Radhashtami meditation 2 – Appreciating the two separations endured by Sita and Radharani

[Radhashtami class at ISKCON, Central New Jersey USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
So today on the sacred occasion of the appearance day of Srimati Radharani, we’ll try to appreciate the glory of her love for Krishna by comparing Radha with another sacred character in the past times of the Lord, that is Sita. We’ll specifically compare the two separations that both these consorts of the Lord experienced from their Lord and how this reveals that the essence of love is sacrifice. So the Bhakti tradition reveals the conception of God who is fully complete.
Complete means that God relishes all the rich gamut of relationships that we in this world aspire to relish. That’s why God doesn’t just reside in divine majesty presiding over everyone. Yes, that is his position but that is not his heart’s aspiration.
He longs for love and thus he arranges through yoga maya for variety of relationships to be there. The word yoga maya is technically an example of an oxymoron. Oxymoron is two opposite words brought together.
Say for example, somebody gives an answer and if someone says that was a brilliantly stupid answer. Either it’s brilliant or it’s stupid. How do you mean it’s brilliantly stupid? So two opposite ideas brought together is oxymoron.
So yoga maya, the concept itself is an oxymoron. Why? Because yoga is that which brings connection with God and maya is that illusion which brings disconnection from God. So yoga maya seems like an oxymoron.
It is an illusion but yoga maya means the illusion that deepens connection with God. So in the pastimes of the Lord, yoga maya acts so that a certain illusion is created by which God doesn’t act always as if he is God. Because if he is God, he is supreme, he doesn’t need anyone.
Then you cannot have very deep relationships unless every aspect of relationship is fulfilled. And one very important aspect in any relationship is the need to feel needed. We want to be valued by the other person.
You know the other person cares for us. But the relationship goes much deeper when we feel that the other person needs me. So God in his rich relationships does not deny his devotees anything.
So the devotee wants to love him as a parent, the Lord arranges that through yoga maya. So yoga maya basically we could say is like the director of a divine play, a divine drama. Here drama conveys not unreality but the supreme reality.
And in this drama although God is complete and he doesn’t need anyone, he has an eternal consort. And that’s why God manifests all the relationships. He has a parent, he has a consort, he has friends, he has every gamut of relationship.
And these different manifestations of God if you consider Krishna and Ram. Now Ram reveals God’s sweetness but Ram is relatively upright, moral, easy to appreciate manifestation of divinity. With respect to Krishna, he becomes complex.
In Hindi he said, Bhagwan Krishna tedhe hai aur unke kaarya bhi tedhe hote hai. So he is twisted in his form, threefold bending. And often the way he acts is also very difficult to understand.
So as a part of the yoga maya’s arrangement, so we could say Krishna Leela is like a drama in which yoga maya is the director. And Krishna and the devotees play various roles. They are the drama artists.
And the drama becomes more and more relishable when the drama artists enter into that role. Then they experience those emotions and then they express those emotions and the audience also experiences those emotions. So yoga maya by her potency, she makes the devotees forget that Krishna is God.
And she makes even the devotees forget, the lord forget that he is God. How can Krishna forget? He can’t forget. So there are the actors, there is the director.
But the director directs according to a script. And that script is written by a script writer. So for Krishna Leela, Krishna is the main actor, yoga maya is the director.
And the script writer is Krishna himself. So yoga maya directs Krishna according to Krishna’s script. So in that sense, Krishna forgets that he is God by his own will.
So in that sense, God never loses control. So the point of this analysis is to set the background for our core discussion. So everything that is required for love is manifested in the pastimes of the lord.
And often love increases when there is opposition. Now say parents naturally love their child. But if the child gets some sickness and it’s a very serious sickness, then the parents think much more of the child.
They fear, will we be able to express the love, will the child be there or not? So any kind of opposition increases the intensification of the love. And one opposition can simply be physical distance. So in both Ram Leela and Krishna Leela, there is separation arranged.
So that there can be intensification of love. In Ram Leela, there are two times the separation happens. The first time is when Sita is abducted.
And the second time is when Sita is sent away. And both can be very difficult to understand. At one level, the first is just a demon coming in and taking Sita away.
That causes separation and in that separation, we see Sita’s faithfulness and Ram’s determination. And then they both come back. And the second separation can be even more difficult to understand.
