By Acyuta Gopi Devi Dasi
Alive. This was the most overwhelming feeling I had while reading Krishna Dharma’s Birth of the Unborn: Tales of Lord Krishna, A Dramatic Retelling of Srimad Bhagavatam: The Beautiful Science of God. If you are new to the writing of Krishna Dharma, this book is an exquisite treat. If you have read his Mahabharata or Ramayana, then this book is a cozy homecoming to a beloved friend and trusted author.
After reading both his Ramayana and Mahabharata several years ago, I began the journey of reading his Brilliant As the Sun series, in which he and Chintamani Dhama Dasi create one of the most accessible entry points for diving deeply into the Srimad Bhagavatam that I have ever come across. Nine cantos had renderings, but I was eagerly waiting for any hint that Krishna Dharma would release the Tenth Canto, the crown jewel of the Srimad Bhagavatam. It felt like a festival day when I got word through social media that, finally, my prayers had been answered.
Birth of the Unborn: Tales of Lord Krishna delivered! From the Prologue, I was hooked, transfixed, and transported. Again, there was the feeling that this was not a story over five thousand years old; this tale was alive. This was news that was happening now. Having read both the Garga Samhita and Srila Jiva Goswami’s Gopala Campu, I could absolutely hear their resonant echoes throughout the chapters of this book, but now these pastimes were adorned with Krishna Dharma’s unique and engaging way of crafting Vedic retellings.
At some points, I could hear the grit in Kamsa’s voice as clearly as if I had been a silent observer in the many rooms where he would vent his anger over his innumerable failed attempts to destroy the one personality who could destroy him. I could hear Krishna and the other cowherd boys’ laughter as they lovingly terrorized all the inhabitants of Vrindavan and each other. I could see the dust clouds raised by the hooves of hundreds of thousands of cows that Nanda Maharaj owned. But most of all, what I loved were the countless details that kept me reading. They say “love is in the details,” and this book is filled to the brim with love.
There is action-packed writing, with sometimes clipped sentences expressing the urgency and even anxiety within the minds of different personalities; there is a firm foundation of deep research, and there is devotion, always devotion, beneath every motivation, behind every facade, as a flowing undercurrent reminding the reader why we are all reading.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/book-review-birth-of-the-unborn-tales-of-lord-krishna/
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