This English translation by Seema Jain of renowned poet and president of the Sahitya Akademi, Sri Madhav Kaushik’s long dramatic monologue comprising around 40 pages titled Listen Radhika (original Hindi title Suno Radhika) introduces readers to a unique voice of Lord Krishna as he implores the attention of his beloved, the playful, bewitching Radhika or Radha. Both names of this divine entity have been in use since the first mention of Radha in the Puranas. The name Radhika, however, is phonetically more alluring due to its languorous lilt. The poet himself explains in his preface that his long poem Listen Radhika, divided into 5 cantos, foregrounds the “great social vision” of Krishna. This single phrase informs the reader that Madhav Kaushik’s poem is not a typical love poem delineating the ‘loverly intimacy’ between Radha and Krishna. Instead, Listen Radhika is an informed discourse about the real world, which is simultaneously transcendent and topical, spiritual and astonishingly contemporary.

In a classic rhetorical query, the poem begins in a teasing tone, “And what is the need for clarification to you?”. Madhav Kaushik strikes a captivating new tonality in his poem. So, Radhika’s lover is in a different mood than the Krishna we find in Jayadev’s Gita Govinda or in the rhapsodic rendition of the love story of the divine lovers, delineated by the Vaishnavite Chaitanya Dev, or even in Surdas, and remarkably, even in the much earlier narrative poems that were composed in Tamil and Pali. Significantly, the references to Krishna and Radha in Pali suggest the fusion of Buddhist, Tamil and Sanskrit in the many retellings of the love between Radha and Krishna. The loving imploration of the title-phrase ‘Listen Radhika’ Suno Radhika is catchy, mundane and yet so evocatively charming.

The divine paramour’s direct address to his beloved, calling his playful, coy companion to heed his words and pay attention to what he desires to impart, transports Madhav Kaushik’s long poem of 87 pages to a transcendent level, where personal becomes the political and the politics of the personal is not focused on the limitations of the self. Krishna narrates his concerns, dreams and desires for the universe and the human world in particular. Listen Radhika is a love poem that is not just about the two divine lovers. It is a love poem enunciated by the divine voice confessing his deep love for the world that is often so painfully self-centred, aggressive and intolerant. Nuggets of wisdom are integrated into the simply worded poem that can be read as an awareness call, a sensitisation about the invincible links between the terrestrial and the celestial.

Listen Radhika does not emulate the profound discourse of the Gita, the often discussed and debated dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna that has timeless relevance in motivating and mobilising the vacillating mind, averse to active resistance while accosted with a sea of troubles. The persuasive tone of Kaushik’s long poem resonates in the minds of readers, as the lines throb with urgency and empathy towards a world that needs self-awareness and course correction. Collective awareness rather than personal realisation becomes the core value that the argumentative poem desires to convey. The divine lover simply states, “I yearn to say so much today/to share with you everything/to make you understand a little bit.” This last line seems placatory; Krishna does not intend to try Radha’s patience, so long as he can make her understand his purpose, that should suffice. He has no wish to oppress her with dense discourse.

Referring to the hypocrisy that is embedded within the networks of world politics, the aggrieved divine mentor states, “Politics is a strange /double-faced thing/speaking in twin voices.” In despair, Krishna observes, “Masks upon masks upon masks/ How many will you rip off?” In despair and distress, Krishna seeks consolation from his beloved as he weeps childlike at the unethical thoughts and actions of the human universe that upset him overwhelmingly. Furthermore, Krishna defines how relationships can withstand storms and trials, whereas kinship and blood ties are often fraught with self-interest and therefore are often not a source of collective trust and all-encompassing happiness.

The two ancient Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, unequivocally prove that kinship may not be reliable, whereas relationships bonded through mutual understanding may be a long-lasting source of happiness and unstinted support. The accident of birth embedded in kinship structures does not necessarily register familial solidarity. Instead, such kinship can often result in manifestations of the deadly sins such as greed, jealousy, possessiveness and lust for power. Referring to his own surrogate mother, Yoshada, Krishna forthrightly states that Yoshada towers over all legal and biological mothers of the world. Yoshada has proved that maternal love is not womb-specific.

Madav Kaushik’s Listen Radhika, unlike Dante’s Divine Comedy of a hundred cantos or Petrarch’s love sonnets addressed to Laura, that register the intense feelings of unrequited love, marks out a path by itself, which combines self-introspection and collective awareness. In Madhav Kaushik’s poem, Radha remains a silent, attentive listener as her divine lover pours out his heart to her, often teasing her and more often emphasising his complete fidelity to Radha, whom he regards as the most precious intimate partner of his divine journey. Radha is known to have addressed Krishna as a trickster, a chaliya, and Krishna chides her lovingly, saying that his fidelity towards his beloved has been unwavering.

Repeatedly in the poem, we notice how Krishna reverts to his sense of outrage and disillusionment with the world that has violated all ethical principles and sunk deep into the abyss of human inequities. In a scathing surmise, Krishna states that civilisations tend to become fractured ‘when impotent intellectuals/clinging to the golden legs of the throne/cringe and grovel’. Krishna implores Radha’s response, asking her why women are perennially subjected to humiliation and assault, and here Krishna refers to the miserable plight of Draupadi. Kaushik, however, lauds Draupadi for having the courage to question patriarchal practices that demean women by regarding them as dumb, docile bodies.

In the third canto of Listen Radha, Kaushik states in righteous indignation that the degradation of women and their battle against social erasure seems to be far more devastating than even the wars in the epic Mahabharata. Krishna’s voice of lament is disquieting, as registered in these lines: “The bloodshed of their Mahabharata/ is more terrifying, more deadly, / than this Mahabharata…” Krishna’s self-effacement is fascinating as he credits Radha with all the wisdom about how well the world can be bonded if love is given due recognition as the most powerful foundation of this world that can cement the diverse, the alien, the different in the singular bond of oneness.

As the poem concludes, Krishna is seen to reiterate his yearning for Radha while exuding a feeling of world weariness. The divine lover repeatedly harps on the perception that all happiness for him lies in his being reunited with his beloved. All other experiences of pomp and glory seem dissatisfying. Krishna longs to return to Brijbhoomi, play with the cows in the pastoral landscape, engage in Raas leela with Radha. He prefers to immerse himself in the idyllic microcosm of love and surrender rather than engage with the games of power and politics that have vitiated the macrocosm.

An aggrieved Krishna therefore expresses his detachment from the delusional human world and longs to return to the pastoral idyll of simple joys. Expectedly in the fifth and concluding canto of Kaushik’s fascinating poem, Krishna surrenders to Radha unconditionally, stating that all his awareness and knowledge had been imparted to him by Radha, and he has learnt and re-learnt the vagaries of the mortal world through her silent counselling, her pristine wisdom and her dedicated immersion within the concentric circles of immortality.

Seema Jain’s excellent translation into English of Madhav Kaushik’s refreshingly new and insightful long poem Listen Radhika, originally written in Hindi, will be a rich learning experience for all readers of poetry as well as students and researchers who engage studies in revisionist mythologies.

The reviewer is former dean, faculty of arts, University of Calcutta

Spotlight

Listen Radhika

By Madav Kaushik

Translated by Seema Jain

Readomania, 2024, Delhi

99 pages, Rs 295/-