What’s going on? Why did Ram send Sita away on just some unsubstantiated accusation? I have a whole class on this topic. In my book Wisdom from Ramayana, I have analysed it elaborately. But suffice it to say that Ram personally never even doubted Sita’s purity.
And that’s why when he would perform sacrifices, he had a sacred image of Sita next to himself. But it is for the sake of separation that brings intensification of love. So basically the idea is that for the sake of God, what all can a person sacrifice? For all of us, we have a choice.
The world is here and God is here. And often the world pulls us in one direction and God pulls us in other direction. And often we have to reject many things in the world.
And the world rejects us if we want to be devoted to God. So that can be a big challenge. But one of the toughest things… The sound system is rejecting me now.
So one of the toughest things to give up is reputation. Reputation doesn’t mean in a sense of egoistic fame. But just somebody is respected as a moral, respectable, upright person.
And to give that up. So when Sita goes away from Ram, based on an accusation, Sita demonstrates the supreme sacrifice. That although the Lord sends her away, she stays faithful to him and he also stays faithful to her.
He stays faithful in the sense that he doesn’t marry anyone else. So the point is that separation brings out the intensity of love. If at least in the first separation, there is a hope of union.
That Ram will find me and rescue me. In the second separation, there is not even any clear hope of union. But still both of them remain faithful to each other.
And that is extraordinary love. So separation is what tests love. Separation is to love what wind is to fire.
A forest fire breaks out say in California somewhere. The worst thing that can happen for the firefighters is there is a big stormy wind over there. It spreads everywhere.
So separation is to love what wind is to fire. So when there is separation, the love grows further and further. Similarly, with respect to the love between the Lord and his consort.
The union is there, there is one to create love. But in separation, there is greater love. Of course, separation will increase love when first the love is strong.
Just like if it’s not a forest fire, if it’s a candle fire. And then a wind comes over there. And it will just extinguish completely.
We shouldn’t think, oh if I get separated from devotees, then my devotion will increase. No, our devotion will get extinguished. So the point is that we have these two separations which Sita went through.
And through it all, the love shines forth more. Now in the case of Radharani, the separation is even more special. In the sense that Sita is married to Ram.
Whereas Radha is at least in the Leela, she is not married to Krishna. So this is fundamentally in terms of tattva, Radha and Krishna are eternal partners. They are God in male and female form.
So in tattva, it’s like going back to the drama setting. It’s like a couple who are newly happily married to each other. But in a drama, they are playing a role in which they are not married to each other.
And they are having a relationship. So then what happens? See, the whole point of love is that the intensity of love is demonstrated when there is opposition to the love. And the setting in Vrindavan is arranged in such a way that the intensity of Radharani’s love for Krishna is demonstrated through the extent of opposition that she faces for meeting Krishna.
For being with Krishna. Now of course there is a second long separation for Radharani when Krishna leaves Vrindavan and goes away. But even when Krishna is in Vrindavan, there is a separation.
Because they are not together as a married couple. And for them to meet is very difficult. And the point over here is, it’s not immoral, it is trans-moral.
There is immoral, there is moral, there is trans-moral. Here there is not a spark of impurity in their relationship. It’s pure transcendental love because Krishna is fully pure.
But the point is, the opposition in the setting is arranged to demonstrate the intensity of the love. And for the Gopis, how much is somebody ready to sacrifice? That is demonstrated by them. It is one thing to sacrifice bad things to go to God.
We all have some sinful habits to give up to come to God. But it is even greater to give up the good things to go to God. So in the Gopis, when Krishna plays the flute and calls, the Gopis give up everything and go to Krishna.
And that is the supreme sacrifice. The Gopis are demonstrating, sarva-dharman parityajya. What Krishna says, give up everything.
Mam ekam sharanam vraja, come to me. Sarva-dharman means, Krishna is not saying sarva-papan parityajya. Not give up all wrong doings.
He says, give up even the right doings to come to me. The Gopis demonstrate that. And that is a testimony to their love.
So when Radharani, what is her love for Krishna? That she cannot think of anything other than Krishna. And during that time of the Raas Leela, when Krishna plays his flute and calls the Gopis, along with all the Gopis, Radharani also leads the Gopis in going to Krishna. And when they get there, at that time, Krishna talks with them.
