Tales of Wheels and Devotion

Tales of Wheels and Devotion

The remembrance of Krishna's pastimes often rides on wheels. 

This poem retells a few events that depict Krishna on a chariot while enacting His pastimes with His devotees.

In the first scene is the bullock cart that carried small Gopal, Nanda Pran, from Mahavan to Vrindavan in order to protect Him from the demon's attacks. It ends with the meeting in Kurukshetra because of the desire of the Gopis to move the chariot with Krishna back to Vraja. 

I hope the reader will also cherish the taste of Krishna's names that are mostly associated with Nanda Baba in order to keep Him in our hearts as the cowherd of the gopis and gopas, even though some pastimes are in His royal disguise. 

BRS 1.2.168 Seeing the festivals (verse 87) from Bhavisyottara : 
"The dog-eaters and other low persons who joyfully see Kesava on His chariot all become associates of the Lord."

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Tales of Wheels and Devotion

 With many wheels clattering

and stirring up clouds of dust,

  the long line of bullock carts
meandered like a river
  in the light of dusk.
Amidst this clamor of

bugles, bells, bellowing
and colored flags flapping,

songs rose up

from the caravan

leaving Mahavan

out of love for Nanda Pran.

On another day
when the light was the same,

a gilded chariot of royal fame,

 clattered,

sinister and cruel
in a flurry of dust,

taking Nanda Gopal away

so that love melted the stones (1)

with tears of despair.

Winged by the whisper

of the heart,

the chariot of Nanda Kumar

flew to a place afar,

committed to His promise

to reciprocate His devotee's love,

He plucked the precious Lotus,

leaving the proud princes

aghast. (2)

The rattle of wheels and swords

again saw Nanda Kishor

on a chariot.

In a din of shouts and blows,

where the red blood dyed

the dust, the sky and all eyes,

 for love this time

He led the ride.

His curls, sticky and ashen

with sweat and dust,

and His skin smeared with blood,

 He hurled the wheel as He rushed (3)

toward a chivalrous heart,

astounded with awe

by the wondrous sight

of his lotus red eyed foe.

When His heart wept,

heavy with a debt of love,

Nanda Dulal unsteadily

boarded His chariot,

pierced the night,

rode at the speed
of light,

and came to the forest grove,

to the petal bed of His Beloved,

 where, out of intense love

    She was on the verge of death. (4)

The royal chariot

has come back,

without that snake of torment,  (5)

instead, Nandu's friend

is walking ahead

of Nanda Suta,

 adorned with gems;

He is no more a cowherd

in this land (6)

where the Moon sets

but no lotuses bloom.

Let's turn these wheels

and move

them towards Vraja,

but, once amongst those kunds

this cruel chariot,

memento of separation

and tears,

will have to leave 
to remove our fear

of seeing Nanda-Lal carried away,

and the Vanadevis languishing

in love and in madness once again.

1) Bhakti Ratnakara p.144 " What can I say? Only those who saw the scene can understand. All the damsels of Vraja came running to see Krishna with tears flowing like rivers from their eyes. Seeing that scene even wood and stone melted.

2) Krishna kidnaps Rukmini

3) Krishna act as Arjuna's charioteer during the battle. In a Chivalrous rasa with His devotee, apparently playing the part of His enemy, Krishna hurled a wheel to Bhismadeva.

4) "Three logs of wood" story retold by Srimad Gour Govinda Maharja as the first Ratha Yatra.  Krishna inebriated by his feelings for Radha, mounts the chariot to fly to Vraja.  In the same way Lord Jagannath in Puri is carried to the chariot by the pujaris who shake Him as if drunk to remember this pastime. (see also in blog "Canticle of Union")

5) Garga Samhita 5.15.10 "At what inauspicious moment did his mother, in order to give pain to the loving devotees, give birth to Akrura? She did it as Kadru, in order to randomly kill people here and there, gave birth to the species of snakes." Purport [...] Vicious humans may also behave like cruel snakes and since he (Akrura) mercilessly took Krsna away from them, the gopis considered Akrura to be among such horrible creatures whose birth must have been timed a the most inauspicious moment.

6) Kurukshetra. -- When Nanda Suta and the gopis met in Kurukshetra they were emaciated so much so that their rings had become bangles around their wrists, their hair were uncombed and their dresses untied, so Krishna understood the intensity of their pains of separation.  He started a sort of long soliloquy in the attempt to justify what happened that He did not returned. He spoke about yoga, about the will of the  Supreme, about providence, but it all sounded very confused.  The gopis will respond with a single sloka in the Bhagavatam which ends the chapter. 

SB 10.82.48 :""O Supreme Lord, O directly manifest Supersoul, O crest jewel of teachers of philosophical knowledge!  Understanding that we have great attachment to house, wealth and family, You previously had Uddhava instruct us and now personally You are purifying our hearts with knowledge to destroy that ignorance.  Thus we understand that Your pure love for us is free from any motivation other than assuring our liberation. But how can we unintelligent cowherd women fix that knowledge in our hearts? ..[..]" translation by Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur. 

This same sloka was chant by Caitanya Mahaprabhu in front of the chariot of Lord Jagannath.

This is the secret of our Ista-deva, the Lord of the Sankirtan Movement, the Lord of the Universe, fully reciprocating His devotees' love, shows the highest ecstasies in a meeting that follows a long separation and He comes to everyone to exchange that love on the wheels of His chariot.