SRI RADHA : ' The Play and Perfection of Rasa '

[Guest guest]

Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste.

 

This is an excerpt from - "Radha: The Play and Perfection of Rasa"

 

THE PERCEPTION OF RASA: POETRY BEYOND PHILOSOPHY

 

This state of RASA is at the LIMIT OF REASON, for rational categories

are predicated on the possibility of duality that is no longer

possible here.

 

"The ULTIMATE ESSENCE OF LOVE IS LIKE THE EXPERIENCE OF THE MUTE,"

 

as in the Narada Bhakti Sutra. 52, it can be communicated only

experiantially, THROUGH THE GRACE OF RADHARANI.

 

SHE MELTS THE HIGHLY CONDENSED RASA AND MAKES IT AVAILABLE TO THE

THIRSTY, THROUGH HER ETERNAL RASA WITH SRI KRISHNA.

 

HERE THE REALM OF MIND IS REPLACED WITH THAT OF THE HEART;

FEELING SUPERSEDES REASON.

INTELLECTUAL CONTEMPLATION GIVES WAY TO AESTHETIC PARTICIPATION AND

THE MEDIUM OF EXPRESSION BECOMES POETRY.

 

"From age to age one ESSENCE, TWO NAMES:

the JOY OF BLISS IS SYAM,

the BLISS OF JOY IS SYAMA.

 

>From all eternity manifest

as TWO IN A SINGLE FORM

TWO as ONE THEY come to Vrindavana.

 

Radha-Krishna, Krishna-Radha,

ever and unchanging,

Devastatingly Beautiful."

 

In this song of Sri Harivyasa dasa the Two Names are not only the

obvious counterparts SYAMA and SYAM, Radha and Krishna respectively,

but JOY AND BLISS, words which translate interchangeably, HLADINI and

ANANDA.

 

These two are not exactly identical, however, since the first is

Feminine and the second Masculine, and the first especially

associated with Radhaji in theology and the second with Sri Krishna.

 

Yet the Poet shows that THEY ARE INDISSOLUBLY INTERLOCKED.

In the SAME INTENSE WAY SRI CAITANYA, WHO IS BOTH RADHAJI AND SRI

KRISHNA IN A SINGLE DIVINE BODY, is associated with the DOUBLE

MANIFESTATION OF THE SINGLE DIVINE ESSENCE IN VRAJA and it all shows

that RASA always has the capacity to REVERSE ITS FLOW.

 

In that moment the LOVER BECOMES THE BELOVED, as if ice were to

become water and water, ice.

Gradually RASA matures until those WHO PLAY AT LOVE LOSE THEMSELVES

TOTALLY IN THE GAME.

 

At that point, one BECOMES ABSORBED IN THE OTHER, and the nature of

the Beloved washes back through the Lover, replacing what was there

before (vaiparItya).

 

" She wears His pea-cock feather,

He dons Her lovely, delicate crown;

She sports His yellow garments,

He wraps Himself in Her beautiful sari.

 

How charming the very sight of it --

the Moon of Vraja has adorned Her in the grove;

The Daughter of Vrshabhanu turns Nanda's Son,

and Nanda's Son, Vrshabhanu's Girl."

 

The history of Love matures COMPLETELY in the

TWO-IN-ONE Incarnation of Sri Caitanya;

 

He is Both Radharani and Sri Krishna.

In Sri Caitanya the Pattern of Love and Devotion is reversed, for

Love's Object has become Love's Subject.

 

God has come down as a Devotee to settle His debt for all Humanity's

Devotion.

 

The Dark One has become Light-complexioned (gaura, an epithet of

Caitanya); in CAITANYA HARI, The THIEF OF LOVE has become RADHA, THE

GIVER OF LOVE!

 

Radha alone, the EMBODIMENT OF THE HIGHEST LOVE CONSCIOUSNESS,

stimulates this transformation.

 

IT WAS THE INTENSITY OF HER LOVE THAT PROMPTED KRISHNA TO DESIRE TO

SHIFT THE BALANCE OF FORCES BETWEEN LOVER AND BELOVED and TO

EXPERIENCE FOR HIMSELF THE ROLE OF THE LONGING LOVER.

 

Radhaji's Love made Him see that the BLISS OF LOVE LIES NOT SO MUCH

IN BEING ITS CONSTANT OBJECT AS IN EXPERIENCING WHAT IT IS CONSTANTLY

TO GIVE LOVE!

