things be described by comparing them to Him? Is He perceived by the eyes and other senses, or is He the creator the eyes and other senses? He does not walk on the path of being understood by the speculative activities of the material mind. Of Shri Krishna it may be said, "Shri Krishna's face is like Shri Krishna's face. Nothing can compare to it." In this way the ananvaya-upama metaphor may happily be used to describe Shri Krishna. As it was said of Shri Krishna's face, so it may also be said, "Shri Krishna's eyes are like Shri Krishna's eyes. Nothing can compare to them." It may also be said, "Shri Krishna's face defeats the lotus flower." It may also be said, "the effulgence of Shri Krishna's teeth is like Shri Krishna's gentle smile." Or it may also be said, "Shri Krishna's gentle smile is like the effulgence of Shri Krishna's teeth." These statements mean, "Shri Krishna's splendor eclipses all other splendors. This kind of metaphor is called "upameyopamana". With this figure of speech it is asserted that Shri Krishna is more glorious than all else and thus cannot be rightly compared to anything but Himself. It may also be said, "Shri Krishna's face reminds us of Shri Radha's face. It is like a duplicate of Shri Radha's face." Or it may also be said, "Shri Krishna's eyes remind us of Shri Radha's Eyes. "In this way Shri Krishna's glorious handsomeness is described by the verbal ornament called "smarana-alankara". Still, Shri Krishna is so glorious He makes us forget all verbal ornaments. He is a kingdom of glorious handsomeness. He shines with great splendor.

Here is a poem by my daughter Vrinda...
Govinda, The Lover of cows.

  

श्रीमती राधिका के चरण दर्शन.

Gopala, Govinda, the keeper of cows
Four different colored cows you call,
Sunrise to dusk you watch them all!
Moo, Ma, Mooo they say in return
Govinda the lover of cows,

Its a call and response Kirtan!

;

Nitai Gaura Nataraj

Its a long while since i blogged, though there have been many things to write about, i have stayed away, partly because i was busy and also partly because i just did not feeling like opening my heart out through the blog. Just as the elephant has two sets of teeth, the tusks and the actual teeth, i have been blogging in my mind, storing away all the treasures and gifts in the abyss of my brain and have been putting up pictures and miscellaneous stuff on the virtual blog..But recently devotees have been pushing me to write and share my thoughts again and this was approved by Gurudeva. In a class on Harinam Cintamani given during the holy month of Kartik, a few years ago, Gurudev mentions that in Kartik, one must read and share their realizations or even whatever they have been reading with others, therefore this post..

GURU IS ALWAYS RIGHT. A devotee family aspiring for HH Janananda Swami Maharaja, brought home new Gaura Nitai deities...All the expert artists who paint deities were away, so i ended up with the seva of painting the deities. HH Janananda Maharaja had named them, but except for him and Subal prabhu, no one knew the names. We have nimai nitai, nitai nawadwipchandra, nitai nadiabihari, nitai gaurasundar, nitai gaurachandra, in our congregation, so we were wondering what the names of these deities are going to be. Wanting to get into the right frame of mind before i paint the deities i decided to ask subal prabhu for the names. Though i did not want to breach the pact between him and maharaja that the names would be shared on the day of the welcoming, i thought it would help me meditate on their beautiful forms corresponding to those names. I knew it had to be something to do with sankirtan, given Maharaja's zeal for Sankirtan. Subal prabhu let me in on their names, Nitai Gaura Nataraj,the deities arrived in the first week of kartik and that they chose to come home to get painted puzzled me..After several hours of effort, i thought i had achieved the desired effect. Now it was time to move on to the clothes, see if everything fit correctly. They had beautiful accessories and while talking to the devotee, whose deities They were, she mentioned that Maharaja had inspected each and every piece of attire and jewelry and had remarked that the crowns might be too big. The crows were not removed from their packaging...i saw them and thought Maharaja must've mentioned the height, the height seemed too big and so tried them on and sure enough the crowns looked like overturned buckets and were way too big height and circumference wise. The lesson that i learnt is that Guru is always right. I also learnt that the deities being Nitai Gaura Nataraj were in a dancing mood and crowns would hinder their dancing. Because i had desired to meditate on the mood while dressing and painting them, they also gave me the seva of making turbans which required another 2 hours of effort, but it  as well worth it...one of the new devotees who has no prior exposure to ISKCON, or Gaura Nitai, could not take her eyes off them, in fact some of the photos are taken from her album, because she just could not stop herself..looking at their garlands and the way they were dressed, she said "Oh, so they are dancing." The names  had not been revealed yet. This made me smile, happy that the Sri Murti of the lord had achieved the desired effect of rousing a glimmer of our eternal identity of being Krishna's eternal servants and captivating the mind of atleast one person.