This morning I was sitting and pondering over an article I had read yesterday.It was about why the traditional Radha Kalyana Mahotsavam is celebrated though actually as per scriptures Krishna did not marry Radha,as he did Rukmini or Satyabhama or his other 16,000 wives.There were many explanations given, but one that captured my attention was where it said that Radha and Krishna were one,they were not two separate individuals as is commonly understood.
This is a humble attempt to put down in words what ever little I understood from a conversation with a very learned,senior, devoted dear friend and uncle.
Krishna loves butter as we all know,from all his childhood stories and leelas.To just give a deeper meaning to his love for butter,it is necessary to understand what is butter.Butter is our vasanas .When the curd of devotion is poured into the milk of samsara and churned with the mantra and left untouched, and let it settle down,that is meditation, and the result of meditation is butter.This butter we offer to the Lord.He takes away our vasanas and makes us pure.When one is pure, then love flows and that love is divine love,that is love without any expectation,love just for the sake of love.That is ‘prema swaroopa’.
Krishna is Sat Chit Ananda and Ananda is Love.Krishna could not experience Love because he was only one Advaita.He wanted to experience Love so from his Ananda amsha, he created Radha. Radha could experience Krishna’s love because she was thinking of Krishna alone and became Krishna maya,though Krishna still could not experience love.Krishna too started chanting ‘Radhe, Radhe’,and slowly became Radha maya,and only then could Krishna experience his own “Love”.This explains that there is no Krishna without Radha neither is there Radhe without Krishna.
Knowledge when it gets transformed into wisdom it is bahkti or devotion.When devotion reaches its peak it gets transformed into Love.If knowledge does not get transformed into Bhakti then it is useless tinsel,says Rajaji in his introductory talk to Bajha Govindam, rendered by one of the greatest music stalwarts M.S.Subbalakshmi amma.
Knowledge and bhakti reminds me here of Krishna’s friend Uddhava (who was gyani).Once Uddhav questions Krishna as to why he was cheating the gopis with his so called ‘Love’because he knew that Krishna is Jyotiswaroopa and can be experienced only by sitting in ‘Padmasan’and meditating and awakening the kundalini shakti.When the kundalini shakti reaches the top of the head or mastishka then one sees the jyoti which is your true formless aspect, then why is it that you are cheating the gopis ??
In order to teach the Gyani (Uddhav)love Krishna asks Uddhav to go to Vraj bhoomi and explain this truth to the gopis.Krishna authorizes Uddhav as his representative since he is himself busy and sends Uddhav to Vraj bhoomi with a letter.
Uddhav goes to Vraj bhoomi with the letter and tells the gopis that Krishna has sent a letter for them,and shows the letter to them.All the gopis ,eager to know if their name is mentioned in the letter,pull the letter in all directions and soon it is in shreds.Then they ask Uddhav how is their beloved Krishna,and what message has he sent for them????
Uddhav tells the dear gopis that Krishna has been fooling them all along and that he is formless and in order to see his formless aspect they will need to sit in padmasan and meditatae on him and awaken the kundalini and only then can they see his jyotiswaroopa.Uddhav asks them ‘why are you pining for that which is mere illusion?
When the gopis hear this they are angry and tell Uddhav that he is an imposter and their beloved could never send such a message.The angry gopis now ask Uddhav if he has ever loved,and when he replies in the negative they ask him, ‘then what do you know of love’???
The gopis go on to tell Uddhav that Krishna never left them in the first place,"Brindavanam partiyajya padam ekam na gacchet"(srimad baghavatham)Uddhav is spell bound to hear this from the gopis and asks them,ok, then why are you pining and crying for him then?
The gopis tell him, “Oh Uddhav!! He is in our hearts,we want him to come out and play with us.Since he is the one who can take any form, we want him to come and play with us.We are telling him,oh you heartless lover come soon,otherwise you will see only our dead bodies.The gopis take him to Radha who is sitting under a tree and there Uddhav sees Krishna sitting with Radha and is astonished at what he sees because he left Krishna at Mathura and now he is here.To reassure himself Uddhav crawls up to Krishna and touches his feet to see if he is real or only his imagination.Uddhav realizes he is real and then shaken by this, he weeps unconsolably and takes the dust of gopis feet and applies it on his head.All this was just to transform the gyani(Uddhav) into a bhakta.
Knowledge has to become wisdom in order to attain bhakti,and when devotion reaches its peak it gets transformed into love ,’Divine love’which is above all else.
Jai Gurudev.
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