And Krishna apparently rejects them. So what did you come here for? Did you come here to see the beautiful night, sky? You have seen the moon, the sky, the forest. Now please go back.
And now the Gopis get restless. And they say, Krishna, how can you send us back? So a Vaishnava poet has said that your speech is as absurd as asking a river that has come from the mountain to the ocean. The ocean tells the river, go back now.
The river has no power to go back. He says, we cannot go back. We have given up everything in our life because you are our life.
How can you reject us? So here again, what is Krishna doing? Krishna is testing the Gopis. The whole process of spiritual life is that God will offer us or the world, you could say, which is also acting under God’s supervision, the world will offer us every excuse to substitute God with something else. It can be the sensual pleasures of the world.
It can even be the good things of the world. So it is only when we refuse all the substitutes to God that we can get God. So when Krishna is telling, oh, you came here, you saw this, now you can go back.
So what is Krishna doing? Krishna is giving them an alternative to full surrender. And the Gopis show their devotion by rejecting that surrender. And then they give up everything for Krishna and the Rasa Leela is about to start.
They are about to dance together. And then at that time, Krishna puts them to another test. It’s like they are longing to be with Krishna.
For them, it is like it’s been a long, dark night, a dark tunnel for the soul. And finally, when they see Krishna in the forest, it’s like light at the end of the tunnel. But life can be so peculiar that we see the light at the end of the tunnel and then we discover the light is coming from a rushing train.
The light, instead of giving us hope, we have to jump out of the way. So for the Gopis, they leave everything for Krishna and Krishna leaves them and goes away. And they just can’t believe it.
How can Krishna leave me like this? Actually, the idea of Krishna leaving us is absurd because our minds, our hearts, our very being is with Krishna. But if Krishna has gone away, then who is that fool who has fashioned another mind, another heart, another body that is still here, separate from Krishna? And then gradually as they come out of their daze, they realise actually Krishna is not here. And they start searching frantically in despair.
They go as deep into the forest of Vrindavan as is possible. And then it is a dark night and the forest is dense. And they go so deep into the forest that they can’t even see their hands in front of them.
And then they decide, we can’t find Krishna here. We can’t find Krishna here. What is described in the 10th canto in the Raas Leela that is described, that is prefigured in the Bhagavatam in the first canto.
When Narada Muni is meditating on the Lord, he has a darshan of the Lord and then suddenly the Lord disappears. And Narada Muni tries desperately to see the Lord. He again tries to close his eyes and meditate.
He opens his eyes and looks around. He just can’t see anywhere. He looks within.
He tries to look as deep as possible within. But many people say, look within. Now, for most of us, if we look within, now all that we see is all our wild desires and our wild mind.
It’s dark. We don’t see Krishna there. So, the gopis are at the highest level.
Narada Muni is playing the role of a sadhaka. But there is substantial similarity. See, when we try to see God, even with the full fervour of our heart, sometimes we experience a stone wall of utter darkness.
What do we do? So, both, what Narada Muni does, what the gopis do. The gopis realise we can’t find Him anywhere. So, Radharani leads the gopis and they come to the banks of the Yamuna.
And at the banks of the Yamuna, they sit. And then they compose spontaneously What is the sweetest prayer in the whole Srimad Bhagavatam? That is the Gopi Gita. So, Gopi Gita, each gopi is offering one-one prayer.
It’s an individual prayer of her heart, but it’s also a collective prayer as a representative of the whole group. And Jiva Goswami in His Gopalachampu analyses, based on the characteristics of each of the gopis, which is whose prayer, which prayer is offered by which gopi. And finally, when Radharani offers her prayer, then Krishna can no longer resist.
Her prayer is so intense, that just as Krishna’s flute song was such that, that flute song, through the flute, Krishna’s love came out. And that love acted like a rope. And that rope went and fell, like a lasso, on the hearts of the gopis and dragged them out of their homes into the forest.
Similarly, Radharani’s prayer, coming from the depths of her heart, acts like a rope. And it pulls Krishna back. And then Krishna returns.
And then, the beautiful pastime of the rasa leela unfolds. So here, the gopis, amidst the separation of Krishna, which they constantly have in Vrindavan, they know Krishna is there, but they can’t be with Him. That separation fructifies into union.
