Appreciating Radharani: universal, Gaudiya and personal perspectives, Radhashtami 2022

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Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Lecture Summary

On the auspicious occasion of Radhaashtami, this discourse explores the profound spiritual significance of Srimati Radharani from a universal perspective, within the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, and for our daily spiritual lives.

• Inclusive Spiritual Theology: The Bhakti tradition presents a holistic view of the divine as both male and female, reminding practitioners that our fundamental identity is spiritual rather than material.
• Srimati Radharani’s Exalted Position: As the embodiment of the highest love and consciousness, her devotion is so supreme that it even controls Krishna, establishing her central role in the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage.
• Reverential Approach and Protection: Srila Prabhupada emphasized a deeply respectful and reverential attitude toward Srimati Radharani to safeguard sacred pastimes from mundane interpretations or trivialization.
• The Pinnacle of Selflessness: During the Ras Leela, Radharani’s concern for her fellow Sakhis even while receiving Krishna’s exclusive attention exemplifies true spiritual selflessness and expanded consciousness.
• Divine Madness (Divya Unmad): Unlike ordinary madness disconnected from reality, divine madness reflects a transcendent absorption and communication with the ultimate spiritual reality, as exhibited by Radharani and Mahaprabhu.
• Reclusive and Inclusive Bhakti: Srila Prabhupada mirrored Radharani’s mood by balancing deep personal absorption in the Lord with active, compassionate outreach to uplift all living beings.

Key Takeaways

• Expand your consciousness by directing love toward the highest spiritual reality, Krishna, rather than temporary material pursuits.
• Cultivate a dual approach to bhakti by combining personal spiritual absorption with genuine compassion and service toward fellow devotees and humanity.
• Approach sacred subjects and holy places with deep reverence and respect to preserve their spiritual integrity.

Full Transcription

All of you today grateful to be here with all of you today on the occasion of Radhaashrami and I will speak broadly on three main themes of how from a universal perspective what is the significance of Shrimati Radharani from the specific perspective of the Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition of which we are a part, what is the significance of Shrimati Radharani and then for our spiritual lives at whatever stage we are in what is her significance what is her relevance, what is the importance of her blessings let’s begin with some verses from the Chaitanya Charita Amrit which illustrate the significance of Shrimati Radharani’s very special position so here before I go into the verses there is two important things to understand that it is very difficult to actually understand things if we don’t see them in their context now what does seeing things in their context mean it can mean many things but specifically it means that we learn to see where they are being spoken and look at who was speaking to them, what was their intent in speaking to them and what is the result of speaking to them we live in a world today where we live in a world today where there is increasing polarisation, increasing violence increasing demonization of others and often that results because of because of a lower consciousness and Radharani is the manifestation of the most elevated consciousness that actually if you consider it is love that has the greatest potential to elevate our consciousness when love is replaced by selfishness, by lust then our consciousness shrinks to what’s in it for me what can the other person do for me when people exploit or abuse or violate others they are thinking of the other person, they have reduced the other person to an object and what can this person do for me so when our consciousness shrinks we don’t even sense the consciousness of the other person we see the other person as an object meant for our pleasure but as our consciousness expands then we start sensing realities beyond ourselves and it is love that can cause the expansion of consciousness but unfortunately when our love is misdirected or not directed toward the eternal object then the expansion of our consciousness brings with it the potential to cause great hurt for ourselves that means that if we expand our consciousness, we care for someone we care for something then what happens is often that person can disappoint us that person can betray us that particular cause for which we work could end up again disappointing us or turning out to be not all that glorious so what happens is there is love and there is the object of love love can expand our consciousness love can raise our consciousness but at whom we are directing that love that is extremely important when we direct that love toward Krishna who is the highest object of consciousness who is the highest reality then our consciousness expands in the fullest way in a way that is joyful that is not disappointing that is not frustrating so the world if it needs anything today it doesn’t need more we have climate change problems we have inflation we have shortage of resources so many problems but actually the biggest problem is that people’s consciousness is shrunk it is lowered and we need to raise consciousness and Radharani her example and her blessings can both enable us to raise our consciousness so she embodies love but not just she embodies love to the highest degree but she also embodies love directed toward the highest object