Glimpses of Playful Sri Krsna .

Mangalacarana (Obeisances to Om Visnupada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Astottara-sata His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupdda)

. Falling like a stick, I bow before the holy, gentle, graceful lotus feet of Grila Prabhupada, who walked the street of many a mleccha-city to implore the fallen people of this world to place within their hearts the gift of Krsna's grace. .

Malgaldcarana (Obeisances to Lord Caitanya Mahdprabhu)

. Falling like a stick, I bow before the holy, gentle, graceful lotus feet of Gri Krsna Caitanya, who in a street of Navadvipa danced and with a roar of "Krsna! Krsna!" gave a priceless gift to the lost souls in this dark world adrift. .

First Glimpse The Awakening of Lord Krsna

. 1. With a thousand rays, the dawning sun begins to rise in Vraja's skies. The glistening moon and stars are gone. The darkness now flees far away. . 2. On Nanda's palace fashioned bright of rubies, pearls and graceful curls and filagree windows, smiling, light and joyful infant sunbeams play. . 3. Light enters a room of jewel designs. Fast in a deep and blissful sleep, smiling Krsna soft reclines on a jewel bed at the start of day. . 4. His lotus-petal limbs now rest on the soft bed. His glorious head is on a pillow placed. His chest now gently moves with His sweet breath. . 5. Forest flowers still adorn Him. Ah, His flute of jewels, mute, now rests at His side. The morn- ing light caresses His grace of youth. . 6. Yagodd, Paurnamdsi, and Madhumalgala step through the door. They stop before Krsna. Now they stand before Him. Sleep His eyes still seals. . 7. "Your friends all wait. So do the cows. Awake, awake, Ah, break, please break, please break this spell of sleeping now," Gri Krsna hears these soft appeals. . 8. Ah! Krsna hears. Now with a slight, graceful, and sweet motion His feet and arms and head He turns. The light of morning glistens on His limbs. . 9. Through the window sunbeams stream and gently land on Krsna's hand, arm, face, and chest. He floats in dream. in pleasant sleep still Krsna swims. . 10. With lotus hand Yagodd strokes His graceful form like monsoon storm clouds dark, the form of the king of jokes, of the thief that stole the gopis' hearts. . 11. "Give up Your sleeping now, O prize of mine. Please place Your lotus face before our joyful worshiping eyes." Yagodd says with grace and art. . 12. Many words now come. Now while Yagodd speaks, Krsna awakes. At her He glances with a smile, and then again His eyes are shut. . 13. Gri Krsna glistens in the touch of reddish dawn. He gives a yawn. His limbs He gently tries to stretch. With open eyes He looks about. . 14. Now Krsna of jasmine-vine brows, falls to the floor and humbly before His mother's lotus feet now bows, respectful Krsna the loving son. . 15. He bows to Paurnamdsi's two soft lotus feet. His words are sweet, "I offer My respect to you", Lotus-limbed Krsna's day has begun. .

Second Glimpse Milking the Surabhi Cows

. 1. A glistening yellow garment tied about His waist, A gentle smile upon His wide soft eyes now bright with joy, a milk-pail placed within His hand, and many a boy close at his side, Gri Krsna walks, His ears now filled with jokes and talks. . 2. A burst of laughter dances now among the friends. Many a blossoming flower-vine brow gracefully arches with smiles and wonder. Every boy bends over with waves of laughter. A thunder and rainfall of laughter rings. It soaks every heart in a gopa-boys' monsoon of jokes. . 3. Gri Krsna, Rdma and the boys come to the barn that's the white, black, gray, brown, and red cows' stately glorious home. "Galgd! Yamund! Hamsi! Bhramari!

Dhavald!", bright eyed Krsna calls. "Campa! Goddvari!" "Dhümra! Kamala! Rambha! Karini! Tulgi! Gavali! Kdlindi! Harini!" . 4. Lifting their necks, the cows all gaze with love-filled eyes on slender Krsna of graceful ways. With hugs, massages, and gentle arts, He satisfies the surabhi cows' smiling saintly hearts. The cows of graceful horns and hooves are tied to Krsna with bonds of love. . 5. From their mothers' bulging spouts the calves now sip the white sweet milk that they draw out. A flowing stream now Krsna makes silently slip past His two gentle lotus hands. Now a lake of sweet white foamy milk slowly grows in the glistening bucket at His feet below. .

Third Glimpse Decorating Gri Krsna .

