The sage, Narad, visiting Krishna in Dwaraka, was surprised to find that his Lord’s favourite pastime was to hear the story of Vraja-Vrindavan, its people and His own activities there. It is a story set in a particular time and space — however, its nature cannot be bound by time and space. The beauty of Vrindavan lies in it being both the seed and the fullest manifestation of the tree contained in that seed. The theme of all the stories of this lila is only one, and that is prem, love.
The elements of this Lila evoke wonder. Roles have been reversed as humanity and nature are the objects of adoration and love, while divinity remains in service. This, of course, is not unprecedented. Time and again divinity has intervened in human history. It has descended from its high pedestal to help suffering humanity and nature. Yet, what was wonderful in the Vrindavan lila was that this time divinity moved rationally and scientifically. It had recognised that only a human being can best serve humanity. For serving the natural world, the divine must become part of it, and that is why Krishna appeared as a human being. The essential adornment of Krishna, too, consists of earth colours, flowers, discarded peacock feathers and other gifts of nature.
When the divine actor, Krishna, is thus equipped by nature, he plays confidently and freely, and his repertoire of Lilas in Vraja is an open list. This play is essentially for mutual pleasure and enjoyment. This is an enactment for manifesting love. And the loving relationship begets the highest form of bliss. Love is not a monotonous experience. It has inexhaustible possibilities. Its varied aspects give birth to endless lilas. However, the utmost spontaneity and intimacy of feeling and the consequent aesthetic experience, rasa, flows best and most between Krishna and his beloved gopis. Even there, the utmost intimacy manifests only in his relationship with the jewel among gopis, Radha. However, the intimate play holds an inherent variety of aesthetic experience. Love is not frozen in any one mood.
As the mood varies, so does the aesthetic experience. The play of Radha and Krishna naturally is not confined to one mood, and is therefore not confined to one locale or one time. Consequently it plays out in Vrindavan, Mathura, Gokul, Nandagaon, Barsana and so on.
Even the whole of Vraja finds it hard to provide enough space to encompass the full variety of this unlimited divine repertoire. The inner dynamics of this play makes it a processional theatre, both in space and time, and this becomes the determining factor for festivals, processions and pilgrimages of Vraja.
Just as the original play was spread over space and time, so is the devotees’ calendar in Vraja.
Krishna did not have the stage set for his dance. He wandered a lot. The poetic creation of Vrindavan had the power to attract the supreme attractor Krishna. On his arrival, the Aesthete Lord, ready for playful enjoyment, found the verdant banks of Yamuna converted into shores of death. The sweet sounds of cowherds’ horned flutes were drowned by roars of deadly tornadoes. Birds and animals sang only melodies of death. Flowers, groves and forests were on fire. Everything was upside down, the earth was polluted, the water bodies poisoned, the atmosphere suffused with danger.
Because of the stage being upset, the play took a turn. How could Krishna play in this Vrindavan? But he did. Adverse situations notwithstanding, his immediate play in Vraja focussed on first creating the right kind of environment for his theatre, which reveals how he got what he wanted. He restored what he missed. His performance could not take place as the setting of the stage, the environment, was not conducive.
The natural and human environment is essentially made of five gross elements — earth, water, fire, air and space. When the earth was purified and could sustain life, when the serpent of pollution was contained and despatched to the furthest ocean depths, the Yamuna made to flow nectarian blue, and forest fires contained, then the stage was set for the Lord’s divine plan to unfold. He filled the space with the melodies of his flute. Yet the rowdy elements disguised as friendly and attractive birds and animals were out to destroy his show. Before he could play and dance, he removed them too from his theatre.
