Ujjvala Nilamani part 5

The final part of my reading of Ujjval Nilamani by Srila Rupa Goswamipada -

14.38 svarUpaM lalanA-niSThaM svayam udbuddhatAM vrajet |

dRSTe’py azrute’py uccaiH kRSNe kuryAd drutaM ratim

Focus on the svarupa of a gopi will automatically and swiftly produce rati for Krishna, though He has not been seen or heard before.

14.52 – The desire for rati and the desire for enjoyment merge. Even in samartha rati there is no complete selflessness. See this blog.

14.55 Visvanatha Cakravartipada tika - tathA hy asyA rateH svarUpa-siddhatvAd guNAdi-zravaNAnapekSitatvena prAbalyAd vayaH-sandheH pUrvam eva vraja-bAlAsu kAsucit tathAparAsu nanda-pura-nikaTa-vartinISu rateH svarUpa-siddhatve`pi zrI-kRSNena saha dhUli-khelanAdibhiH paricayAdhikyenApi prAdurbhAvaH | sAmAnyAkAreNa prAdurbhUtAyAM ca tasyAM tAsAM zrI-kRSNa evaM prIti-matInAM sarvendriya-vRttayaH zrI-kRSNa-sukha-tAtparyavatya evAbhuvan | athAyAte vayaH-sandhau kandarpodgamena yA sambhoga-tRSNA raty-AkrAnte manasy ajaniSTa sApi tat-sukha-tAtparyavaty evAbhUd iti sambhoga-tRSNAyA ratyA saha tAdAtmyam | tAm avasthAm Arabhyaiva tAsAM svAGga-saGga-ditsayaiva tat-sukha-vizeSotpAdane saGkalpavatInAM ratir madhurAbhidhAnAbhUt | ity ata eva sambhoga-tRSNA pRthaktayA na bhAsate

“samartha rati or selfless gopibhava is eternal, so even before puberty the gopis were in love with Krishna, even without hearing about His attributes. When they played in the dust near Nanda Maharaja’s abode, as little girls, they had samartha rati already, because it is svarupa siddha. When they attained adolescence and lust entered into their bodies, it [lust] merged with their rati [selfless love for Krishna]. Then they vowed to offer their bodies to Him to give Him happiness. The desire for personal enjoyment does not manifest separately.”

This, and verse 52, confirms Sadhu Baba’s teaching which confused me for so long that the gopis also have a little desire.

14.82 anga-sange viloke ca zravaNAdau ca sa kramAt | kaniSTho madhyamaH zreSThas trividho’yaM manodravah

The heart melts in three grades: low through direct meeting, medium through seeing and high, through hearing.

Visvanatha: Contacting Krishna’s limbs is matched with the lowest grade of melting the heart.

14.88 Visvanatha: Ghrita-sneha has more respect than madhu-sneha. There some amount of respect in madhu-sneha also. Radha has slightly more respect for Krishna than her sakhis or the priya-sakhis or Subala.

14.94 Visvanatha tika: Candravali is not respectful towards Krishna because He is God but because He is a prominent person in Vraja.

14.106 Visvanatha comments that women's left limbs are stronger than their right limbs.

14.108 Visvanatha comments: "Visrambha means confidentiality, without reverence. This is caused by uniting one’s life airs, mind, intelligence, body and clothing with those of the beloved."

14.127 Visvanatha's commentary on the famous verse which describes how Radhika does not feel the heat of the rocks of Govardhana on which She stands, due to Her raga - [One may argue:] “During one's sleep one does not experience the pain of mosquitoes biting, but in the morning on waking up, one sees blood oozing from the bites. Similarly, Radhika does not feel pain in her tender feet now, but later she will.” That is not so. By seeing Krishna she is submerged in bliss. From Her toe-nails to Her crown, Her body becomes cooler than millions of moons. She became very cool, not that she should be heated up. The moon can never be heated by the sun's rays. Since a piece of cotton cannot be defeated by a sharp rock, her feet which are very tender, more so than cotton, cannot be defeated by the rocks. Or yoga-maya, solver of all problems, remains always awake in the pastimes.

