Radhashtami class – Radharani demonstrates selfless love and blesses us with selfless love

[Radhashtami class at ISKCON, Denver, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna thank you for coming today on the supremely auspicious occasion of Sri Radha Ashtami so I’ll speak on this topic today in three parts first I’ll talk about the vision of divinity that underlies the festival of Radha Ashtami today then I’ll talk about the personality of Radharani herself and then I’ll talk about the significance of her grace in our life during the course of our life we have basic needs we look for food, we look for clothing we look for shelter, we look for pleasure through various forms researchers have found that along with these basic bodily needs all of us human beings have an underlying need for love now of course you may say what has been researched in this, it’s obvious we all want to love and be loved but what researchers have found is even physical things such as if somebody is sick and if they are in an environment where they are loved and cared for they heal faster if somebody is sick and they are lonely they feel isolated, rejected, disconnected alienated then even their body doesn’t heal faster their mind works against them so love is a fundamental need for all of us and where does our need for love come from if we consider the atheistic vision of the universe then we are just particles of matter that have come alive and love is nothing but just a sentimentalised expression of the biological drive for reproduction love sentiment of love has no meaning within a materialistic worldview love is just some hormones being stimulated in the body which impel us towards copulation and reproduction it’s a very dehumanising view of the deepest emotion of the heart a spiritual vision of reality helps us understand our longing for love much better the eastern wisdom traditions offer us insights through the wisdom of bhakti yoga bhakti yoga is the process of spiritual emotions that connect us with ultimate reality so within this worldview it is explained that we all have a longing for love because we all have a source who is full of love we are parts of an infinite being and just as we are loving that infinite being is loving in fact it is because that infinite being is loving we too are loving we too have a need to love and be loved that infinite being can be known by the word god but god often has several negative connotations in people’s minds in today’s world god may be envisioned by some people as a judgemental autocratic being who sits high on the clouds and sends thunderbolts to cast wrongdoers to hell forever the bhakti tradition reveals god to be far bigger, far better far sweeter than this it describes that god can be known by different names in different traditions the bhakti tradition knows him by the name krishna krishna is a sanskrit word which means all attractive sarva-akarshati iti krishna one of my friends is a judge and he told me that although he has a passion for justice which made him take up the career of becoming a judge, still he says I do my job for five days a week hearing different people’s cases analysing and delivering judgments, after that I need a break so he told me that if god were a judge and judging is what he would have to do for the rest of eternity god’s life would be very boring so god has a much richer personal life the bhagavad gita describes beyond this world is another world that there is an eternal world that is the abode of eternal love in that world god in his manifestation as krishna reciprocates love with his devotees eternally and just as we have various relationships in the world, we have parents, we have friends we have lovers so god too has all these relationships and this rich personal life of god how god lives at home is what is described in the bhakti literature and god in the spiritual world has his own friends has his parents and he has his supreme lover his supreme beloved he is eternal consort she is named she has various names one of her names is Radha Radha refers to one who worships Radha, the root is Aradhana same thing she is the one who worships the lord with divine unending and pure love and the reciprocation of love between Krishna and Radha is the divine romance that animates the spiritual world eternally and their romance is actually the prototype of which all relationships in this world are reflections the bhagavad gita explains the nature of this world that we live in is like that of an upside down banyan tree that if we see a tree reflected in a river then we will see it upside down so similarly this world is like upside down tree that means we have relationships in this world, we have friends we may have partners unfortunately if there is a reflection of a beautiful tree then one stone falls in it the whole reflection no longer looks beautiful it becomes distorted similarly whatever relationships we have in the world one thing goes wrong things just fall apart one misunderstanding can rip apart a relationship or even if there are no misunderstandings still there can be separation just because of time we want to live forever and love forever but nothing lasts forever in this world everything is temporary so the longing for eternal love that we have that longing is meant to be fulfilled at the spiritual level so at the spiritual level the love between Krishna and his devotees is eternal and whatever love whatever love we experience in this world is like a drop a small reflection of that love and yet the love in this world attracts us so much we can imagine that if the love of this world is like a drop and the love that is present in the spiritual world is like an ocean we are so captivated by the love in this world then how wonderful will be the oceanic love of the spiritual world so that loving relationship between Krishna and Radha and Krishna and his various devotees that is the eternal activity of the spiritual world and therein Radha, she is known by the name Radha Rani, she is the queen of the