 

Radhaji's GREATNESS was that She was TOTALLY DEDICATED TO FULFILLING

THE WISHES OF HER BELOVED.

 

AS SUCH SHE BECAME KRISHNA'S PRECEPTOR IN LOVE, and

HE TAKING HER ROLE IN THE PERSON OF CAITANYA,

INSTRUCTS HUMANITY AT LARGE IN THE ART OF LOVE.

 

SO STRONG is the Beauty of Radharani that

She ATTRACTS the SUPREME ATTRACTOR.

 

SO GREAT IS HER POWER THAT SHE MAKES KRISHNA

SELF-CONSCIOUS (Krishna-Caitanya, Caitanya's Full Name).

 

SO FORMIDABLE IS HER LOVE THAT IT CHANGES

THE STANDARD COLOR OF LOVE FROM DARK (Krishna's color)

TO GLOWING LIGHT (Her own: Ujjvala).

 

SO TOTAL IS HER GRACE THAT THE TRANSCENDENTAL

BECOMES IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE IN THE PHENOMENAL REALM.

 

In this TOTALLY BLISSFUL EXPERIENCE,

 

"LOVER, BELOVED AND LOVE ITSELF DANCE IN ONE BODY, " as Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu among us, and

 

HE REFLECTS BACK AND MAKES KNOWABLE

THE GLORIES OF THE LOVE OF SRIMATI

RADHARANI AND LORD KRISHNA IN VRAJA.

 

(By Sri Srivatsa Goswami, Academic Director of the Sri Caitanya Prema

Sansthana and member of family priests at Sri Radha Ramana Temple,

Vrindavan, India.)

 

All Glories to Sri Guru Gauranga Mahaprabhu!

 

Jaya, Jaya Sri Radhey!

[Guest guest]

Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste all.

 

"Radha's Name is the greatest Treasure.

Syama plays that Name on His Flute,

Remembering Her constantly.

 

She is the thread in every fabric,

Each Yantra and Mantra, each Veda and Tantra.

 

Sukadeva knew this secret of secret,

but decided it best stay unrevealed;

 

Krishna takes numberless Forms to pursue It:

still Its depths elude Him.

 

But I, Vyasadasa, now shout It out openly,

throwing all caution to the winds."

 

Sukadeva, in narrating Sri Krishna Lilas in Bhagavata Purana,

maintained COMPLETE SILENCE ABOUT RADHAJI.

 

His was AN INTENTIONAL SILENCE, for Sri Radha, as the QUINTESSENCE OF

RASA, THE SUPREME AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE, IS THE MOST VALUABLE JEWEL IN

THE TREASURE-HOUSE OF LOVE.

 

ONLY A CHOSEN FEW WHO KNOW THE CODE OF LOVE HAVE ACCESS TO THAT

HIGHEST WEALTH:

OUTSIDERS SUCH AS INTELLECT AND WILL ARE CAREFULLY KEPT AWAY.

 

Four centuries ago Sri Jiva Gosvami learned that CODE THROUGH HER

GRACE AND OPENED THE TREASURE-HOUSE for all TO SEE.

 

With painstaking scholarship he showed that the

HIGHEST RASA, RADHA-KRISHNA IN THEIR UNIFIED FORM

(rAdhA kRSNa ekAkAra svarUpa)

is the TRUE REFERRANT of the very FIRST VERSE of

the BHAGAVATA PURANA and the IMPLICIT SUBJECT of IT ALL.

 

(Gopala Campu, pUrva 33.8)

 

His treatise on the Bhagavata by making clear HOW RADHA'S RASA

PERMEATES THE WHOLE, stood in DANGER OF DILUTING THIS RASA IN ITS

CRYSTALLIZED FORM, yet for the sake of INCREASING UNDERSTANDING he

dared to proceed.

 

I too have DARED, and TAKE REFUGE IN HIS PRAYER for having DONE SO:

 

'For whatever I may have distorted in the tiniest degree,

may the BELOVED OF GOKULA, FULL OF COMPASSION, FORGIVE ME.'

 

(Krishna Sandarbha, anu.181)

 

All Praise to Srimati RADHARANI:

 

Jai Sri Radhe!

 

(An excerpt from - "Radha: The Play and Perfection of Rasa" by

Sri Srivatsa Goswami,

Academic Director of the Sri Caitanya Prema Sansthana,

Vrindavan, India)

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!