1. Kumuda, Subandha, Premakanda Payoda, Dhdma, Raktaka, Patri, Karpüra, Patraka, Saralga, Sugandha, and Makaranda serve Lord Krsna in many ways. . 2. They massage Him now with fragrant oil They wash His dark and graceful limbs. They dry Him with a cloth. With a comb of jewels they carefully uncoil His glistening hair in disarray. . 3. With glistening yellow garments now they gird His graceful lion's waist. On His curling ears are placed jewel earrings. On His brow tilaka is drawn with fragrant scents. . 4. On His feet now anklets rest. Armlets now His arms enclose. Bracelets on His wrists repose. A jewel necklace presses His chest.

The servants adorn Him with ornaments. .

Fourth Glimpse Decorating Gri Rddhd .

1. Rddhd sits on a jewel chair in a morning-sunlight-filled palace room. Smiling Lalitd_ carefully combs Rddhd's fragrant black curly hair. .

2. Rddhd's hair she braids with flowers. Bracelets she places on Rddhd's wrists and a jewel-belt on Rddhd's waist and a finger-ring like nectar showers. .

3. Vigdkhd now with art and grace draws with many ornate lines of musk and sandal sweet designs on Rddhd's smiling moonlike face. . 4. She gives Rddhd a necklace of red and blue jewels. On Sri Rddhd's feet jewel anklets she ties. With black lines she decorates Sri Rddhd's eyes, eyes like glistening dark nectar pools. .

Fifth Glimpse The Poet of the Cooks

. 1. The morning sun shines through the trees. Sweet lotus' fragrance fills the breeze. The cuckoos sing,

and forests ring with sounds of playful humming bees. . 2. On the pathway lotus-eyed Rddhd walks, and at Her side are graceful friends. As the sun ascends, now through the flowering woods they glide. . 3. The glorious teenage traveler now quickly walks. She playfully rests her lotus hand

with jewel band on a gentle friend's shoulder. . 4. Graceful Rddhd wears a cloak. Her stream of clever words invoke a stream of laughter. Aha! One after another the girls all smile and joke. .

5. With smiling eyes in charming bloom now the laughing girls all come to the glistening sapphire ornate door of Krsnacandra's palace home.

. 6. The slender gopi visitor with humble smiles falls to the floor. Yagodd's sweet soft lotus feet graceful Rddhd bows before. . 7. With love Yagodd smiles. Now quick she moves at once to pick up in her arms the girl with charms so sweet, now fallen like a stick. . 8. Bowing and greeting, the beautiful girls all laugh and smile. Now all is joyful, bright with jewel lights. Now all is like a festival. . 9. Into the kitchen they quickly go. How well, how well these girls all know, know from start to end the art, the sweet sweet art of cooking, O. . 10. For smiling Krsna's sweet breakfast the girls cook a delicious feast with many tastes sweetly graced, tastes in the three worlds unsurpassed. . 11. Each girl always thinks now of Gri Krsna. Each is deep in love with Him, the prize they keep in eyes and heart. He's all they wish or have. . 12. Rddhd cooks and cooks. Now over a pot of squash She puts the cover. With hand precise She adds the spice. All Her thoughts are of Her lover. . 13. She cooks vegetables with pepper and spices, and She makes sweet nectar. She makes a stream, sweet like a dream, of flowing yogurt mixed with sugar. . 14. Kara, bilva and patola fruit She fries in ghee. With alu root and poet's care, now smiling, fair Gri Rddhd makes kusmanra sweet. . 15. With graceful skill Gri Rddhd makes buttermilk and mung-ddl cakes, and ccoked plantains like nectar rains, and fruit-juice sweet like nectar lakes. . 16. She fries many a tasty flower, and cooks vegetables sweet and sour, and tumbi squash like a sweet splash of nectar or a nectar shower. . 17. Ah, what sweetness She achieves with shredded bitter nalita leaves, a surging flow of sweetness no one quite in mind or heart believes. . 18. Placing pans upon the heat. She makes bitter, sour, and sweet and spice-graced foods that flowing floods of sweetest nectar do defeat. . 19. Ah, what a great variety of sweet delicious foods does She with skill and care and love prepare Her lover's joyful smile to see. .

Sixth Glimpse Lord Krsna's Breakfast .

1. The fragrant smoke of incense drifts in curling figures in the air of Nanda's glistening breakfast-room. From filigree windows a breeze now lifts the fragrance, ah, of mango, pear, and many foods sweet like perfume. . 2. "Krsna! Krsna! Hurry! All Your friends have come! Rdma and Subala wait for You! Ah! Griddmd, Madhu and Vasanta are already here! Must I call You again and again and again? Don't be late!" Yagodd grasps His lotus hand. . 3. Gently grasping His mother's soft

hand, Krsna steps amidst the boys.