14.137 - Raga which never vanishes, does not depend on other elements, and increases its beauty constantly is called manjistha-raga, which is seen in Radha and Madhava.

Visvanatha' s tika: "Manjistha dye cannot be removed by water (ahAryaH). In terms of prema, mAnjistha-rAga cannot be agitated by samcari-bhavas. It is svatah-siddha, independent. It is not like shyAmA-rAga, dependent on herbs (or timidity). It increases its beauty. Kusumbha-räga has limited beauty. It increases its own beauty. It does not change by mixing with anurAga."

Example - The incomparable festival arising from the prema of Radha and Madhava appears quickly without cause, is not at all moved by any means, produces great taste if met by heaps of opposing elements, and increases with the greatest, unlimited, astonishing bliss.

14.157 varAmRta svarUpa srI swam swarUpaM mano nayet

Visvanatha: "The mind's condition is nondifferent from mahabhava and since the senses are functions of the mind, the gopis senses become the form of mahabhava, which totally controls Krishna. But the queens of Dwarka desire enjoyment, so their minds do not even assume the form of prema, what to speak of mahabhava?"

Visvanath's explanations of divyonmada at the end of chapter 14, based on the Bhramar Geet [SB 10.47,12-21] is very similar to the one in his Sarartha Darsini tika.

VCT 14,225- "In the sthayi bhava of mAdana. one experiences separation even during union, when one kisses, embraces etc. Thus two manifestations take place in one. Even during union there is longing for more in thousands of ways, due to visions of separation."

14.232 sloka: sadharani rati's limit is prema, samanjasa's limit is anuraga and samartha rati's limit is mahabhava.

15.31 Radhika’s bracelets fall off her wrists as she gets thin out of separation from Krishna and if it proceeds even her rings fall off her fingers because the fingers got too thin.

15.65-66 there are two types of kama-lekha [love letter]: niraksara, without syllables, made with crescent nailmarks, and sAksara, with [prakrita] syllables.

15.69 The written letters are bound by lotus fibers and with minerals or musk as ink on broad flower petals and stamped with kunkuma.

15.187 Jiva Goswami tries to justify svakiya bhava by arguing that only ultimate union can give peace and satisfaction. Later in the 15th chapter, however, it will be shown that the longer the separation, the more the enjoyment, be it in sampanna or samriddhiman sambhoga, and it is eternally so.

Visvanath argues that prakat lila is eternal and if the cosmos is aprakat within Mahavishnu, yogamaya creates duplicate universes in which Krishna's manifest pastimes continue. He also says that in the unmanifest pastimes Krishna always stays in Mathura etc. because He must be eternally present for His pastimes there. The Padma Purana [6.255-257] says vedAnga sveda janita toyaiH prasrAvitA - the causal ocean flowed from the sweatdrops of the Vedas. Of course this is not literally true, as Bhagavad Gita says viddhy anAdi ubhAv api - the material world is beginningless. Similarly, it seems as if Krishna is born, but He is also anAdi. The Ganga seems to be invoked by Bhagiratha, but already existed long before, in Prithu's time [SB 4.21.11]. The words devaki janma vAdo in SB 10.90.48 prove that Krishna's birth pastime is also eternal, as vAda means 'conclusively' as in Bhagavad Gita 10.32. Krishna crawling as a toddler is eternal even in His manifest pastimes, because as He grows up and stops crawling, He continues to do it in the next universe where He performs the same course of pastimes later on. This also counts for seasonal [Holi] and daily pastimes.

15.195 Sankirna sambhoga is mixed with the remembrance of unpleasant past actions of one's partner [and therefore is not uttam samboga]

15.207 Visvanath tika - The gopis becoming queens as is described in Lalit Madhava is not a concocted story, it is confirmed in Padma Purana, Kartik Mahatmya chapter 32 - kaizore gopakanyAzca yauvane rAjakanyakA - "The adolescent cowherd daughters were princesses in their youth."

That the Bhagavat shows them as different persons is because that took place in a different kalpa.

15.253-256 lila vilasa is coquettish resistance of the heroine to attempts at intercourse by the hero. Sri Rupa Goswami says that this is giving greater happiness than the intercourse itself.