VERSES 1-2:

AVIKSHYATMESVARIM KACID VRINDAVANA MAHESVARIM
TAT PADAMBHOJA MATRAIKA GATIR DASYATI KATARA
PATITA TAT SARAS TIRE RUDATY ARTA RAVAKULAM
TAC CHRI VAKTREKSHANAVAPTYAI NAMANY ETANI SAMJAGAU

    Not seeing her goddess, the Queen of Vrindavana, a certain maidservant, who considers Her lotus feet the only goal of Her life became very anxious, fell down at the shore of Her lake (Sri Radhakunda), cried loudly out of pain, and, just to see Her beautiful face, sang the following names:

Stavamrita Kana Vyakhya by Srila Ananta das Babaji:

In this stava Srila Raghunatha dasa glorifies Srimati Radharani with 108 names. The holy names of the Lord and His constitutional potency (svarupa sakti, or His eternal associates) are sva prakasa, or self-manifest on the tongues of those who have a service-attitude. Srila Rupa Gosvami teaches:

atah sri Krishna namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah

The very life of devotion is the eagerness in the devotee’s heart. The more eager he is to make the Lord happy, the more elevated is his service-attitude, and the more the holy name becomes manifest on his tongue and in his heart. In the heart of an eager devotee the holy name will reveals its innermost secrets. Different devotees have composed a 108-name-stotram of their beloved deity, but that’s not quite the way in which Sri Raghunatha sings his 108 names of Sri Radha. Sri Raghunatha’s heart almost breaks when he sings these 108 names of Sri Radhika. He is separation from Radharani personified, and Her lotus feet are his only shelter. He is Her poor maidservant, who can only find solace in Her lotus feet. Without Sri Radha, the whole world is empty for a radha-gata-prana kinkari.

Sri Raghu anxiously falls down on the bank of Radhakunda, crying day and night for Radharani’s blessed audience. While he laments he forgets all about his body and everything related to it. The slender vine-like body of this maidservant is burning in the fire of separation, and she cannot tolerate this burning separation anymore. Nobody can describe in a mere commentary how deep and vast the ocean of his feelings of separation is. Srimati doesn’t come just like that to grant Her audience to Her maidservants. Perhaps merciful Svamini hides Herself to witness Raghunatha’s suffering and weeps along with him, thinking: “Raghunatha! Cry! By crying in this way you will attain Me in full. This is the only way to relish My sweetness!” If it was not like that, then how could merciful Svamini remain calm when She hears Her beloved maidservant weep in the anguish of separation? It is said in Ujjvala Nilamani that She is so compassionate that She once smeared the mouth of a newly born calf, that had become wounded by touching a tender blade of grass, with the vermilion that anoints Her own body, while tears ran down Her cheeks! How can She then remain calm when She hears Her surrendered maidservant crying out of separation from Her?

Sri Raghunatha dasa muddens the ground on the bank of Radhakunda with his tears of love, and he loudly laments, desiring to see Srimati’s moonlike face. There is no other means of survival for him than to see Srimati’s lotus feet, so he desperately thinks: “How can I possibly see Srimati’s lotus feet?” Then he suddenly remembers: “The best way is to attract the nami (the holy named) by chanting the nama (name)!” Therefore he spontaneously begins to weep the following 108 holy names of Srimati, according to his own spontaneous inspiration. Sri Raghunatha dasa’s heart is so pure that all these names automatically emanate from his lotus-like mouth. Thus he himself becomes intoxicated by their sweetness and he makes all the devotees of the world drink this nectar along with him by recording them in this stotra.

 

VERSE 3:

RADHA GANDHARVIKA GOSHTHA-YUVARAJAIKA KAMITA
GANDHARVARADHIKA CANDRAKANTIR MADHAVA SANGINI

    1) Radha 2) Gandharvika 3) Goshtha yuvarajaika kamita (the only girl desired by the prince of the pastures) 4) Gandharvaradhika (the girl who is worshipped by the Gandharva-angels) 5) Candrakanti 6) Madhava sangini (the consort of Madhava).

