Maula Mere

They lifted their hands in unison,
tapping their feet to the rhythm of the cymbals,
looking high above them,
they looked esoteric and gay...

Whom did they reach out to?
what did they hold?
why did they feel such bliss and peace?
where did they see themselves?
how could they feel all that they felt together - together in the midst of strangers...

Were they bewitched by the beauty of the Lord and his leelas depicted on the paintaings in the cieling? or were they in the midst of a painiting that they created for themselves somewhere within their sub concious that made them sway in unison...

I watched as an onlooker and felt a joy that cant be described...

I sat in silence during the waking hours listening to the chants of the prabhus and the temple had a life of its own talking to me, filling me with the gift of rhythm and sense of well being, energy flowed and trasnformed me into my heaven, a heaven where i saw the lord with Radha...As the dwara opens I walk and look in awe at Him with his Shakti (Radha) and feel a sense of surrender- a surrender so beautiful tat it liberates...

Maybe its the same surrender that made the people surrounding rejoice and connect - connect beyond the limitations and frail differences that we as mortals ordained..all dance as equals...

I walk out and feel that I gained and lost everything in that moment as an onlooker...

The radio plays Maula mere and I relate it to the beauty of Radha and think of this verse where Krishna describes Radha lovingly- "Although the effulgence of the moon is brilliant initially at night, in the daytime it fades away. Similarly, although the lotus is beautiful during the daytime, at night it closes. But, O My friend, the face of My most dear Srimati Radharani is always bright and beautiful, both day and night. Therefore, to what can Her face be compared?" (Vidagdha-madhava 5.20) truly her divine beauty is captured in the power of the melody of this wonderful song...