Radha’s first love towards Krishna

Radha’s first love towards Krishna

Radha:  O Lalita, what is the noble Purnamasi doing?

Lalita:  O friend, she is constructing an altar at the base of a tamal tree for the worship of Your sun-god.

Radha:  (looking ahead) I think this is the forest of Vrndavana, whose beauty you have described again and again.

Lalita:  O friend, this is the banyan tree where Kanha performs pastimes.

Radha: (agitated, she says to herself) What sweetness is in these 2 syllables! (Openly) O frined, whom did you say?

Lalita: (smiling) I said Kanha.

Radha:  (aside) O this name is very enchanting to the minds of beautiful young girls.  I wonder what the owner of this name is like?  (Concealing her emotions she speaks openly) O friend, I think I will go now and collect gunja berries in this grove.

Lalita:  (jokingly) O friend, your body is so beautiful that even a shadow of its beauty cannot be found anywhere in the universe.  Although your eyes are eagerly moving to gather these gunja berries, do not enter this grove of creepers.  In this place resides a demigod who performs pastimes in this grove.  His beautiful complexion is as dark as black eye cosmetics.  He easily casts a spell on beautiful young firls, and attracts them to become his lover.

Radha:  (somewhat frightened, she gives up her joking smile) O friend Lalita, you know that you are attracted by this demigod.

Lalita:  (Laughs) Why should he try to attract me?  It is not I that he wants to attract, but you who are so dazzlingly beautiful.

Radha: (She listens and becomes full of wonder.  She says to herself) Amazing! What an enchanting sound!  (She loses composure).

Lalita: (Looking at Radha, she says to herself) She is like a tender young deer that has just fallen into the hunter’s net.

Radha: (with great difficulty, she regains compure.  She says to herself) I must find the person who has made this sound, which is like a river of nectar.

Lalita: (approaches Radha) O Radha, please tell me what is happening within your pure mind?

Radhika:  Why do you say this?  Why do you think something extraordinary is happening?

Lalita:  O dear friend, please tell me why you have become so suddenly overwhelmed?

Radhika: (embarrassed) I do not understand what sorts of sounds is now moving from this grove of kadamba trees and entering my ears, O friend, because of this sound, I have attained a situation which is greatly condemned for a chaste housewife.

Lalita: Ah, it is the sound of the flute.

Radhika:  (agitated) What sort of Flute sound is this?  This sound makes me tremble, even though it is without snow.  It pierces me, even though it is not a weapon.  This sound makes me burn, even though it is not at all hot.  I understand the nature of this flute music!  Let us not speak deceptively.  Some charming mantra has been read by some clever magician.

(Vishaka enters, carrying a picture in her hand).

Vishaka:  (Observes Radha and says to herself)  She appears completely transformed.  She may have been biten by the sound of Kanha’s flute.  I will ask her about it.

O white-faced Radha, the tears from your lotus eyes are muddying the ground.  Your breathing is causing your upper garments to dance, and the hairs of your body are standing on end.  I think these ecstatic symptoms are being manifested because of the sweetness of the sound of Lord Madhava’s flute, which has now entered your ears.

Radhika: (not hearing Vishaka’s words, Radha trembles): O Lalita, I hear that sound again.

Lalita: O delicate Radha, a sound is now gliding from the mouth of the flute on the shore of the Yamuna river.  That sound is the Garuda which defeats the snakes of the gopi’s composure, and that sound is the Danvantari who cures the severe illness of the gopi’s shyness.  That sound is the Agastya Muni who drinks the ocean of the pious gopi’s pride.

Radhika:  O friend, there is a greatly painful emotion in my heart.  If it does not go away I will not be able to sleep.

Vishaka:   O Radha, in my hand I am holding the medicinal herb which will cure your disease.  Please take it.

Radhika:  O Vishaka, let us go to this shady place full of blossoming lotus flowers, near the courtyard, and we shall look at this medicine of yours.

Radhika:  (Agitated, she says to herself): O broken heart, simply by seeing this person’s picture you have attained this, difficult to understand, state of intense love for him.

Lalita and Vishaka:  O Radha, you appear to be greatly agitated.  Why do you not tell us the cause of your agitation?

(Radha sighs and turns her head away)

Vishaka:  (Confronting Radha) O friend, why are these anxieties tearing apart your peace of mind and why are your reddish garments becoming so covered with perspiration?  O Radha, you are as beautiful and fair as a yellow champak flower.  Why has this trembling forcibly broken the steadiness of your body?  Please tell us the truth about this.  It is not auspicious to conceal this from your servants.

