(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj in Mangarh, India, on September 16, 2009.)
Before analysing who is Radha Rani, we should first analyse who we are. The soul, your “I” or “me” is the ishta dev or worshipped deity of your body. The body consists of the senses, mind and intellect. This means that the senses, mind and intellect serve and are devoted to the soul. How do we perform action? It is only possible due to what belongs to you – your senses, mind and intellect. Therefore, whatever we actions we perform, we perform only for the happiness of the soul or the “I”.
The Brihadaranya Upanishad (4/5/6) says that no wife can do anything for the happiness of her husband, no husband can do anything for the happiness of his wife. No father can do anything for his son’s happiness, no son can do anything for his father’s happiness. Thus, no one does anything for the happiness of another, nor can they do anything for another’s happiness. Every single moment we work for our own happiness, which is the happiness of the soul.
Everyone makes plans, “How can I get happiness? What should I do?” If someone interferes in these plans, it is seen that even a son could kill his father, a husband could kill his wife, and so on. So many other things happen like this in the world. All of you hear about these incidents and feel surprised. Why are you surprised? Someone created an obstacle in the path to someone else’s happiness, and that person found a way to eliminate the obstacle. What is so surprising about this?
Wherever we feel our selfish desires are being fulfilled, we develop a positive attachment to that situation. If our selfish desires are being fulfilled 100%, then our love and attachment is 100%. If their fulfillment is decreased to 50%, then our love decreases to 50%. If we feel our selfish desires are not being fulfilled at all, we decide the other person is a fraud.
For example, a father asks his son to bring him a glass of water. The son runs and brings it to his father, “Oh, my son is Shravan Kumar (the ideal of a perfect son)!” After a few minutes, he again asks his son to bring his spectacles. But this time the son ignored his father and didn’t get up. “Didn’t you hear what I said? Go and get my spectacles!” The son still didn’t move. The father says with disgust, “My son is a demon!” What happened to the love that he felt earlier?
So everyone desires his own happiness. No one develops any love for another if he doesn’t feel that his selfish desire is being fulfilled. If someone creates an obstacle in between, people even murder one another for the sake of happiness.
Thus everyone is a servant of his own soul, not a servant of any other. Similarly, the soul is a servant of supreme God. The Subala Upanishad (7/1) says that the soul is the body of supreme God and supreme God is the supreme soul of all the souls. The Bhagwatam (10/14/55) says that even supreme God has a soul – His soul is known as Shri Radha. Thus, the link is as follows: the body is the servant of the soul, the soul is the servant of supreme God, supreme God is the servant of His soul, Shri Radha.
That supreme God adoringly presses Shri Radha’s lotus feet in the innermost kunjas of Vrindaban. But 99.9% of the people think that Shri Radha and Shri Krishna are husband and wife. This is not correct. Traditionally in this relationship, the husband is not allowed to touch his wife’s feet.
Kamala (Mahalakshmi) is Shri Krishna’s wife, who descended as Rukmini, the main queen of Shri Krishna in Dwarika.
Once in Dwarika Shri Krishna went into a swoon, and in this state He repeatedly uttered, “Radhey… Radhey…” Rukmini felt very bad about this and she started wondering, “Who is this Radha who could cause my husband to fall unconscious?” When Shri Krishna came to a normal consciousness, she asked, “Who is Radha?” Shri Krishna said, “She lives in Braj. But what good will it do if you know Her? Please never mind.” But Rukmini stubbornly refused to leave this topic and kept asking Shri Krishna about Her. Finally Shri Krishna found a way to answer her question.
Once Shri Krishna started acting as if He was in so much dire pain He could die. All of His queens were extremely worried. By chance, Narad Ji was passing through Dwarika. He came into the palace and saw the atmosphere was quite serious. He asked Rukmini, “Mother, what happened?” She answered, “Shri Krishna is in pain. I don’t know what happened to Him.” Narad Ji thought, “Hmmm… this is just play acting on Shri Krishna’s part. But once I was turned into a monkey due to this kind of divine pastime, so this time I’m keeping quiet.” He went to Shri Krishna and said, “Lord, what happened to you?” Shri Krishna said, “Narad Ji, I am in a lot of pain.” So, knowing that the pain was not real, Narad Ji asked, “Could you please tell me what the treatment is for this pain?” Shri Krishna answered, “If I can get the footdust of any mahapurush (true divine Saint) then I will be cured.”
Narad Ji thought, “I am also a Saint, but no! I’m not getting involved in this play! And all of Shri Krishna’s 16,108 wives are the greatest Saints. They can give their footdust to Him!” He went to the queens and proposed this idea to them, and they all started shouting, “Narad Ji – have you gone mad? How can a wife give her footdust to her husband? She will become defamed in history and will also go to hell!” Again Narad Ji went to Shri Krishna and asked, “My Lord, from where should I get this footdust?” Shri Krishna suggested he go to Braj and obtain it from the Gopis. He went to Braj where the Gopis eagerly offered their footdust, and came back. Shri Krishna took that footdust and was cured.
So when the divine servants of Shri Radha, the Gopis, have such elevated love for Shri Krishna, what could be said about Shri Radha’s love? Thus, Shri Radha is the soul of supreme God, Shri Krishna. This is just a brief description of Shri Radha’s personality.
© Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat and Bhakti Bliss, 2009.