so for example one way the consciousness has shrunk today is by re-envisioning human history and even current human interactions in terms of power struggles that that the whole of human history is what men have been exploiting women and now it is the time for women to rise well yes and no have people been exploited? yes throughout history it is just the human tendency of the powerful to exploit the powerless it is not just men who have exploited women powerful men have exploited powerful men also so what happens is that we have particular perspectives through which we view things and then that perspective can extend to divinity also that why should God be male? well the bhakti tradition explains that God is not just male in the Abrahamic traditions God is portrayed as male but in the bhakti tradition it is understood that God is not just male but before we can understand is God male or female? well the answer in the bhakti tradition is both male and female but a more important answer is that before we can understand whether God is male or female or how God is both male and female we need to understand that we ourselves are neither males nor females we are spiritual beings so we are neither male nor female and God is both male and female so if we take simply our our particular preconceptions our particular lens and apply to the divine then we may not understand things holistically still even with those lens the bhakti tradition is more inclusive because we don’t have God just in a male form we have God as the divine couple as both male and female now Radharani is understood in two ways one is that she is as I said God in the female form Radha Krishna ek atma doi deha dhari she is one soul they manifest in two bodies Ananya and Nila that they perform pastime they rejoice in the pastimes there is God in the male form there is God in the female form and in some ways God in the female form is considered higher because her love controls even Krishna in fact that is one of the key differences between the various consorts of Krishna that Radharani her love is so great that when she is upset Krishna goes out of her way to please her now another understanding that she is the she is God in the female form but she is also God manifesting as topmost devotee so there are both these roles and when we approach Radharani we approach in both ways she is God and she is also the greatest devotee of Krishna so as God in female form she can bless us through her potency, through her mercy as a devotee as a topmost devotee in female form of course devotee is also blessed but as a topmost devotee in female form she exemplifies devotion, she shows what the topmost devotion looks like so with this brief understanding of Krishna is God and establishing international society for Krishna consciousness, somebody may say that okay if we say God is both male and female then why is it not international society for Radha consciousness why is it international society for Krishna consciousness well that’s interesting you know one of my friends he is from a traditional South Indian background, South Indians they worship God very much in the mood of awe and reverence so they said, he said you people have got it all wrong Krishna is God I just referred to him as simply Krishna there is no Sri Krishna no Bhagwan Krishna just Krishna isn’t that disrespectful and he said on the opposite you have Radha and you have a double honorific for Radha you have first Srimati and then you have Rani so it’s a double honorific not just Radha, Srimati Radharani so there are double honorific for Radha and zero honorifics for Krishna what’s wrong with you people so I explained to him how actually Shri Prabhupada coined an entire term the English equivalent of Bhagwan Prabhupada said it, the supreme personality of God and that’s the honorific that Prabhupada used consistently so it is not that we don’t we don’t respect Krishna it is that actually Prabhupada wanted us to have a personal relationship with Krishna Prabhupada had a personal relationship with Krishna Krishna is the most accessible personal divinity and Krishna we worship Krishna in Vrindavan and in Vrindavan nobody refers to Krishna as Bhagwan Krishna even as Sri Krishna, it is Krishna so Prabhupada brought some glimpses of that Vrajabhav into our relationship with Krishna and yes Prabhupada did systematically talk about Krishna’s position in his books so anybody who reads the Shastras as explained to you in Krishna Prabhupada’s commentary you will understand that Krishna is the ultimate reality but at the same time he is not just the ultimate reality he is the ultimate intimate reality he is the ultimate intimate reality he is far away he is further than the furthest he is closer than the closest so Prabhupada emphasised that now on the other hand that’s the case then why Radha is having a double honour if you see if you read the commentaries of the books of Rupa Goswami or Jiva Goswami or Vishwacharya Thakur these are all prominent Acharyas in our tradition and they have written a lot on Vraja Leela including the Radha Krishna pastimes and there they refer to her simply as Radha so Bhaktisiddhanta Sridhar could have used Sri Radha but it is Prabhupada who is the first person who coined this term Srimati Radharani now Rani means Queen, Srimati is honorific that refers to one who is imbued with Sriman and Srimati Srimati means Sri can mean wealth it can mean fortune, it can mean opulence one who is infused, imbued enriched with all these so Srimati Radharani now what was Prabhupada’s point that in India there was a tendency that came up especially after the the empirical the reductionistic lens were applied to the Bhakti tradition and to