Krishna Katha, the stories of Krishna in Vraja, are not just history. They are continuing events. Krishna did appear, live and play, sing and dance in Vraja-Vrindavan. It is also not that it all happened here just once. Vraja-Vrindavan is the living theatre of Krishna.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India, Speaking Tree
The sage, Narad, visiting Krishna in Dwaraka, was surprised to find that his Lord’s favourite pastime was to hear the story of Vraja-Vrindavan, its people and His own activities there. It is a story set in a particular time and space — however, its nature cannot be bound by time and space. The beauty of Vrindavan lies in it being both the seed and the fullest manifestation of the tree contained in that seed. The theme of all the stories of this lila is only one, and that is prem, love.
The elements of this Lila evoke wonder. Roles have been reversed as humanity and nature are the objects of adoration and love, while divinity remains in service. This, of course, is not unprecedented. Time and again divinity has intervened in human history. It has descended from its high pedestal to help suffering humanity and nature. Yet, what was wonderful in the Vrindavan lila was that this time divinity moved rationally and scientifically. It had recognised that only a human being can best serve humanity. For serving the natural world, the divine must become part of it, and that is why Krishna appeared as a human being. The essential adornment of Krishna, too, consists of earth colours, flowers, discarded peacock feathers and other gifts of nature.
When the divine actor, Krishna, is thus equipped by nature, he plays confidently and freely, and his repertoire of Lilas in Vraja is an open list. This play is essentially for mutual pleasure and enjoyment. This is an enactment for manifesting love. And the loving relationship begets the highest form of bliss. Love is not a monotonous experience. It has inexhaustible possibilities. Its varied aspects give birth to endless lilas. However, the utmost spontaneity and intimacy of feeling and the consequent aesthetic experience, rasa, flows best and most between Krishna and his beloved gopis. Even there, the utmost intimacy manifests only in his relationship with the jewel among gopis, Radha. However, the intimate play holds an inherent variety of aesthetic experience. Love is not frozen in any one mood.
As the mood varies, so does the aesthetic experience. The play of Radha and Krishna naturally is not confined to one mood, and is therefore not confined to one locale or one time. Consequently it plays out in Vrindavan, Mathura, Gokul, Nandagaon, Barsana and so on.
Even the whole of Vraja finds it hard to provide enough space to encompass the full variety of this unlimited divine repertoire. The inner dynamics of this play makes it a processional theatre, both in space and time, and this becomes the determining factor for festivals, processions and pilgrimages of Vraja.
Just as the original play was spread over space and time, so is the devotees’ calendar in Vraja.
Krishna did not have the stage set for his dance. He wandered a lot. The poetic creation of Vrindavan had the power to attract the supreme attractor Krishna. On his arrival, the Aesthete Lord, ready for playful enjoyment, found the verdant banks of Yamuna converted into shores of death. The sweet sounds of cowherds’ horned flutes were drowned by roars of deadly tornadoes. Birds and animals sang only melodies of death. Flowers, groves and forests were on fire. Everything was upside down, the earth was polluted, the water bodies poisoned, the atmosphere suffused with danger.
Because of the stage being upset, the play took a turn. How could Krishna play in this Vrindavan? But he did. Adverse situations notwithstanding, his immediate play in Vraja focussed on first creating the right kind of environment for his theatre, which reveals how he got what he wanted. He restored what he missed. His performance could not take place as the setting of the stage, the environment, was not conducive.
The natural and human environment is essentially made of five gross elements — earth, water, fire, air and space. When the earth was purified and could sustain life, when the serpent of pollution was contained and despatched to the furthest ocean depths, the Yamuna made to flow nectarian blue, and forest fires contained, then the stage was set for the Lord’s divine plan to unfold. He filled the space with the melodies of his flute. Yet the rowdy elements disguised as friendly and attractive birds and animals were out to destroy his show. Before he could play and dance, he removed them too from his theatre.
Krishna Katha, the stories of Krishna in Vraja, are not just history. They are continuing events. Krishna did appear, live and play, sing and dance in Vraja-Vrindavan. It is also not that it all happened here just once. Vraja-Vrindavan is the living theatre of Krishna.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India, Speaking Tree