In2-MeC

Preshov, Slovakia
4 July 2004

The pure land of Vrndavana is cooled by the presence of trees whose tender branches are laden with clusters of new buds and the most attractive flowers. These trees are flowing with honey and saturated with heavenly fragrances, and their trunks are entwined with vines decorted with clusters of fresh flowers.

The heart of Vrndavana resounds with the humming of swarming bees who have come to taste the nectar from the blossoming flowers, and with the cries of doves, parrots, sarikas, and cuckoos. Everywhere the peacocks dance.

Vrndavana is served by a soft, soothing breeze carrying a fine spray from the lapping waves of the Yamuna. That breeze, bearing the pollen dust from the interiors of fully blown lotuses, playfully shakes the garments of the gopis, whose minds then become agitated with desire for their Lord.

In the midst of Vrndavana stands a towering kalpa-vrksa tree, bestower of all desires, whose branches are cool, whose leaves are emerald, whose bouquets of buds are diamonds and pearls, and whose fruits are rubies. Served by the seasons personified, it produces all kinds of flowers simultaneously.

At the base of the nectar-showering kalpa-vrksa tree is an area that shines as brilliantly as the sun rising over a range of solid-gold mountains. Sparkling with inlaid jewels and glowing with heaps of golden pollen, this place is completely freed from the waves of lamentation, illusion, death, hunger and thirst.

On the jewel-inlaid floor is an exquisite asana in the form of an eight-petaled lotus tinted the color of dawn. In the center, as resplendent as the rising sun, sits Lord Mukunda in a comfortable pose.

He shines like a brilliant dark sapphire, as deep black as lampblack, as dark as a mountain of monsoon clouds, as delicate as a blue lotus. Atop this wondrous form is a black mass of hair, thick, glossy and curled, and upon this sits a luminous peacock feather.

On His head rest ornaments of parijata blossoms attended eagerly by swarms of bees, and on His ears are fresh flowers. On the middle of His forehead, surrounded by stray locks of hair, shines vertical, bright yellow tilaka between a pair of long, creeper-like eyebrows. his face shines like the flawless moon of the autumn season, and His eyes are wide like lotus petals. His mirrorlike cheeks glitter with the rays from His jewelled, shark-shaped earrings. His beautiful nose points upward gracefully, and His tender smile, resembling the moon, a jasmine, or a mandara flower, illuminates all His features.

<< Back