Brahmin tradition there is a tendency to see the Radha Krishna relationship as mundane and especially because their relationship was in the what is called as the per curious I will explain what it is soon that their relationship was often seen as mundane and not just mundane but as indecent and there are people who frivolously claim to justify their own mundane and often immoral activities by saying actually you know they claim to be devotees and they claim to be saying that actually when we do these activities it is not we who are doing these activities it is Krishna who is entering into the male body it is Radha who is entering into the female body and when people do immoral activities it is not we who are doing it, it is they who are doing it through us now this is this is perversion there is an English word called rationalise now rationalise is a verb which is spelled normally as R A T I O N A L I Z E or S E depending on which British or American English is used but rationalise however it can be spelled in a different way and that is a revealing spell rationalise R A T I O N A L L I E S rationalise so when we rationalise we tell lies and we use our rational faculty to justify those lies so rationalise so what happens is that in such situations we end up trivialising and distorting that which is sacred, we make it profane and Prabhupada wanted to prevent that and that is why Prabhupada was very emphatic that Radharani should be approached in a very reverential so that was still Prabhupada’s view that Krishna is approached in a very intimate way and Radharani is approached in a very respectful way very reverential way, actually Prabhupada even there is a kund of Radharani the Radha kund and Prabhupada in our tradition Radha kund is considered the topmost of holy places it is considered with the embodiment of Radharani’s love in liquid form and Rupa Goswami and the great Gaudiya Vaishnav Acharyas they talk about bathing in Radha kund as the most purifying and most elevated of activities but what happened is but what happened unfortunately is that when devotees went for the first time to bathe over there they started, they were frivolous they started swimming and tossing water on each other and just, they thought it was like a swimming pool, Prabhupada this is not a swimming pool this is a sacred place it is so frivolous better don’t bathe in this some devotees may take that as an absolute instruction that we should never bathe in Radha kund however I always said that there is quite a difference Prabhupada has translated the books of the previous Acharyas, the messages of the previous Acharyas, where he does say bathing in Radha kund is a great fortune and we should tap that opportunity when we get it, but the point is Prabhupada emphasised the reverential attitude very much and that’s why Srimati Radharani, that’s why the strong caution when bathing in Radha kund and that’s why Srila Prabhupada he didn’t speak much about Srimati Radharani or Radhashtami in the entire Bhagavad Gita Prabhupada refers to Radha only twice if you do a search for Bhagavad Gita as it is the word Radha comes only twice in Bhagavad Gita and where are those two things? in the introduction when you tap the Kanchena Gaurangi Radhe Vrindavaneshwari, that prayer is there the Sanskrit of the prayer and the translation of the Sanskrit, those are the only two places where Radharani is mentioned so Prabhupada maintained a very reverential attitude and the idea is that I earlier said that I said first in terms of today’s world Radharani is the embodiment of the highest consciousness and the inspiration for raising our consciousness higher, now I’m looking at in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition what is the position of Srimati Radharani so Prabhupada approached Radharani from a very reverential perspective at the same time she is at the heart of our tradition, so I’ll talk about two pastimes of Srimati Radharani that reveal her heart or rather it is one pastime and two parts within that pastime the the Ras Leela is considered to be the top most pastime between Krishna and the Gopis, on all of Krishna Leela so Krishna plays his flute and calls the Gopis to the forest for performing pastimes with them and then the Gopis come and when the Gopis come at that time Krishna exchanges, talks with them pleasantries and he says okay now you go back, you came here now you go back, no we want to be with you when they insist like that firmly Krishna says yes and then they are performing the dance and then it seems as if they become proud and Krishna leaves them and goes away and the Gopis are shattered and as they are shattered they are looking around where has Krishna gone now all the Gopis, they are of a similar age, they have grown up together, they know each other very well and they look and they see, they are all here but one person is not here and that one person is mentioned in the Bhagavatam is elaborated in the in the elaborated in the, not in the Bhagavatam but in the Goswami’s literature and that is Srimati Radharani and initially the reaction is who is this special person that Krishna has gone with, oh it’s Radha they all know that their love for Krishna is nowhere in compared to the love of Radharani for Krishna so what happens is as Radharani is going with Krishna Krishna is leading her deeper and deeper into the forest, initially she is elated that Krishna is going with me alone she feels overwhelmed that Krishna has selected me for this special attention but then her heart turns towards others and she starts thinking that what will be the plight of my Sakhis of Lalita, of Ishaka, of Dungavidya, of Champaklata of Suderi, of Rangadevi they will be