I always worship the brilliant Mahā Kuñj on the bank of Radhakuṇḍ, where, rejecting a broad platform beautifully made of gold, jewels and pearls, Radha and Krishna take shelter. There they make Cupid Their humorous minister and most blissfully discuss the situation in his kingdom.
Verse 54:
sphīte ratna suvarṇa mauktika-bharaiḥ sannirmite maṇḍape
thutkāraṁ vinidhāya yatra rabhasāt tau dampatī nirbharam
tanvāte rati-nātha narma sacivau tad rājya carccāṁ mudā
taṁ rādhā-sarasī taṭojjvala mahā-kuïjaṁ sadāhaṁ bhaje
Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā: As he praises Sri Radhakuṇḍ, Raghunath Das Goswami automatically perceives the sweetness of the kuṇḍ within his heart.
In this verse, he praises the most brilliantly shining Mahā Kuñj on the bank of the kuṇḍ.
This most brilliantly shining Mahā Kuñj must be the kuñj named Lalitānandada or Anaṅga Raṅgāmbuja on the Northern bank of the kuṇḍ, because this particular kuñj is the biggest of all the kuñjs that are situated around Sri Radhakuṇḍ.
Close to the northern Ghāṭ of Sri Radhakuṇḍ is this square Anaṅga Raṅgāmbuja Kuñj, which consists of eight kuñjs like an eight-petalled lotus flower. The most excellent golden banana trees are its filaments, and a platform shaped like a thousand-petalled golden lotus flower is its whorl.
This kuñj may expand or shrink whenever it suits the pastimes that are performed there, and it is greatly effulgent.
Lalitā’s disciple Kalāvalī very diligently maintains this kuñj. All the six seasons and all kinds of pleasure are experienced in this kuñj, which is the very form of different pleasant pastimes.
In this Lalitānandada kuñj is a royal temple which is endowed with the extraordinary wealth of beauty of Śrī-Sri Radha-Mādhava, the king and queen of the kuñj, and Their girlfriends.
The filaments of this lotus-shaped kuñj are made of jewels, the whorl of gold and the many circular rows of lotus petals are all of equal length and made of different colours of jewels.
Outside of the whorl are the filaments and outside of the filaments are the petals that gradually increase in size and number.
Outside of the whorl of this lotuslike kuñj, which delights all five senses with its qualities like coolness, are rows of platforms of respectively gold, lapis lazuli, sapphire, crystal and rubies, that increase its peerless beauty. In the middle of these platforms are various jewel-inlaid images of mating deer, birds, gods, human beings, Gandharvas, Kinnaras and various other living beings. Thus this platform creates incitements for indescribable flavours.
Five colors (white, red, green, yellow and blue) of flowers beautify the filaments and the branches of the trees to form a kind of excellent canopy, and the middle of this platform is a knee-high jeweled platform that is like the lotus flower’s whorl that extends a wonderful beauty.
In the Northwestern corner of Lalitānandada Kuñj is Vasant Sukhada Kuñj, in the Southwest is the Padma Mandir, in the North astern corner is Mādhavānanda-da Kuñj, in the North is Sītāmbuj Kuñj, in the East Asitāmbuj Kuñja, in the South Aruṇāmbuj Kuñj and in the west Hemāmbuj Kuñj.
Raghunath Das Goswami says: “The wealth of beauty of this Lalitānanda-da Mahākuñj is so lovely and enchanting that Śrī-Sri Radha and Krishna reject the beautifully constructed broad jeweled, golden and pearl platforms and leave them to go to Lalitānandada Kuñj, being enchanted by its natural beauty, to most blissfully become Cupid’s ministers there and to discuss the matters of the kingdom of desire.” The purport of this is that in Vraja Sri-Sri Radhakuṇḍ is anyway the greatest abode for Sri-Sri Radha-Shyam to enjoy confidential solitary pastimes, but beyond, that Lalitānandada Kuñj is so much filled with the treasure of beauty that Śrī-Sri Radha-Mādhava and Their girlfriends freely play different romantic pastimes as well as different other kinds of humorous pastimes there.
Das Goswami says: “I constantly worship this effulgent Mahākuñj, which is situated on the bank of Sri Radhakuṇḍ.”
sei rādhākuṇḍ tīre, mahākuñj nāma dhare,
yāra prabhā ati samujjvala.
maṇi muktāya sunirmita, ratna-vedī dhikkṛta,
vihariche navīna yugala
rādhā-kṛṣṇa kautuka bhare, mantrī kori kandarpere,
nimagaṇa hāsya parihāse
kāma rājyera ālocanā, yathā kore duhuṅ janā,
mahā-kuñj bhaji gala-vāse
“I humbly worship the Mahākuñj, the great, brightly shining arbour on the bank of Radhakuṇḍ, where the Youthful Pair Radha and Krishna enjoys, cursing the platforms that are made of jewels and pearls and where they have great fun in joking with Each other, playing King Cupid’s ministers and discussing the situation in the kingdom of desire.”
© Translated by Advaita dāsa in 1994
Source: Tarun Govinda Das, Flowing Nectar Stream blog.
(Slightly altered by the editor for Vrindavan Today)
The commentary of Sri Radha Kund Mahant, Pandit Sri Ananta Das Babaji Maharaj, is named Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā (a drop of the nectar of Stavāvalī).
It was published in Gaurābda 503 (1989 A.D.) by Sri Krishna Chaitanya Shastra Mandir, Vrajananda Ghera, PO Radhakunda (district Mathura), U.P., India.
The devotional songs in Bengali that follow each commentary were composed by Dr. Haripada Sheel.
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