Having come from the land of England, I always had a great love of Faery and folk tales. I was always imagining magical realms other than the one I was born into. Needless to say, when I traveled to India and discovered that there is indeed a faery world I can enter into through meditation and prayer, I become overjoyed and set out to discover more about that possibility. The first time I visited India, I was incredibly captivated when I found that the tales of Faeries in India were prevalent amongst the Vaishnava devotees and their ancient literature's and scriptures. There are detailed descriptions in many hundreds of books, of a magical spiritual world, that is eternal and full of bliss. This special place is said to have ever increasing ecstasy at every moment. It is a place where every word is a song, and every step is a dance. The Lord of Love, Sri Krishna and His consort, the Goddess Sri Radha enchant the inhabitants of Their magical faery forest land over and over with a beautiful eternal life of enchantment and bliss. The Goddess, Sri Radha has many forest-maids for Her girlfriends. There are also many faery friends, named Manjaris. They dedicate their lives to serving the Goddess. Below is an article describing some of what I learned.
A Poem Describing A Day of the Goddess
Here's how Sri Radha spends Her day
She rises and does Her teeth Her own way
Forest maids come and massage with oils so fine
They bathe Her body that has a brilliant shine
The faeries clothe Her with loving sentiments
Then they decorate Her with gorgeous ornaments
We can assist these manjaris if we pray
Making wonderful plans for Sri Radha’s day;
Next She goes forth with Her friends to Krishna's house
Wearing blue silk with jewel embroidered blouse
She calls Her forest maids and together they make haste
To cook for Krishna, She's blessed to make that special taste
Krishna goes with His friends to the forest
To take out the cows
She and the Gopi-girls return to Her house
Her mother says it's time to prepare
For Her Sun worship She does with such care
Over an hour it takes to reach The Sun Mandir
Placing the worship items on a tray crystal clear
With Her Forest faeries She goes to pick some flowers
She meditates anticipating Krishna's love showers
To Her famous lake for midday sports with That beautiful Boy
When Krishna arrives Her heart bubbles with joy
She sees Him enter a shady grove so cool
She offers devotions and a flower garland
To Her Crowned Jewel
She decorates Him with scented clay to cool Him from the heat
Her body is overwhelmed giving Her such a treat
They do funny pranks and swing together in bliss
Then for some water sports, the faeries never miss
They go to a forest grove for an amusing game of dice
Krishna gets defeated and now pays the price
Then a forest picnic where They eat all things sweet
The faeries take His remnants, for them it's their treat
After 3 now it’s time They go
Playing and joking the girls put on a funny show
Taking an hour to walk, 24 minutes to pray
Radha and Her girlfriends head for home to stay
After arriving at Her palace
She bathes with the forest maids in baths made of jewels
Radha sits alone remembering how They played
Thus ends the Goddess, Sri Radhika's day
She now takes some rest
Night time games will soon begin
For another fun filled fest!
How sportive is His crown that is adorned by attractive peacock feathers! His silky fore locks encircle His crown. Sri Krishna’s gait is full of frolic. His light steps put even a most attractive dancer to shame. Due to this gait, His silky glossy smooth pitch-black dense locks are swaying back and forth thereby spreading love all around! This, too, is a wonderful art of hypnotism! He has adorned Himself with peacock–feathers that steals the hearts of women. It appears like a rainbow atop fresh clouds in the sky. He wears fresh garlands of mallikâ and mâlati flowers, nectar flows everywhere like the river Gangâ is pouring forth divine blessings in all directions from the peaks of the Himalaya.
To relieve the fatigue of the nights dancing and Rasa with the fair maidens of Vraj, Krishna gathers them together and enters the holy River known as Yamuna for frolics. Just as a drunken elephant enters the water with his mates! Some of the tired maids stand in knee-deep water, or up to their navels, while others move to neck-deep water. Then Krishna lightly splashes them, so they splash back in and forth, the frolic and games begin. Krishna plays with some maidens alone, or he frolics in groups, sometimes He frolics with all of them after fixing various types of wagers. When someone wins, the loser must give kisses to Him. But sometimes the loser refuses to give a kiss, and a quarrel ensues. Thus Krishna enjoys pure bliss with His fair forest girlfriends, the Gopis.
Then Krishna speaks equivocally: “How amazing! It’s night time, but the birds and the bees are mad after the blooming nectar!” Thus the forest girls wince and quickly cover themselves and faces with their hands! Seeing Krishna’s beautiful eyes, the restless minnows swimming in the Yamuna feel shy and defeated. Thus struck with wonder, they lose their course and bump into the Goddess, Sri Radha’s submerged bodily limbs! Then Radha embraces Krishna in a fight, but He takes the hug as a friendly gesture.
It’s amazing that as the Vraja girls frolic with each other by splashing, throwing lotus flowers or thrashing each other with lotus-stems, no one loses! Yet Krishna loses his patience while watching them! While drenched in the bliss of water sports the Gopis’ kunkum powder washes from their youthful limbs, and their eye kajjal (black eye-liner) washes from their eyes, their hair comes undone from their long black braids and their clothes become loose! The divine God Sri Krishna, whose bluish body has been adorned with the kumkum from the bosom of pretty damsels due to being embraced by them. It is also clear that Krishna is most lovingly embracing and kissing the damsels of Vraja who have been agitated by the melody of His flute. Krishna’s body is adorned by the other ointments on their beautiful bodies as well, such as camphor, oil of Aloe Vera, and musk. It appears that by smearing Krishna’s body with the musk from their limbs, the beautiful forest faeries have put a stamp on Him to declare that He is their property. Krishna is doubling their colourful love with the splendour of His palms, feet and lips.
