Sri Radhastami

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

One thing I learned from His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami’s Clear Thinking and Strong Speaking class was don’t speak because you have to say something but speak because you have something to say. What I have on my mind to say now relates to a discussion we had earlier in the day which was not completed at the time because of the abhiseka which was wonderful. 

So I thought I would speak a little on the question that was asked about different devotees not diverting their attention to any form besides Krishna and what I was saying was that everyone has a natural attraction—eventually when we are liberated at least free from anarthas—would have a natural attraction to a particular form of the Lord, and whatever the form is, the person would be most satisfied in his relationship with that particular form and in his or her relationship. 

And then about separation, there is a pastime that took place at Prema Sarovara. How many of you have been to Vrindavan? And how many have been to Prema Sarovara? Prema Sarovara is on the way to Varsana and in this sacred place Srimati Radharani and Krishna were sitting next to each other and in fact Krishna had His divine arm around the transcendental body of Srimati Radharani. Krishna’s body is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha—eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss—and Srimati Radharani is mahā-bhāva-svarūpiṇī, She is the personification of mahā-bhāva. Her whole body, Her whole existence is mahā-bhāva which is the highest extreme of ecstatic pure love for Krishna. 

While They were embracing a bumble bee came around perhaps mistaking Radharani for a lotus flower and was looking for some nectar, but Madhumangala, Krishna’s brahman friend could see that this bee was hovering around and disturbing Srimati Radharani, so he took a stick and shooed the bee away, and when he had done so, he returned and said that, “The Madhu is gone and will never come back.” So Madhu can refer to a bee and also to Krishna. And when Srimati Radharani heard these words that the Madhu has gone away and will never return, She thought of Krishna and although She was in Krishna’s embrace She was plunged into an extraordinarily deep mood of separation from Krishna and nothing could get Her out of it. She was crying and crying and crying and Krishna, seeing Radharani in such a state, also began to cry, and Their tears made a pond that is Prema Sarovara, that is made of Their love in the form of Their tears.

So later Krishna considered this issue of separation that as long as He is personally present in Vrindavan the residents of Vrindavan are always filled with fear of separation from Him and He considered that association with Him does not depend on physical association and that if He left Vrindavan then His devotees would not be preoccupied with that thought of His “physical” or personal presence or absence but they could associate with Him internally. 

Soon after the pastime in which Krishna killed Aristasura, as you may know, Kamsa sent Akrura to bring Krishna and Balarama to Mathura. While leaving Krishna assured the gopīs, “I shall return.” But apparently Krishna did not return. So learned scholars have raised the question, “What does this mean? Was he incapable of keeping His promise or was He a liar who gave His word without any intention of fulfilling it?” And the acharyas answer that no, it was not that He was incapable of fulfilling His promise that He gave a false promise—this is explained in the Kṛṣṇa book—-they explain that Krishna was always present in Vrindavan in His bhāva expansion. He was invisible in one sense but in another sense He was present. 

And later when Krishna sent Uddhava to deliver His message of consolation to Srimati Radharani and the gopīs and all the residents of Vrindavan, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes a scene that is very joyful. The women are churning butter and singing songs about Krishna and the cows are playing and frolicking and everyone is very happy and joyful just like when Krishna was there. 

And then when he arrives in Vrindavan, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes a very different scene that the devotees are almost dead in separation, they’re not eating, they’re not putting on fresh cloth, they’re hardly maintaining their bodies and souls together. 

So the acharyas explain that there are two manifestations of Vrindavan, two dimensions, and in one Krishna is there in that bhāva expansion. Vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya padam ekaṁ na gacchati: Krishna does not take one step out of Vrindavan and in the other the devotees are externally experiencing symptoms of separation from Krishna. 

So this is a lesson for us or an indication for us that when our feelings of separation are strong enough they bring us to the point of meeting if not externally then internally. There is a very nice verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in which one gopī says to another, looking at the beauty of Krishna and Balarama—of course their real interest was Krishna. Yes, Balarama was the older brother but their romantic interest was in Krishna but they had to be very careful of what they said because they were trying to hide their feelings for Krishna because such feelings were considered not just inappropriate but unconscionable because they were already married or else they were unmarried and under the protection of their elders. So to cover their special interest in Krishna they would talk about the beauty of Krishna and Balarama—so one gopī said to the other or others, describing Their beauty, that, “There is no greater object of vision.” We might have got a sense of that when we saw the Deities, Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji. There is no greater object of vision. 

Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explains the purport which is that why are we staying at home worrying about what our parents or husbands or mothers-in-law or sisters-in-law will think or say or do. There is no higher object of vision than Krishna or Krishna and Balarama. So we should go. We should not worry about all these things. We should just go. Sometimes we also have these dualities—we want to go to the temple, we’ll want to go to Vrindavan, but our duties, our spouses, our parents, our children. “Should I,” “Shouldn’t I?” So the gopīs were also perturbed by such questions of course on a very high, transcendental level. This is a very intricate topic because it is actually too intricate, not too intricate for you to understand, but just too intricate to discuss in our limited time. In short when their feelings of separation were too strong or their desire was too strong they actually did leave their homes to meet Krishna but by the arrangement of yoga-māyā a sort of duplicate body was left at home. So none of their relatives got upset otherwise if their relatives knew that they had left home and spent the night with Krishna they would not have been welcomed back but because of this special arrangement they were able to spend the night with Krishna and come back because to the vision of their family members they had been at home.

So this is also an art. Of course again that’s on a different level but this is also an art how to fulfill our desires to serve Krishna and Radharani and not upset our family members too much. People are always getting upset anyway. Whether you go to Krishna or don’t go to Krishna people get upset with us. They might not like the way we squeeze the toothpaste. There is always going to be some issue so we can’t avoid the issues but still we want a relatively peaceful, stable, secure environment in which to practice Krishna consciousness and so we have to learn how to serve Krishna, fulfill our desire which is really Krishna’s desire, Mahaprabhu’s desire, Nityananda Prabhu’s desire, Prabhupada’s desire that we serve Krishna but at the same time maintain a relatively peaceful situation at home. Of course Krishna has His own plan for each of us or Radharani’s mercy will manifest in the lives of each of us in different ways and we have to be open to that but that’s the general idea.

Hare Krishna.

His Holiness Giridhari Swami you might have noticed a similarity in our names. Giridhari means “the lifter of the Giri, Govardhana Hill” and giriraja means the hill, so in case you don’t know, I am actually being held up by Giridhari and he has ordered me to continue speaking.

Coming back to this question of separation which is so much Radharani’s mood and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu mood, when we talk about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu coming in the mood of Radharani, it’s mainly in the mood of separation. In the Gambhira, in His room in Jagannatha Puri how He was experiencing extreme feelings of separation from Krishna that was actually Radharani’s mood of separation from Krishna. 

And in fact when Krishna left the rasa dance. . . how many of you have read Kṛṣṇa book? Every devotee should read Kṛṣṇa book. In fact, even if you are not a devotee you should read Kṛṣṇa book then you’ll become a devotee. So you know Krishna played on His flute, stood under the vaṁśīvaṭa tree near the Yamuna River and played on His flute. The sound of Krishna’s flute is actually one of His messengers. In Vrindavan there are messengers or dutis because there is so much concealment in Vrindavan because of parakīyā-rasa. So, one of Krishna’s messengers or dutis is His flute, the sound of His flute. And so when He played upon His flute, He was sending a personal message to each and every gopikā calling them to be with Him, telling them where He was and how much He was missing them and how much He needed them. So, each one got this personal invitation from Krishna unaware that other gopīs were also going to meet Him.

And so they rushed to Vamsivata and Krishna reciprocated with them but then after some time He left them and they were all plunged into separation. So when the gopīs were looking for Krishna they saw that there were two pairs of footprints and then they understood that Krishna was not alone but that He had gone away with someone, some other gopī. And in the transcendental arrangements for parakīyā-rasa in Vrindavan, Radharani has Her rival named Candravali. So Radharani has Her gopīs who are attached to Her and Candravali has her gopīs who are attached to her. So when the gopīs in Radharani’s camp saw that, “Oh, Krishna is with Radha,” they were very happy. So they were in a hurry to catch up to Radha and Krishna so they could assist the Divine Couple in Their pastimes. The others, they weren’t so happy. 

