May I reside at Dana Nirvartana Kund, the solitary place where Radha and Mādhava completed their dāna-līlā, for which it was given this name by them and their friends. By residing in this place, which is hidden for those who are averse to tasting transcendental rasa and accessible only to those who know this art, the dāna-līlā will come to its conclusion for me.
nibhṛtam ajani yasmād dāna-nirvṛtir asminn
ata idam abhidhānaṁ prāpa yat tat sabhāyām
rasa-vimukha-nigūḍhe tatra taj-jñaika-vedye
sarasi bhavatu vāso dāna-nirvartanena
Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā: In this verse Das Goswami praises Dana Nirvartana Kund, the lake on whose bank the most rasika dāna-līlā was completed. There is nothing that can compare to the sweetness of Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s dāna-līlā. It was the medicine that cured Raghunath Das of the burning pain of separation.
Śrīla Rūpa Goswami was like a doctor who could cure a patient suffering from grave wounds. He had given Raghunath Das his play Lalita-mādhava to read, but it is filled with the great rasa of separation (vipralambha-rasa) experienced by Sri Radha after Sri Krishna left Vraja for Mathura. When Raghunath Das read the play, he became like a madman, the manifest embodiment of vipralambha-rasa (love in separation)… to the extent that he was about to leave his body from the pain.
So, in order to counteract the effects of his first book, Śrīla Rūpa Goswami composed Dāna-keli-kaumudī, a one-act romantic comedy that is full of sambhoga-rasa (the flavor of loving union) and gave it to Raghunath, taking back the Lalita-mādhava manuscript on the pretext of needing to edit it.
Reading about the dāna-līlā, which is full of Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s sweetest comic flavors (parihāsa-rasa) Das Goswami was filled with so much transcendental relish that he became absorbed in the pastime, and himself composed two books, Dāna-keli-cintāmaṇi and Muktā-carita, both of which filled with this mood of Radha Madhava’s humorous teasing and flirtatious exchanges, the theme that is dominant in Dāna-keli-kaumudī. From this we can understand what great relish there is in the dāna-līlā.
How wonderful is the flavor of Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s mutual love when they quarrel over paying the toll in the dāna-līlā! How many hundreds of varieties of sweet erotic feeling arise from the this pastime of the Divine Pair and their girlfriends!
Sometimes our toll-collector becomes so enchanted by Srimati’s form that he comes up to touch her, saying: “Pay me with your youthful beauty!”
The sakhīs retort: “Oh, is there also a levy on youthful beauty nowadays?”
“Yes, it is to be paid at my station!” The dānī Krishna replies. Srimati then says:
yāntīṁ suyāga-bhavanaṁ vratinīṁ pavitrām
spṛṣṭāṁ tavādya marutā’pi madīya-gavyaṁ
śyāmībhavan na bhavitā śubha-yajña-yogyam
O shameless cheater! Stay far away! Don’t touch me! Don’t instruct pure girls like us, who are under a vow and on our way to a sacrificial arena! If our ghee is even touched by the breeze coming from your body it is blackened and no longer fit for use in the holy sacrifice!
Shyam answers:
vikrīṇāsi śaṭhe tvam atra patitā bhāgyena haste’dya me
tvāṁ baddhoru manoja-rāja-purato neṣyāmy avaśyaṁ tathā
prītyā yacchati mahyam eva sa yathā tāruṇya-ratnāni vaḥ
O proud girl! You are always come sneaking down this forest path, hiding from me the ghee and milk products you sell! O deciever! By good fortune you have fallen into my hands today. Now I can safely tie you up and bring you before King Cupid, who will affectionately reward me by giving me the jewels of your youth! (Dāna-keli-cintāmaṇi – 37)
Saying this, he comes up to catch her. Lalita then comes up before him and proudly says: “I am the man-hating goddess Bhairavi! See if you can get past me!”
Krishna, the toll-collector, is unable to come any closer, but he gives the sakhīs a long look, and after deliberating for a moment, points to Sri Radha and says: “Alright, if you don’t have the money with you to pay now, then I will keep this one as collateral. You all go and once you have sold your goods in the market you can come back and bail her out.”
The sakhīs reply: “We cannot leave her alone with you!”
Hearing this, Shyam proudly blocks the road and says: “Then let me see how you get away from me!” This makes the sakhīs flee in great fear, leaving Radha and Madhava alone, as they both wished, and they took the opportunity to enter a nearby kunj and there become immersed in an ocean of amorous pastimes.
locane ānanda lora.
rasera āveśe duhuṅ, ghāme bhelo gada gada,
stabadha bhelo puna bhora
Looking upon each other, their hairs bristle and tears stream from their eyes. Absorbed in the moment they perspire, their voices stutter and they become motionless once again in trance.
nāyari campaka gorī.
nava jaladhara janu, cāṅda āgorala,
aiche rahalo śyāma-kori.
vigalita keśa, kusuma śikhi-candraka,
vigalita nīla nicola
Shyam, the great lover, resembles an atasi flower, our heroine a golden champaka. She sits on his lap like the moon in the lap of a newly risen monsoon cloud. Their hair is loose and their flowers, his peacock-feather crown and her blue bodice have all fallen off.
Because the dāna pastime was consummated by Sri Sri Radha Madhava on the solitary banks of this kund, they and their sakhīs gave it the name Dana Nirvartana Kund.
This confidential dāna-līlā is hidden to those who are averse to relishing transcendental mellows and can only be known by rasika devotees who have taken shelter of the madhura bhāva. Thus Raghunath Das Goswami desires to reside on the bank of this kund, where the memory of this greatly confidential dāna-pastime lives on.
nāma dhare dāna sarovara
dāna-līlā anabhijña-,janera kabhu nahe gamya,
surasika janerai gocara
e boḍo lālasā mane,dāna-līlā pravartane,
thāki yeno yūtheśvarī saṅge.
duhuṅ līlā raṅga rasa, hobe more sarabasa,
dāna-chale bheṭibo govinde
I greatly desire to reside on the bank of the lake called Dāna Sarovara, where the confidential dāna-līlā took place, which is never accessible to people who are ignorant of the dāna-līlā and which is only perceived by the rasika devotees. In the company of all the gopī-group leaders I will take part in the flavors of this blissful dāna-līlā, and that will become my all-in-all. On the pretext of paying toll I will thus meet Govinda!”
Commentary of Sri Radha Kund Mahant, Pandit Sri Ananta Das Babaji Maharaj is named Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā (a drop of the nectar of Stavāvalī), and was published in Gaurābda 503 (1989 A.D.) from Sri Krishna Chaitanya Shastra Mandir, Vrajananda Ghera, PO Radhakunda (district Mathura), U.P., India.
Devotional songs in Bengali that follow each commentary were composed by Dr. Haripada Sheel.
© Translated by Advaita dāsa in 1994
More of Ananta Das Pandit’s writings in English translation can be found at Tarun Govinda’s blog, Amrita Tarangini.
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