Krishna looks exceptionally dazzling when He is eager to perform confidential pastimes with the Goddess Sri Râdhâ. He is full of exuberant youth and beauty. Sri Krishna is the One Who understands the heart of Vraja-beauties. He knows the heart of each and every girl in the forest groves, and fulfills and satisfies every one, according to their desire. It is said that great saints and sages have meditated for thousands of years upon this Kingdom described here, in order to one day become one of the forest girls of Vraj themselves
When divine love overwhelms the mind and agitates it, we call this state as bewilderment. Extreme bewilderment is not present in anyone else other than the forest maidens of Vraja. On the night of the full-moon, the faery-maidens known as Manjaris have a special role to play during the Râsa-leelâ dance and in the confidential pastimes of the Goddess and Krishna! O Sri Râdha! When the Râsa-sport (divine games) begins, Sri Krishna will desert all the other forest-beauties and take You to a secluded spot! There He will obey Your command and decorate You with a variety of flowers. The high position of Sri Râdhârâni is a matter of great pride for the forest faeries (manjaris).
Since Sri Krishna is about to relish the confidential loving pastimes with the Goddess Sri Radha, He is approaching every other Gopi with swift dancing steps to embrace and kiss her. In this way, He wants to appease every young Gopi. To an outside onlooker the Râsa-dance performed at midnight under the full moon night by the bank of the River Yamuna would look like a whirlpool. He is described as sparkling (taral) because He is very close to their heart like a precious sapphire. Sri Krishna is full of infinite love-drenched rasa and unlimited sweetness. Now He is surrounded by the Vraja-forest Gopis who are absorbed in inexpressible sweetness of the Râsa dance floor, hence He is the central character of this vortex.
Viewing the Gopis’ unadorned beauty delights Krishna’s eyes, so He hankers to enjoy them. The decorations from the forest nymphs’ bodies washes into the Yamuna River. Thus enjoying water sports, Krishna steps onto the bank’s shore with His friends. The Manjaris dry their hair and bodies with soft towels, and they dress the Goddess in new clothes and re-decorate Her beautiful blissful form with designs, jewels and eye-kajjal. Escorted by the forest maids, Krishna and the young maidens enter a golden temple and in its eastern corridor, there They sit upon a golden throne that is smothered in flower petals.
The forests of Vraj are filled with wish-fulfilling trees laiden with fruits and gems of all varieties. Any wish will be granted to anyone wishing upon these trees. Then, from the desire tree, Vrinda, one of the principle forest maids collects some amazing fruits, baskets that are filled with clothes, ornaments, scents, kunkum powder and clays of the earth. These are meant for everyone’s decoration. Each basket is marked with the name of whom it is for. Thus the forest faeries, called Manjaris take the baskets and begin outfitting Krishna and His Goddess Sri Radha.
When the decorations (shringar) is complete, Krishna appears like Cupid personified. Krishna thus resembles the moon, and Radha and Her forest Sakhis (girlfriends) are like the moonrays. When in Krishna’s company, Radha and Her girlfriends anoint themselves with the ‘shining oil of affection’, their friendship resembles scented powder, they bathe in the ‘nectar of youth’ and their effulgence is their ‘dress of loveliness’.
The various services of the main forest girl-friends (Gopis) of the Goddess Sri Radha, are gathering herbs, grinding jewels down into powders for makeup and speaking the language of animals. They are expert at poetry, language, dancing, music, herbology, astrology, palmistry, art, Kama Sutra (arts of love), and many other faery-like things.
Krishna and His forest Queen Sri Radha are brought to a secret place (kunj) in the forest where They can have past-times of amorous love together. All the Gopis (girlfriends the same age as the Goddess Sri Radha) leave and return to their cottages in the forest. Each girl has her own special designated area of the forest where they live. The faery maid-servants known as Manjaris accompany Radha and Krishna to the kunj (the secret forest grove). They hide behind bowers and creepers, and peek through the vines which are like windows, to see the beautiful intimate lovers together enjoying one anothers company. The forest girls sing and hum very sweet melodies, in harmony with one another, and play soft instruments to enhance the romance and moods of the Divine God and Goddess.
At this time, all the sensations within Sri Radha’s graceful youthful and beautiful body become one with the feelings within the pure hearted faery manjari girls. This is called being Tadatmika. This literally means, the forest maids become one with the heart and soul of the Goddess Sri Radha as She experiences Her most intimate and blissful moments with the Divine God Sri Krishna. In this way the maid-servants of Radha experience the highest states of divine ecstasy known to all of creation.
The beauty and majesty of that eternal spiritual world are revealed in many ancient scriptural writings from ancient India. Some of which have been described here. Vraj Vrindavan is a real place, an eternal forest where Krishna and Radha, God and Goddess reside. These wondrous teachings are revealed so that everyone in this world can become attracted to that enter that world. Spiritual seekers around the globe meditate on the world of Vraj Vrindavana, in the hope of one day entering. Jesus said, we should seek out the Kingdom of God, first and foremost. It is the same teaching as every other great Master and Avatar has given. Here in the ancient scriptures of India, that spiritual Kingdom is described in great detail, and there are faeries there!
