I lovingly praise Nandimukhi, who became enchanted after hearing about the great glories of Vraja-bhūmi and left her native Avantīpura with great eagerness to settle in Vraja, where she always joyfully increases Radha and Krishna’s pleasure in their romantic dalliances.
pragāḍhotkaṇṭhābhir vraja-bhuvanam urīkṛtya kila yā
mudā rādhā-kṛṣṇojjvala-rasa-sukhaṁ vardhayati tāṁ
mukhīṁ nāndī-pūrvāṁ satatam abhivande praṇayataḥ
The jñānīs consider themselves blessed when they experience brahman and the yogīs consider themselves blessed when they encounter the Witness, the Paramātma. They are deprived, though, of the relish of the pastimes of the Supreme Lord. But even the devotees who worship the Lord with awe and reverence cannot relish the sweet flavours of Vraja. The sweetness of Vraja is the relishable wealth of the mādhuryopāsakas, those who meditate on this transcendental sweetness. When they experience this sweetness just once they consider everything else insignificant. Thus, when Sandipani Muni’s daughter Nandimukhi became greedy for that relishable sweetness she left her native Avantīpura and vowed to live in Vraja.
Śrīla Rupa Goswamipada introduces Nandimukhi as follows to us:
sāndīpaniḥ pitā tasyā mātā ca sumukhī satī
bhrātā madhumaṅgalo’syāḥ paurṇamāsī pitāmahī
nānā-ratna-bhūṣitāṅgī kaiśora-vayasojjvalā
nānā-sandhāna-kuśalā nānā-śilpa-vidhāyinī
dvayor milana-naipuṇyā sadā prema-yutā bhavet
Nandimukhi has a golden complexion and wears a silken garment. Her father is Sandipani Muni, her mother the chaste Sumukhī, her brother Madhumangal and her paternal grandmother Paurnamasi. She is decorated with different jewels and is shining with youthful beauty. She is expert in establishing different meetings and various kinds of sculpture, and she is always immersed in love for Radha and Krishna. (Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā 2, 98-100)
Das Goswami says: “Hearing about the glories of Vraja, Nandimukhi became enchanted and eagerly left her native Avantīpura to settle down in Vraja Dham.” Eternal associates of the Lord, like the holy mother Paurnamasi, who is actually Yogamaya, who can accomplish the impossible in the Vraja-lila, her adolescent granddaughter Kishori Nandimukhi and her grandson Madhumangal, the embodiment of the comedic spirit and Krishna’s dearmost friend, all appeared in Avantīpura. In due course of time they all left their hometown to come to Vraja and render their own favorite services. Playing the role of ordinary human beings, it appears that became attracted after hearing about the great glories of Vraja Dham, and moved there to make it their home.
Such a deep attachment between the Lord and his devotees can not be found manifest in any other divine abode. In Dwaraka Dham the Lord performs his pastimes surrounded by his own energies (wives), but although it is said in the Brahma Saṁhitā (śriyaḥ kāntāḥ kāntaḥ paramaḥ puruṣaḥ) that Sri Krishna is also surrounded by his internal potency in Vrindavan as he performs his pastimes, still they are performed in a pure extramarital mood.
Vraja-līlā thus shows much greater sweetness and a much greater cleverness and variegatedness than the majestic Sri Goloka pastimes or the legally wedded pastimes of Dwaraka.
In Sri Vrindavan Sri Krishna performs his sweet pastimes by taking shelter of his transcendental potency Yogamaya, which is expert in accomplishing the impossible. This Yogamaya creates such an illusion in Sri Krishna’s innate potency, Sri Radha and the Vrajasundaris, that they always consider themselves to be other men’s wives and Krishna to be their paramour. Sri Krishna, in his turn, also considers them to be other men’s wives. In this way Yogamaya assists Sri Krishna and his energies in relishing the mellows of transcendental pastimes by covering over their awareness of their true divine status. There is no pastime that can not be accomplished by Sri Krishna, the master of yoga, who possesses inconceivable opulences, but due to the great sweetness of his pastimes he forgets his own status and simply relishes the rasas of pure love. Because Yogamaya accomplishes this work she is said to be able to accomplish the impossible. In this way the pastimes of pure love are possible in Vraja Dham, and therefore this Vraja Dham is superior over all holy abodes in sweetness.
And again, according to the particular love of his companions Sri Krishna performs a particular pastime: tatrāpi rasa-viśeṣa-viśiṣṭa-parikara-vaiśiṣṭyenāvirbhāva-vaiśiṣṭyaṁ dṛśyate (Bhakti-sandarbha)
One of the companions who nourishes and creates these kinds of wonderfully relishable pastimes is Nandimukhi. Accepting the role of one of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna’s friends in their sweet and relishable pastimes Nandimukhi constantly causes the ocean of their erotic bliss to swell and increase and is herself also constantly lost in swimming in this ocean of bliss and relish. Just as the Brahmin lad Madhumangal plays a special role amongst the cowherd boys, similarly the adolescent Brahmin girl Nandimukhi plays a special assisting role amongst the sakhīs in many different relishable pastimes. All this can be beautifully experienced by reading līlā-granthas like Govinda-līlāmṛta and Kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta . Das Goswami says: “I lovingly praise this Nandimukhi!”
vraje vāsa kore yei guṇe mugdha hoiyā
navīna yugalera śṛṅgāra rasa keli;
vardhana korena yini hoiyā kutūholī
vrajete vikhyāta nāma sei ‘nāndīmukhī’;
vandanā koribo āmi hoiyā boḍo sukhī
In great joy I will praise Nandimukhi, who is very famous in Vraja and who left her native Avantīpura to move to Vraja, after having heard of its glories and becoming enchanted by them, and who eagerly increases the blissful erotic pastimes of the adolescent pair.
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
Source: Tarun Govinda Das, Flowing Nectar Stream blog.
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