A shower of greeting, calling, and cheers of "Krsna! Krsna!" rises aloft

and falls on each head. Sweet waves of joys splash on each laughing gopa boy's ears. . 4. His limbs like lotus flowers growing in a glistening nectar lake,

and His graceful playful joking words like lotus flowers' fragrance blowing in the breeze, Gri Krsna comes to take His breakfast now of fruit and curds. . 5. Gri Balardma at His side, Gri Krsna sits. His smiling face is like a moon of flooding bliss. His lotus eyes are opened wide. His gestures move with waves of grace. Each friend is like Gri Krsna is. . 6. Smiling Rohini serves the feast. With smiling blossoming lotus eyes, Gri Krsna happily tastes and eats so many foods. With joy increased and then again increased, the prize He tastes, the prize of graceful sweets. . 7. The boys all eat. Now from across the room, a smiling boy exclaims a wish for a golden larru. Snatch- ing one from His plate, with a graceful toss, Krsna sends one through the air. Like in a game, the friend gets it with an expert catch. . 8. A blissful chaos of joking reigns. From one and then another side ring echoes of thundering laughter and the play of persistent nectar monsoon rains of jokes from laughing boys relishing breakfast from many a golden tray. .

Seventh Glimpse Lord Krsna Departs for the Forest. Pastimes With the Cowherd Boys. .

1. At His parents' feet Gri Krsna humbly bows. They pick Him up. They hug Him tight. They soak Him now with loving tears. They gaze into their dear, dear, dear son's smiling, playful, large bright eyes. Surrounded now by lowing cows and boys with joking talks, Gri Krsna walks the forest path among the flowering trees. . 2. His body like a saphire, tilaka marks upon His moonlike face, a sweet, short bamboo flute so deftly placed within the cloth about His waist, with soft and dancing feet Gri Krsnacandra moves beneath the dark green branches gently stirred by cooing birds and fragrant flowers that attract black bees. . 3. The forest path leads to an opening splendid, green,and fragrant, thick with blooming flowers and bursting buds. From bamboo flutes the boys make floods of nectar music quick with clear, sweet, cheerful, glorious notes now sing with playful waves of sound. Tapping the ground, Laughing Krsna and His friends now dance. . 4. Gathering among the forest leaves and flowers, Gri Krsna's friends begin a tournament of graceful, glistening puns and jests. The warriors boys begin the test with bright poetic ornaments. Now their glittering satires show their powers. Now the boys with lotus-eyes, in jesting wise, contend, their jokes like arrow, sword, and lance. . 5. In the forest a game is played. The ball, a bright and sweet round fruit, is tossed into the air. A gopa catches it. Another quickly snatches it and runs. Who now has lost or won? Into whose hands do prizes fall? In the parasol of skies the bright ball flies. Rapt in the game, Gri Krsna laughs and laughs. . 6. The laughing boys and surabhi cows now climb a gentle slope. The surabhi cows all stop. With smiling eyes they chew the new green grass. The clear bright blue sky glistens from above them. Now is fragrant-flower-filled springtime. Standing, peaceful, happy, and still, on Govardhana Hill, Gri Krsna watches and leans upon His staff. . 7. Surrounded by His friends under the shade of a great flowering tree, its root His seat, Gri Krsna tastes the rice with yogurt, sugar, and slices of sweet delicious fruit, and many other foods all now displayed there. Krsna enjoys His lunch, as a crowning bunch of leaves and fragrant flowers adorns His hair. . 8. In the shade of a tree on Vraja's green hillside tired Krsna takes a nap. His limbs are graceful. His smile is sweet. His two soft and glorious feet rest in a gopa's lap. Lotus-limbed, lotus-smile, lotus-eyed Gri Krsna tastes deep, deep, deep nectar sleep, as a gopa massages His feet with gentle care. .

Eighth Glimpse Prayers of the Forest Animals .

