FOR A GLANCE I DANCE by Madhava Lata Dasi

There is someone who speaks to my soul in moments of solitude…

His name is Lord Nityananda and he dances in my heart inviting me to join him. He is the One I call out to in times of distress. He is the One that points me toward divine love, when I feel myself tumbling in the sea. Nityananda, or Nitai, is always with me, working his keys of compassion on the stubborn doors of my heart, creaking it open to real loving.

For my heart belongs to the Bhakti Yoga tradition, in which loving compassion, is personified by a sweet dancer by the name of Nityananda, or “eternal bliss”, who appeared on this very day, in Bengal, India, over 500 years ago. Nityananda’s bliss is expressed in his dancing, and thus he is known as the “King of Dancers”.

Ever since the fifteenth century, Lord Nityananda’s devotees have been dancing in hopes of attracting one of his loving glances, which are known to fill one with such divine ecstasy, one never wishes to stop dancing!

Nityananda is known as all those things in our lives that guide us toward the light: spiritual teachers, words of wisdom, sacred books, liberating sound vibrations. His gentle nature towards all souls has inspired hearts over the centuries to give up envy, anger, greed and prejudices, and dance their differences away through love!

For Nityananda’s love knows no bounds, as he dances from marketplace to marketplace, or heart to heart, giving away divine love for free. 

And nothing gives him greater pleasure than to watch others get swept away into the ecstatic dance of eternal bliss. And they say that just one of Nitai's glances is full of so much compassion that it is like healing on achy hearts, massaging away any pain, and delivering pure bliss. Who will not want to dance for a glance from beautiful Lord Nityananda? 

For A Glance I Dance

O Nitai Gosai,

to You, unseen

~Braja Sorensen's Nitai~

even in my dreams,

I will come

in a reverie

where You sit

on a throne of gems

around You a crowd of raised hands

with camara and cymbals

clapping and swaying

in a tumultuous kirtan

that often drums in my mind

in the quiet dark air

of sleepless nights

where the ceiling bears

the pangs of my soul

in this grip of grim greed

how misspent was this life by me!

But despair gives higher pitch

to inner cries

Nityananda! Nityananda!

To this soul, unworthy

even of the leniency of the Lord,

give Your causeless shelter,

let me in this vision of You

where the trees were blooming

flowers of Your liking¹,

let me come along

as the others, alone

to dance for Your glance²

even just for once

for Your eye-contact

of brimming love,

so secretly cherished,

longed and treasured

even by the Darkest

amidst fallen angels.³

Footnotes to poem: 

1) Chaitanya Bhagavata AnK II 5.277-278 “ Quickly bring Me a garland of Kadamba flowers”. “I am very fond of kadamba flowers.” 2) CB AnII 5.264 “Anyone who received His glance as He was dancing would fall to the ground in ecstatic love.”  3) Comment  to the Divine Comedy of Dante by R. Benigni “Then Lucifer, the most beautiful of the angels, just to receive a glance of God, disobeyed. And God turned, was the first time that someone disobeyed. He turned and looked at him for a moment, and that was incinerated for eternity in hell for disobedience. But Lucifer has seen God, had the eye-contact of God, indeed eye-to-eye. A little weathered, so to speak. And now suffer for eternity even more, not because it is down in the underworld, but because he saw God and will not be able to see Him again. That is the suffering of Lucifer, eternal, insurmountable and intolerable. When one has seen God you cannot live without seeing him again, is just unbearable.”

Madhava Lata Dasi: “Though I am originally from Italy, today I live in India in the very South, in the State of Kerala where I own a small hotel named the Paradesh Inn facing the Arabian Ocean. For 6 months it is open and our customers are mostly Yogi/Yogini who retreat in this area every year for weeks of full immersion. (For video of hotel click here) I follow Bhakti Yoga and writing poems is part of my meditation on Krishna, since I draw inspiration for my poems from the many books I read about Him.  I usually publish my poems on my blog here." 

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~