But then Krishna, He also left Radharani. It is all described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or the Kṛṣṇa book how Radharani told Krishna, “You can take Me wherever You like.” Now this is very different from Radharani’s usual mood because among the gopīs there are two general moods among the gopīs; one is vāmya-bhāva which means “leftwing” and the other is dakṣiṇa-bhāva which means “rightwing.” So in vāmya-bhāva the gopīs (and Lalita? is Radharani), Radharani and Her associates, they believe that Krishna is more pleased when they are contrary to His wishes. And Candravali and her supporters believe that they should please Krishna or devotees should please Krishna by doing what Krishna asks. So in this context vāmya means “contrary” and dakṣiṇa means “favorable.” Therefore we give dakṣiṇa to sadhus so that they’ll be favorable to us or so that we’ll remain favorable to them. So transcendentally Radharani is in that vāmya-bhāva of contrariness and in the science of rasa, mādhurya-rasa, the rasa increases when there is contrariness. So when Radharani told Krishna, “You can take Me wherever You like,” Krishna thought, “What is this? She is agreeing. She never agrees.” And for the rasa to be strong, one of the parties has to disagree. So Krishna thought, “Well, if She is not going to be contrary then I will have to be contrary,” and so He left Her, He disappeared.

Eventually all the gopīs, all the different groups of gopīs who Krishna had called with His flute, they came upon Srimati Radharani in such intense separation that they had ever seen before and so when the other gopīs even the rival gopīs saw Radharani in such extreme separation they felt sympathetic toward Her. That is also part of mādhurya-rasa and in a way it is just part of any devotee’s heart to feel sympathy. So all the gopīs, even the rivals, they felt sympathetic toward Srimati Radharani and then they altogether as one group united began to look for Krishna and when their separation reached the highest level, Krishna appeared before them again. And this was one of Krishna’s inner motives that initially He had called all the gopīs individually through His flute but when they got there different gopīs were having thoughts that, “O, He called that one too and that one and that group is there and that group is there.” So they were not united and there was some transcendental envy or jealousy but Krishna in this particular case—He had other pastimes with select groups—but in this particular case He wanted all the gopīs to be united and so He left them with Radharani.

And then when He left Radharani and they saw how extreme Her separation was which means how deep Her love and attachment for Krishna was, they felt sympathetic for Her, and they also felt, “None of us has such feelings for Krishna as She has.” They accepted and then all those feelings were gone and all the gopīs were united as one group and then together they sang out their songs of separation and again when their saṅkīrtana—this is saṅkīrtana, all together calling out to Krishna, singing the glories of Krishna—when their saṅkīrtana reached that stage of separation with tears of love for Krishna, Krishna reappeared. This is also an instruction how we can attract Krishna through saṅkīrtana, all together united but with love in feelings of separation. 

So the gopīs felt that when Krishna reappeared it was as if their lives had come back into their bodies but still some of the gopīs harbored some feeling that, “We left everything to come to Krishna in the middle of the night, in the dead of night, and Krishna left us. He didn’t reciprocate properly.” So there was some discussion and as I mentioned in the morning, Krishna gave the example that when a rich man loses his money—he might take it for granted when he has it—but when he loses it, he thinks about it all the time. So Krishna gave that example and He said that, in effect He said that, “I know Your hearts’ innermost desire. Your innermost desire is to increase your love for Me so by My separating Myself from you I was actually reciprocating with your deepest desire to increase your love for Me.”

Jaya Sri Krishna!

But it doesn’t end there because the nature of the gopīs’ love and Srimati Radharani’s love for Krishna is that it is always increasing—He doesn’t have to do anything to make it increase. It is always increasing—so what was the real reason? In the end Krishna admits that, “Actually I am unable to repay My debt to you.” In other words He admitted, “I can’t reciprocate. What you have done for Me I cannot do for you.” And so as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu He showed us the confidential feelings of Radharani and as Krishna He felt separation just like Radharani felt. 

Just one last pastime—very sweet pastime—in Vrindavan there is a place called Imlitala. How many of you have been to Imlitala? Imlitala is a tree. So when Krishna left Radharani, so in separation He rested at that tree and He was so absorbed in thoughts of Radharani that His body turned whitish, gaurī. Later when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to Vrindavan in the mood of Radharani feeling separation from Krishna but with the complexion of Radharani He also came to the same place, to the same tree, and in mood of intense separation from Krishna, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He turned blackish, syama. We have Radha-Kalachandji but there are ISKCON temples where Krishna is whitish. Juhu, Radha-Rasabihari. But there is a form of Krishna at Imlitala feeling separation from Radharani where He was so absorbed in thoughts of Her that He turned gaurī. And then He when came as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu feeling separation from Krishna, He turned syama.

Anyway, whatever good I have said it is my credit and whatever bad I have said, it is His Holiness Giridhari Swami’s fault because he told me to speak. [laughter]

Hare Krishna. [applause]