1. "Gently nectar melodies with drums and softly singing lute and cymbals and sweet-sounding flute float by kalpa-veksa trees. In a forest, by a stream of nectar waves within a jewel paved courtyard, on a flower-filled hill softly breathing with a flower breeze, Gri Krsna and the gopis dance in the moonlit midnight hour. Let us praise Them," now the king of parrot poets gently sings. . 2. "In the forest of flowering trees dark Krsna with bright lotus eyes smiling catches by surprise Vraja's teenage girls. `King Kdma decrees that every teenage girl who walks upon this forest-flower path must bow to Him, or face His wrath. O girls of smiles and joking talks, O girls of lotus eyes and limbs, O girls of graceful steps, why, why do you all rashly now defy his words?' Gri Krsna teases. Hymns within our throats, we try to please him with our prayers," say all the bees. . 3. "O a pleasant springtime day, where a flower lattice covers the forest glade, the teenage lovers Rddhd and Krsna joke and play. As the dappled sunlight plays upon Their graceful, graceful forms, They are trapped in each other's charms. Into each other's eyes They gaze. Happily pass the nights and days. Together They sip from a nectar cup. Together They happily climb now up a flowering hill. Praise Them! Praise Them! Praise Them!" Thus the blossoming white jasmine flowers together sing. . 4. Gri Krsna sits where the flower vines grow. He places the bamboo flute to His lips. His fingers over the openings slip. His nectar breath begins to blow. Now a playful, wave-filled, flooding, dancing, laughing, sighing, slow river of nectar begins to flow. Now a sweetly fragrant, budding vine of graceful melodies bursts into bloom. Now waves of notes dive, rise, and swim, and play, and float. We worship them." Thus in the trees, on branches, gathered in a ring, the cooing cuckoo singers sing. . 5. "In this forest place are pressed the marks of Krsna's delicate, sweet, graceful, blossoming lotus feet. These footmarks go up to the crest of lofty Govardhana Hill. They enter and exit the yawning caves. They playfully go to the water's waves. Here turning and turning they lightly fill the circle of dancing. Here they caress the forest path. Sometimes they mingle with other's footmarks. Sometimes single they stand. May Krsna's footmarks bless us." Bowing their antlers, the forest deer respectfully repeat this prayer. . 6. "The sky and land are bright. A bath of the great moon's sweet, cooling, white, auspicious, nectarean light washes now the water's path. Rddhd and Krsna ride in a boat. A glittering mosaic of waves the wonderful watery courtyard paves. The jewel vessel gently floats. A gopi now, with graceful style breathes sweet melodies into a flute. Another gopi strikes the lute. Rddhd and Krsna happily smile. Before Their feet my head bows down." Thus revently sings the swimming swan. .

Ninth Glimpse A Rdsa Dance .

1. In Vraja a graceful, pleasant autumn day comes to its end. Gri Krsnacandra sits under a fragrant-flower-filled tree to play many sweet melodies on His favorite gistening long jewel-flute. Into the moonlit evening's rural , silent atmosphere comes a long, slow stream of music with infinite grace that flows from Krsna's slow sweet nectar breath. With soft, poetic, clear words the melody says to the beautiful teenage gopis' ears: . 2. We have run over forests and rivers and valleys and hills. We have run with our hearts and our breath beating fast. We have flown here to bring you this news: Now graceful Krsna fills a flute with His nectar breath. On an ornate throne of flowers He sits. Now tone after nectar tone of sweet music cascade from His glistening flute. None is handsome like Him. He sits in a place overgrown with blossoming flowers. He sings songs with His flute. He smiles. He loves you. Shun your house and your kin. He is splendid with bliss. Run to him! Run! . 3. Hearing this message, the gopis in the grip of cruel-hearted husbands and of stern- eyed elders plan how they may somehow slip from out their houses. They feel flames now burn and touch and lick them from all sides. They yearn to touch Gri Krsna's feet. Is destiny their enemy? Unseen by others, they spurn their homes. Now, under the boughs of the forest, following the melody into the darkened, flower-filled woods, the gopis flee. . 4. The girls pursue the nectar melody as it dances in that glistening night. The arching branches' flowering canopy stands above. Now in the white moonlight graceful Krsna stands before their sight. They gaze at Him like yogis in a trance. His teasing words are playful. He invites the gopis all with a blissful restless sidelong lotus-flower glance. Smiling, with them He enters the circle of the dance. . 5. The gopi musicians gather in a place and play a glorious dancing serenade upon the flute and lute and drum. With grace they play a flooding, surging, sweet cascade of melodies that fill the forest glade. In the moonlit circle bright with pearls red rubies and blue sapphires inlaid, with playful, fleet, and graceful feet step Krsna and, with flower-braided curls, Gokulapura's dancing, lotuslike teenage girls. . 6.All around handsome Krsna gather the slender, lotus-eyed gopis. The dancing melodies climb. The dancing circle is filled with colorful splendor. The jewel anklets, belts, and bracelets chime. The drums and cymbals lift the music's time. The gopi singers float the mystic chants. Now every heart is filled with sweet, sublime, flooding, endless, nectarean bliss. Placing on Krsnacandra every glance, The graceful teenage gopis in the circle dance. . 7. Rddhd and Krsna dance within the center of the circle by gopis beautified Expanding in numberless forms, Gri Krsna enters the ring and dances at every gopi's side. Thus many, many, many times multiplied, Gri Krsna His wonderful glory now displays. At monsoon-cloud-dark, graceful, lotus-eyed, lotus smile, most gentle, blossoming-lotus-limb Krsna as He plays His pastime of the rdsa-dance the gopis gaze. . 8. From the moonlit, star-filled sky come showers of flowers, a gentle, sweet, and soft monsoon of many kinds of colorful, fragrant flowers. On the dancers the flowers are reverently strewn. On each graceful dancer falls light from the glistening moon. From above comes the reverent, glorious, sweet-sounding cry, "Victory! Glory!" From above sounds a tune of cymbals and flutes and delicate lutes and deep-sounding drums, and woodwinds and trumpets high in the sweet autumn moonlit, glorious evening sky. . 9. The lotus-eyed, graceful, beautiful gopis perspire, exhausted from the dance. Gri Krsna, the rake, playful Krsna, glorious like a sapphire, smiling Krsna like a full-moon, takes them to a glistening, wave-filled, nectar lake. Now playful Krsna and the gopis splash each other with nectar water. Playing, they shake the waves. Kdma's brave warriors, in mock battle They happily clash like a dark monsoon cloud and many a glittering lightning flash. .

