Contents
Gita Govinda -Shri Jayadeva Gosvami
INTRODUCTION
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The pastimes of Rädhikä and Kṛṣṇa are the transcendental loving play of the Omnipotent Divinity and his potency (çaktimän and çakti). They have the power to sanctify the whole world because they are completely free from even the slightest trace of lust. One should make a diligent study of these pastimes, as such study constitutes one of the limbs of bhakti-yoga. Although many devotees are conversant with this conclusion, Shri Géta-govinda remains inaccessible to them because they are not sufficiently acquainted with the Sanskrit language and its implications. This present edition will provide them with sufficient help to understand the meaning of the words and the emotions implied therein. Nowadays Shri Géta-govinda is famous in the academic community as a poem that exemplifies the amorous mellow, çåìgära-rasa. Shri Jayadeva Gosvämé is also widely accepted as an exceptionally talented poet. However, Shri Gétagovinda is not merely a world-famous composition, full of emotive literary ornaments arranged according to prosody. And Jayadeva Gosvämé is not merely a poet adept in tasteful expressions through the development of his innate abilities. Shri Géta-govinda is the very essence of all the Vedas and Shri Jayadeva Gosvämé is the superlative devotional practitioner (sädhaka) and perfected spiritualist (siddha), with complete mastery of all Vedic wisdom. The readers of Shri Géta-govinda will see that the author has remembered his worshipful deity from the very beginning of his auspicious invocation: The inscrutable, secret pleasure pastimes of Shri Rädhä-Mädhava on thebanks of Yamunä reign above all. In the second verse he introduces his praiseworthy subject matter: The poet Jayadeva is writing this narration after taking complete shelter of rati-keli, the supremely blissful amorous sports of Shri Väsudeva, Çyämasundara, the son of the King of Vraja. As mentioned previously in the third verse, Shri Jayadeva Gosvämé has defined the quali fications required to read this poem: yadi viläsa-kaläsu kutühalam
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