5,000 years ago Lord Krishna descended in the small village of Vrindavan to display His divine pastimes and teach the path of righteousness. His delightful leelas with the inhabitants of Vrindavan were elaborated by Sage Ved Vyas in Srimad Bhagvatam. These divine leelas have formed the basis of devotion for spiritual seekers, who rejoice in singing their glories, and long for a drop of that divine bliss called brajras.
We have also heard and read the glories of ‘gopi prem’ which is said to be the highest form of selfless love for Sri Krishna. Of all the gopis, Radha Rani is known to be the dearest to Sri Krishna and their love is eulogized time and again by Rasik saints in devotional songs,
Radhey Radhey bhajo, Shyama bhage chale ayenge…
Chant the holy name of Radha Rani and Shyama will come running to you.
The first step to building a strong foundation of our devotion is to accept all the leelas of God as divine, therefore it is important to understand Radha Rani with divine sentiments. Many a time people confuse Radha Rani as an ordinary woman, and undermine the fact that She is the personal form of God’s Divine energy called Yogmaya. She is inseparable from Lord Krishna, just as heat cannot be separated from fire and the energy cannot be separated from the energetic.
She possesses the highest level of selfless love called Madanakhya Mahabhav Bhakti for Sri Krishna. We average humans cannot even imagine the power of this love. Radha Rani’s selfless devotion for Her beloved Sri Krishna is the source of greatest inspiration to progress on our spiritual path.
Question: What is the difference between Maya and Yogmaya? Is Mother Durga the personification of Yogmaya?
Swami Mukundananda: Maya is the external energy of God with which he makes this material world. It is insentient and all the gross and subtle objects in this world are made from Maya. Yogmaya is the personal power of God, with which he governs all His other powers.
It is through this Yogmaya that He manifests His Divine abode, descends as an Avatar in the world and displays His divine pastimes.
Through this power, He sits in the hearts of all the souls, notes their karmas and yet remains hidden from them. It is also by Yogmaya that God’s blissfulness, the sweetness of His form, the sweetness of His flute, and the nectar of His virtues and pastimes are manifest. Most importantly for us, by virtue of Yogmaya, God bestows Grace upon the souls of the world, granting them God-realization and Divine Love Bliss.
This Yogmaya energy governs Maya, and then the material world is created. Hence, Yogmaya is called the Divine Mother of the universe. This Divine power also manifests in the personal form as Durga, Seeta, Kali, Radha, Lakshmi, Mangala, Parvati, etc.
So it is important to understand that these Personal Forms, whom we see in pictures depicted sitting by the side of God, are not ordinary women. They are different personal forms of Yogmaya.
Q: If Mother Durga and Radha Rani both are the personal forms of Yogmaya, what is the difference between them?
SM: Radha and Durga are both the Divine Yogmaya power of God and They are non-different from each other. Yet, there is a difference in the sweetness Bliss of Divine Love that we receive from both of them.
This difference between Radha and Durga can be understood from the following story. One boy was coming home from school. On the way he was thinking that his mother will be at home; she will give him a loving hug; she will ask him about his day at school; she will have prepared tasty snacks for him; he will ask her to take him to the ice cream shop, and so on. However, when he reached home, he found a totally different scenario. His mother had a stick in her hand and was beating his elder brother.
The boy thought, “My mother’s mood is not good at present. Let me quietly sneak away to my bedroom. When she is in a better mood, I will speak to her.” The mother is the same, but one is her fierce form and the other is her loving form.
Similarly, Mother Durga is the form of Yogmaya where she is combating and subduing demons. She is also engaged in administering the material energy, Maya, but Radha Rani is not concerned with any of this. She simply engages in the loving service of Shree Krishna and engages the souls in the same. She bestows the highest level of selfless Divine Love on the souls, and it is by Her Grace that one attains Shree Krishna. Those who know this secret and wish to relish the sweetness of the nectar of Divine Love, worship the Divine Mother in her sweetest form as Shree Radha.
Q: Many people say that no description of Radha Rani exists in the Bhagavatam written by Maharshi Ved Vyas. Please tell if there is any scriptural mention of Radha Rani?
SM: This question addresses a widespread misnomer in the minds of many people and its importance demands that detailed evidence be given from the scriptures for the benefit of everyone.
We shall come to the Shreemad Bhagavatam later. First of all, let us visit the other scriptures. Let us begin with the eternal Vedas, and see if they mention Radha Rani.
Idam hyanvojasa sutam… (Rig Veda 3.51.10)
“O Shree Krishna, Husband of Radha! Just as the gopis worship you, the Ved mantras also worship you. By them, drink Som Ras.”
Yasya renum padayorvishvabharta… (Atharva Vediya Radhikopanishad)
“Radha is that entity, the dust of whose lotus feet the Master of the Universe places on His head.”
Next, let us come to the Puranas. Ved Vyas, who is the writer of the Shreemad Bhagavatam, has written seventeen other Puranas as well, and Radha Rani is mentioned in six of them.