Radhika:  O merciless girl, why do you speak in this way?  Look (at this picture) and remember.

Vishaka:  Even with great effort, I cannot remember!  How can I have offended you.

Radhika:  O madwoman, it is you who has thrown me into this deep lake of burning fire.

Vishaka:  How have I done that?

Radhika:  (with malice and impatience) O crooked liar, you are the friend of the serpent in this picture!  Stand! Do not move! (Radha loses self-control and continues) The person in this picture stepped out of the picture.  He was as splendid as emeralds, decorated with a peacock feather, and very youthful.  (Radha’s voice becomes choked-up.  Lalita and Vishaka look at each other with raised eyebrows).  When he smiled and moved his eyebrows, my mind became deranged.  Alas the moon of my mind burned like fire and the fire of my appetite for food, became as cool as the moon.

Lalita:  Did this happen in a dream?

Radhika:  The person in this picture shone with a sort of dark moonlight.  This moonlight excited intense emotion within my heart and I have become unable to perceive the distinction between day and night, wakefulness and dream. 

Vishaka: (intentinally) O Radha, this is only a momentary bewilderment of your mind.

Radhika:  (indignant) Untrusting gopi, stop this!  Why do you try to cover up for your offense?  Elaborately decorated with markings drawn in kumkum, this fickle and lust boy stood at the base of a kadamba tree.  When I teasingly said, “No! No! NO!”, that mischievious boy smiled and forcibly touched me with his hand, which seemed like a petal (or leaf) which had grown from his creeper like arm.  His complexion bore the lustre of a slightly opened lotus petal.  I so eagerly desired that he touch me with his lotus hand that I became full of anxiety, and I could no longer understand where I was, who I was or what I was doing.  (Agitated, she says to herself) O wicked heart, O monkey, are you not ashamed to love 3 persons simultaneously?  You love Kanha and you also love this boy who played the flute, and now you love this dark complexioned youth (who appeared in this picture) O heart, when I destroy my body, I will also destroy you who are wretched and hopeless.

Lalita:  Alas, cupid’s friend, springtime, has now appeared, and spoiled this entire area.  Where can we find refuge from him?

Radhika:  O friend, when the aromatic breeze from the malaya hills plays, and the playful cuckoos sing very melodiously, and when the buzzing bumblebees pierce my heart with their agitated flurry, I feel as if I were about to give up my life.  All these are simply causing me great pain.

Lalita and Vishaka: (crying tears) How have you become so overwhelmed by these terrible sufferings?  We cannot guess what is your desire, now can we understand the difficult-to-attain condition of your heart.

Radhika:  (sighs) My dear friend, these palpitations of Radha’s heart are extremely difficult to cure.  Even if one applied some medical treatment, it would only end in defamation.  I will now instruct you how I may be cured.  If this creeper were wrapped about my neck as a noose, and I were hanged then you would certainly cure my disease of love.

Lalita and Vishaka:  (agitated) Do not speak in this terrible way!  Do not take away the life of your friends!  You will soon attain the goal of your desire.

Radhika:  O friends, you counsel in this way because you do not understand the wickedness of wounded Radha’s heart.

Lalita and Vishaka:  Our dear friend Radha has told us everything.

Radhika:  No. NO!  Her great shame has prevented her from revealing everything.

Lalita and Vishaka:  Simply by seeing you, we can understand your intense love.  What does your external embarrassment matter?

Radhika:  Since I have heard of a person called Krishna.  I have practically lost my good sense.  Then, there is another person who plays his flute in such  way that after I hear the vibration, intense madness arises in my heart.  And again there is still another person to whom my mind becomes attached when I see his beautiful lightening effulgence in his picture.  Therefore I think that I am greatly condemned, for I have become simultaneously attached to 3 persons.  It would be better for me to die because of this.

Lalita and Vishaka:  (joyfully) How is it possible for you and the other beautiful girls of Gokula, who are all like you, to reject the son of Nanda, the prince of Gokula, and fall in love with some other person?  Please hear this, the 3 persons you love are all the same person.  They are that very clever Kanha.

Radhika:  (breathes a sigh of relief and says to herself) O heart, be comforted.  How you ardently desire to attain the person (Shri Krishna) who resides within the hearts of all living beings.

Lalita and Vishaka:  O beautiful Radha, even though a champak creeper may anoint the entire atmosphere with waves of sweet fragrance, that creeper was born in vain, if the bumblebee who is Lord Madhusudana does not drink honey (in its flowers or) joyfully perform pastimes there.

Radhey Radhey