20000409 Glories of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 9^th April 2000 in Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī’s Birthplace, Rāval in the annual Safari Program.

Devotee: So now request His Holiness Jayapatākā Mahārāja to say a few words by the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

Jayapatākā Swami: Do we have 25 qualities of Rādhārāṇī? (inaudible) Anyone remember the 25 qualities of Rādhārāṇī? Who can remember one?

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya
jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena
tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Devotee: Compassion!

Jayapatākā Swami: Compassion!

Devotee: Sweet personified.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sweet personified. What did you say?

Devotee: Tolerance.

Devotee: She is fully controlling Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Always jubilant.

Jayapatākā Swami: Always jubilant. Anyone...

Devotee: She dressed very nicely.

Devotee: Chaste!

Devotee: Respectful to the elders.

Devotee: Expert cook, expert dancer.

Paṅkajānghrī Prabhu: Religion personified.

Devotee: Her eyes are always moving.

She agitates the mind of Kṛṣṇa with the fragrance of Her body, gandhonmādita-mādhavā.

Jayapatākā Swami: The transcendental fragments of Her body agitates the mind of Kṛṣṇa. You had that already.

Devotee: Obligated.

Jayapatākā Swami: Obligated to those who help Her.

So She is a reservoir of unlimited qualities, good qualities. She wants to engage…

Devotee: It is always enjoyable for Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Always enjoyable for Kṛṣṇa. She wants to expand Kṛṣṇa’s happiness unlimitedly.

Okay, so now Śrīla Prabhupāda has stressed, how Kṛṣṇa is attracting the whole world. Even how Kṛṣṇa, He is Madana-mohana, He is able to attract even the millions of Cupids, who is got the world under his control. Without Rādhārāṇī, what to say that She is Madana-Mohana-Mohinī, that She is able to attract Kṛṣṇa constantly. So what can we understand? There is actually no words that can fully describe, This is the glories of Rādhārāṇī. This is Kṛṣṇa, He is Adhokṣaja. He cannot be completely explained by any words comprised from the syllable a-to-z or a to visarga. No matter what you say about Kṛṣṇa, it will not completely be able to say everything. Similarly, Rādhārāṇī is like that. She has got so many unlimited qualities.

The world is blessed, when Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā are here, after once in a day of Brahmā, 4,320,000,000 years day of Brahmā, equal night. Kṛṣṇa comes just on schedule. He makes His own schedule. 27 four yuga cycle. He is scheduled to visit this particular universe of the four headed Brahmā. We can understand from the appearance of Rādhārāṇī, how Her manifestation is not at all, She doesn’t even go through the apparent birth pastime. Apparently, Kṛṣṇa was in the womb of Devakī. He appeared with His four handed form. Rādhārāṇī, She was on the golden lotus and was handed to Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja by Lord Brahmā. So everything about Rādhārāṇī is completely transcendental. Only She has to play that part as if She is in this material world. But everything that She is doing is all meant for Kṛṣṇa.

Now when we take sannyāsa, we are given a sannyasa-mantra, which is secret. But the purport of the mantra says that we should try to follow, taking shelter of the mood of the gopīs. Rādhārāṇī is the supreme gopī. Lord Chitanya said that of all the devotees, vraja-vāsīs, especially the gopīs, have the supremely best way to please and satisfy Kṛṣṇa. So what is the secret? How can we apply that in our own life? It is because Rādhārāṇī everything She is doing is meant for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure. She doesn’t have any other purpose to Her existence except to please Kṛṣṇa. And that is the secret. We can follow in the footsteps by dedicating our lives to pleasing Kṛṣṇa through the guru-paramparā, through the representatives of Rādhārāṇī, through the Vaiṣṇavas, through the holy dhāma, through the Deities.

Bhakti-yoga means to be completely absorbed. So Rādhārāṇī is the form of total absorption and love of Kṛṣṇa. So in the beginning we are like little birds on the nest. Somehow by the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda, guru-paramparā, Rādhārāṇī’s mercy of giving us this bhakti, because She is always in bhakti. It is not different from Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. We hatch and initially the birds are in the nest and they are chirping and crying (inaudible) whatever, we are crying out,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Rādhe!!! Śyāma!!!