And, this is considered in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, not only the highest expression of devotion, but it is the time where Krishna, in the Bhagavatam, says, that, O gopis, the service you have done, I can never repay you for that. Na paryeham. So, Ramanacharya explains, that the Lord has everything.
In the Bhagavad Gita, in the 7th chapter, Krishna says that those who approach Him, even if they approach for worldly desires, He says in 7.16, that some people come because they want worldly things. And the next verse, 7.17, He says, that all those who come to Me, they are very charitable. Udara means charitable.
Now, people are coming to God, asking Him for wealth, asking Him for relief from their problems. And still God is saying, Oh, you are so charitable. So now, normally, if somebody is asking for something, you don’t consider them charitable.
Isn’t it? So what’s going on? So Ramanacharya explains, that Krishna controls everything in the world, except one thing. And that one thing is the heart of the soul. Our hearts are one thing which Krishna can’t control.
And this, our heart and the love of our heart, is what Krishna wants more than anything else. And if a devotee comes and offers Krishna, even a little portion of his heart, his or her heart, then Krishna feels so grateful. Oh, you are so kind.
You have offered your devotion to me. And Krishna says, Oh, you are so charitable. The idea of charity is that it is voluntary.
If it’s forced, then it’s tax. It’s not charity. So charity is that it’s voluntary.
And similarly, devotion, when it is voluntarily offered, whatever might be the other motivation associated with it, but if it’s voluntarily offered, then Krishna feels, Oh, you have done me a great favour. So Krishna calls even those who come to him for their own interest, but they worship him. He calls them charitable.
From that perspective, the gopis, who give their everything to Krishna, they are the topmost charitable people. They give up not only bad things, there is no trace of impurity in the gopis, but they give up even the good. They give up even the, at least they are ready to give up the reputation of being respectable, honourable women in a conservative society.
They are ready to give up everything. Of course, Krishna protects their reputation. And Krishna makes sure that by Yoga Maya’s arrangement, the gopis who go away, and expansions of those gopis are there at home, so that people think that they are not actually gone.
So, but the point is, the gopis don’t know this is going to happen. And the gopis are ready to risk everything for Krishna. And as Krishna says, what service you have done, I can never repay you for that.
I can never repay you for that. So, here, among all the gopis, all the gopis are exalted devotees, but among them, in this enforced separation that is there, the separation is arranged, is intrinsic to the situation of Vrindavan. But through that separation, their devotion manifests more than anything else.
And when this devotion manifests, it is so captivating. Among all the gopis, it is Radharani’s love that is the supermost. Now, why is it the supermost? Because she is ready to give up everything for Krishna.
Basically, love is seen in two broad ways. One is, what we are ready to give to our beloved. And second is, what we are ready to give up for our beloved.
I have this, I will give it to you. That is a sign of love. So, for example, if somebody gives you a very valuable gift, that indicates some kind of at least connection, respect, affection.
And somebody has something important to do. And they give up that to come to meet us or come to honour an invitation that we have made. So, what you are ready to give to a person and what you are ready to give up for a person.
Both of these show the love of the gopis for Krishna. And in both ways, both of these show love in general. And the gopis demonstrate this love.
Now, there is one extraordinary pastime where the hierarchy of God and of the worshipped and the worshipper is completely inverted. So, as I said, this hierarchy is subordinated. It is subordinated, for example, when the gopis think of Krishna just as a lovable coward boy.
They don’t think of him consciously as God. They know that he is God, but it is the back of their consciousness. So, in that sense, the hierarchy is God is high up and we are here.
This is subordinated. But that hierarchy is inverted. And that inversion of hierarchy happens in a pastime which is called the Maan Leela.
What is the Maan Leela? That once Krishna does something which displeases and angers Radharani. And now, actually, can you be angry with God? Now, God has reason to be angry with us, but can we be angry with God? Of course, God is big enough to accommodate everything. He can accommodate even our anger.
But the point here is, Draupadi, she is also, when the whole Vastraharan happens, it doesn’t actually happen, it is attempted, and she is attempted to be disrobed. And after that, when she is in the forest and Krishna comes to meet her, she asks, Krishna, I called you. Why didn’t you come? I am your devotee, I am your friend, I am your relative.
I needed your help. Why didn’t you come? She is almost angry with Krishna. And Krishna doesn’t say, I am God.
How dare you question my plan? Krishna simply says, actually, there was a demon who had attacked Dwarka. And I was busy fighting that demon. I didn’t know what happened.