Tenth Glimpse A Holi Battle .

1. "O graceful girls like flower vines, O girls expert at smiles and play, whose glances bear auspicious signs, today is sacred Holi day. With great delight now you must fight a playful war with colored dyes," says Krsna with bright lotus eyes. . 2. Hearing Krsna's boasting challenge, the gopas' proud, soft, gentle daughters laugh. With a bright jewel syringe filled with glistening colored waters in every hand, the gopis stand prepared Gri Krsna now to fight, prepared with dancing dark eyes bright. . 3.In His hands a sprinkler red with colored water, and His lotus eyes dancing, stealthily Krsna treads the forest path. Then by surprise sapphire black Krsna attacks the gentle flower-vine-eyebrowed gopis with a red-dye-cloud. . 4. Startled by Gri Krsna's bold attack the gopis swiftly flee. Hiding in their own stronghold behind a line of flowering trees, eyes lit with glee, a strategy they plan to catch and swiftly wrap bold warrior Krsna in a trap. . 5.Flowers in their hair, the fair limbed gopis walk and find Gri Krsna resting unaware. They aproach Him from behind. A great monsoon of bright maroon colored water now they shower on Krsna soft like a blossoming flower. . 6. Now begins the Holi battle. Calls of "Victory! Victory! Victory!" resound with a rattle. Now Krsna and the soft gopi warriors fiercely pour on each other a red-dye-monsoon-flood in that forest of flowers, leaves, and buds. . 7. Into the springtime clear blue sky Monsoon showers of brilliant red- colored waters spray and fly. The colors now over the forest are spread. The colors splash. The armies clash. Ferociously the two sides throw the colors. Now the colors flow. . 8. Now both sides agree to a truce. They ratify a treaty of peace. Now the battles of red-dye-juice thrown with great force suddenly cease. In Vraja's forest the great contest where Krsna and gopis attack and defend now comes to a peaceful end. . 9. Gri Krsna now in colors swims. With a cloth Gri Rddhd dries from Gri Krsna's lotus limbs the flooding stream of color dyes. With color war the gopis adore Gri Krsna of peacock-feather crest and glistening sapphire-rampart chest. .