shattered by the by being away from Krishna by the thought that Krishna has abandoned and rejected them and gone away and how can I be happy when my dearest friends are so unhappy this is what is the summit of selflessness Radharani she could have said I didn’t want that I told Krishna come with me Krishna chose to go with me if Krishna turned away from them Krishna is God, it is Krishna’s choice and they must have done something because of which Krishna turned away from them why should I care, that’s between them and Krishna but Radharani does not do that, this is the level of our expanded consciousness, in the yoga tradition the idea is our consciousness expands, expands, expands, expands till it reaches the ultimate reality and then we become immersed in the ultimate reality that is the yoga tradition but the bhakti yoga tradition takes it further our consciousness expands from self-centredness towards bigger and bigger realities till it reaches Krishna but then when our consciousness reaches Krishna it doesn’t stop, it’s like our consciousness reaches Krishna and then with Krishna in our consciousness our consciousness comes back to the world and then embraces the whole world that is considered to be the most evolved form of consciousness Prabhupada was in Vrindavan Prabhupada’s heart was always in Vrindavan and he was physically in Vrindavan and at that time people of his age were way past 50 or 60 they would go to Vrindavan primarily to retire and Prabhupada was repeatedly leaving Vrindavan going to Vrindavan, leaving Vrindavan going to Vrindavan, leaving Vrindavan and finally Prabhupada left Vrindavan to come to America however that is really an external vision Prabhupada didn’t leave Vrindavan to go to America Prabhupada took Vrindavan in his heart and went to America we can take a pure devotee out of the dham but we cannot take the dham out of the pure devotee we can take a pure devotee out of the dham but we can’t take the dham and a lot of dham out of their heart out of the pure devotee so wherever Prabhupada went, he manifested Vrindavan so that is Prabhupada was in Vrindavan and he was relishing relishing the remembrance of Krishna the absorption in Krishna that’s what his heart longed for when Prabhupada was in college his biggest dream when most of us are in college, our dream is we want to see some maybe some Disneyland something like that we want to go to some amusement park some adventure sports but Prabhupada’s dream was when can I get enough money to buy the train ticket to go to Jagannath Puri and see Lord Jagannath that is Prabhupada Prabhupada longed to be in the dham but his consciousness didn’t just expand to reach the Lord from the Lord it reached the world again and Prabhupada was concerned about all the souls in the world who are bereft of Krishna consciousness whose shrunk consciousness is causing suffering to them and is causing suffering to others Prabhupada wanted to reach out to them so Prabhupada may not have talked much about Radharani but he embodied the mood of Srimati Radharani he embodied her mood through his service attitude not just caring for Krishna but caring for everyone in relationship with Krishna and then what happened Srimati Radharani as she was thinking about her Sakhis oh they must be shattered in the absence of Krishna Krishna was taking her along so she came up with various excuses Krishna that flower is so beautiful can you get that flower for me now the Vrindavan forest was filled with many beautiful flowers but Radharani deliberately pointed to a flower which was high up and what would happen is Krishna would have to jump up jump up to try to reach that flower and getting that flower what would happen is their movement into the forest would be delayed and if their movement in the forest would be delayed the chance of the other Sakhis finding them would increase and Krishna reach out and give the flower give the flower to Radharani can you put it in my hair and put the hair in her head and they kept moving forward and then Radharani said Krishna do you see how beautiful this sight is look at the moon how beautiful it is can you just stop and look at the moon in this way she was making various excuses at one time she said Krishna that flower you know it’s so nice can you get it now there was no way Krishna could jump and reach that flower Krishna is God but Krishna does not manifest his Godhood usually during intimate pastimes sometimes he manifests but most of the time just acts like a normal human being so then finally Krishna told Radharani that okay I can’t reach it I’ll do one thing I’ll lift you up I’ll lift you up and you can reach up and you can also take the flower and he lifted Radharani up and Radharani was trying to reach she was deliberately taking a long time to reach I can’t reach can you lift me up a little more can you lift me up a little more now at one level it’s a very intimate pastime but another level it is also reflecting Radharani’s love not just love between Radharani and Krishna but it is all Radharani’s concern for her sakhis and now what happens is the Bhagavatam tells this story not directly but through the lens of the sakhis and the sakhis they see that and all the other gopis see oh Krishna has disappeared where has he gone then they become like transcendental detectives going on a treasure hunt and then for them the treasure is Krishna and all along when they are going looking at the footsteps oh there is Krishna’s footstep here Radharani’s footstep here there is a male footstep there is a female footstep and they keep going for hey what happened over there this one footstep is very deep oh that means Krishna must have been rising up that’s why his heels are