Chapter 103 - How to Meditate on Kṛṣṇa in Vaiśākha

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Yama said:

1-8. O best brāhmaṇa, I have narrated in brief some importance of the month of Vaiśākha, especially of the full-moon day. He who recites this account dear to Viṣṇu in the month of Vaiśākha, getting purified quickly goes to Viṣṇu’s abode and gets delighted (there) for many kalpas. This (description of the) greatness of the month of Vaiśākha, the life of the king and our dialogue are blessed, give fame, long life, are a great means of securing prosperity, lead to heaven, give prosperity, delight, are praiseworthy and destroy sins. Having heard and recited it duly, and delighting the one dear to the mind, there would be (i.e. take place) devotion, due to which there would be the destruction of sins. O brāhmaṇa go, as you desire, from the world of gods. Your kinsmen, having dropped (i.e. put) your body on the ground, are still weeping. Go, as it were, you have just got up from the sleep, before your body is quickly thrown (i.e. put) into fire by your kinsmen that are weeping. By my favour you have heard this path of religious merit. Do it properly. By doing it, you will be united with gods at the (proper) time.

Sūta said:

9-12. The brāhmaṇa, having heard these words of the god, and having saluted the lord of Dharma (i.e. Yama), and with his mind pleased, again fell down on the ground due to the favour of Yama from there; and being attended by his kinsmen, he got up as if he had been asleep. The brāhmaṇa himself performed this rite on the earth year after year, and made men bath in the month of Vaiśākha. On the occasion of the meritorious bath in the month of Vaiśākha, I have told you this dialogue between Yama and the brāhmaṇa.

13-14. To him, the wise one, who would bathe in the month of Vaiśākha, dear to Viṣṇu, and gives gifts, (performs) sacrifices and good deeds with great devotion, the place of Viṣṇu is not difficult to get. He who with a concentrated mind listens to this greatness, due to the Sun’s being in Aries, goes, being freed from all sins, to the highest place of Viṣṇu.

The sages said:

15-18. O Sūta, O very wise Sūta, you, of a very kind heart, have told (us) the greatness of the month of Vaiśākha which destroys sins. You have (also) told us the restraints which are to be observed, and also the worship, bath (to be done and) gifts (to be given) according to the statements in the sacred texts and the codes of law, so also (you have told us) how Viṣṇu, who destroys sins, is pleased. Now we desire to hear about the meditation that liberates one from the worldly existence, of the magnanimous Kṛṣṇa dear to his hosts of devotees.

Sūta said:

19-20. O sages, all of you (now) listen to (the account) of Kṛṣṇa, the soul of the world, the life of the cows, the cowherds and the cowherdesses, and moving in Vṛndāvana. O brāhmaṇas, once Gautama asked Nārada (about this). I shall tell you about that meditation which he had told him.

Nārada said:

21-25. A man of sharp intellect should always remember the excellent Vṛndāvana which appears forth with the fragrant honey dropping from the host of flowers; which is endowed with beauty, being bent due to the mass of new sprouts of good trees; which is surrounded by creepers charming with blossoming fresh sprouts; which is auspicious. He should think of the desire-yielding tree in it, which (tree) was resounding with the hummings of the wandering bees, which were coming out from their mouths and which were sweet due to their enjoying the honey of the blooming flowers; and also resounding with the birds like pigeons, parrots, sārikās and cuckoos; which was full of (the peacocks) the enemies of serpents, dancing here and there; which was constantly served by breezes carrying the drops from the tossing waves of (Yamunā) the daughter of Kalinda, which (breezes) were dusty due to the mass of pollen from the interiors of full-blown lotuses, which were intent upon tossing about the garments of the women from Vraja with their feeling ofsex inflamed; which had shoots and new sprouts, the leaves of which were like emeralds, the buds of which were like the mass of the lustre of pearls, which had many fruits of the colour of lotuses; which was the greatest; which was always served by all the seasons; which gave the desired objects. A cautious, wise man should remember a golden ground which is bright like the sun risen on the mountain with bright golden peaks; which has lustrous jewelled floor; which is shining with the pollen of flowers: which has six parts under it (i.e. the tree) having a shower of the drops of nectar.