Eleventh Glimpse The Vraja-poets' Prayers

. Within the temples of their hearts, at the glorious graceful parts of Krsna's form, with bliss-filled eyes Gokula's poets always gaze. Emerging from their temples' doors and filled with thoughts of metaphors, they take up their pens and write these words filled with Krsna's light: . The soft and delicate glorious soles of Krsna's feet are reddish scrolls where playful Kdmadeva writes blissful pastimes day and night. The nails on Krsna's graceful toes are ten moons that together rose. The jangling anklets on Krsna's feet are cooing swans with movements sweet. Krsna's graceful legs and thighs are two banana trees that rise and with sweet leaves and flowers grow in Kdma's garden. This we know. Krsna's knees are a graceful chest where Kdmadeva's bright jewels rest. Krsna's graceful charming hips are the best of Kdma's ships. In Krsnacandra's slender waist wonderful glories all are placed. Krsna's garments yellow bright are a glittering lightning's light. His navel is a nectar pool with currents glistening and cool. There three folds of skin are stairs around that deep blue lotus lake. On Krsna's belly a line of hairs is a fearsome great black snake that makes the frightened gopis shake. Krsna's chest is a sapphire door hiding Kdma's treasure store. A fragrant garland of forest flowers rests on Krsna's chest. On Krsna's chest the Kaustubha jewel is of nectar bliss a pool. Shines the bright Grivatsa mark on Krsna's chest like sapphires dark. Krsna's arms are both great maces Kdma bears to guard his places. Gri Krsna's fingers are twigs with buds that brings a nectar glory flood. Krsna's neck is a conchshell where all auspiciousness does dwell. Gri Krsna's face is a splendid moon that shines at midnight and at noon. A treasury is Krsna's chin with gracefulness and charm within. Sometimes talking, sometimes mute, Gri Krsna's lips are bimba fruit. From the flute placed to His lips, Krsna nectar music sips. Krsna's nose is a parrot's beak. Two mirrors are Gri Krsna's cheeks. Gri Krsna's eyes are lotus flowers that bloom all minutes and all hours. Gri Krsna's ears are Kdma's wound- up nectar ropes tied round and round. The rings that Krsna's two ears mark are two playful jewel sharks. Gri Krsna's eyebrows are two vines with flowers that His glance entwine. Gri Krsna's forehead is a moon with glory that makes Kdma swoon. The black hairs on Gri Krsna's head are Kdma's flower-bedecked bed. Krsna's peacock-feather crest is of flags the very best. .

Twelfth Glimpse Pictures of Gri Gri Rddhd and Krsna

. 1. In a cottage in a glen a gopi draws with brush and pen many pictures of delight drawn with forms and colors bright. The pictures with joy she displays and to a gopi friend she says: . 2.Here Rddhd with glistening lotus eyes sits in a forest-flower pavilion. She softly recites a letter, as wise Ndndimukhi writes on a lotus-petal page with vermilion ink. Rddhd invites Krsna to meet Her in the forest. These words are on Her letter impressed: "I will don a great black cape. From My in-laws I'll escape. O My Krsna, O My love, tonight within the forest grove where We played under a tree please come, please come meet with Me." Here Rddhd's form is drawn in gold, a great wonder to behold. Around the picture like a ring are bright jewels glistening. . 3. Sitting at a kalpa-veksa's root, in this picture Rddhd and Krsna sing as expert Tulgavidyd plays the lute, gracefully touching each harmonious string. With smiling open mouth and playful glances, and glistening graceful forms like lotus lakes, happy Rddhd and Krsna make Their sweet songs play and dance. This picture is glorious with fine and ornate glistening lines. . 4. In this picture Rddhd and Krsna stand underneath a kalpa-veksa tree. With flowers and incense in graceful hands, the gopis offer drati. Some gopis play medalga and some sing. in that glorious cool-breeze starlit night. Many glorious offerings gopis bring. Rddhd and Krsna fill the gopis' sight. Many colors bright and bold this glistening picture enfold. . 5. In this charming and colorful scene with gopis and goddesses at Her side Graceful, beautiful, lotus-eyed Rddhd is crowned Venddvana's queen. The gopis here all celebrate. Filled with flowers is the place. The apsards dance with expert grace. Rddhd'sbliss is very great. Within this picture gentle, fine, lines with many colors shine. . 6.In this picture Rddhd and Krsna with soft lotus hands make ablossoming flower vine its tendrils round a tree entwine. Now the vine with splendid grace does the great-branched tree embrace. Thus is the wedding ceremony of the vine and of the tree. Rddhd smiles with happiness as the vine and tree caress. With expert art and gracefulness This picture is filled with bliss. . 7.This colorful jewel picture shows gathered under the forest's boughs goddesses and demigods singing prayers in many modes. as they worship Krsna's feet, which sweetest nectar do defeat. The demigods stand with folded palms reciting many hymns and psalms. Sri Krsna on His lotus throne gently smiles and grants them boons. To them He gives His mercy sweet as they serve His lotus feet. In this picture this is seen with bliss and gracefulness serene. . 8. Under the forest's canopies with wonder-filled opened eyes, for the first time Rddhd sees Krsna. This picture glorifies that glorious, blissful, auspicious moment when stunned Rddhd attained the sight of glorious Krsna and the scent of His sweet body. Ah, with bright wide-open eyes She gazed at Him, glorious with fragrant lotus limbs. Rddhd wonderous ecstasy This picture depicts expertly. . 9. In this picture with ten million graceful, fragrant, blooming, sweet lotus flowers the gopis now worship Krsna's lotus feet. In a forest flower-pavilion they humbly and respectfully bow before Krsna with glistening sapphire chest and fragrant-flower-vine eyebrows. This picture, drawn with graceful art, sublime and sweet in every part, charms the eyes and mind and heart. .