not there but his front of the legs are very deep and here it’s only one footstep here Krishna must have picked up this gopi and what were they doing oh they were sweeping up a flower so what happens is the Bhagavatam tells this narrative from this perspective and then as they go on and on throughout Radharani is coming up with various excuses and still Krishna just keeps moving forward and then finally Radharani says what to do now and she says Krishna I’m feeling very tired can we just sit for some time Krishna I’m feeling very tired I cannot walk anymore she doesn’t say can we sit I cannot walk anymore and Krishna apparently becomes angry and he speaks in a very stern voice because this is a forest I cannot get a palanquin for you although you are a queen therefore you can climb on my back and I’ll carry you and he’s speaking this but he’s speaking in such an angry tone Radharani looking here there she’s looking to see are any of the Sakhis coming how far can I how long do I have to keep Krishna waiting so when she hears Krishna’s voice she turns around she’s shocked to see here the sternness the anger in Krishna’s voice and she looks around and she says Krishna has disappeared and then she understands what has happened Krishna thought that I was taking his association for granted and that’s why Krishna got angry with me and Krishna went away and she sat and now actually what happens is she just goes mad there is ordinary madness and there is divine madness divine madness is called as Divya Unmad now if you consider this is our ordinary reality that we experience and when somebody goes mad they become disconnected with ordinary reality and just go into their mental world into their imagination so somebody who is mad somebody who has gone mad they may hear voices although there is nobody around them they may start talking with somebody where nobody is next to them for them to talk with so basically normally we talk about somebody who has become unhinged their perceptions and actions have no connection with reality that’s when we say that person has gone mad so there is ordinary madness but then there is divine madness so when a person becomes disconnected from ordinary reality that is ordinary madness from daily reality but when somebody becomes disconnected from ordinary reality but they become connected with the higher reality that is divine madness and Radhanand starts exhibiting this divine madness so illustrate this divine madness if you consider that this is physical reality so in ordinary reality there are cars and buildings and people and our workplace this is physical world that is where we perceive and we act our perceptions our perceptions go in the direction we perceive outward we perceive inward and we act outward that’s what normally happens but now what happens is when somebody is becoming a little imbalanced unhinged their connection with the physical world becomes thinner that’s why you see this thinner arrows and their connection with their own imaginary world their imagining that becomes too strong so here somebody might imagine that there are flying horses there are all kinds of imaginary objects so when a person’s connection with the physical world diminishes and their own will get lost in the head that’s the beginning of madness but this is ordinary madness in contrast with that there is spiritual madness or divine madness and divine madness is what Mahaprabhu exhibit that madness Radharani exhibit that madness so what is that a person may still have some connection with the physical world they may still have capacity for imagination but their connection with the spiritual reality where they are communicating with Krishna they become absorbed in Krishna and they become disconnected from the world that is divine madness and Radharani starts exhibiting this divine madness how what happens is although Krishna has disappeared as if we had stumbled into the forest of Vrindavan at that time you see Radharani all alone this divinely beautiful goddess standing alone and it’s almost like she’s talking to the wind or talking to the trees or talking to the sky talking to the night sky there’s nobody there whom are you talking with what happens is Radharani sees Krishna there and she’s although Krishna has gone she sees Krishna and she’s desperately beseeching Krishna please come back please come back Krishna please don’t leave me and go away so so he brings describes this whole conversation so Radharani Krishna please don’t leave me and go away Krishna says I don’t like anyone who becomes proud even if you are a great devotee I don’t tolerate pride Krishna but I had not become proud I was only concerned about my Sakhis you had left them and they would be heartbroken I choose you I wanted to be with you why are you concerned about them why are you not concerned about me I’m concerned about you Krishna but they love you I was concerned about them because you care for them and they care for you also Krishna says I don’t like it when my devotees disrupt my plans Krishna please please come back I’ll be with you I’ll do whatever you tell me Radharani says Krishna says it’s too late now I’m going Krishna please don’t leave me I’m all alone in this forest I’m in this forest in this dark how will I be with you without you Krishna says the Sakhis you care for so much they’re also in the dark they’re also in the forest just as they are well you’ll also be well Krishna says Radharani says but no Krishna they at least have each other I am completely alone it is you who brought me here alone and how can you abandon me now Krishna is very he says everyone has to pay for the consequences of their actions and then Radharani hears the finality in