Book Review: Cowherd Boys Nectar: Sri Sri Preyo-Bhakti-Rasarnava
By Swami B.A. Ashram
Review of Cowherd Boys Nectar:
At the beginning of the chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam relating Krishna’s pastime with his friends and the demon Aghasura, Sukadeva Goswami describes the cowherd boys’ typical daily behavior when they took the calves out to the pastures and forests. Essentially, they horsed around, much as any preadolescent country boys might. They might steal each other’s lunch bags and play keep-away with them. They’d play games. Sometimes they would play in the waterfalls. Or imitate the animals they’d see in the forests. They might play on their flutes and bugles, or shout ill names down wells, pretend to get mad when the insults came back as echoes, shout new ones, and on and on. Sometimes, playing like monkeys, they’d climb in the trees. Sharing these pranks with King Pariksit and the sages in attendance, Sukadeva voiced his astonishment: Krishna is the Complete Absolute Truth, the fountainhead of all existence! What kind of good fortune could explain these boys hanging out with him as a buddy?
ittham satam brahma –sukhanubhutya dasyam gatanam para-daivatena
mayasritanam nara –darakena sakam vijahruh krta –punya –punjah “In this way, all the cowherd boys used to play with Krishna, who is the source of the Brahman effulgence for
jnanis desiring to merge into that effulgence, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead for devotees who have accepted eternal servitorship, and who for ordinary persons is but another ordinary child. The cowherd boys, having accumulated the results of pious activities for many lives, were able to associate in this way with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How can one explaintheir great fortune?” (SB 10.12.11)
My beloved spiritual master, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, recalled such pastimes with deep affection on a number of occasions. Satsvarupa das Goswami’s Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta recounts his doing so in a casual, intimate meeting with two or three disciples. The Goswami writes, “Prabhupada’s eyes flashed, and he rubbed his hands together, smiling. “I simply want to go to Krishnaloka, so I can have some of Krishna’s laddu and
So as I was massaging, Prabhupada all of a sudden said, “I like the cowherd boys very much. . . . Every day Krishna and Balarama would go into the forest in Vrndavana. Before they would go, Their mothers would make lunches, prepare tiffins for Them.” I’m just shaking my head. Prabhupada is speaking very softly. Prabhupada is just there, right there inside that scene, and he is speaking about it. When Prabhupada talked, he would just bring you, he would transport you right there. So he said, “Krishna’s mother Yasoda, she would make very nice tiffin and in it there would be puri, halava, kacauri, laddu. And the other cowherd boys, their mothers were not so opulent, so their tiffins would have chapati, rice, subji, like that.”
And then he said, “Then they would go and they would play all day, and they didn’t have the cows. They are just little boys so they would have the calves. The calves were with them. Then finally they would stop for lunch. Sometimes one of the cowherd boys would steal Krishna’s lunch and begin throwing it around; they would play keep-away with Krishna.” I’m just massaging the whole time. He said, “Finally the cowherd boys would throw their lunch to Krishna, and they would sit down with His lunch and they would eat puri, halava, kacauri, and laddu. And Krishna would sit with them and He would eat the rice, chapati, and subji.”
He was smiling so brightly. And then he stopped, and I’m still massaging.
Then he said, “I just want to go back to the spiritual world and eat kacauri and laddu with Krsna.”
Many of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples could sense his affinity for cowherd pastimes. And his enthusiasm was infectious; many disciples have found, as their spiritual lives mature, that they also find Krsna’s dealings with his cowherd friends irresistible.
Dasaratha-Suta Dasa’s translation of Sri Nayanananda Thakura’s Sri Sri Preyo-Bhakti-Rasarnava has, as many of us are well aware, been out of print for twenty years or more. Health problems have kept him from reviving his Nectar Books publications. Because Preyo-Bhakti-Rasarnava is the most popular of his titles, eager devotees have been, however reluctantly, reduced to photocopying and scanning old copies (and copies of copies) for sharing. We know readers and author alike find this a less-than-desirable situation, and devotees have been asking Dasaratha-Suta for years when the book would be available again.