Thirteenth Glimpse Walking and Playing the Flute

. 1. Dancing Krsna walks along the Yamund'sdark, clear, glistening waves, and plays on His flute a beautiful song. . 2. He walks in a forest. He walks on the side of a green grassy hill. Into a cave He looks with blossoming eyes opened wide. . 3. To His sweet music the wild forest deer listen like great yogis rapt in a trance. Slowly walking, they all come near. . 4. The blissful deer all gather around. the flute-player Krsna now starts to dance, moving His feet on the forest's soft ground. .

Fourteenth Glimpse A Forest Meeting

. 1. The sun now sets. The light is spent. Jewel lamps glisten in the room. A girl with eyes like flowers in bloom removes her glittering ornaments. . 2. Her graceful beautiful form she covers from head to delicate feet with a black all-covering enormous cloak. She meditates on her handsome lover. . 3. Slowly she moves. The slender teen age girl keeps careful watch that no elder will see or catch her. She departs unheard and unseen. . 4. Into the forest shadows she goes. The darkened forest path she takes. She walks by glistening deep blue lakes where blossoming lotus flowers grow. . 5. She enters the appointed place. Now the full moon fills with light that fragrant pleasant springtime night. Now she sees her lover's face. . 6. Their two forms are now entwined. That gopi and her own true love meet within aforest grove where vines round flowering branches wind. . 7. Ananta Gesa cannot say, with thousand voices eloquent, how the couple that night sspent or all the pastimes They enjoy. . 8. In this way agopi meets her lover Krsna with delight on a splendid moonlit night. She worships Krsna's lotus feet. .

Fifteenth Glimpse The Flower-thief

. 1. The pleasant glistening sunlight shines through branches wide with twigs and buds and open blossoms. Fragrant floods of sweetness flow. The blooming vines embrace the trees, and humming bees now happily fly and dance and play on this sweet sweet springtime day. . 2. A rustling soft soft sound now breaks the air. Now gentle delicate feet so softly, softly, slowly meet the flower-filled forest path. Now shakes a graceful bough of flowers. Now five soft delicate fingers surround the sweetest jasmine flower found. . 3. The flower's green and supple stem is now so gently, suddenly trapped, now swiftly picked, and carefully wrapped up like a glistening precious gem. The picker holds the bloom in folds of loosened bright silk garment placed about a beautiful slender waist. . 4. Glistening, smiling glances lick the intricate branches' many blooms. The sweetest essence of perfumes rests there. The moving fingers pick another flower. Less than an hour with playful sweet delight is passed. A fragrant flower fortune is amassed. . 5. The flower-picker is a girl of fifteen blooming glistening years. Her perfect features have no peers in gracefulness. Soft-jangling jewel bracelets rest upon Her wrist. Her graceful black braids, like a snake, slither down Her glorious back. . 6. Her graceful limbs are turned and tossed in rising waves of playfulness. Her graceful walking steps now bless the grass. A splendid perfect host of virtues rest in Her, tight pressed with graceful, simple, earnest art to Her pure and sincere heart. . 7. A smile now graces Her dark eyes as they see within Her cloth, with satisfaction and with mirth, the forest's fragrant precious prize. "One flower more, then to the door of My own home I swiftly go," She thinks, the forest boughs below. . 8. Her graceful hand extends to pick another precious fragrant bloom. Then like the beating of a drum a rustling fills the trees. Ah! Quick She turns to see. "What can it be, that now are almost done My tasks?", Her startled heart now asks. . 9. Now a form like a monsoon cloud emerges from behind the trees. The frowning teenage boy now sees the girl. With voice both deep and loud like rolling thunder He asks, "Under whose permission do You take the forest flowers by this lake?" . 10. His necklace is a Kaustubha stone. Upon His glistening dark black locks of hair now rests a charming peacock's feather graceful graceful crown. With graceful ways In that girl's gaze He stands, with moonlike face, and shark shaped earrings and Grivatsa mark. . 11. He speaks with playful, pompous, mock solemnity. His smiles betray Him. Every word His red lips say wears garlands of a glistening joke. He's on a stage pretending rage, an actor. On His words are pressed the smiling playfulness of jest. . 12. He says, "O Rddhd, all the blooms You see on every vine and tree are Kdmadeva's property. They are his sweet and fragrant rooms, the charming maze wherein he plays, his palace, O, his kingdom, O sweet Rddhd this truth You should know. . 13. "Alas, alas, full many a theft of fragrant blooms and buds and twigs in many glorious autumns, springs, and summers in his forest left him sadly weeping. Ah, gentle King Kdmadeva wept to see the theft of his sweet property. . 14. "Then as fragrant breezes blew on a pleasant nectar moonlit night a messenger came to invite Me to his palace. `Krsna, You must come with me. Please come. To see You great King Kdmadeva yearns. For in his heart fresh torment burns.' . 15. "Then Kdmadeva I met. His hand was resting on his flower-crowned head. To Me he sadly smiled and said, `Alas! The thieves have raped my land. O friend, please watch my land, and catch the thieves, and bring them back to me for punishment. This I decree.' . 16. "Therefore, O Rddhd, I arrest You now in Kdmadeva's name. O gentle Rddhd, shame, shame, shame on You. The laws You have transgressed. A flower-thief must come to grief. Before the judge of stern command, before King Kdmadeva, stand." . 17. Hearing this fantastic tale, gentle Rddhd says. "This forest of Venddvana so blessed with flowers, trees, and vines, and frail new twigs and buds and fragrant floods of sweetness, Ah, this wood You see is My friend Vendd's property. . 18. "Sitting on a flower throne, one day Vendd said to Me, `Saintly Rddhd, please, please be happy in the land I own. Night and day here laugh and play. And any flower from lotus lake or vine or tree is Yours to take.' . 19. Will Krsna then say, "I know well, O Rddhd, that Your words are lies. Still, when I look into Your eyes, somehow I fall into a spell. What is the power in Your flower- like eyes, O slender thief with face and smile and form so filled with grace?" . 20. Will smiling Rddhd with pretending humble sweet remorsefulness then softly say, "I, I confess My misdeeds. I'm a thief. Bring, bring Me to the place where with his mace of flowers Kdmadeva holds his court, a wonder to behold. . 21. "But, but this one request please, please, please grant. My dear, sweet kin will worry If I return not home. I'll hurry home for their sake. Please release Me. Then, at night in soft moonlight smiling Kdmadeva the great wise jurist will decide My fate."? . 22. Will smiling Krsna then agree to Rddhd's eloquent request. That evening will They meet on the crest of a hill among flower-filled vines and trees? Within that trial with wink and smile will Kdmadeva hear Rddhd's case as he holds his flower-mace? .

