Nandagopal Is Poetry Incarnate

Krishna’s form is truly poetry; his movements are the lyrics of a love song, and the sound of his flute is the mellifluous melody of the prana
of the universe and a call to eternity, writes HARSHA V DEHEJIA All the gods once gathered in heaven and engaged in an animated conversation. There was Shiva on his Nandi with a trishul, trident, in his hand, and Parvati by his side; Vishnu sat in all his glory holding the padma, lotus; Sudarshan chakra; shankha, conchshell; and gada, mace; Devi came charging sitting on her tiger, wielding her trident and crushing Mahisha, and there was Brahma with his four heads and holding the Veda and he presided over the assembly.There were also minor gods like Kama and Kubera, Agni and Marut, and many ganas and demigods. All gods started describing their own prowess and their function in samsara. Each of them felt he was the greatest of them all.Just then a beautiful woman, looking like an apsara walked in, with dancing steps. She had a neck like that of a swan and thighs like the plantain plant, her breasts were like jars and her lips that of the bimba fruit.The gods looked at her with amazement and asked,
“Who are you?”
Coyly she said, “I am Kavita”. “And what is that?” the gods asked. Kavita said, “I am shruti, the primal voice.”“And how is
Kavita born?” Brahma asked, since he was the creator god.Kavita said, “Kavita is the shruti, and is the adi, original, and the anadi, eternal. It is the primal cosmic vani, anhad, unborn and undying, heard in the deepest recesses of the mind of the kavi, poet, who then transforms it into words. The kavi then enriches the words with rasa, ornaments with alamkara, and adds chhand, verses, and tala, makes them ramaniya, attractive, and then kavita is transformed from shruti into kavya, poetry, and thus it is that the kavi is also a creator.The gods were amazed and they all wanted Kavita to be with them, but Kavita refused and the gods felt hurt. “I belong to the heart and not to the mind. I live in streams of rasa and not in rivers of karma. My home is in the assembly of poets and not in the commerce of the market. I am the cause of ananda and not of sukha, I am knowledge and not just pleasure,” she said.Just then she heard the notes of the flute and she began to follow it. The mellifluous sound led her to the kadamba tree where Krishna, Murlidhar, was standing underneath it, playing the flute. She bowed to him and then merged into him and gave up her individual existence but lived within Krishna; the sakar became nirakar, form became formless. Brahma got up from his seat in heaven and came down to earth, and pointing to Krishna, said that now Kavita abides in you and, therefore: Krishnah swayam kavyam — ‘Krishna is himself poetry.’ The gods applauded, and said Krishna is the kavi and the kavya. The minor gods moved in their aerial chariots, the sun and the moon appeared and the galaxy shone with a thousand stars.Krishna’s form is verily poetry, his tribhanga, tri-bent stance, captures the dance of the universe, his movements are the lyrics of a love song, the sound of his flute is the mellifluous melody of the prana of the universe and a call to eternity, his colour ghanashyam, like dark clouds, takes us from the rhythms of the earth to the clouds of Ashadha, the crown of peacock feather is the dance of nature and the vanmala, garland, exudes the fragrance of love, and he ensures that by his very sanidhya, presence, the love spreads everywhere.The poet that creates Krishna kavya is wonderstruck by Krishna, the many colours and sounds, fragrance and movements from his mere presence: the yellow of his pitambar and the ghanashyam of his body which takes us from the earth to the sky, the multicoloured flowers of his vanmala from which arises the fragrance of life, the blue of his peacock feather which is the joyous dance of rain, the mellifluous notes of his flute and the music of the nupur, anklets, from his dancing feet. ■KAVITA IS THE SHRUTI, AND IS THE ADI AND THE ANADI. IT IS THE PRIMAL COSMIC VANI, ANHAD, UNBORN AND UNDYING, HEARD IN THE DEEPEST RECESSES OF THE MIND OF THE KAVI, WHO THEN TRANSFORMS IT INTO WORDSPost your comments at speakingtree.in