Nishanta lila Verses 92-97

Khandita-bhava and mana lila

The sinful sun

Verse 92
Lalita is angry with the newly risen sun for spoiling Radha Krishna's enjoyment. Thus she insults Surya Deva:
Verse 93
"Hey Radhe, just look! Even though the sun became a leper for upsetting the amorous pastimes of every romantic couple, he still hasn't given up his sinful ways! Therefore, the sages are certainly right when they declare that it is almost impossible to change one's ways!"
Verse 94
Nodding with a grin, Sri Vrishabhanu-nandinis's eyes turn red with anger for the interruption of her prema keli with Krishna. Nevertheless, remaining calm, she answers Lalita with a soft smile:
Verse 95
"Sakhi, although the sun lost its legs when he set in the West, he has returned in a mere flash to repeat his sinful deed! Just consider, if he had legs, even the brief night wouldn't exist!"

Rasa-tarangini Tika:
Srimati Radharani cannot tolerate the lack of consideration for the precendence of love. In this regard, the sun has neither daya (mercy), nor rasa-bodha (discernment in the matter of transcendental mellows). Hence, his two legs have melted away as if from leprosy!

khandita-bhava and mana lila 

Verse 96
Inspired by the early morning's charm and intoxicated by Radha's kathamrita, Krishna forgets once again the impending need to return home and exclaims,
Verse 97
"Hey Priya! Just as a young girl's face turns red with anger seeing her boyfriend's affairs with another damsel, the sun's wife, the eastern sky, is red with jealousy on seeing the nail marks of another sweetheart decorating her husband when he returns in the morning!"

Rasa-tarangini Tika:
Vrindavan's red sky reawakens the sweet portrait of Srimati Radharani's khandita-bhava and mana lila in Krishna's memory. Thus to re-taste these mellows by seeing Priyaji's reaction, Krishna cleverly reminds her of these moments by using the example of the sun's wife, the eastern sky.
In Ujjvala-nīlamani (5.85), Sri Rupa describes a khandita nayika as follows:
"A heroine who spends the entire night anxiously waiting in her beloved's absence, who sees him approaching in the morning bearing the love marks of another damsel is called khandita. Such a nayika displays anger, heavy breathing and silence."

This happens occasionally to Radha when she becomes firey angry after being stood up by Krishna. Let's follow an example of what happens when Radharani discovers Krishna's cheating propensity: One evening, a sanketa or meeting place is set for Radha's milan with Krishna. In great expectation, Srimati enters the sanketa kunja and begins preparing for Krishna's arrival. As Shyamasundar proceeds towards the kunja, however, Chandravali's sakhis intercept him and takes him to her for an evening of pleasure. 

Thus Krishna's promise to Radha is broken. The next morning, however, Krishna arrives at the door of Radha's kunja feeling guilty for his grave aparadha. But as soon as Priyaji glances towards him from the corner of her eye, she understands everything! She is instantly pained, jealous and angry - her heart is completely shattered! After taking great risk and casting everything aside to meet Krishna in the dead of night, the rushing river of her heart's yearning anuraga comes to a halt!

The Mahajanas say:
premera sadāi abhimāna
preme cāi śola-ānā prāṇa

Prema always carries pride, for in prema, one demands the beloved's full attention.
Prema doesn't compromise for give and take. It cannot fathom logical reasoning, nor does it wait for predestination. Similarly, sense of duty, etiquette or makeshift politeness find no place next to prema.

svarūpa kahe, - premavatīra ei ta' svabhāva
kāntera audāsya-leśe haya krodha-bhāva

Svarupa Damodar said, "It is the nature of a woman in love to become angry as soon as she sees even the slightest indifference in her lover." (CC 2.14.127)

Srimati's suspicion of her Prana-vallabha's eka-niṣṭhā-prema ("one-pointed love") causes the obstruction. Take for an example a dam: if it is suddenly placed within a raging river during the rainy season, it cannot stop the current because the force of the water is insurmountable. Instead, the water comes over the banks to create a flood. 

Similarly, when Radha's irrepressible desire to meet Krishna is blocked due to his misbehavior, her rushing river of Shyama-anuraga doesn't stop, but overflows instead!
This condition is called mana, or jealous loving anger. As the mana rasa of Sri Vrindavan is an incredible phenomenon, Sriman Mahaprabhu states,
"The Vraja gopis' mana is a reservoir of transcendental mellows" 
(vraje gopī-gaṇera māna -rasera nidhāna, CC 2.14.138). 

