Rasa Līla
Kṛṣṇa‘s Māya possesses the power of ‘‘creation of all the worlds,’’ which includes Kṛṣṇa‘s eternal abode of intimate play, which the Lord himself submits to.
In the first verse of the Rasa Līla described in the Bhāgavatha:
“Even the Beloved Lord, seeing those nights in autumn filled with blooming jasmine flowers, Turned his mind toward love’s delights, fully taking refuge in
Yogamāya’s illusive powers.”
ŚB 10.29.1
The Rasa Līla commences on an enchanting autumn evening as the full moon is rising. Kṛṣṇa is so transfixed by the resplendent, red glow of the autumn moonlit night in the Vrindavana forest that he began to play his flute. Kṛṣṇa is so inspired by the beauteous landscape that he is moved toward amorous love, and produces irresistible flute music, alluring the gopis. They suddenly abandon everything — their household duties, their families, their homes, even their physical bodies — to run off to the forest to be with him.
The verses that follow describe the various domestic activities in which the gopis are engaged at the time of hearing Kṛṣṇa’s intoxicating flute. They abruptly abandon of their household duties as they desert their physical bodies and adopt a new spiritual form, while relinquishing all consideration for “proper” behavior. Their sudden lack of concern for social conventions symbolizes their renunciation born of unconditional love as well as their passionate devotion to Kṛṣṇa’s.
“Seeing lotus flowers bloom and the perfect circle of the moon beaming like the face of Rāma and red as fresh kunkuma;
Seeing the forest colored by the moon’s gentle rays,
He began to make sweet music, melting the hearts of fair maidens with beautiful eyes.
Upon hearing that sweet music, their passion for him swelling,
the young women of Braj whose minds were captured by Kṛṣṇa,
Unaware of one another, ran off toward the place
Where their beloved was waiting, with their earrings swinging wildly.
Some left abruptly while milking the cows —
due to excitement the milking had ceased.
Some left milk as it boiled over;
others departed leaving cakes on the hearth.
Some suddenly stopped dressing themselves;
others caesed to feed children their milk.
Some left their husbands who had not yet been served;
others while eating, abandoned their meals.
Some were massaging their bodies with oils or cleansing themselves;
others applying collyrium to their eyes.
Their garments and ornaments in utter disarray,
they hastened to be with Krishna.
Their husbands, fathers, brothers —
all relatives endeavored to detain them.
Since their hearts had been stolen by Govinda,
they who were entranced did not turn back.
Some gopis, unable to leave, had gone inside their homes.
With eyes closed, fully absorbed in love, they meditated upon Krishna.
The intense burning of unbearable separation from their dearest beloved disrupted all inauspiciousness;
Due to the joy of embracing Achyuta, even their worldly happiness was lost.
Certainly, he is the supreme Soul,
though they knew him intimately as their lover.
They relinquished their bodies composed of material elements,
and any worldly bondage was instantly destroyed.”
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.22), the gopis even perform a special worship in order to gain the favor of the supreme Goddess, with the intention of attaining Kṛṣṇa as their husband. It is in the Rasa Līla that the gopis are said to have this desire fulfilled. Hearing his music, the gopis join him and together, they dance with unbridled joy.
“With their feet stepping to the dance;
with gestures of their hands, loving smiles and sporting eyebrows;
With waists bending and rhythmic movements
of garments covering their breasts; with earrings swinging on their cheeks;
The spiritual wives of Krishna, with moistened faces and braids and belts
tied tightly, sang his praises — They appeared like lustrous flashes of radiant lightning engulfed by a ring of dark clouds.”
The climactic scene occurs when the gopis form a great circle around Krishna, who miraculously duplicates himself so that he can dance with each and every gopi simultaneously, though each feels that Krishna is with her alone.
In the Rasa Līla, Gopis are represented as leaving their homes by night to follow the sound of Kṛṣṇa‘s flute, and as joining with him in many blissful festivities. During a part of his time Kṛṣṇa bestows his favour upon Rādha alone.
