If some Vaishnava sampradayas reject the worship of Radharani, how to respond?

Here is the reference to Radharani from the Sri Sampradaya acharya Sri Vedanta Deshika.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And last question. If Sampradaya says that Radharani’s worship is not mentioned in the scriptures, then how do we develop faith in her worship? Actually, it is not that her worship is not mentioned. We have, there is the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, the Padma Purana and even the at least these two Puranas talk elaborately about Krishna bhakti, about with Radharani involved in it.
there are, there is a principle, in the spiritual life there are broad principles and there are some specifics. So, we understand that the worship of Radha and Krishna is confidential. That way if you want to look at the Vedas, the Vedas themselves don’t contain many references to Krishna.
There are many references to Indra, there are some references to Vishnu, but not many references to Krishna directly. There is of course the Gopal Tapani Upanishad, which talks about worshipping Krishna, but directly in the four Vedas it does not have so many references. So, we have to see the presence or absence of something based on the purpose of that thing.
So, the Vedas are primarily books which talk about Karmakand, which talk about the worship of the Lord for getting material things. And for Karmakand worshippers, Indra is their ideal. Because it says that Indra did so many yajnas and by which he went to heaven and he has become Indra now.
Similarly, if you do yajna, you will become Indra. So, if say there is a book, which is the book for, it’s a book like a business guide for Indians. So, then that will talk about all the top businessmen in India.
Now, that may not talk about the prime minister of India. I want to speak of the, if the prime minister has a pet name, with which his parents refer to him, with his loved ones refer to him, that may not appear anywhere in that book. Now, this book may be very popular in India, but that doesn’t mean that it contains everything that is important about India.
It is everything that is relevant for the audience of that book. Similarly, the Vedas are Trigunya Vishaya Veda, the Bhagavata says. So, in the Vedas, the name of Krishna is not mentioned because that is not the primary purpose of the Vedic text themselves.
The Vedic body of knowledge is different from the Vedic text. The Vedic body of knowledge is much bigger than the four Vedas themselves. There is the Itihasa, there is the Puranas.
The Bhagavatam focuses largely on Krishna. So, similarly, so, because Krishna is God at home. Vishnu is God in office.
So, the prime minister may be mentioned occasionally in a book for businessmen because they may have to interact with the prime minister. So, similarly, Vishnu is mentioned in the Vedas much more than Krishna. Now, moving forward, Radharani is the consort of Krishna.
And normally Radharani, she is simply the topmost devotee and she is the giver of pure devotion. So, most people, they want fortune and they think of fortune in material terms. So, there is worship of Lakshmi.
So, Vishnu and Lakshmi or Lakshmi and Narayan, they are mentioned quite frequently and their worship is also talked about. But Radharani is, Krishna himself is God at home and Radharani is the goddess of fortune at home. So, if say the prime minister or the president has a wife.
Now, the wife will play a particular role or have a particular profile in office. But she may have completely different profile at home. The way she acts, the way she behaves.
Their relationship may be quite different and the intimate aspects of their relationship are not going to be there for the world to see. So, similarly, Radharani, now in the case of the prime minister or his wife, they are the same person in two different places. Sometimes at home, sometimes in office.
With respect to Krishna, they are not just the same person, but they are same person and different personalities. And both exist simultaneously. So, Radharani exists, Radharani Krishna exists eternally as do Lakshmi and Narayan.
And Radharani and Krishna are the divine couple at home. So, that’s why because Radharani is the consort of the confidence of the, of God at home, she is not mentioned much in the scriptures. Now, rather than focusing on the specific scriptural references, if you broadly understand the purpose of scripture, then we can also understand the paucity of explicit scriptural references.
But more important than the presence or absence of scriptural references, we have to look at whether the purpose is fulfilled. We can see that there are many many great devotees who had enormous devotion to Radharani. And they are absorbed in a very high state, exalted state of love for the Lord and for Radharani.
So, somebody may say that if a particular doctor tells a patient, you are going to this doctor and you are taking this medicine, this medicine is wrong. This prescription is wrong. Now, if the patient is not taking the, patient is just about to start taking the treatment, is this doctor wrong? Maybe I should not take this treatment.
So, that doubt will be there. But if somebody has gone to that other doctor, if doctor A is saying doctor B’s prescription is wrong, but somebody has gone to doctor B and they have already been cured by that patient, that prescription, then it is like telling a patient prescription wrong. And the patient says, but I am cured.
So, if you are cured, then the prescription is obviously not wrong. So, we can see that there are many devotees who are devoted to Radharani and they have developed exalted levels of love for Radharani. And we can in our own lives, if we pray to Radharani, if we worship Radharani, if we especially learn to appreciate the intimate loving exchanges with Krishna and the Gopis, we will feel ourselves devotionally enormously enriched.
So, if we take the prescription, we will experience the healing, the transformation. And that will be the ultimate conviction. So, if some Vaishna sampradaya start saying that Radharani worship is not mentioned, we simply understand that that is not been emphasized in their tradition.
And that is why that may not be talked about so much. But even in the Sri Vaishnava tradition where there is a prominent teacher who says that, you know, there is no mention of Radharani, actually the Sri Vaishnava tradition itself, we have one of the most prominent Acharyas, Vedanta Desika. And Vedanta Desika has actually composed many verses glorifying Srimati Radharani.
So, it is sad that some of the present teachers of Sampradayas don’t even have a, don’t even look holistically at their own tradition. So, there is lot of reference to the worship, there are references to worship of Radharani. Now, Vedanta Desika was one of the most prominent followers of Ramacharya.
After Ramacharya, there were two main followers. There was Vedanta Desika and there was Pilailokacharya. So, he has mentioned, Vedanta Desika has mentioned about Radharani.
So, that we and there are verses on my website, if you search for this question which you have asked, you will find the references to Radharani’s worship and Radharani being glorified even by Vedanta Desika. That’s why, if somebody is insistent on it, there is no need to get into confrontation with them. We can simply focus on practicing our own bhakti and when we experience the enrichment of our devotion through the practice of bhakti, then there will be no doubt left for us.
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