While in lockdown, here's something to appreciate the brilliance of Srila Rupa Goswami, the 15th century Gaudiya Vaishnava saint and scholar whose works are literary gems. He also built the famous Govinda Dev Ji temple in Vrindavan.

@bibekdebroy @AkhileshIFS @sanjeevsanyal

He was the PM in Nawab Hussian Shah's kingdom & wanted to dedicate his life to Lord Krishna but the King wouldn't allow. So, he had to run away from Bengal & settled in Vrindavan where he composed many Bhakti texts.

This thread may appear a bit long is actually too short to fully appreciate the greatness of Srila Rupa Goswami & also the Sanskrit language.

This is about Stava-mala that he wrote & what's so special about it.

While every verse is special, can share only a few here: one/day.

These verses have Citra Kavitvani in them. Kavitvani means 'poetic verses' & Citra is 'wonderful' or 'picture'. It's quite amazing what he has done.

This is how verse 5 looks (left) but when drawn in the wheel formation it becomes the image on right. See the 4th image to read it

In this verse, the syllable 'ni' is shared three times & syllables at the end of the spoke (ga, sa, tam, kam, de) are used twice.

Due to the complexity involved, it is not easy to compose these verses for reasons given below:

1. The syllables need to fit the meter (pattern of short & long syllables).

2. Should be able to convert them into a picture that still makes sense & preserve the original flow.

3. Most difficult thing is to present the deep esoteric meanings with these limitations & challenges

To fully appreciate the complexity of poetry this verse, we need to read & understand the deep and devotional poety. Here's the translation:

But there's a secret signature that Rupa Goswami has placed inside the spokes of the wheel.

This is not apparent if you read the verse in the normal form and is only visible when you look at the picture of this verse.

See the images below.