The Maddening Melody.

[Translation of Venu Geet from Srimad Bhagwat Mahapuran]

Of all the divine sports of the Lord during His complete manifestation is as SriKrishna,none has so much of a pastoral beauty, rustic innocence & idyllic charm,romantic appeal as the one He played on the banks of Jamna in the sylvian splendour of Vrindavan. The Divine dance of ecstasy performed by Him with the Gopis of Vrindavan in their selfless frenzy of pure love to Him is a lyrical scene of poetic delight , and perennial inspiration. Right from the peerless and divinely gifted author of the puranas to the ordinary writers of today with some poetic imagination and literary bent of mind, the RASA LEELA of the Lord in Vrindavan offers a topic of irresistible appeal, divine charm , the loftiest concept of love, and the sublimest ideal devotion. During this divine sport or leelas of the Lord, He demonstrated to the world the grandest consumation of devotion through the supreme self sacrifice and total surrender to Him, rendered by His everloving gopis, ranked as the greatest of bhaktas of the Lord. Before the grand finale of this demonstration of the very madhurya bhava of bhakti ----- the most exalted form of devotion as defined in Narada Bhakti sutra --- the proper stage was set by the lord with an idyllic back ground on the soft grass meadows of the banks of Jamna and the necessary emotional fervour was rendered to both the animate and inanimate beings through the ever maddening melody of His divine murali. [Flute] It was on a bright sunny day during the Sarat ritu --- the entire season of moderate climate when the extreme summer had just subsided while the extreme winter was not yet set in ---- the Lord chose to play on His divine murali in Vrindavan accompanied by the cowherds and cattle. The sweet note gurgling out of the Lord's flute was so MADDENING that all the animate and inanimate objects of the world melted into a divine state of bliss thrilled by the most enchanting ecstasy. Sage Sri Shukadeva in the course of His narration of Srimad bhagwatham to king Parikshit, describes the maddening melody of the divine murali [Krishna Ki Madhuri Bansi] the most lovely words of a Gopi who gets enthralled by hearing the divine raptures of her beloved lord. Having got herself completely identified and totally absorbed in her lord, she poured out of her heart to her fellow Gopis describing the magic effect of this divine melody. Seeing the lord at the same time in her mental vision. This is how she draws a mental picture of her lord. Clad in His usual saffron colored silk robe as bright as the molten gold, the peacock feathers crowning His head, the karnikara flowers tucked on both sides of His ears, the long beautiful VANMALA adorning His neck ,Lord Krishna entered Brindaban , rendered ever pure by His holy footprints playing on His divine flute, like a most accomplished artist , accompanied by Balaram and other gopasakhas. The real fulfillment of the human eyes, cries the intoxicated Gopi, is verily to drink deep the divine sight of the Lord,grazing the cattle, while playing on His flute,casting while playing on His flute,most loving & bewitching glances all around showering cheer and joy to all those who happened to have His divine darshan.The Gopi recalls to her mind,rendered doubly tender by her softest feelings to the Lord, that most remarkable incident. Then the Lord and Balaram decked in various beautiful costumes , and decorated by garlands of varying beauty and charm sang and danced like to veteran dancers, exhibiting their artistic and histrionic talents to an excited audience of the Gopas, while tendering the cattle at Brindaban. She exclaims in wonder at the rarest fortune that insentient reed of a flute is having in being in such an intimate contact and association with the divine nectarean lips of the lord which is ever denied to her and her kinsfold. She declares that flower laden trees and the crystal clear lakes of Brindaban ,are shedding tears of joy through the flowers and dew drops , dropped by them. Enraptured by the love of her beloved Lord seen in her mental vision , she sees the peacocks dancing in mad and frenzied ecstasy listening to ravishing music of the Lord , making all the living beings around there completely oblivious of their surroundings and their natural wants. The mute but beautiful herd of deer, captivated by the divine melody of the Lord, are transfixed to the ground,along with their partners , worshipping the Lord by the shower of their winkless beautiful glances. Hearing this heavenly music and struck by the most bewitching figure of the Lord , the celestial damsels , during their airflights , forgot themselves and hardly noticed when flowers fell from their beautiful tresses of hair, or when their dresses got dishevelled. Listening to this most captivated music of the Lord, the cows who have taken mouth full of grass for chewing, remained with their mouths half