Prema-sampuṭa

Author: Viśvanātha Cakravartī

"The Casket of Love" — a poem of 141 verses by Viśvanātha Cakravartī, finished in 1684 at Rādhā-kuṇḍa. One morning Kṛṣṇa comes to Rādhā disguised as a goddess from heaven and, posing as a celestial guest, draws her into a long conversation about love — to hear from her own lips what her love for Him is. Rādhā opens her heart: what prema is, why reproaching the beloved is also love, and why even the beloved's faults are dear to the one who loves. Begun as a joke, the conversation becomes one of the deepest portrayals of Rādhā's love in Gauḍīya poetry.