spiritual world she is the supreme goddess of love as I started by talking about where does our longing for love come from it comes from the source of all love because we are the parts of Krishna Krishna has a longing for love we also have a longing for love and Radha Rani is not just Krishna’s consort she is not just his devotee she is actually God himself manifested as his supreme devotee that God is infinite so although he appears in a finite seeming form as Krishna he can manifest in many forms so Radha is considered in one way the supreme devotee of God, she is also considered as the supreme manifested in a female form so sometimes people ask why should God be only male the bhakti tradition reveals that God is transcendental that he is beyond the male female genders that are present in this world and he manifests as a divine couple that’s why when we worship God in the bhakti tradition we always refer to him refer to the absolute in terms of the divine couple so Radha Krishna or when we are chanting this mantra and kirtan Hare Krishna mantra so in this mantra Krishna refers to God, Hare or Hara that is the name of God’s consort that is the name of Krishna that is the name of Radha and in fact in this mantra Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare so the name of Radha comes of Hare it comes far more times in the name of Krishna also so it is she who is God manifesting in a female form so God in that sense is both male and female and their reciprocation of love is the eternal platform of pure unending love love what is actually love we all have different ideas of love say parents may pamper their children saying that whatever I could not enjoy in my childhood you can enjoy it all and they may call it love but parenting experts will call this irresponsible parenting, spoiling your children a man and a wife a husband and wife will be living together say the husband is an addict and the wife picks up the pieces after every episode of addiction of the husband the wife may say this is love de-addiction expert will say this is codependency, this is not love somebody may get attracted to some some extra marital affair with someone and say I am in love and somebody may say this is immoral so what actually is love we all have various ideas of love the essence of love is selflessness love is not just some sensations that we experience, we may experience some sensations when two people are attracted to each other and they say we are in love with each other so often such love is tragically short lived, people fall in love and then they fall out of love why because that love is very sensation driven the essence of love is selflessness where we consider the other person’s pleasure and the other person’s well being as more important than our own and when there is selflessness in love then the loving relationship can be mutually fulfilling it can fulfil both people in their reciprocation so Radharani says the topmost devotee she loves Krishna the most that means that she has the maximum selflessness in her love she is concerned only about Krishna and she is concerned about those whom Krishna loves in the spiritual world there are pastimes which go on eternally the word pastime refers to activities which are done for the purpose of pleasure and love so god does not have any work to do he is completely self satisfied he but he is self satisfied but his satisfaction is not a frozen perfection means if somebody, an artist is making a painting then the artist they put some, they paint here paint there, paint there and then at a particular point the painting becomes as good as it can be after that if you put even one more dab over there if you apply the brush little bit more, the painting actually becomes less good so the painting’s perfection is a frozen perfection, at this stage the painting has become perfect now anything less, anything more the painting is not as good god’s perfection is not like that god is he is perfectly contented he is perfectly satisfied but that satisfaction is dynamic it is in the reciprocation of love so Krishna loves his devotees and his devotees love Krishna and both of them are pure selfless and eternally aspiring to care for each other so although Krishna is god, in the spiritual world, he does not act as god he acts as simply a lovable young person if we understand say if we meet a very powerful king, head of state then we would be in a mood of reverence this person is so powerful one thing, one command they give, they can devastate my life one favour they do it can change my life positively so we would be very cautious in dealing with such people now when god deals with his devotees he doesn’t want this caution he wants spontaneous affection so in the spiritual world, I am explaining the concept of pastime or in Sanskrit it is called as leela in leela, god although he is god, he does not act as if he is god, he acts as just a lovable sweet person and the devotees are also not in reverence, oh you are god they approach god as a person to be loved as a person to be cared and the sweet interpersonal interactions so once so there are such pastimes which illustrate the love between Krishna and his devotees so once there was a great sage, Narada he went to meet Krishna and he saw that Krishna was holding his head now we think of god, he is very happy why is he holding his head and he said Narada said, what has happened Krishna said I have got a headache oh now if somebody tells us I have a headache immediately we say, can I get some medicine for you, what can I do for you so he said, what what medicine can I get for you so Krishna said I have tried all medicines, nothing is working but something must work, please tell me what can I get for you, he says, there is only one medicine that will work he said, that is the dust of the feet of my devotees now in the bhakti tradition humility is considered to be a very cardinal virtue we want to be humble before god we want to be humble before those who are devoted to god so one expression of humility is that