open, forgetting to chew the cud, tears of joy trickling through their wide open eyes. Their calves who drank enough of their mothers milk, also remained transfixed to the ground, their little mouths half open, and tear drops flowing from their innocent eyes, in sheer joy. Intoxicated by drinking the nectarean music of the Lord , different varieties of birds sat perched on the tree tops like 'GREAT TAPASWINS' in deep meditation, absolutely silent,lost in the ethereal physical and musical glory of the Lord, suspending all their warbling , chirupping, and cooiings [cuckoos] . Even the rivers like Jamna, enraptured by the divine note of the Lord through their encircling ripples and gentle wavelets.On hearing this maddening melody,the dark clouds ,overladen with water , rolled over Brindaban, and formed themselves into an umbrella as it were, spreading over the Lord protecting Him from the scorching rays of the sun. The Gopi concludes her outpourings by saying that all beings in the universe endowed with the capacity of motion reamained transfixed on the spot on hearing even the indistinct echoes of the Lord's melody while all beings which are stationery bristled with enthrilling ecstasy. From this most impassioned description of the maddening melody of the lord, it will be seen that when the lord began the play of His divine MURALI, the inner most depths of both the sentient and insentient, the moving and the unmoving, the flora and fauna , the birds and the beasts, the human and the celestial got deeply stirred. Through these innocent words of the Gopis, sage Shri Shukadev wants to convey symbolically, that when the very personification of All Prevading Divinity ----the Supreme Lord revels in musical ecstasy in His own blissful nature, the entire manifestated creations should necessarily awaken themselves into their ever-blissful essential being, irrespective of the embodiment assumed by them. The entire universe must stand thrilled in divine ecstasy. It is most significant to note that this most poetic description of the Lord's playing on the MURALI, appears in Bhagwatham during His sojourn in Vrindavan only. Only on entering Brindaban in the appropriate season, the Lord chose to play on His flute. These are symbolic of the fact that each one of us has to make our inner equipments of the mind and intellect a real Brindaban to listen to the divine melody of our essential blissful nature. Only through selfless love to the Lord and total surrender to Him inspired by the sublimest concept of bhakti as exemplified by the Gopis, can clear ones mind and intellect of all the negative tendencies in us like passion,lust,anger,greed,ego,pride etc.., and convert them into a Beautiful Brindaban for the Lord to enter and play His divine music. Any Careful student of Bhagwatam will note that once the lord left Brindaban , for Mathura, there is no mention anywhere , whether He ever took His murali again and played on it as He did in Brindaban . This is to serve as an object of lesson to His Devotee, that unless and until one is prepared to develop selflessness and self-surrender to the complete elimination of the ego and all ego-centric desires as the gopis of SriVrindavan , the immediate experience of our own ever-blissful self is impossible. When princess Mira gave herself up in devotional ecstasy invoking the grace of her beloved Giridhar, she was stirred to her very depth by this divine melody. when Bhakta Surdas lost in raptures of devotion while composing his immortal songs, he was listening to this maddening melody of the Lord. When Saint Thyaga Brahman composed his immortal Kirtans he was being inspired by the divine raptures within. All the great devotees of the world to whatever religion they may belong, exploded into hymns of unsurpassing beauty, inspired by this heavenly CADENCE within. Infact the very science of music owe its origin only to this maddening melody of the All Blissful Supreme Reality. That is why the Prince among devotees , the great leela Shukadev goes into raptures while describing the murali naada of the lord thus : "Ever unsurpassed remains the murali naada of the Lord, while He was playing on His flute as a child in Brindaban! When the divine melody gushed out of the Lord's flute, it maddened the entire world, made the Vedas resound with their divine cadence, gladdened, the world of flora, melted the stony mountains, captivated the world of the fauna,delighted the entire herds of cattle, filled the hearts of the Gopas with deep devotion , made the great SAGES forget themselves in meditation of the Lord, enlivened and envigorated the very basic symbols of music-- sapta swaras --- and conveyed the very deep meaning and significance of the great word symbol of Reality ---OMKAR. " Oh Lord ! Make us mad once atleast in our mundane life, with Thy Divine Melody!!!

I had found this article from a religious book when I was in junior college. 

 At thy lotus feet, radhika.