26-51. Thinking of the eight-petalled tawny lotus on the greatest seat for abstract meditation, arranged on that jewelled floor, and bright like the sun, one should think of Mukunda (i.e. Kṛṣṇa) seated comfortably in it; (of Mukunda) (who was) like the mass of clouds of split up collyrium; and who was bright like a fresh blue lotus; whose mass of hair was very glossy, dark, dense and curved; whose crest of the peacocks’ tails was bright and charming; who was endowed with the flowers of the divine tree fondled by bees; whose ear ornament was a blooming fresh lotus; who had a bright mark of yellow pigment on the base of the forehead bright with unsteady bees; who had the bright cilli-bow; whose face was charming like the autumnal complete orb of the moon without spot; whose eyes were large like petal s of lotuses; whose mirror-like cheeks were brightened with jewelled and bright ear-rings of the shape of crocodiles; whose nose was raised and charming; whose lips were more beautiful than red lead; who had brightened the quarters with his gentle smile resembling the moon, the kunda and the mandāra (flowers); whose charming conch-like neck was bright due to the neck-ornament accomplished with the mass of excellent sprouts and flowers; whose shoulders were adorned with spreading garland of santānaka flowers from which were hanging the intoxicated noisy bees; who was shining with the sun in the form of the Kaustubha gem glittering in the sky in the form of his large bosom shining with a series of garlands; whose raised shoulders were well-marked with the auspicious curl of hair on his bosom; whose hands reaching his knees were large and round; who had a little wavy belly; whose hair (on his belly) resembled a swarm of female bees; who had put on armlets, a line of bracelets, a neck-ornament, a girdle, and anklets fashioned with various jewels; whose slim body was tinged with yellow divine fragrant unguents; who had put on a yellowish garment round his round hips; whose thighs and knees were lovely; whose shanks were round and beautiful; who had censured the lustre of the tortoise by means of the lovely and raised foreparts of his feet; whose lotus-like feet were beautiful, shining like mirrors of emeralds, bright with excellent nails and having the sheaths of red toes; who was charming as his reddish palms and soles were marked with (signs like those of) fish, goads, cupid’s flags, barley-corns, lotuses and diamond-pins; whose body was fashioned with the mass of the essence of beauty; who had censured the beauty of Cupid’s body with his loveliness; who made the continuous line of the subdued beings salute him due to the constantly produced divine musical orders discharged by the fingers of his hands moving to and fro over the holes of the flute filled with (the breath from) his lotus-like mouth; who was surrounded by cows whose eyes merged in his lotus-like face, that were stumbling, dull and walking slowly due to the burden of their udders, that had in their mouths sprouts of grass left after they were bitten with the tips of their teeth, and whose creeper-like tails were hanging; who was surrounded by calves maddened with the foamy milk dropping from their steady mouths full of their mothers’ udders—the ornaments—from which milk was oozing, and with their pairs of ears raised due to the charming, gentle song, sent out by the flute; who was also surrounded by male and female calves with unsteady plantings of the foreparts of their hoofs-unsteady due to the feeling of confusion as a result of gentle strokes of the new horns on their heads; who was surrounded by large oxen who had disturbed the quarters with their bellowing, weary due to the burden of their humps, and having drunk the nectar of the sound of the flute by the steady cavities of their ears, and with their spreading and large noses raised; who was also surrounded by cowherds who were of similar qualities, character, age, sports and dresses, who were made violent by the sweet-sounding flutes and lutes, who were engaged in singing slowly, and with a high and loud tone, who were delighted in lovely dancing accompanied by singing and instrumental music, due to their unsteady creeper-like arms, whose groups of moving bells tied to the cavities of their fat loins and inside their shanks, were sounding, who were roaming, who were maddened, who had made charming ornaments out of the nails of hyenas; who was surrounded by children who were speaking indistinctly but sweetly; and who was all round served by the rows of the very charming, beautiful cowherdesses whose braids were big and who walked slowly due to (large) hips, who had a line of hair manifested on the three folds, fragile due to the burden of the heavy breasts, whose body-creepers of that tree of Cupid blossomed by the nectar of the musical instruments like the extremely sweet and lovely flute were adorned with horripilation charming like buds that had shot forth, who continuously had the drops of fatigue resembling the spray on unsteady ripples of that ocean of sexual feeling increased by the laughter, who had unbearable affliction along with tremor spreading over their distressed bodies, all the vital parts of which were crushed by shower of Cupid in the form of his sharp glances from the extremely lovely and gentle bows of cilli (i.e. his eyes), who longed for drinking the nectar of the beauty of his very lovely dress and form, who were the rivers flooded with the water of love, whose lotus-like eyes were gentle and unsteady, who were repeatedly served by a swarm of bees greedy of the honey dripping from the full-blown flowers dropping from their beautiful braids, whose words were faltering and soft due to intoxication caused by intense passion of love, whose buttocks appeared beautiful due to the lustre of the ends of the silken garments which were getting loose due to their knots being untied by the unsteady girdles, who had filled the quarters with anklets inlaid with jewels, due to gentle plantings of their stumbling and charming lotus-like pairs of eyes which were broad and had beautiful eye-lashes, whose ear-rings were bright, whose sprout like reddish lips were fading due to the torment caused by wind of the longest breath (i.e. sigh), whose lotus-like hands were shining with many presents.

52-56. A man should remember him (i.e. Kṛṣṇa) whose entire body was worshipped by the wreaths of the lotuses hidden in the sheaths of their long, unsteady, blue eyes; who has a body which is the abode of sports, which tastes the honey from the lotus-like faces of those innocent ones, which through love has the row of bees in the form of the damsels of bewitching eyes, which is beautiful; a man should remember outside (the group) of the cowherdesses, the cowherds and the beasts, the host of divinities, desiring riches, and Jed by Brahmā, Śiva and Indra, and intent on praising him. (A man should remember) on his right side, a host of sages, bent upon (following) the tradition due to their strong desire for religious merit; behind him, (a man should remember) the chief meditating saints like Sanaka, desiring salvation through abstract meditation; (he should remember) on his left, yakṣas, siddhas, gandharvas, vidyādharas and cāraṇas with their beloveds and with kinnaras, so also the chiefs of celestial nymphs desiring (the fulfilment of) their desires through dancing, singing and sounds of musical instruments, who are white like a conch, the moon and the kunda (flower), who know all the Vedas, whose matted hair is tawny, like streaks of lightning, and remembering me (i.e. Nārada), Brahmā’s son who desires spotless devotion to his feet, who has given up the company of any one else, who pleases (the lord) with charming modulations in the seven musical orders and the three gamuts endowed with qualities of various notes, should devoutly think of him.

57. The man, of a sharp and clear intellect, having thus meditated upon the son of Nanda, should again deliberately and devoutly worship him in his own body and outside with splendour. O best brāhmaṇas, I have told you all that was desired by you.