That time is now. At last this classic text has been re-released by Bookwrights Press as Cowherd Boys Nectar. Newly edited and designed, with many old cowherd-boy paintings to illustrate it, this volume will no doubt find itself a welcome addition to many discriminating readers’ libraries.
Sri Nayanananda Thakura lived in West Bengal in the 17th century. He was initiated in the disciplic lineage from Sundaranananda Thakura, an intimate associate of Lord Nityananda’s identified with Sudama Sakha. Sudama is one of Krishna and Balarama’s chief cowherd friends, the leader of the group known as priya sakhas. These boys are the same age as Krishna, and their friendship is not mixed with any of the other moods through which the residents of Vrindavan serve the Lord. Sri Sri Preyo-Bhakti-Rasarnava (The Nectar Ocean of Fraternal Devotion) naturally highlights the mood of Krishna’s priya sakhas and will prove particularly useful to those sadhakas (practitioners) who aspire to follow that mood. All the same, it has much to recommend it to all devotees of Krishna.
Those who read Cowherd Boys Nectar will find in it nourishment, opening of the heart, and delight, often all at once. Dasaratha-Suta’s introductory essays help the reader understand the worship of Krishna in transcendental friendship in the context of Gaudiya Vaisnava thought and practice. This includes a history of Sundarananda’s lineage, in which Nayanananda Thakura took initiation and of the sakhya bhava bhakti practiced in Nayanananda’s village of Mangala-dihi.
Nayanananda Thakura opens his book by extolling the supreme virtues of fraternal love for Krishna. This naturally entails brief discussion of the nature and practice of bhakti generally, at all levels. Here he draws on essential bhakti texts such as Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu. The way the Thakura weaves together instruction, insights and lila from these and other sources, including several puranas, Ujjvala Nilamani, Brihad Bhagavatamrtam, and Govinda Lilamrtam, in his first few chapters creates a sort of crash course, or refresher course, in sambandha jnana, a conceptual orientation toward Bhagavan Krishna, that nourishes the sadhakas’ faith in bhakti, in a way that strengthens and deepens their practice, especially for those in pursuit of sakhya rati.
Sri Nayanananda then gives a couple of chapters introducing the reader to Sudama Sakha, his 64 principal friends, to their world and their relationships with Krishna and Balarama. This section helps all practitioners better appreciate the deep, sweet nature of Krishna bhakti, with a richness that is likely calculated to break open their hearts, so some of that sense of devotion may seep in and infect them with divine emotion. These chapters will help neophyte practitioners better appreciate the lives and divine service of Sudama and other Vraja
And on this background the author draws an outline of the particular kinds of pastimes Krishna and Balarama enjoy with their cowherd boyfriends, especially with Sudama and his followers. Taking us through the six periods of the day in which Krishna engages with his friends, he treats us to glimpses of Krishna and Balarama’s rising in the morning, the boys assembling at Nanda Maharaja’s home, milking the cows. We also see the games they play during the day, their pastimes in the numerous forests, pastures, and other playgrounds that constitute Vraja dhama. All this naturally will give pleasure to all devotees. Beyond that, it serves as a guide to more advanced followers of Sudama and the priya sakhas in their internal devotional meditation.
Along the way, throughout Cowherd Boys Nectar, readers will find themselves enchanted by the recounting of Sri Krishna’s pastimes with his friends. In these pastimes we discover many wonders, many unanticipated. For example, we find out why cowherd boys throw themselves into the snow. (There’s snow in Vraja? Apparently.) The Thakura’s liberal use of verses, both from sacred texts and of his own composition, as well as a number of songs in Bengali, will further charm his readers. Many of these verses will inevitably find their ways into the treasure houses of devotees’ hearts. I’ll share here one verse that captivated me immediately when I encountered it years ago. This verse, written in a Sanskrit meter called malini, often described as musical, particularly charming, describes the beauty of the brothers Krishna and Balarama.
jaladhara-sasi-varnau gopa-vesau kisorau
sahacara-gana-vrndaih kridamanau vrajesau
nata-vara-jita-vesau nila-pitambaradhyau
jagata-janana-hetu rama-krsnau nato ’smi
The pair with complexions like a
raincloud and the moon
The pair dressed as cowherds, the pair of youths
The pair engaged in sporting with the assembly of their friends;
The pair who are Lords of Vraja
The pair whose dress eclipses that of the best of dancers
The pair fond of wearing blue and yellow garments
The pair who are the source of all living entities in the universe
I bow to the pair known as Rama and Krsna.
