20230923 Śrī Rādhāṣṭamī Festival Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa! I will speak both in English and Bengali. And today is the sacred day of Rādhāṣṭamī. Today, Rādhārāṇī appeared. Whenever Kṛṣṇa appears, right after Him Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī also appears. Rādhārāṇī is the main energy of Kṛṣṇa. Actually, Vṛṣabhānu and his good wife, they did a lot of tapasya. They did tapasya for three births and many millions of years. They desired to have the internal energy of the Lord as their child. This is not a cheap thing, this is a very, very rare thing. So, the great sage and astrologer Garga Muni, he saw that this Rādhārāṇī was special. That Rādhārāṇī came to be the associate and dear most of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

When I was coming, I heard about a place where a particular pastime took place, Bhāṇḍīravana. There Lord Brahmā came down to perform the wedding. He said, already Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are eternally one, together. But just to be in accordance with the system in this earthly planet, so I will perform a wedding ceremony. But they are already married. So then he performed the marriage ceremony and then Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī asked him, what he wanted as dakṣiṇā. Then Lord Brahmā said, “May I have unflinching devotion at Your lotus feet. May I have this dakṣiṇā for performing the yajña, marriage.” Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Lord Brahmā, he would worship the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa and he would worship the lotus feet of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So, I heard how Lord Brahmā came to Bhāṇḍīravana when I came in, they reminded me of that pastime.

Rādhārāṇī, Her whole purpose is to please Kṛṣṇa. So, when She was here in Navadvīpa-dhāma, then Kṛṣṇa was with a sakhi. Then Rādhārāṇī created this Navadvīpa-dhāma. And She played on the flute. Kṛṣṇa heard this, “Wow! Who is playing the flute so beautifully!” So Kṛṣṇa was attracted and came to Navadvīpa-dhāma. And He saw that Rādhārāṇī was playing the flute. Rādhārāṇī said, “This beautiful dhāma I have created for You.” Kṛṣṇa said, “You made this beautiful dhāma for Me!” This abode has got nine islands. So this place will be non-different from Vṛndāvana. And like in Vṛndāvana all the holy places reside there, similarly in Navadvīpa-dhāma also all the holy places will be summoned by Me. So like this by the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Navadvīpa-dhāma was manifested.

When Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī were small babies, Nanda Mahārāja and Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja, they had a special ceremony. But before that, Nārada Muni, he knew that whenever Kṛṣṇa comes, His supreme energy also comes. So he was going house to house to find that supreme energy. Then he came to the palace of Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja and Kīrtidā devī. He came there and inquired if they had any child. Nārada Muni asked, “You don’t have any girls?” They said, “We did not show because we have a blind girl.” “Let me see that one,” Nārada Muni said. So they put Rādhārāṇī who was blind, in his hands. But when She was put in the hands of Nārada Muni, at that time he became filled with the eight symptoms of ecstatic love. He had never seen any baby so beautiful! And he couldn’t speak anything, just tears were coming down his eyes. Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja and Kīrtidā could not understand why Nārada Muni was crying in this way. After some time, they took the baby from him. So, he had told Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā that they should take special care of their boy. And he told a similar thing to Vṛṣabhānu and Kīrtidā, that they should take very good care of this girl and with great affection and love, care for Her. So Rādhārāṇī said that She wants to open Her eyes to see Kṛṣṇa first. So the two babies were kept together in a crib. So when Kṛṣṇa crawled over to look at Rādhārāṇī, He was right on top of Rādhārāṇī. So Rādhārāṇī could smell Kṛṣṇa. Then Rādhārāṇī opened Her eyes! Haribol! Haribol! To see Kṛṣṇa! Haribol!

We are very fortunate here in Māyāpur, we have Rādhārāṇī, Mādhava and the Aṣṭa-sakhis. In Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda said we should have in the main altar three sets of Deities. On one side on the left, will be the guru-paramparā, in the middle will be the Pañca-tattva and on the right Rādhā Mādhava and aṣṭa-sakhis. Now we have a special side altar, there we have the Deities of Narasiṁhadeva. That altar is being opened next Gaura Pūrṇimā. But the Deities will be moved there in the future.

The meaning of Rādhā’s name was described and so every letter has got some special meaning. Kṛṣṇa told Rādhārāṇī that, Everything rests on Me. But I am resting on You. You don’t have to be ashamed, You can tell this boldly, because everything rests on Me and I rest on You.” Śrīla Prabhupāda was explaining that if Rādhārāṇī says this is a nice devotee, then Kṛṣṇa will give mercy to that devotee. This way, we should please Rādhā and Mādhava.

So this is very special and we are very fortunate to have this ceremony. On Rādhāṣṭamī tithi Śrīla Prabhupāda made very special celebration. At that time, we had no temple in Calcutta. But Śrīla Prabhupāda, he made a ceremony of giving sannyāsa, on the day of Rādhāṣṭamī. And so he had given some sannyāsa initiations before and he told me that I was the eleventh sannyāsī. Maybe that is why, my favorite day is Ekādaśī! Anyway, we should be very careful to observe today.

Now this day of Rādhāṣṭamī is such a powerful day that observing this Rādhāṣṭamī is, I forget, like observing millions of Ekādaśīs! But if someone does not observe Rādhāṣṭamī, they commit very severe sinful act. So somebody asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “Kṛṣṇa has us to fast till midnight. Why does Rādhārāṇī only have us fast till noon?” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that, “Rādhārāṇī is more merciful!”

Anyhow, today is Rādhāṣṭamī. When Kṛṣṇa appears Rādhārāṇī comes in the form of Rādhā. When Kṛṣṇa comes as Rāmacandra, Rādhārāṇī comes as Sītā. When Kṛṣṇa comes as Hari in Vaikuṇṭha, Rādhārāṇī comes as Lakṣmī. All the śaktis are basically coming from Rādhārāṇī. All the queens of Dvārakā, all the gopīs in Vṛndāvana, all the goddesses of fortune. So today is a very special day! Haribol!

Rādhe Śyāma! Now we go over for darśana.