Celebrating the Appearance Day Shri Bhagavan "The Dancing Goes On"

Celebrating the Appearance Day Shri Bhagavan

Sept 6, 2023
"This was my most ambitious poetic endeavor to date, centered around the grand theme of Bhagavan Shri Krishna's Vraja lila. I unveiled it in celebration of the Shri Krishna Janmashtami Festivity of 2018, which coincided with the auspicious influence of the Moon in the Rohini Nakshatra, marking the divine moment of Govinda's earthly appearance. My aspiration is for this devotional poetry to traverse the world as a captivating performance, akin to how Rumi's poetry is presently being presented, albeit on a more opulent and compelling scale.

This endeavor is, of course, a heartfelt tribute to my guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, without whose guidance I would remain unaware of such profound themes. I humbly bow at his feet and dedicate this modest offering to him, while extending the prasad to the sages and practitioners within the devotional and Yoga communities."
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The Dancing Goes On
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In Vraja Mandal,
The Source of all,
Created a garden of pleasure,
In order to reveal,
The love that they feel,
In ways that no one can measure.
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But you cannot enter
Without a mentor,
To go in you must have a guide,
In that secret place
One enters by grace,
Like maids to a Bridegroom and Bride.
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Be gentle and pure,
And learn to endure
The material chaos outside,
Turn your senses within,
From the land of the skin,
To the realm that’s waiting inside.
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So, come with us now,
Be sweet like the cow,
Be soft like the eye of a doe,
Leave your wisdom and be
With humility,
Who you are and not what you know.
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In Vrindavan the trees
Give fruit as they please,
The blades of grass are aware,
Each flower has scent,
The environment
Was created for love to be shared.
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So, the seasons revolve
Like emotions evolve,
Changing the set with every scene
And the props are not fixed
But are changing and mixed,
In an image that appears as you mean.
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The content is yours
In this world of amours,
You will look like the love in your heart
And as you aspire
With serving desire,
The director will give you a part.
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Now be quiet and watch
For the love here is much -
More subtle than any you’ve seen,
Here the Gurus are Gopis,
God’s girlfriends that is,
And they don’t always say what they mean
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The Ishvara is Krishna
And you are the shishya,
The conscious one learning to be
And the Female Divine,
So. the Rishis opine,
Is a young girl named Radharani.
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He is attraction
And She is reflection,
Observing them both in a glass,
She is the teacher,
But He wants to reach Her,
And She wants to give all She has.
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Madan Mohan
The attractive One,
Who awakens the Kundalini,
But Cupid’s attractor
Can’t resist Miss Reflector,
Madan Mohan Mohini.
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And though She’s His queen,
The go-betweens
In their torrid affair are the Gopis,
They are there in each tryst,
When They dance or They kiss,
These girls live only to please.
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And there in the sari,
That young girl’s a Manjari,
They train with the Gopis in bliss,
Some day when they’re grown,
They’ll dance on their own
And Govinda will teach them to kiss.
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This intimate circle
Gave birth to the miracle,
The orbiting planets ellipse,
With the stars looking on,
The Moon and the Sun,
Are Radha and He lip to lip.
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Dawn and Dusk everyday
Are their flirting, they say
The Moon shows the moods of their joy.
Who would possibly guess?
That the cosmos is this,
The embrace of a girl and a boy.
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The Sources of all
At a cosmic ball,
Held in a forested glade,
All dressed up for the part,
Dancing heart to heart,
While the rest is a masquerade.
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And sometimes He hides,
So, then Radha decides
To die in the forest alone,
The Gopis all weep
Upon seeing Her sleep,
There on the ground like a stone.
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Then Kanya comes running,
He fell for her cunning,
He kisses Her feet in His sorrow,
So, She opens Her eyes,
There in Paradise,
Just another scene in the show.
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And it makes no sense
In a world where fences
And borders are all that we see,
We think it erratic
Compared to the static,
This madness of ecstasy.
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This forest of bliss,
Loving wilderness,
Where the wildness of play rules Supreme,
And a sweet love affair
Fills the fragrant air,
Is all of this only a dream?
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Well, on the way out,
That is the doubt
Of the souls who return to rebirth,
Too much love to believe,
So, they hurry and leave,
Back to sadness from laughter and mirth.
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But feel free to return,
We are all here to learn,
And the dancing goes on every day,
Choosing shadow or light,
Holding pain or delight,
You have been there and now, know the way.
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Copyright 2018 Jeffrey Armstrong  

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