Sixteenth Glimpse Pastimes on a Swing Decorated with Flowers

. 1. On every curling vine and bending bough the bright white jasmine flowers all are now widely blossoming. The gentle, cooling, sweet, soft afternoon light winks and hints, with a smiles of sweet delight, hints of coming evening. 2. Many flowers now with care are sought. By delicate fingers fragrant flowers are brought, flowers like a string. On a tall stately tree now ropes are placed. With flower networks now the ropes are graced on a vine-made swing. . 3. The forest now is filled with humming bees and cooing musical cuckoos on green trees with branches flowering. The gopis talk. Now smiles adorn their lips. A sweet commotion fills their forest trips in Kdma's season of spring. . 4. The swing is ready. Now a teenage boy, His soft limbs marked with sweetness, youth and joy, now steps up to the swing. His limbs are clouds in dark rains of monsoon, His face a sweetly smiling nectar moon happily glistening. . 5. A pecock-feather crown adorns His hairs. Now rock to and fro upon His ears shark-shaped jewel rings. Jewel anklets jangle on His feet. With dancing smiling eyes He takes His seat upon the flower-twined swing. . 6. Lalitd takes a shy girl by the hand and leads Her to the swing's soft flower strand, the forest entering, and makes Her sit down by Gri Krsna's side. At Krsna, Rddhd glances, Her smiling eyes wide like flowers opening. . 7. Her gestures are waves in a flood of joyful grace. She captures Him with a sidelong glance's embrace. as They sit on the swing. The gopis push. The swing begins a slow and stately motion, moving to and fro within the forest ring. . 8. Now a drum, a bell, a gentle lute, a glistening cymbal, and a bamboo flute together sweetly ring. Now with smiling eyes, the gopis, soft beautiful voices gently raised aloft, graceful melodies sing. . 9. Glory, glory, glory to Gokula's prince, a treasure of glory and playful opulence, like a monsoon cloud showering! Glory, glory to His heart's delight! Glory to the girl who day and night is like lightning glistening! . 10. The vind resounds and the gopikd's clear graceful sweet songs rest in Rddhikd's ear, with happiness blossoming. The medalga's thumping is a graceful dance. Rddhd and Krsna exchange a sweet glance as They ride on the swing. . 11. Into the air rise Their soles and Their toes. Tightly Their soft tendril fingers enclose the flower-twined ropes of the swing. Now swiftly the glorious forest-swing flies. At each other They gaze now with sweet laughing eyes. as They move to and fro on the swing.