Of course, a miracle happened and the saree became inexhaustible. Draupadi was protected, but nobody saw Krishna over there. And Draupadi’s eyes were closed, and she also didn’t see Krishna.
So, Krishna, even God is big enough to accommodate our anger also. So, devotee, but still, that is, that anger towards God is something which is very extraordinary. It is often fear of God, not anger towards God.
But Radharani gets angry with Krishna. And when he is upset with him, Krishna becomes desperate. Somehow or the other, I have to please Radharani.
And then he begs her, he messages her, he promises her, he reassures her, he does everything possible. And when nothing works, at that time, finally, Krishna falls at the feet of Radharani. And he puts his head on her feet and begs forgiveness.
I mean, Jaidev Goswami wrote this. He couldn’t write it. How can God touch anyone’s feet? See, the normal hierarchy is inverted.
Many of you know that pastime, when Krishna acts as if he has got a headache. And the only medicine for that is that the dust of the feet of his devotees. And the only devotees who are ready to do that are the Gopis.
But actually, it is not required. When Krishna says that, I wanted to demonstrate to you the love of the Gopis for me. Although they knew that if the dust of their lotus feet touched Krishna’s head, they would go to hell.
But they felt that the thought that Krishna has a headache, that itself is hell for us. Unless Krishna’s headache is relieved, we can’t live. So, at that time, they give their dust.
They express their readiness for that. But, among all the Gopis, it is only one Gopi whose dust actually touches Krishna’s head. And that happens in the Manlila.
Now, this inversion of hierarchy, where normally the devotee touches the feet of the Lord, but here the Lord touches the feet of a devotee. This level of inversion of hierarchy demonstrates how in the kingdom of God, it is not God who is supreme. In the kingdom of God, it is love who is supreme.
It is bhakti, it is prema that is supreme. And the glory of Radharani is not that she is so proud that she demands that Krishna you bow down to me. It is rather her love is so great that the complete gamut of relationships or complete gamut of emotions within the relationship can be exhibited with her.
So, this is the speciality that Krishna becomes so desperate for getting Radha’s association that he is ready to even bow down to her feet. And then, of course, so time and time in Vrindavan, in the normal setting of Vrindavan, there is separation, there is union, there is separation, there is union, there is separation, there is union. Now, it is interesting that when the Goswamis, the Goswamis are great devotees of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and this Rasleela, because it involves a male-female interaction, although it is a transcendental male-female interaction, but still it is a male-female interaction.
So, immediately our red flag starts getting up, rising, what is going on over here? So, that same mood is demonstrated in Gaurleela where the Lord comes in the mood of Radharani as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he is a sanyasi. And then his intimate associates, Lalita, Vishaka and all of them, they also come along with the Gopis as the various associates of Lord Chaitanya. And they also exhibit bhakti in a mood of selfless, sacrificial love.
And the interesting thing is that when the Goswamis are in the world and they have their royal positions in the court of Nawab Hussain Shah and they want to renounce everything and come to be with the Lord, at that time the Lord sends a letter and says, don’t do this. And then the example that he gives for how they should live can seem scandalous, but it is profound. The example he gives is that suppose a woman has a relationship with some man other than the husband, then she will do all her household duties very diligently.
At the same time, her heart will be with her husband. So similarly, Lord Chaitanya says that you do your royal responsibilities diligently, but let your heart be with Krishna. So now, why is he giving something which seems immoral as an example of a model for devotion? It’s not immoral.
The point over here is this is the way the Gopis demonstrated devotion. And what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is telling the Goswamis is that you follow in the footsteps of the Gopis. Now, for all of us, so this was the first separation and I’ll come back to this in conclusion, but briefly, let me mention about the second separation that the Gopis had.
That was when Krishna left. At that time, when the Gopis saw that Krishna is going to leave, they just couldn’t bear it. They tried every means earthly and heavenly to try to stop Krishna from leaving.
And finally, they laid down their bodies in front of the chariot and they begged Krishna, please stay. And Krishna promised them, I will soon come back. And then he left.
The Gopis, Radharani in a beautiful prayer says, Krishna, my body is like a cage and my soul is like the animal in this cage. And when you left, at that time, your leaving was like the fire being set to this cage. And when the fire was set to this cage of my body, my soul would immediately have left the body.
