Off the flute of the young and handsome Lord Venugopala, emerges divine music. The kind that perpetrated the woods and alleyways of Vrindavan not so long ago. The kind that uplifts and cleanses and elevates, makes space in the heart for bhakti. The desi cow that supports the figure of Lord Krishna in this composition is the very picture of bhakti. He looks up at his friend, the neck at a sharp angle upwards, reaching out to Him with His whole being. The Sanskrit word ‘bhakti’ is often translated to devotion, but the feeling of bhakti is so much more than that. Bhakti is love; Bhakti is unconditional; bhakti is what is left of the heart after washing away all that clogs the so-inclined Citta (psyche). The cow is the bhakta of Lord Venugopala Krishna, the Lord in turn its paternal lover and protector. This gorgeously colored composition depicts the two in their togetherness, the beauty of their unconditional friendship captured by the prevailing dynamism and symmetry.
