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Monday Morning Greetings 2017 #36 – Śrī Rādhā Made Simple

September 4th, 2017

  1. In this world everyone is seeking happiness and that pleasure is ultimately found in love. If that is the guiding principle in this world, why should it not be part of its source, the ultimate reality?
  2. If there is love in the spiritual realm there also must be beauty, for love means to offer the best.
  3. This correlation between happiness, love, and beauty is the key to understanding Śrī Rādhā.
  4. Śrī Krishna is the Supreme Enjoyer. His happiness is therefore love and the personification of that love is Śrī Rādhā, who must also be the reservoir of all beauty and good qualities, which are the concrete expression of love.
  5. For example, flowers are a common way to express love. They are fragrant, colorful, and may be soft and smooth, but offering them in love is not just a sensual experience, for getting a gift of flowers and experiencing all its wonderful attributes, is also the experience of love from the person who has offered those flowers.
  6. Krishna’s pleasure potency is called hlādinī śakti, the essence of which is Krishna prema (love of godhead) and when that love is heightened to the highest degree it is called mahābhāva. Śrī Rādhā is mahābhāva svarūpa, the form of the highest love (and pleasure).
  7. Even Śrī Rādhā’s many ornaments and decorations, which she adorns only for the pleasure of Krishna, are composed of and expressing mahābhāva. Thus Krishna’s experience of Śrī Rādhā is the experience of His greatest love and pleasure.
  8. As Śrī Rādhā is an expression of God’s own potency of love, we cannot imagine the intensity and greatness of her qualities. Although there is no limit to her love and qualities, descriptions of them can give us some idea. For example, here is a description of Śrī Rādhā’s beauty from Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi:

“The beauty of Śrī Rādhā’s smile defeats the beauty of a blue lotus. The beauty of her face defeats the beauty of a forest of blue lotuses, and the luster of her body puts gold in a painful situation.”

  1. Only someone who is impersonal is not conquered by love. As Krishna is the Supreme Person, He is responsive to and conquered by true devotion. As Śrī Rādhā is the highest form of love, her twenty-fifth transcendental quality is that she always keeps Krishna under her control.
  2. How is this relevant to us? Śrīla Prabhupāda instructs us:

“Rādhārāṇī, the symbol of the topmost bhakti, is so powerful that she has purchased Krishna. Therefore, Vrajavāsīs [1] take shelter of the lotus feet of Rādhārāṇī, for if she recommends, ‘O here is a nice devotee,’ Krishna must accept Him.” (Teachings of Queen Kuntī)

 

[1] The devotees who reside in Vṛndāvana, Śrī Krishna’s abode

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