we bow down and offer our respects to those towards whom we are humble another expression of humility is that, we not only bow down to them, but we take the dust of their feet and apply it on our head that is a sign of our reverential reverential devotion towards them so normally devotees aspire to touch the feet of the lord and take his dust as blessings on our head but here Krishna is saying I want the dust of my devotees so now actually god is supremely worshipable he is to be treated in a very respectful way and accidentally also we don’t touch sacred objects with our foot something is to be dealt with respectfully, we won’t just kick it towards someone, if somebody wants something we will pick it up and give it to them that is the way we deal with it respectfully so when so devotee can’t even imagine say touching a sacred object like a sacred book or the sacred beads, even those we won’t touch with our feet and here Krishna is telling that I want the dust of the feet of my devotees and I want to put that on my head that is the medicine that will cure me when Narada said Narada thought about it now devotee is humble, so devotee doesn’t think that I am a devotee so Narada doesn’t think I will give my dust to Krishna he says I am not a devotee so he goes to various people who are known as great devotees and he tells them Krishna has a headache what can we do Krishna wants the dust of the feet of his devotees can you give the dust how can we do that that is sacrilegious that is outrageous if we do it it will be a great offence we will go to hell we can’t do this so Narada goes to one devotee, second devotee, third devotee he goes to many many devotees and all of them are concerned but all of them are firm we can’t give our dust and finally comes to the gopis of Vrindavan the topmost devotees of Krishna and among them the topmost is Radharani and when they hear Krishna has a headache and Krishna needs dust of your feet so Radharani along with her friends her female friends, the gopis the cowherd girls they all go to a nearby river they put their foot in the river make it wet, they come out and they move their foot in the dust nearby and they take out a big cloth and they put piles and piles of dust on it and they start packing it Narada take this and go to Krishna now in the spiritual world as I said God doesn’t appear in his grandeur he appears like a simple simple sweet cowherd boy and his topmost devotees appear as his cowherd boyfriends or his cowherd girlfriends so Narada thinks that maybe these young girls, they are not very well educated so they don’t know the consequence of what they are doing so he says do you know that the dust of your feet touches Krishna’s head you will go to hell so the gopis of course we know that how are you giving this dust he says that for us just the thought that Krishna has a headache, that thought itself is hell for us the thought that Krishna has a headache, we can’t bear it, it is causing us so much torment to relieve Krishna from a headache for even one moment we are ready to go to hell forever Narada is just stunned on hearing this declaration of love and the gopis say what are you waiting, go to Krishna immediately and give him this dust and then Narada takes this dust and he goes to Krishna he says Krishna asks what happened nobody was ready to give the dust only Radharani and the gopis they give the dust and Krishna applies the dust on his head and he starts smiling he says I am recovered now and then Narada asks oh lord how did you get a headache Krishna says actually this was my leela because you were thinking that these gopis are ordinary girls I wanted to demonstrate to you, what is the exalted level of devotion of these gopis, that Radha’s devotion for me is so great that she is ready to go to hell forever just to relieve me from a headache for even one moment so this selflessness is what characterises Radharani’s love for Krishna and Krishna is attracted to Radharani because she is so utterly selfless in her love and not only is she selfless in her love Krishna is also selfless in his love for Radharani Krishna doesn’t delight in his godhood that I am great and you have to obey me the relationship of love between Krishna and Radha has multiple flavours that means that when Radharani she serves Krishna in various ways she cooks for Krishna and when she cooks for Krishna she wants to offer the best of everything to Krishna so when she cooks every single item she makes perfectly and she is such an expert cook that everyday when she cooks for Krishna she cooks a new item never does she cook the same item again for Krishna she is so creative in her cooking abilities that even if she is cooking the same item she will cook it in a different way and she fully satisfies Krishna using all her creativity to please Krishna but as I said love has different flavours she sometimes pleases Krishna by her expert service which fulfils Krishna’s need for food but sometimes she pleases Krishna by her contrary means if Krishna does something which makes her upset then she refuses to talk with Krishna and Krishna who is God who is pursued by the greatest spiritual seekers across the universe that Krishna starts running after Radha he says please don’t be angry with me please forgive me in Vrindavan which is the place where Krishna descended to this world thousands of years ago there is a very special place in Vrindavan which is called Maan Mandir everybody offers Maan, everybody offers respect to Krishna but Radharani’s love for Krishna is so great that when Radharani gets upset with Krishna then Krishna goes out of his way please don’t be upset, I am sorry I upset you please forgive me and Radharani is in a contrary mood I can’t forgive you, I won’t forgive you so normally we beg to God for forgiveness but here God begs for forgiveness so Krishna those whom he loves, he puts them in such an exalted position that he begs for their favour and there when Radharani is upset with Krishna Krishna is begging please forgive me please forgive me and