Shrimad Chaturasi Path — Pad 8 | Chaurasi Ji Ka Path Arth Sahit | नयन माधुर्य — मोहन बँधे

Original pad (Devanagari)

अति ही अरुण तेरे नैंन नलिन री ।
आलस जुत इतरात रँगमगे,
भये निशि जागर मषिन मलिन री ॥
शिथिल पलक में उठत गोलक गति,
विंधयौ मोहन मृग सकत चलि न री ।
जय श्रीहित हरिवंश हंस कल गामिनि,
संभ्रम देत भ्रमरन अलिन री ॥८॥

Transliteration

ati hī aruṇ tere naiṁn nalin rī.
ālas jut itrāt raṁgmage,
bhaye niśi jāgar maṣin malin rī.
śithil palak meṁ uṭhat golak gati,
vindhyau mohan mṛg sakat cali na rī.
jaya śrīhita harivaṁśa haṁs kal gāmini,
sambhram det bhramaran alin rī. (8)

Word-by-word meanings

ati hī — very much; aruṇ — red; tere naiṁn — your eyes; nalin — like lotuses; rī — O sakhi; ālas jut — filled with languor; itrāt — proudly playful; raṁgmage — steeped in the colour of love; bhaye — have become; niśi jāgar — a night spent awake; maṣin — the collyrium; malin — smudged and dull; śithil palak — drooping eyelids; meṁ — within; uṭhat — rising; golak gati — the movement of the pupils; vindhyau — have pierced; mohan — Mohan; mṛg — like a deer; sakat cali na — unable even to walk; jaya śrīhita harivaṁśa — says Śrī Hita Harivaṁśa; haṁs kal gāmini — O you who walk gracefully like a swan; sambhram — confusion; det — give; bhramaran — to the bees; alin — to the sakhīs.

Translation

O sakhi, your lotus eyes are exceedingly red. They are filled with languor, proudly playful and steeped in the colour of love, as if you stayed awake all night, so that even the collyrium has grown smudged and dull. Within your drooping eyelids, the pupils move slowly, and those eyes have pierced deer-like Mohan so deeply that He cannot even walk. Says Śrī Hita Harivaṁśa — O swan-gaited one, your walk and your eyes confuse even the bees and the sakhīs: are these eyes lotuses, or arrows of love? It is hard to tell.

Explanation

A sakhi teases Rādhā by reading Her face: red, sleepy, love-drunk eyes tell the story of a night spent with Her Beloved, without Her saying a word. The charm of the pad is its reversal — it is not Kṛṣṇa who has captured Rādhā, but Rādhā's glances that have pierced and bound deer-like Mohan Himself.

Summary

Love needs no words — Rādhā's red, languorous eyes tell the sakhi of the night's union, and even Mohan stands pierced and bound by them.

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