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PILGRIM OF LOVE by Madhava Lata Dasi


The first full moon of spring is about to rise, and I feel my heart turning into a wild pilgrim of love as I meditate on the Lord of Love himself!

In the Bhakti Yoga tradition they call The Lord of Love Gaurasundara (The Golden Beauty). This is because his complexion matched that of the golden moon on which he first appeared, in the sixteenth century, in a little village in West Bengal called Mayapura, also known as Gaudadesh.The land of Gaudadesh is like a cone of light illuminating the night when all around is enveloped by deep darkness. 

On that full moon night each year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travel to this holy land to submerge their hearts in the sea of his divine love. They do so by chanting the Holy Names, just as occurred over 500 years ago, when Lord Gaurasundara was first born.

This land is forever welcoming the whirling steps of the ecstatic dances of love pilgrims, who follow in his footsteps. Millions have come to this land to receive a drop of divine love.  The kirtans, the cheers, the praises, the chanting of the name of Hari always resound upon this land, filling hearts with devotion.

 It is said that the Golden Lord never leaves Gaudadesh, and dances among His devotees bestowing Bhakti: pure love.

To the devotees of this holy land, all the gold in the world loses its value and lure in comparison to the attractive golden form of Lord Gaurasundara. Love and devotion is the gold of the soul: the liquid to quench its thirst for Divine Love.

Inspired by a chronicle of the time describing one of the many occurrences when myriads of people moved across this land to meet the Golden Lord, this poem draws a parallel into modern days through a true prophecy of the time –in the poem foretold by an imaginary character “the pilgrim of Kuliya” (Kuliya = the present Navadvip) - that people from all over the world will gather to this place to get this inestimable gift of devotion.

So, on this full moon, my heart becomes a pilgrim of love wandering in remembrance of this special land and the magical, spiritual stories of when the Munificent Lord walked on this land.


Pilgrim of Love

Bards and poets
give up tales
of golden cities and magic lands
and sing of Gaudadesh!
As the pilgrim of Kuliya said,
the Sun and the Moon 1
there at one time arose
presaging a golden age.

Hear of the Golden Lord
the pilgrim of Kuliya saw
once in that land
when He walked on this Earth;
people in millions set forth
crossed meadows, forests and waters
for that gold of Divine Love
hue of  His limbs
never, no one before had seen!

Hundreds  of  thousands of choruses,
multitudes of voices
re-echoed in prayers and cheers,
the pilgrim of Kuliya recalls an ocean,
no doubt, formed by love tears;
‘cause  myriads  chanted the Name of Hari
the  jewel of refulgent love Goura Avatari
came amidst that delirious crowd,
and soft as a saffron cloud,
danced hardly touching the ground,
chanting Krishna’s names
and pure love abounded from all parts
flowing from His to everyone heart.

For long time to come,
the pilgrim of Kuliya foretold,
many will gather for that gold,
more people, more difficult to imagine
from all countries, of all races
in festive crowds, in a festival of raised hands
and in a feast of cheers shouting “Hari Hari”
for a drop of that aurous mercy
will come to this land
and in raptures over the chant
He'd appear to dance
pouring love as fluid gold
on the  iron cage of the soul.

These words I repeat as I heard
from the pilgrim of Kuliya,
my heart sings and dances
as a pilgrim of love
again returns midst that crowd
to call out to the Golden Lord
for that sparkle of gold
chanting, I beg for His love
"Hari Hari' ,  and at once
as in a spell, I’m in  Gaudadesh.
~


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.

*For submission guidelines, click here.*

Comments

  1. loved it....jai chaitanya mahaprabhu...:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely, and thank you so much for explaining the spiritual references. Blessings and love, Anita Neilson 🙏❤️

    ReplyDelete

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