In the present situation, Radha becomes dhīrādhīrā to address Krishna with crooked sobriety:
eso eso bandhu, karuNā r sindhu
rajani goā ile bhā le
āmāre chāriyā āna sukha peye
bhālo to sukhete chile ?
kāṅdiyā jāminI, pohāila āmi
tumi to sukhete chile

Welcome, welcome, my friend! You're an ocean of mercy! After leaving me, it's nice that you found pleasure elsewhere. Did you pass your evening well? Although I spent the whole night crying, but you must surely have been happy with her. (Chandi Das)

As Krishna comes forward to apologize, Srimati's tone changes-she rebukes him as follows:

chuio nā, chuio nā, bandhu oikhāne thāko
mukura loiyā cānda mukha-khāni dekho
nayaner kajor, bayane legeche, kālo upore kālo
prabhāte uḍhiyā, o mukha dekhinu, din jābe āja bhālo"

Don't touch me, nagara, don't touch me! Stay where you are! Take a mirror and look at your moon-face; it's just covered in the eye mascara of your girlfriend-black on black. How auspicious to get your darshan so soon after rising. My day is sure to go well!"

Krishna is caught off guard! So trying to conceal his offense, he pretends to be faultless. But after all attempts fail, Srimati explicitly replies,
"I've heard from others that you're flirtatious. But today I am getting to see it with my own eyes! So, take my pranams from a distance. I understand, you belong to someone else! For your pleasure, I threw away my patience, pride, dharma, home, family and everything else! Then, in the darkness of night, I entered this forest hoping to find you. But, after forgetting me, where were you? From a distance, I offer a million obeisances to your feet. I understand it all now-you're not mine!"

Saying this, Srimati covers her head, turns her back to Krishna, and begins crying! Vowing to never look upon his face again, Srimati's mana becomes durjaya, extremely difficult to overcome. In Krishna's separation. Radha would chant Shyama's name to relieve her pain, but now, as the "life of her life" Prana Govinda falls at Radha's feet to offer hundreds of appeasing words, she defends her gravity with the heavy weight of durjaya mana-the tongue that continuously utters Krishna's names is silent! 

In GIta-govinda, this tender moment is lucidly described. There, the parama rasika Vaishnava kavi, Sri Jayadeva Goswami, has achieved immortal acclaim, having recorded Sri Govinda's heart-rending words meant to appease Srimati Radharani's durjaya mana. That excerpt runs as follows:
"O Priya! If you speak just a few words, the bright glimpse of your teeth will overcome the dark fear of my heart! And the effulgence of your moon-like face is causing my chakora eyes to seek the nectar of your lips. Oh delicate one, please discard your ill-founded mana! Please relieve my suffering by the touch of your sweet lips!
"O Radhe, your teeth are beautiful. If you're angry with me, please lance me with your eyes, strangle me with your arms, and bite me with your teeth, or do whatever else that comes to your mind!

You're the ornament of my body, the life of my life, and the jewel that surfaces from the ocean of my existence! The only desire left in my heart is to see you reciprocate with me!
Hey slender one! Although your eyes are like the blue lotus, today, due to anger, they resemble a red one. If you kindly use those eyes to pelt me with Kamadeva's flower arrows, then they will be refreshed with newer and newer charm!

O Priya! Let a necklace of pearls dangle from your jug-like breasts to decorate your heart. And the enchanting sound of the small bells strung around your hips proclaim the birth of Cupid!
"Ayi, sweet-spoken one! Just order me once, I shall carefully take your graceful feet, which are lovelier than a crimson rose and which delight my heart, and decorate them with bright red alta !

Your delicate feet will fulfill all of my desires. Oh Priya! Kindly place them as a decoration on my head! I'm burning in the flames of Kamadeva's bonfire. Please relieve my suffering by the touch of your tender lotus feet!
"Oh delicate-one, please discard your ill-founded mana. At the mere sight of you, the fire of kama is scorching my mind! Kindly relieve my suffering by the touch of your sweet lips!" (GIta-govinda, 10.2-8 )

At the time of composing these verses, Sri Jayadeva Goswami became perplexed. As he wrote, smara garala-kandanam, he thought to himself, "Would Krishna really beg Radharani to place her lotus feet upon his head? Indeed, this is no small matter; how can I write such a thing? Yet, if I do not write these lines, Srimati Radharani's exceptional standard of prema will remain unknown." 

Even so, Sri Jayadeva couldn't gather the courage to finish the verse.
In this frame of mind, he went to bathe in the Ajaya River. But meanwhile, his worshipable devata, Sri Madhavaji, came to his desk, picked up Jayadeva's pen and finished the verse: dehi pāda-pallavam udāram. Thus we learn about Krishna's zeal to disclose just how complete is his subjugation to Srimati Radharani, for he wrote with his own hand, 

"O Priya, kindly place your reddish lotus feet upon my head!"This is the charming feature of Krishna's madhurya: Who could imagine that the Supreme Lord, whose lotus feet are nor seen in meditation even by great sages and yogis, has gone so far as to fall at the feet of a young cowherd girl-imploring her to place her feet upon his head! Gaudiya Vaishnavas can appreciate it, however: here is our worshipable Bhagavan, the aparadhi lampata, whose tears of repentance wash Priyaji's charana kamala (lotus feet)!
Sadhakas performing smaran sadhana recall Sri Radha's mana bhanjan lila at this time.