Mirabai and Radha : The Twin Souls of Krishna

[Guest guest]

Namaste. Here is an interesting essay with beautiful pictures

relating to St. Mirabai and Smt. Radharani

 

Mirabai and Radha : The twin souls of Krishna

 

Devotion for Lord Krishna is equated with a huge range of emotions

and states of mind - from eroticism and sensuality to renunciation

and surrender. Complete immersion of one's soul in Krishna's soul, is

regarded as the path to unadulterated devotion for Krishna. Radha and

Meerabai are seen as the twin zeniths of devotion for Lord Krishna.

Opposites in some sense and yet so much one in their love for the

lord, the devotion of Meerabai and Radha for Krishna show the oneness

of eroticism and renunciation, and finally, the convergence of both

into the omnipresent soul of Krishna in the form of single-minded

love and devotion.

 

..............

 

As Jaidev writes so beautifully in the Geet Govindam about this

sequence:

 

"Paint a leaf on my breasts!

Put colour on my cheeks!

Lay a girdle on my hips!

Twine my heavy braid with flowers!

Fix rows of bangles on my hands,

And jewelled anklets on my feet!"

 

Her yellow-robed lover

Did what Radha said.

 

Such was the strength of Radha's love for Krishna and her longing for

him, that even He, being God, would try to placate the angry Radha.

Keshav Das, a celebrated poet in his treatise on erotica,

Rasikapriya, describes how Krishna would send flowers to an angry

Radha - "flowers which longed to become fragrant by a touch of her

breasts, or an ivory necklace, yearning to fulfill its destiny by

going on a pilgrimage to her bosom, the seat of holiness."

 

The power of her longing was so great and the focus of all her

reflexes on Krishna was so concentrated that her soul merged with

Kirshna's soul to have achieved unity with him (this state is termed

aikya). Radha, when separated from Krishna, became Krishna - reaching

a state of blissful absorption in him (tanmayate). As her spiritual

reach for Krishna crossed all limits, the separation of the desired

and the desirer vanished and so also did the pain of separation, the

yearning and the longing. Physical separation could no longer dictate

mental or spiritual separation from the lord, as Krishna appeared

wherever Radha set her divine eyes upon.

 

...........

 

Lord Krishna's mystique has created an aura around him in Hindu

Mythology. The equation that the feminine gender shares with him is

unique in the Hindu religion. In spite of being Narayana himself (one

of the trinity of supreme Gods in Hindu religion) his personality is

that which humans can identify with.

He is a God and yet loves passionately and indulges in love-

relationships which do not conform to the conventional societal and

religious standards that "good" beings are believed to work within.

 

He is all-powerful yet surrenders to his greatest lovers. He is the

highest deity and yet he worships all those whose devotion for

Krishna envelopes their very soul.It is this Lord Krishna, to whom so

many have dedicated their souls to.

 

Devotion and love for Lord Krishna has been the sole purpose of their

existence. But for a few of those, their existence itself had become

synonymous with love for Krishna. Their love for Krishna shone in

brilliance which was as brilliant as the aura of Krishna himself.

 

Radha and Meerabai were two such devotees, whose love for Krishna

reached a pinnacle of devotion, where their identities merged into

Krishna's. And in spite of the same love for the same lord, Meerabai

differed from Radha in soul and mind.

 

........

 

Please read the entire article at:

 

http://www.dollsofindia.com/mirabai.htm

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!