Radharani says no and then finally there on top of a beautiful mountain where Radharani has gone away from Krishna, Krishna comes there and Krishna begs forgiveness from Radharani says please forgive me and he bows down to Radharani he bows his head at her lotus feet and seeks forgiveness so the supreme divinity actually manifests the supreme humanity God is not just sitting in a lofty position demanding submission and service from us he has a rich devotional relationship in which he bows down to his devotees such is the sublime personality of Radharani wherein she loves Krishna selflessly and Krishna loves her selflessly, being ready to do whatever it takes for the reciprocation of love and that Srimati Radharani as I said she is not just the supreme devotee of God, she is God who manifests as a devotee and she functions in two ways, she pleases Krishna by her devotion and service but she also connects all of us with Krishna she is known as the pleasure potency of Krishna, that whatever whenever we want some pleasure, we may do something, we may just turn on our phone and look at some websites watch some sports matches, see some tv see some movies, we do various things to get pleasure, so whatever pleasure Krishna gets, he gets it through Radharani, so Radharani is not just the topmost devotee she is also the source of the devotion of everyone and when we want to connect with Krishna when we want to enter into this world of love where there is unending loving exchanges our entry is done by the grace of Srimati Radharani whatever devotion, whatever attraction to Krishna we have that attraction comes by the blessing of Srimati Radharani so the potency, Radharani is the potency of Krishna, she does two things she gives pleasure to Krishna and she gives satisfaction to his devotees all of us are looking for pleasure, for satisfaction for joy, now when we start practising bhakti when we start connecting with Krishna we experience that in coming to a temple in chanting the names in singing kirtans in worshipping Krishna there is some pleasure there is some satisfaction there is sublime joy but at the same time we also are attracted by the various pleasures that the world dangles before us and thus there is a tug of war in our hearts one part of us says yes I should become more spiritual another part says no spiritual can be done later I want to enjoy so many materially enjoyable things right now and many materially enjoyable things they take us away from Krishna so in this tug of war what will help us win the war is if we can experience spiritual satisfaction more and more when we chant Krishna’s names, when we behold his beautiful deity form when we hear his pastimes through all these activities if we experience spiritual happiness therein if we experience satisfaction then that satisfaction will help us turn away from worldly pleasures it will help us not become captivated and dragged away by those worldly pleasures that are anti-devotional so that spiritual satisfaction comes by the mercy of Srimati Radharani Bhakti is not a mechanical activity it is actually a transformational activity mechanical activity means that we just mechanically do it we come to the temple and we chant the names of Krishna we could even have a robo which comes and we press a button on the robo and the robo may also chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare the robo can also chant mantras but there is no emotion invested in it there is no transformation of the heart that is going to happen so many people get alienated from a spiritual path because they feel it is all ritualistic you are just doing things superficially now Bhakti is not ritualistic it is actually meant to be done by investing our emotions and when we do it in this way we experience a sublime spiritual connection with Krishna we experience sublime satisfaction through that connection and that satisfaction comes by the mercy of Shri Mati Radharani so Ladini Karai Krishna Bhakter Poshan so Radharani she nourishes the devotion in our hearts by blessing us with spiritual contentment with spiritual joy so whenever we practise Bhakti, sometimes we may experience joy and sometimes we may not experience any joy sometimes we chant Krishna’s names and we feel such joy sometimes we hear about Krishna and we feel we should just go on and on and on and sometimes we hear about Krishna and we are looking at the watch, when is this going to get over so sometimes our mind is very fickle sometimes we experience pleasure sometimes we don’t experience pleasure so we need to see that when we are experiencing pleasure that is Radharani’s mercy on us she is giving us that taste she is nourishing our devotion by giving us that taste and then when we are not experiencing pleasure does that mean that she is not merciful to us is it that she is angry with us she doesn’t care for us no when we don’t experience taste that is also another form of mercy how is it mercy if I am experiencing no taste that situation when we don’t experience satisfaction while practising devotion we can see that as an opportunity to bring selflessness into our devotion if every time we practise Bhakti and we experience happiness then are we doing Bhakti for Krishna’s pleasure or are we doing it for our own pleasure we are not being selfless even in any ordinary relationship is it that all the time everything that we do in that relationship brings us joy no any relationship entails that sometimes we have to do something for the pleasure of the other person even if we don’t like doing that and that is how we exhibit our commitment to the relationship so doing something for the pleasure of the other person even if that doesn’t pleases us that shows our commitment that shows our selflessness so similarly the times when we don’t experience taste in Bhakti when we don’t experience spiritual satisfaction Radharani is giving us a special mercy at that time that special mercy is to bring that mercy the opportunity to infuse our spirituality with selflessness so at that time