But your words, I will come back. They are like the bolt to that cage. So, this fire of separation from you is burning me.
But because we know you will come back, we can’t leave our bodies. Since we can’t live and we can’t leave, what do we do? ayi dina dayar dhananathe mathuranatha kadavalokase rudayam tadalokakataram dayita brahmini kim karomyam kim karomyam Radharani is thinking, what should I do in such a situation? So now, the Gopis, their whole mood was, we want to serve Krishna, we want to please Krishna. And they are thinking, Radharani is thinking that when Krishna comes back and Krishna doesn’t see us, if we have left the world, then Krishna will be disappointed, Krishna will be distressed, Krishna will be devastated.
And we can’t do that to Krishna. So, there are different forms of rejection that we may experience in the world. Sometimes, our loved ones may reject us when we want to love God, when we want to devote ourselves to God.
Sometimes our friends may reject us. And all the rejection is very difficult to accept. But, the ultimate rejection in love is by the object of love itself.
So, the devotion is never tested as much as when the devotee experiences rejection from God itself. So, in both the cases, in the case of Sita, apparently Ram rejects her. In the case of the Gopis, Krishna rejects them.
But, in the Bhakti Sutras it is said, and Bhishma Pitamah also says in the Mahabharata, that how do you know when love is real and serious? It is said that when there is every reason for the bond of love to break, and it doesn’t break, that is real love. So, here that summit of the love is demonstrated by both these divine consorts. Ultimately, the object of our love rejects us.
And still we keep loving. That means you really love. So, such is the love the Gopis demonstrate.
And Krishna goes away. Now, it sometimes actually it’s it’s they can have a situation of hopelessness or you can have a situation of hope. But in the situation of uncertainty, it’s even more painful.
So, suppose you have a if somebody has got a permanent back pain, then it’s difficult, but they get used to it. I know whenever I walk, I’ll have this back pain, whenever I do. And you learn to live life with that situation.
But suppose somebody has uncertain back pain. That is one day you wake up and you feel like 20 years old. And the next day you wake up and you feel your body is 200 years old.
Then, when there is uncertainty, actually it’s more irritating. It’s more painful. Because the hope rises, oh, things will be normal.
And then the hope is shattered. So, emotional involvement with that pain is more when the pain is uncertain. If the pain is certain, then you become sort of dead into it.
Become numb to it. Live with it. So, in the case of Sita, Ram sent her away and at that time there was because there was not much hope that they would be united again.
So, it was very difficult for Sita, but she accepted that. And that’s her glory. And it’s her glory further that she never bad-mouthed Ram in front of Lavani Kursh.
She always helped them to grow up into wonderful people. in the case of the Gopis, in contrast, in the Radharani especially, that what happens is that there is there is hope that Krishna may come back. And everyday when they wake up, today is the day when Krishna will come back.
And they are waiting and waiting and waiting. And every morning, the candle of their hope lights bright. And as the day passes, the candle starts getting extinguished, extinguished, extinguished.
The next day, with the rising of the sun, again the candle of their hope lights. And again it gets extinguished. So, here, hope, hopelessness, hope, hopelessness, hope, hopelessness.
This alteration of emotion is incredibly intense. And this is the incredible intensity of the love of the Gopis for Krishna. Now, of course, Jiva Goswami describes how Krishna, after he kills Dantavakra, he comes back and he unites with the Gopis.
And all of them, there is a majestic description of Krishna and Radha’s wedding. And then after their wedding, the separation has culminated in union. And Krishna, Radha and all of them, the same chariot, which has taken Krishna away from Vrindavan to Mathura, that same chariot, Radha and Krishna ride on that.
And that same chariot comes to Vrindavan. It comes to Yamuna. And when it comes to Yamuna, by the mystical power of Yoga Maya, it splits into two.
And on one chariot, Radha, Krishna and the Vrajavasis, they fly high into the sky and go back to the spiritual world. On the other chariot, there is Krishna alone. And he goes back to continue his Dwaraka pastimes.
So, Krishna continues his role in the world still in separation from Radha. That is one expansion of Krishna. Another expansion of Krishna is united with Radha in the spiritual world.