“Consumed in thoughts of Rādha, His heart bound by the chain of Her love, Kamsāri, desiring to enjoy the quintessence of madhura-rasa (rasa-līla), abandoned all the other beautiful Vraja maidens.” (Gīta Govinda)
The most essential part of the Rasa Līla is the subsequent union of Kṛṣṇa with the Gopis in the Rasa Mandala. To see this sight, the Gods attended with their wives, and rained down flowers and there was such harmony of rāgas and rāginis that wind and water seized to flow, the moon and stars were astonished, and six months passed while none were aware. At the close of this time, Kṛṣṇa teaches the milkmaids that they must return to their worldly duties and must seek him in their own hearts and in their daily life. The typical Rasa maṇḍala painting among Rajput art is one in which the Lord, by his yōga-māya, multiplies his forms and dances with the milkmaids in a ring, standing between each, as ‘common to all and special to each’.
“O Sakhī! Hari, whose soft, dark limbs surpass the beauty of a blue lotus, begins the festival of love. Intoxicated by the rasa of romantic springtime encounters, He plays like an erotic mood incarnate. With intense fervor, He is satisfying the gōpīs’ unbridled passion. The beautiful cowherd maidens, aroused into a wild, blissful state, embrace His every limb without restraint.” (Gīta Govinda)
Those only who know by direct experience the nature of the inner life will fully appreciate the universal significance of the Rasa Līla: we can only say that this mystery is ‘based on undying eternal truths, upon the permanent relations between Jīva and Īśwara. The heart of man is the seat of this Līla which can be reproduced at all times in the heart of every real Bhakta.. the Līla is constantly performed in Gokula and is reproduced over parts of Brahmanda according to the will of Kṛṣṇa’. (Purnendu Narayana Simha, Bhāgavata Purāṇa)
The great work of the mediaeval Vaiṣṇava revival, initiated by Ramānuja as developed by Rāmānanda, Tulasidāsa, Nimbārka, and poets like Jayadeva, Vidyapati and Chandidās emphasise the identification of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa and brought into prominence the stories of Rādha and the milkmaids, which are the symbols of Vaiṣṇava mysticism and a main theme of Rajput art. Of these, Rasa Līla may have a remote ancestry.
“Blinded by love, the bewildered Rādha lost all sense of decorum. Before all the enchanting gopīs drowning in prema of the rasa-līla, She tightly embraced Śri Kṛṣṇa’s chest and kissed Him deeply, exclaiming, “Nātha, O possessor of My life! Sweet indeed is Your face, sweet as nectar.” Her love spontaneously filled His heart with rhapsody, bringing a charming smile to His lotus face. May that Śri Hari bestow auspiciousness upon all.” (Gita Govinda)
Rajput art is preoccupied with the sentiment of bhakti, passionate devotion to God in the person of his avatāra, Śri Kṛṣṇa and Rādha as his svakīya heroine. The themes of worship and adoration of Kṛṣṇa that recur in Rajput art were not, by any means new and the doctrine of bhakti was already established in the Bhagavad Gīta more than couple millennia earlier, and in the region, Vaiṣṇavism was the chief faith of the Guptas centuries earlier. Scenes from Kṛṣṇa Līla such as the episodes of lifting Mount Govardhana and of the defeat of Kālīya were represented in sculptured steles from about 4th century AD at Marwar. Early Vaiṣṇavism, however consisted of worship of Vasudeva Kṛṣṇa of the epics, and the adolescent Kṛṣṇa and his relations with the gopis were popularised by the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and a Harivamśa although it is clear that they were already well-known.
Devotional poetry and Sanskrit and Hindi literature such as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa that developed from the 8th — 11th centuries became a central theme of Vaiṣṇava religious art. The bhakti cult of Rādha and Kṛṣṇa — developed after the 11th century, compelling and inspiring a whole cycle of expression in poetry, painting, music and drama.
Sources:
- Rajput Painting; being an account of the Hindu paintings of Rajasthan and the Panjab Himalayas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, described in their relation to contemporary thought, by Ananda K Coomaraswamy
- Śri Gīta Govindā of Jayadeva by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja
- Krishna: A Sourcebook, Edited by Edwin F. Bryant
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