From love universal to bhakti confidential – Gaudiya Vaishnavism glories 5 – Radha and Krishna are one soul in two bodies
[Radhashtami morning class on Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 8.100 at ISKCON, Denver, USA]
Transcription of Summary Lecture
I spoke today about Radharani on her appearance day, and in this verse it is said that, ‘This gopi must have served Krishna in a special way; that is why… The gopi is saying… ‘Krishna has gone alone with her.’
I talked about the five chapters of rasa lila… a brief overview… and then… before we can understand the rasa lila, Prabhupada is very careful. He uses Radharani’s name only once in the Bhagavat Gita, and he uses the double honorification – Srimatimati and Rani… why? Because he wants us not to misunderstand, and this misunderstanding is very possible because we can see like a male-female attraction, and to avoid that misunderstanding I discussed elaborately about how actually God is not just the best of all beings, He is the basis of all beings, and that means that everybody has expanded from Krishna, everybody’s existence is sustained by Krishna, and Krishna and Radharani are the same person.
So, God is satisfied within Himself, but He wants to share His completeness with others, just like a person who is happy and wants to dance to express that happiness. So, to share His completeness Krishna manifests Himself in other forms, and that form is Radharani. So, Radharani… she gives… by everything that she does, she gives happiness to Krishna, and she also…. for those who want to serve Him… serve Krishna, she manifests in their heart and she gives them ecstasy. So, she gives ecstasy to Krishna and she gives ecstasy to the devotees of Krishna who are trying to serve.
So, philosophically Radharani is not a person different from Krishna. Practically of course she is a different person, and she has her own mood, and sometimes she does what Krishna wants and sometimes she does something other than what Krishna wants, but that is also for the pleasure of Krishna, and her defining characteristic is her total selflessness for the sake of Krishna, and that we discussed in the Rasa Lila pastime wherein Radharani… first of all she is ready to give up… Radharani along with all the gopis are ready to give up even their own perception of chastity for the sake of pleasing Krishna. For the sake of God the bad has to given up and even the good has to be given up. Krishna doesn’t say sarva adharman paritejya, He says, sarva dharman paritejya, and then as at a external level you may say that Krishna leaves the gopis because they become proud, but that is external. Actually Krishna leaves the gopis because He wants to demonstrate the sublimity of love of Srimati Radharani. So, if the gopis act proud… that is simply so that Krishna can demonstrate Radahrani’s special love, and eventually when Radharani acts as if she is proud, that is not pride. That is a concern for the other gopis, and when Krishna acts as if He is angry He is not angry, He is actually trying to reveal the glory of Radharani’s love even when He separated from her, or she is separated from Him, and Radharani’s love is not just her absorption in Krishna, it is her absorption in a way that is pleasing to Krishna.
So, Srila Prabhupada… he connects Radharani’s mercy with the success of the preaching mission, and he says, ‘The mood is that… Radharani wants Krishna’s service to expand.’ Like that Prabhupada wants more and more souls to come and serve Krishna, and Prabhupada left Vrindavan and he carried Vrindavan wherever he went… manifested Vrindavan.
Prabhupada’s devotion for Krishna was manifested through his dedication to bring others to Krishna. That if you follow in his footsteps… we also try in our capacity to try to share Krishna with more and more people, then by his mercy we will get Radarani’s mercy, and we will become also absorbed in Krishna.
Thank you very much.
(Transcription by Sadananda Kr