So, both those separations, which both these divine consorts experience, they are extraordinary. And they demonstrate the paramountcy of love. Radhara Premerasima Radhara Gaurava Gaudiya Vaishnavacharya says that the summit of love is demonstrated by Radharani in her devotion for Krishna.
And in this summit of love, what is the mood of Radharani? How can I serve Krishna? How can I please Krishna? And she is ready to do anything for pleasing Krishna. And that means even taking the role of an angry lover whom Krishna has to please. So, she does everything for Krishna.
For a devotee, the thought that God is touching my feet is unconscionable. How can you do that? But she is ready to do even that for Krishna. That is the magnitude of her love.
And that same Radharani, when she comes as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, she has these two missions. The inner mission is to relish the love of Radharani for Krishna. And the outer mission is to share that love with the world.
That love is glimpsed in primary, preliminary ways. Now, the essence of that love is sacrifice. So, Radharani, she is ready to sacrifice everything for Krishna.
And the Gopis, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu tells Rupan Sanatana Goswami that you work diligently, but let your heart be with Krishna. So, that is the way in which we all have to live. In many ways, the spiritual world is a reflection.
The spiritual world is the original of which the material world is a reflection. So, in the spiritual world also, at a pure transcendental level, the Gopis have two lives. One is Radharani has one life where they are away from Krishna.
Another life where they are with Krishna. And we also in the material world have these two lives. We have our social responsibilities.
We have our professional obligations. We have our family challenges. And we all have our relationship with Krishna.
So, the way we move forward in our devotion is that for us also, most of the times, our practise of bhakti is devotion in separation. The devotion in separation, which is at the topmost level, that devotion in separation is filled with intensified remembrance, intensified absorption. But in our case, there is devotion in separation and that is characterised not by intense remembrance, it is characterised by intense forgetfulness.
We not only forget Krishna, we forget that we were also meant to remember Krishna. So, maya covers us and then covers the covering. So that we don’t even know we are covered.
It’s said that we are all fallen in Kali Yuga. Now, if we don’t think we are fallen, then we are really fallen. It’s like if a person is drunk a little bit, then they understand.
I’m drunk now. They’ll tell someone, can you drive me back? I can’t drive. Can you get a cab for me? But if somebody is drunk a lot, then maybe the bartender says, I think you should not drive.
I can drive. So, when somebody is very drunk, they don’t even understand they are drunk. So, similarly, when somebody is very fallen, they don’t even understand they are fallen.
And quite often that is our condition. So, for us, we have to practise devotion in separation. But for us, what happens? Devotion in separation, the devotion goes away and only separation remains.
So, that’s why we regularly need association of devotees. We regularly need spiritually inspiring programmes. And Srila Prabhupada has created this whole wonderful Krishna consciousness movement.
And Prabhupada said that at one time the devotees would ask him about the pastimes of Radha Krishna. Should we remember those pastimes? And Prabhupada said, the way to enter into Radha Krishna Leela is by fulfilling the mission of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is by serving the Lord.
In our various services, the practical level, we have to cook for the Lord, we have to serve prasadam, we have to hear a long class. That’s also a sacrifice. So, we do all these sacrifices.
This is the way we express our love for Krishna. And through all these, we are, from our level, taking baby steps towards Krishna. And as we keep taking those steps, keep taking those steps, we will move closer and closer to Krishna.
So, we seek Radharani’s mercy so that when we are practising devotion in separation, that separation is unavoidable, but the devotion will increase through that separation. So, when we come to the temples, at that time, we try to take in Krishna as much as possible. The Krishna Naam, the Krishna Katha, the Krishna Leela, the Krishna Rupa, the Krishna Bhakta Sangha.
We take in all these as much as possible and take it deep into our hearts. And the divine goddess who enables us to relish Krishna, to remember Krishna, to relive Krishna’s Leela in our heart, that is Srimati Radharani. So, today is her appearance day.
And for the sustenance of our spiritual life in the material world, Radharani is both the supreme model and the supreme benefactor. So, let us all pray to Srimati Radharani that we gain deeper and deeper devotion by her blessings. And one day, we can be blessed to enter into her shelter in the eternal pastimes of the Lord.
So, let’s conclude with the prayer that I offered in the beginning once more. Radha is forever filled with love for Krishna. Krishna is forever filled with love for Radha.
This divine couple are the eternal treasure of my life. They are the supreme goal of my life. They are my life.
So, let’s thank his grace,