Dasaratha-Suta enriches his presentation with a collection of appendixes, including a list of the sacred texts Nayanananda cites in
Sri Sri Preyo-Bhakti-Rasarnava is, as Dasaratha-Suta writes, an obscure, little-known text. Furthermore, it is not necessarily for everyone. He offers this edition not to satisfy idle curiosity but to provide an opportunity for “quiet study and appreciation.” It gives many serious practitioners aspiring for the practice of raganuga bhakti insights into the moods and pastimes of confidential sakhya-rati bhajan. And those who may not have such a strong inclination will still find much to nourish their faith and practice, open their hearts to the blessings that will move them to respond to Krishna’s desire, in the words of Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja, that we all may “dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows of devotional service.” And for every sincere reader, this book offers much spiritual pleasure just in the poetic presentation of the Lord’s transcendental beauty and pastimes.
Cowherd Boys Nectar is available from Bookwrights Press at www.bookwrightspress.com and from Amazon.
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A fitting “nectar” view of the “Cowherd Boy Nectar. I will definitely want a copy of the new edition when I return from Vrindavan. Interestingly, one of the few books I was able to bring here, is a xeroxed copy that a friend gave me. Due to my healing protocol I have hardly read anything after nearly 6 weeks of my 11 month stay, but now, upon reading your review, I will have to at least read a few pages a day, and perhaps won’t be able to stop. Thank you for the care and feeling you have put into your review, which was a pleasure to read and brought my many smiles of appreciation!
What a charming review!
Thank you for your kind words of appreciation, Sastra-Vani. It’s a charming book about a charming topic, so if some readers got a measure of appreciation for that, and if they found some satisfaction, pleasure, and promise of relief from spiritual hunger along the way, I find that encouraging.
Thanks for your kind words, Sastra-Vani. It’s a charming book about a charming subject, so it’s encouraging that some readers may find some nourishment, pleasure, and relief from boredom in my attempt to show some of that charm.
Thank you, Karnam and Sastra-Vani, for your kind words. It’s a charming book about a charming topic. I find it encouraging if some readers found a degree of satisfaction, pleasure, and relief from the world from my attempt to share my appreciation.
In the paragraph “Sri Nayananda then…” shouldn’t principle be principal? Sudama’s friends are his main (principal) friends, not friends who are linked to him by shared values (principle).
Thank you, Grammar Nerd, for the catch. I don’t know how that one got by me.
oooh, this should be fun! Grammar nerd and grammar Swami gonna play some grammar games?
Sudama’s principal pals certainly are pals in principle as well! 😉
Madan Gopal,
Sudama’s main (principal) friends often get into arguments and loving tussles with each other. They aren’t “principle” friends when the principle is “Krishna should be left un-bothered to eat his lunch.” Some are happy to steal Krishna’s lunch and hide it, while others take Krishna’s side and try to grab it back for him.
The principle, of course, is that Sudama’s principal tussles are all conducted in a mood of loving friendship, with the older and younger boys holding to different principles as per their relationship to their best friend, Krishna.
None of which touches on the principal points of Swami’s nice review, in which he reminds us that the principles of sakhya-rasa, as practiced by the priya-narma sakhas, were not only relishable by one of the principal disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, but are in principle relishable by any of his followers who are drawn to that sentiment.
Wait–y’all are just having too much fun with this.
Thank you! The pages of my twenty year-old Delhi-made photocopy have gone softer than flower petals. Looking forward to seeing this new edition.