Krishna’s words she says Krishna has gone and Krishna goes it’s almost like life goes out of her body and she fades she fades she swoons over there so what’s happening here is that actually speaking at such a time she the human body has a capacity to experience a certain amount of pain if the pain becomes too much if somebody has a terrible accident then what happens is if the pain is too much you become unconscious there’s bodily injury but our bodily injury is already there but our capacity to tolerate pain is limited and when the pain seems to be going beyond our threshold capacity to tolerate then the defence mechanism is to just turn off our consciousness and this can happen because of physical pain this can also happen because of emotional pain so Kavikarna who describes that actually Radharani would have died over there but it is it is he says Murcha Devi is in Vrindavan everything is personal so Murcha Devi is the goddess of fainting so the goddess of fainting comes over there and she embraces Radharani and because of her embrace Radharani she doesn’t pass away she faints she doesn’t pass away she passes out and then she is lying on the ground shattered and all the gopis are searching and they are searching searching searching sometime they stumble on her and when they see she is lying over there so shattered and alone initially they are feeling why did Krishna leave all of us to go with her alone they know this Gopi must be someone special Krishna loves her so much that’s why they have gone Krishna must have gone with her still they feel a little bad why did Krishna leave us but then when they see this Gopi Krishna has left her also and gone away then immediately the empathy in their heart comes up that how much great must have been her pain her agony Krishna has gone away from us but none of us have fainted Krishna has left her and she has fainted so great must be her agony and so great is her agony that means so great must be her love and immediately they look for a pond nearby they get some water they sprinkle water on Radharani’s face and they bring her back to consciousness and they bring her back to consciousness at that time they all they all they talk and Radharani she is so broken hearted she can’t even speak but somehow in broken words she tells what has happened and all the Gopis become resolute we have to find Krishna and they all start searching for Krishna they search search search they go deep into the forest in searching for Krishna but they cannot find Krishna and this is symbolic we humans even if we have a longing for transcendent longing to know the ultimate reality longing to know the divine no we cannot know the divine by our own effort we can perceive the existence of the divine that God exists we can make a rational argument for God but the nature of God that God is a bluish black cowherd boy who plays a flute and wears a peacock feather that we cannot arrive at by any reason for that rational theology is not enough we need revelational theology it is only by God’s revelation that we can find him in his fullness so the Gopis are searching frantically for Krishna but they can’t find him and then they all decided they can’t find Krishna by searching so they come back they come back to the place where they have had the deepest experiences with Krishna so they come to the banks of the Jamuna where Krishna has smiled sweetly at them Krishna has cast side long glances at them Krishna has revealed his heart and confidence to them they’ve had the most intimate exchanges of love with Krishna and there with their hearts and minds infused with the deep remembrance of Krishna they sit down in a circle and all the Gopis are sitting in a circle and they’re envisioning that Krishna is in the middle of that circle and they all start offering prayers to Krishna and that prayer is the Gopi Gita in the 31st chapter of the 10th chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam so it is described as Gopya Uchu so Gopya and Uchu both are plural words so now what does this mean is it that all this Gopi Gita is some song which all the Gopis have memorised before and all of them are reciting it in chorus no not at all they are composing it at that moment their devotion is expressing itself in exquisite poetry and each verse Jiva Goswami explains in the Gopal Champu that each verse in the Gopi Gita is composed by one one Gopi and he explains which Gopi it is however when each Gopi is speaking she is both speaking her heart as an individual and she is expressing the heart of the entire group as a representative of that group so there is this there is individuality and unity in Bhakti sometimes there is unicity and unity in diversity but that is individuality and unity both are demonstrated over here unity in diversity and diversity in unity all the Gopis are praying to Krishna and all their prayers are basically Krishna please come back please come back they are using different arguments to reason with Krishna please come back so prayer is one in that sense there is unity in diversity but at the same time there is also diversity in unity one prayer but each prayer is coming from there is one request but each request is coming from different hearts each of those requests are coming from each individual heart made with a call, impassioned call from a different perspective and finally as the Gopis complete their prayer, they are sitting in a circle they are envisioning as if Krishna is there and then at the end of their prayers Krishna actually appears Krishna appears and reveals himself so this is actually an amazing pastime at many levels so Radharani’s love is revealed over here but Radharani does not delight, she is undoubtedly