SLOKA OF THE WEEK:

Mukunda-mālā-stotra 7
cintayāmi harim eva santataḿ
manda-hāsa-muditānanāmbujam
nanda-gopa-tanayaḿ parāt paraḿ
nāradādi-muni-vṛnda-vanditam

cintayāmi — I think; harim — about Lord Hari; eva — indeed; santatam — always; manda — gentle; hāsa — with a smile; mudita — joyful; ānana-ambujam — whose lotus face; nanda-gopa — of the cowherd Nanda; tanayam — the son; parāt param — the Supreme Absolute Truth; nārada-ādi — beginning with Nārada; muni-vṛnda — by all the sages; vanditam — worshiped.

TRANSLATION

I always think of Lord Hari, whose joyful lotus face bears a gentle smile. Although He is the son of the cowherd Nanda, He is also the Supreme Absolute Truth worshiped by great sages like Nārada.

JOURNAL:

This is a sloka from a collection of prayers by King Kulaśekhara. Srila Prabhupada started translating this book, using a Sanskrit edition published by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in 1895, in the late 1950's but put it aside for other work. His decipile, Srila Satsvarupa das Goswami, took up the work on the request of the GBC and finished it in 1989.

In his purport Satsvarupa das Goswami writes; In this prayer King Kulaśekhara reveals himself to be at the stage of spontaneous love of God, in which the devotee goes beyond mere formal ceremonies and ritual recitations and thinks of Lord Hari always. This is the actual standard of happiness in devotional service. Such constant remembrance of the Lord is possible through constant chanting of His name. As Lord Caitanya recommends in His Śikṣāṣṭaka (3), kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ: [Cc. adi 17.31] "One should always chant the holy name of the Lord." In this way one will always be happy in the joy of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The Lord's happiness is always increasing, like an ever-expanding ocean (ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam), and the living entity is meant to dive into that ocean because his original nature is to be ever-blissful in contact with the Lord.