PUNARAVRTTA

REBIRTH – ANOTHER CYCLE

A mantra from Rigveda mentions two birds (dva suparna) sitting on a tree; one of them relishes the fruit of the tree (bhokta) while the other just watches and contemplates (drashta). There is a seed of detached contemplation within everyone. A part of our being watches the merging into the ocean of life and death and the re-emerging again. This cycle probably goes on till the ultimate dissolution into ‘Darkness’. Punaravritta is the narration of human love of the ‘gopis’ for Krishna in contrast with the detached devotion of Radha. Here, Radha is portrayed as a drashta who has journeyed through many (births) cycles and now just watches her own self being colored with the human emotions of union and separation and awaits her final journey.