the greatest devotee but she does not delight in one-upsmanship I am the greatest devotee everybody should know I am the greatest devotee no the greatness of her devotion is that even when Krishna selects her she is concerned about other devotees and eventually Krishna comes back and Krishna says to all the Gopis that you have conquered my heart that you have rendered such service that I can never repay you so bhakti is both an individual activity and a collective activity and Radharani by her example demonstrates that Krishna is pleased when we remember him exclusively we focus our heart on remembering him but Krishna is also pleased when we are concerned about the other devotees we seek their welfare we try to serve them and in this combination of expanding our consciousness toward Krishna and expanding our consciousness toward other devotees both of these through both of these we can actually become more and more Krishna conscious so we could say extending our consciousness toward Krishna directly is reclusive bhakti, reclusive bhakti means we turn away from the world to turn toward Krishna, we focus directly on Krishna but bhakti is not just reclusive it is also inclusive where we include the world we include other devotees not just other present devotees other potential devotees also and we try to connect them with Krishna we try to provide them an opportunity to raise their consciousness that was Srila Prabhupada’s mood Srila Prabhupada could immerse himself in his bhajan when Prabhupada would sing Vaishnava bhajans he would just get transported to another world Prabhupada would do kirtans close his eyes and just absorb himself Prabhupada could do that Prabhupada would then open his eyes wide and then he would pay attention to who was there and he would share Krishna’s love with them offer prayers for them on their behalf one time in Australia one woman asked Prabhupada, Swamiji can you pray for me Prabhupada replied I am always praying for you otherwise what reason would I have to travel so far all over the world Prabhupada’s Krishna consciousness was both reclusive and inclusive and that Prabhupada was manifesting Radharani’s mood and we can pray to both Srimati Radharani and Srila Prabhupada to give us mercy by which we all can raise and expand our consciousness so that our consciousness reaches Krishna and our consciousness reaches others in a mood of service to Krishna drawing them closer to Krishna and thereby drawing ourselves closer to Krishna so I’ll summarise I spoke three main points today, first I talked about how Bhakti tradition has a very inclusive theology that God is not just male but both male and female but it is a spiritual theology so we need to understand that we are neither male or female because we are spiritual beings and then within that I talked about how within the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition Radharani is central, Prabhupada was very reverential because Radharani is dealing with Krishna could be easily misunderstood as mundane or as even immoral so Prabhupada was, that’s why I used Srimati Radharani I didn’t talk much about Radharani but he introduced us to the whole tradition where there is so much discussion about Radharani and in that connection I talked about two pastimes of Radharani or two incidents in the same pastime first is even when she is with devotees even when she is with Krishna she is concerned about others, about her Sakhis so a devotee doesn’t want to enjoy Krishna for himself or herself a devotee wants to share Krishna with everyone else and then and Krishna left her also she went into a state of divine madness I discussed how that is different from ordinary madness ordinary madness is where we just become disconnected from physical reality and go into imagination whereas in divine madness we get disconnected from physical reality but we get connected with higher reality, the ultimate reality and finally the Gopi Gita in which Radharani is central but she does not take a central position, she actually embodies with all the Gopis, unity in diversity and diversity in unity and Srila Prabhupada had that similar mood of Radharani not just absorption in the Lord but absorption in compassion for all living beings and with that he attracted millions of people toward Krishna and we can also pray for Radharani’s mercy and Prabhupada’s mercy. Thank you very much Radhaashtami Mahamahotsav ki Jai Srila Prabhupada ji ki Jai Jai Jai Thank you so much for this wonderful address we want to express on behalf of the Krishna Africa platform a deep appreciation for honouring our invitation to come and give us this wonderful sharing on this day we know you’re busy and we know that you have next engagement in the short term but I don’t know if it is not going to be too inconvenient And can we give like 10 minutes so that maybe we will ask one or two questions? This will be one question.
I had to leave for the programme immediately. I’m sorry about that. One question, you get the answer.
It’s a question. OK. Who’s going to be the person to have the questions? Sadiq, who? Well, I’m a Christian.
Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity. And Shri Chaitanya Charan Prabhu, I think we may have to let you go. And we’ll ask you a question next time because you are very busy.
The question may take different turns. We really appreciate your presence here and the love and guidance given to us. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak. And wish you all a very happy Radha Ashtami. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Narvaan ki jai. Narvaan ki jai.
Shri Mataji Radharani ki jai. Radha Shri Radha So ki jai. Thank you.
Thank you, Shri Krishna Prabhu ji.