Prabhupāda said, if we cry just like a little baby for the mother, the baby bird, a baby human crying for the mother, then the Lord can pick us up and get the mercy. Eventually, we get to fly. So the purpose of the parikramā is get the mercy that we can also be absorbed and bring everything to the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. That is how we become happy. Like see how our Dīna Bandhu Prabhu, he is taking devotees around. He said, “This is my duty to serve.” [He is] a resident of Vraja too. How he is always happy.

Devotee: [Haribol!] Dīna Bandhu Prabhu kī! Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Prabhupāda, he once said, as soon as you see when you are absorbed in Kṛṣṇa’s service, then you are always happy. And as soon as you start to think about sense gratification, it become an anxiety. So Rādhārāṇī is the supreme happiness, and She wants all of you to be happy. So while we are here, we hope everyone can get the mercy of Rādhārāṇī, to be supremely happy and always be in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Whether we are in the household āśrama or whether we are in the renowned āśrama, the whole secret is to be completely absorbed to do everything for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. And Prabhupāda has given us a simple formula, how we can do that... Six-Gosvāmīs have given the yukta-vairāgya system, using everything for Kṛṣṇa. So that should be our goal, and we want to just… we really have to… in the mind, you see, it is going to be rebellious. We heard about how we have to beat the mind ahead of time with shoes. The mind is going to tell us, “No, you really need sense gratification to be happy!” And we had to take the shoes and beat some sense into the mind. Normally we are not supposed to beat anybody, but we have got a permission to beat the mind. [laughter] You can take it out on this rebellious mind to let the mind understand that the real happiness is in serving. Rādhārāṇī is always in a service attitude and She is in Supreme happiness. How many here like to be happy? (Haribol!) So you had to use your intelligence. And whenever the mind tries to tell you, “I can be happy by doing something other than serving, I can be happy by spacing out or by ignorance, passion or goodness.” Any kind of sense gratification, whether it is gold plated or copper plated or iron plated, rusty, whatever, it is all material. We want pure śuddha-sattva as Prabhupāda said, the great ṛṣis and Bharata Mahārāja, he left behind the entire kingdom, the entire world. Just like somebody leaves behind the toilet after they finish their business. He said that, he was looking for transcendental happiness and that the transcendental happiness is Rādhārāṇī. So we hear that qualities of Rādhārāṇī and the pastimes. We hope devotees can appreciate, if everyone is not fully able to appreciate, at least that philosophically everyone can appreciate. She is the Supreme Happiness, Supreme Bliss, āhlādinī-śakti. And in this way, the more that we can follow in Her mood, as it is been handed down in the disciplic succession. Everyone is trying to follow, She is the greatest devotee and we are all trying to be devotees. So She is everyone’s guru (inaudible). She is teaching everyone and She is so kind that She has unlimited capacity to engage devotees. If you want to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service, Rādhārāṇī can find a place for you. Don’t worry. Simply you need to make up your mind, that is all, “I want to do is serve Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī will facilitate.” But there may be many tests and we can see that Kṛṣṇa made it very complicated for Rādhārāṇī to serve Him (you know). It is not so complicated for us to serve. Prabhupāda made it really simple, but because She is the greatest devotee, so then it made it the most complicated situation for Her. It was fairly simple for the queens Dvārakā right – svakīya. But to be officially married to somebody else, even though, your real husband is Kṛṣṇa, but have to deal with all these things. It is very complicated and to balance everything and observe all the cultural norms. So Rādhārāṇī, in spite of unlimited obstacles, She always managed to do the right thing and please Kṛṣṇa. So simply by remembering Her, we can overcome all the obstacles in our path of devotional service and we can also get Her mercy. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Harṃ

Paṅkajānghrī Prabhu always serving Rādhā Mādhava! (Jaya!) He will speak his realization. Let him speak at Nanda-Bhavan, palace of Nanda Mahārāja!