we can pray to Radharani I still want to serve Krishna I don’t feel like serving but still I want to serve you please give me the strength to serve you Krishna sees our intention Krishna sees our emotions but more than that Krishna sees our intentions Krishna wants us to serve him with a devotional heart but sometimes our mind is filled with so much negativity we don’t feel much devotion but still if we serve him Krishna sees not just our feelings but also our feelings about our feelings that means sometimes when we come to Krishna Krishna and we feel very prayerful very humble, very sweet Krishna I want to serve you that is very good feeling but when that feeling is not there when we are feeling apathetic when we are feeling bored when we are feeling distracted at that time Krishna sees our feelings about our feelings that means how ok I am feeling distracted so what do I do I just give up my Bhakti practise I say Krishna I am feeling distracted I don’t want to feel distracted I want to serve you I want to do this to please you even if it doesn’t please me so just as Radharani was ready to serve Krishna even if it meant that she may have to go to hell so we don’t have to do that all that we have to do is we have to tolerate some dry phases in our spiritual life and if we tolerate those dry phases we will get special mercy of Radharani when we bring when we exhibit selflessness in our devotion that means when we do our devotion even when it doesn’t give us pleasure then that devotion will bring purification in our hearts whatever factors were there that were creating those non-devotional feelings within us when we reject those feelings no I will not act this way and those feelings will get purified from our hearts and thereafter we will experience richer, deeper sweeter devotion so thus Radharani’s mercy comes when we experience taste in Bhakti and also when we don’t experience taste in Bhakti there is opportunity to be selfless and thus experience richer, sweeter deeper devotion so this is the supreme goddess of devotion today is her appearance day thousands of years ago when Krishna appeared soon after that she appeared and on the days when the supreme lord appears or his great devotees appear on those days they are very merciful special mercy is available if we pray to them on this sacred day so I will quickly summarise and then we will conclude with a prayer to Srimati Radharani so I talked today about three points how the Bhakti tradition reveals a very endearing vision of God God is a god of love we all have a longing for love which can’t be explained in the materialistic conception of life it just becomes sensations that drive us to reproduce and continue our species our emotions come from our spiritual core and our spiritual core has this longing for love because we are parts of God who is a god of love so God is not a judge who not just a judge who punishes wrongdoers he has his own personal life where he unendingly reciprocates love with his devotees and therein he does not act as a divine majesty asking everybody to submit to him rather he has the rich variety of relationships with the rich flavour of emotions that we experience or at least aspire for in our life so there God has his friends and he has his consort so his supreme lover, his supreme beloved Radharani is at one level the topmost devotee at another level God manifesting as a devotee so God is not just masculine he is both male and female as a divine couple and Radharani her love is so great because it is so greatly selfless we all may have different conceptions of what love is but the defining characteristic that makes love real and eternal, real and enduring is selflessness and I talked about Radharani’s selflessness in the past time where she was ready to offer the dust of her feet to Krishna even if that meant going to hell forever and similarly Krishna doesn’t just delight in his majesty when Radharani is displeased with him, he is ready to fall at her feet to beg forgiveness such is her great devotion where the world seeks forgiveness from God God seeks forgiveness from her and then I concluded by talking about how Radharani is not just the topmost devotee she is the source of devotion for everyone when we are practising bhakti she gives us she nourishes our heart by giving us satisfaction and thus whatever satisfaction we experience in bhakti that is her mercy and when we don’t experience satisfaction in bhakti that is also her mercy as it is the opportunity to infuse selflessness in our devotional relationship with Krishna and if we persevere through this dry phases of devotion, then we will become purified of the non-devotional things within our heart that disconnect us from Krishna and our devotion will become richer, deeper and sweeter so let us pray to Radharani for her mercy on this day with a simple prayer this prayer means that the supreme truth told again and again and again is that no one can attain Krishna without the mercy of Radharani so please repeat this Sanskrit prayer, simple prayer but can repeat this prayer which proclaims Radharani’s love kindly repeat after me satyam satyam punah satyam satyam satyam punah satyam satyam satyam punah punah satyam satyam satyam punah punah vina radha prasadena vina radha prasadena krishna prapti na labhyate krishna prapti na labhyate repeat this two more times the meaning is once again that the truth repeated again and again is that without Radharani’s mercy no one can attain Krishna satyam satyam punah satyam satyam satyam punah satyam satyam punah punah satyam satyam punah punah vina radha prasadena vina radha prasadena krishna prapti na labhyate krishna prapti na labhyate satyam satyam punah satyam satyam satyam punah satyam satyam satyam punah punah satyam satyam punah punah vina radha prasadena vina radha prasadena krishna prapti na labhyate krishna prapti na labhyate Shri Mati Radharani ki Jai, Shri Radha Shri Mahamahotsav ki So what we’ll do now, we have buckets which we’ll be travelling around, I don’t know if anyone will stand up.