Happy Valentines Day

I was recently listening to a short but beautiful poem about Lord Krishna and Radha Ma. It’s written by Zubair Ali Tabish. It symbolized Valentine’s day for me.

बंसी सब सुर त्यागे है, एक ही सुर में बाजे है
हाल न पूछो मोहन का, सब कुछ राधे राधे है

The flute has given up on all other notes. Every time he plays it, you can hear only one singular note.

Don’t even ask the state of Krishna, everything is Radha for him.

The beauty of Sanatana Dharma is that we use Radha Ma and the concept of Rasa to highlight the love that the divine has for its devotees. Read this poem again. The highlight is not how Radha pines for Lord Krishna. It shows god himself is pining for Radha, and it’s so intense that his divine flute now emits only one singular tone. How beautiful is it to live in a culture where the very divine that we worship is pining for the devotee?

The poet says “Sab kuch radhe radhe hai”. That means the lord himself has dissolved into the devotee. The same Krishna who seems so distant and timeless when narrates the mysteries of life and human existence in the Srimad Bhagwat Gita is ready to simply melt into the devotee.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone in the dear OS family.