Govinda Damodara Stotra 9: Let the tongue be a swan that feasts on the lotus of Krishna’s holy name
vicitra-varnaabharanaabhirame- -bhidehi vaktraambuja-rajahamse
sada madiye rasane ‘gra-range govinda damodara madhaveti
O my tongue, since my mouth has become like a lotus by dint of the presence there of these eloquent, ornamental, delightful syllables, you are like the swan that plays there.
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
me chant the holy name of Krishna with attention and absorption. Harinam Prabhu Ki Jai.
Govinda Damodara Madhaveti. Vichitra Varna Bhirami. Vichitra Varna Bhirami.
So he is describing that Vichitra means not strange as it means in Hindi or Marathi but it means special. It comes from Chitra, especially beautiful. Vichitra Varna, Varna is letters, is beautiful letters.
Varna Bhirami. They are Abharan. Abharan is ornament and Abhirami, they bring great joy.
Bhaktra is the mouth. So Balwamangal Thakur is praying that let the holy name become the ornament of my mouth and this ornament in one sense is like the swan for the lotus of the mouth. Sadamadhi Rasane Agra Range.
O tongue, Agra Range. Let this be your foremost joy. What? Chanting these holy names.
So it’s a beautiful implied metaphor over here. Just as the swan delights in lotuses and nothing else, similarly O holy name, O my tongue, which is like a swan, please delight in the lotus of the holy name of the Lord. So our tongue desires various pleasures and the whole principle of Bhakti is to become a connoisseur of pleasure.
A connoisseur is a person who carefully selects among various options and then settles for nothing less than the best. A connoisseur of art will look for the best art pieces through a museum and will only purchase them and will be ready to pay whatever price is required for that. Similarly a connoisseur of pleasure will not settle for anything less than the best pleasure.
And the best pleasure that we can ever get is the pleasure of remembrance of Krishna. Not only is this the highest pleasure in the sense that it connects with our innermost core, all other pleasures connect only with our body and mind. This is the only pleasure that connects with our soul.
But also it is highest because it connects with Krishna who is the highest source of pleasure. Our tongue can connect us with food which is a source of pleasure no doubt but it is a finite and temporary source of pleasure. Our tongue can connect us with mundane music that might also be a source of pleasure but that is also a source of temporary mundane pleasure that often invokes worldly and ungodly desires within us.
So among the various pleasures the tongue can offer us, the prayer over here is to let the tongue become like a connoisseur for pleasure and seek pleasure not in any of the worldly objects which cheat us of our potential for supreme pleasure and make us settle for something far lesser. So he’s praying to the tongue, become like a swan. This is a swan, selects only the best.
Similarly please select only the best pleasure. The best pleasure is the pleasure of the holy name and be delighted in that. There may be many pleasures but this is the highest pleasure and the highest can also be the constant pleasure for us if we chant prayerfully and develop a taste for the holy name.
So let us keep this beautiful vision in mind. Krishna is manifesting with his lotus feet on our tongue so let our tongue become like a swan which relishes the nectar of those lotus feet.