Yatha radha priya…
(Narad Purana)
Tatrapi radhika shashvat… (Adi Purana)
Rukmini dvaravatyam tu… (Matsya Purana 13.37)
Radhnoti sakalan Kaman… (Devi Bhagavata Purana)
Adau radham samuchcharya… (Brahm Vaivarta Purana)
Finally, let us come to the Shreemad Bhagavam. This scripture was spoken by Shukadev Paramhans to Parikshit. Shukadev is an eternal associate of Radha Rani. He is a Leela Shuk, who takes the form of a parrot, and recites wonderful things in Her Divine abode, Golok. He has so much of love for Radha Rani that if he takes Her Name, he faints for six months.
Since, Parikshit was cursed to be bitten by a snake in seven days, Shukadev had to complete the Bhagavatam in that period, and so he did not take Radha Rani’s name directly. But he made indirect mention of her in many places. In the Radhopanishad, 28 names of Radha have been mentioned, including Gopi, Ramaa and Shree. Radha is mentioned by some of these names in the Bhagavatam, for example:
Kamayamaha etasya shrimatpadarajah… (Shreemad Bhagavatam 10.83.42)
“The Master of Ramaa did Raas with the gopis.” Here the word “Ramaa” has been used for Radha. Ramaa can also mean Mahalakshmi, but that is not the usage here, since the Master of Mahalakshmi, Mahavishnu, does not do the Raas leela.
Reme ramesho vrajasundaribhriyatharbhakah… (Bhagavatam)
Apart from these, Radha is mentioned in many other scriptures. But in the context of this question, let these quotations suffice.
Q: Radha and Krishna were never married. Then what was the relationship between both of them?
SM: Radha and Krishna are two aspects of the Supreme Personality. One is the Energetic and the other is the Divine Energy. The Upanishads state:
Anadirayam purusham ekamevasti… (Sama Rahasyopanishad)
“Since eternity, the one Supreme Lord has divided Himself in two forms, the Energetic and the Energy. That Supreme Energy (the Yogmaya power) is Radha, who is worshipped by the knowers of the Vedas.”
Since Radha and Krishna are two aspects of the one Supreme Lord, they are inseparable from each other, just as milk and its whiteness are inseparable from each other, and fire and its light are one with each other. Thus, there is no question of separating Krishna and Radha.
However, in Their Divine pastimes, to relish the Bliss of Divine Love, They separate and again unite in many inconceivably sweet ways.
These Divine pastimes of God are called leelas. When Shree Krishna and Radha Rani displayed Their leelas on the earth 5000 years ago, They relished the Bliss of parkiya bhav, or love in the paramour sentiment. Thus, they were not married to each other. Nonetheless, the Garg Samhita describes Their leelas during another descension, where Radha and Krishna were married, and Brahma was the priest in the ceremony. In either case, Their leelas are Divine and beyond the social codes of conduct prescribed for us conditioned souls. Since They both are the same One Supreme Entity, the question of whether they married or not in the worldly sense is not applicable.
Q: The Gaudiya sampradya glorifies “Radha Bhav” as the highest devotional Bhav. It is also mentioned in the writings of many of the Bhakti Saints. Can you please describe Radha Bhav?
SM: Radha Rani, being the Divine power of Shree Krishna, has only one goal – selfless devotion towards Her Beloved. In fact, Divine Love is a subsidiary power of Radha Rani, and so the highest level of Bhakti resides in Her. This is characterized by intense longing for Shree Krishna, to the extent that is inconceivable to the human mind. The following verse gives a slight glimpse of this:
aurvstomatkaturapi katham durbalenorasa…
“When Radha does not have darshan (sight) of Shree Krishna, the fire of the pain of separation in Her heart is so intense, that if the hazy lines above the smoke of that fire were to come out from Her body, the entire universe would burn to ashes.” Such is the extent of Radha’s longing for Shree Krishna.
Radha’s devotion is also characterized by the highest level of selflessness, and complete absence of self-seeking. There is only one thought in Her mind – how to give happiness to Her Beloved. Such selfless devotion manifests in the gopis to a lesser extent, and in other saints to an even lesser extent. Thus, the topmost form of pure Divine Love resides in the heart of Radha.
This is also called Madanakhya Mahabhav Bhakti. All the other God-realized saints, eternally liberated souls, and aspirants, derive inspiration from the nature of Radha’s devotion. This devotion of Radha for Krishna has been termed as “Radha Bhav” by poets and saints.
Swami Mukundananda is a world renowned spiritual teacher from India, and is the senior disciple of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj and founder of JK Yog. He has received his degrees in engineering from world renowned institutes in India, IIT and IIM. He has inspired people all over the world on the path of spirituality, holistic health, yoga, meditation, service to society and God realization. This year, Swamiji will be conducting weeklong programs in 30+ cities of USA from April onwards. For more information visit: http://www.jkyog.org/ or contact: secretary@jkyog.org
To attend Swamiji’s Yoga, Meditation and Spiritual Discourses in USA, see the schedule for your city: www.jkyog.org/2013
Swami Mukundananda
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