When Yashoda’s rasa is vatsalya, how is her bhakti coming from Radharani whose rasa is madhurya?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Question from Dhiravendra Prabhu. How can Yashodamāi’s love come from Rādhārāṇī when Vatsalya and Madhurya rasa are two different rasas? Answer, yes.
There are different ways of analyzing the relationship with the Lord and the emotions in that relationship. So, the word rasa itself has multiple meanings. One meaning of the word rasa is emotion.
Another meaning of the word rasa is relationship. So, for example, Shānta rasa is not just, or the Vatsalya rasa is not just, it is not only the Vatsalya emotion in it. Other emotions are also there.
Yashodamāi is also sometimes fearful, he sometimes jokes, he sometimes be angry. So, these all emotions are there. But the predominating, defining emotion in that relationship is Vatsalya.
So, when we talk about Rādhārāṇī being the reservoir of all bhakti, that means that she is actually the source of all rasa. Kṛṣṇa is called as Rasarāja and Rādhārāṇī is called as Rasadhihārī. So, whatever rasa is experienced in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa has arranged in such a way that it is experienced through His Lādhinī shakti.
So, Lādhinī shakti, we have Sat, Cit, Ananda. So, Sat, Cit, Ananda, they are in spiritual dimension, they are Sandhinī, Saṃvit and Lādhinī shaktis. So, all emotion, ultimately the emotion of Ananda, which we experience in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, that is experienced through the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
So, when we talk about Rādhārāṇī, she is a devotee who personifies, who manifests the highest level of Madhura rasa. At the same time, she is not just that, she is also Lādhinī karaye kṛṣṇa ananda āsvādān, Lādhinī dvāra kṛṣṇa kare bhakte rāposhana. Kṛṣṇa Āskaraj Goswami says in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that Lādhinī shakti has two functions.
Lādhinī karaye kṛṣṇa ananda āsvādān. Lādhinī is the energy which enables Kṛṣṇa to experience happiness and Lādhinī dvāra kṛṣṇa kare bhakte rāposhana. Kṛṣṇa nourishes the devotees through Lādhinī shakti.
So, both these things happen through Lādhinī shakti. And this Lādhinī shakti is also manifested as Śrīmadhī Rādhārāṇī. So, when we see Rādhārāṇī and we see Kṛṣṇa, they are different devotees in different rasas.
But when we understand Rādhārāṇī is not just a person, but she is also tattva. She is the shakti. And when we understand that shakti, that means whoever is able to develop a relationship with Kṛṣṇa, experience emotions in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, that is done through the grace of Rādhārāṇī.
And that includes all relationships. So, in that sense, so it’s not that literally that Rādhārāṇī is giving out the bhakti and we should always be giving the bhakti. They are distinct individuals and they have loving hearts.
Which are filled with love for Kṛṣṇa. But at the same time, in terms of tattva, we don’t have something like a Yashoda tattva or Nanda tattva. They are persons.
But Rādhārāṇī is not just a person, she is also tattva. Rādhā tattva as we say. So, that tattva is just like we have the understanding that there are many gurus, but ultimately those gurus are one.
They represent the guru tattvas. Similarly, there are many devotees and in different particular relationships, there may be different particular rasas or different moods. There may be different devotees who personify that rasa the highest.
But at the same time, there is a Rādhārāṇī who is at one level the personification of the highest rasa. At the other level, she is also the source of all rasa for everyone. So, in this way, we understand that Rādhārāṇī is the source of everyone’s devotion.