Laughing Ecstasy 368
trembled, and his eyes moved. Due to his smiling, his teeth also be-
came visible, and on account of the glaring effulgence from his teeth,
the clouds in the skies turned silver.

When a smiling person claps his hands and leaps in the air, the
smiling expression changes into atihasita, or overwhelming laughter.
An example of atihasita was manifested in the following incident:
Krsna once addressed Jarati thus: “My dear good woman, the skin of
your face is now slackened, and so your face exactly resembles a
monkey’s. As such, the King of the monkeys, Balimukha, has selected
you as his worthy wife.” While Krsna was teasing Jarati in this way,
she replied that she was certainly aware of the fact that the King of
the monkeys was trying to marry her, but she had already taken
shelter of Krsna, the killer of many powerful demons, and therefore
she had already decided to marry Krsna instead of the King of the
monkeys. On hearing this sarcastic reply by the talkative Jarati, all
the cowherd girls present there began to laugh very loudly and clap
their hands. This laughter, accompanied by the clapping of hands, is
called atihasita.

Sometimes there are indirect sarcastic remarks which also create
atihasita circumstances. An example of one such remark was made
by one of the cowherd girls to Kutila, the daughter of Jatila and sis-
ter of Abhimanyu, the so-called husband of Radharani. Indirectly
Kutila was insulted by the following statement: “My dear Kutila,
daughter of Jatila, your breasts are as long as string beans—simply dry
and long. Your nose is so gorgeous that it is defying the beauty of the
noses of frogs. And your eyes are more beautiful than the eyes of
dogs. Your lips are defying the flaming cinders of fire, and your ab-
domen is as beautiful as a big drum. Therefore, my dear beautiful
Kutila, you are the most beautiful of all the cowherd girls of Vrnda-
vana, and because of your extraordinary beauty, I think you must be
beyond the attraction of the sweet blowing of Krsna’s flute!”