Stavamrita Kana Vyakhya: In this verse Sri Raghunatha reveals 6 names of Srimati Radharani. The first one he mentions is the main one, Radha. The Sanskrit verbal root radh indicates ‘worship’. Srimati Radharani is Sri Krishna-aradhika, hence Her name is ‘Radha’. She is best known under this name because nobody can worship Krishna with body, mind and words like Her. Sri Krishna is most satisfied with the relish of full prema rasa, and only Sri Radha is able to fulfil Sri Krishna’s desire for relishing priti rasa. Although many gopis make Krishna relish the mellows of love, none of them is named Radha. They all have their limits in relishing priti rasa, according to their own quantity and quality; but none of them is ‘Radha’. sringara-rasa-ghana murati Sri Govinda is most satisfied by relishing the full flavour of prema, and only Sri Radha can satisfy these desires, because She alone is maha-bhava-svarupini. In Srimad Bhagavata, paramahamsa Srila Suka Muni, the vakta (speaker) of the Rasa-lila, made this clear in the verse reme taya svatmarata atmaramo’py akhanditah (10.30.35): “Although Sri Krishna was Self-satisfied, He still fully enjoyed with Her (Radha).” Although Sri Sukadeva did not mention the name of any gopi, he could on the other hand not resist the temptation of mentioning the name of Sri Krishna’s greatest worshipper (aradhika), Sri Radhika. In this way he blessed himself and the whole world with him by cleverly proclaiming Her complete worship of Sri Krishna and Her great love:

anayaradhito nunam bhagavan harir isvarah
yan no vihaya govindah prito yam anayad rahah

(Srimad Bhagavata 10.30.28)

“Surely She (Radha) has worshipped Lord Hari (better than us), therefore Govinda has abandoned us and has lovingly taken Her to a lonely place”. During the Rasa-dance Krishna abandoned the gopis and took Sri Radha off to a lonely place. All the other gopis were very upset with this and followed Their foot prints into the forest. When they saw these footprints, some gopis that were loyal to Sri Radha (suhrit paksha) spoke the above verse. This verse not only exclusively reveals Sri Radha’s name, but also shows Her absolute superiority over the other gopis. In the Toshani-comment on this verse it is written: radhayati aradhayatiti radheti nama-karanas ca darsitam “Radha’s name is shown here in the word radhito, which means worshiping.” One may ask here: Why did Sukadeva freely mention the names of Krishna’s Queens like Rukmini and Satyabhama, and why didn’t he clearly mention the holy name ‘Radha’? According to Sri Sanatana Gosvami Sri Sukadeva would have been so agitated by the sparks coming from the great fire of topmost prema after pronouncing this ecstatic Radha-name that he would not have been able to complete the recitation of the Bhagavata before Emperor Parikshit, who had only 7 days left to live. (See: Brihad Bhagavatamrita 1.7.158) Those who argue ‘Why was Radha’s name not written in the Bhagavata?’ may consider Sanatana Gosvami’s conclusion in Brihad Bhagavatamrita and can understand that the fact that Radha’s name is not clearly mentioned in the Bhagavata does not show Her inferiority, but Her supreme superiority. For exactly the same reason Srila Suka Muni did not mention any of the other gopis’ name either in the Bhagavata.

The second name of Srimati’s that Sripada Raghunatha mentions is Gandharvika. gandharvam karayaty uccarayatiti gandharvika (Sripada Baladeva Vidyabhushana) The Gandharva-angels are very expert in the art of singing, hence the art of singing is also known as gandharva vidya. Sri Radhika is the greatest singer, and therefore She is also called Gandharvika. In his treatise Ujjvala Nilamani, Sri Rupa Gosvami describes one of Radharani’s twenty-five qualities, sangita prasarabhijna (She’s expert in singing), with the following example:

Krishna-sara hara pancama svare munca gita kutukani radhike
prekshate’tra harinanudhavitam tvam na yavad ati roshanah patih

Sri Visakha told Sri Radha: “O Radhe! When they hear You singing in the fifth note, the deer become very agitated. Stop singing immediately, before Your husband, who is naturally always angry (abhi-manyu), sees this Krishna-sara-deer (a black antelope, or Krishna) following You.” In other words: “Your voice is sweeter than that of a cuckoo, and it steals Krishna’s patience. As soon as He hears You singing like this, He’ll start running after You. It’s better if Your naturally angry husband doesn’t see this, so quickly stop singing!”

Srimati’s third name is goshtha yuvarajaika kamita, the only girl who is desired by the young prince of the pastures, Sri Krishna. This young prince of the pasturelands is the Self-satisfied, Self-delighted Supreme Lord Himself, and nothing else but the love of His devotees causes waves of transcendental desire to appear in His heart. That does not contradict His being Self-satisfied at all, though. The love of His devotee belongs to His innate potency, which makes Him both atmarama (Self-delighted) and premarama (delighted with love). Sri Radharani is the presiding goddess of prema, which is the essence of the Lord’s hladini-, or pleasure-potency. She appears as His consort to be always exclusively desired by Krishna for Her madana prema. Krishna can relish the love of all the gopis through Her alone, for Her madana prema is the cause of all the gopis’ ecstasy. Therefore Sri Radha is the only one He desires. It is only for the sake of relishing Radhika’s different moods, like mana (jealous anger), khandita (disappointment) and kalahantarita (remorse after making a quarrel), that Krishna sometimes cheats Her with another girl, like Candravali for instance. This astonishes Him with an unprecedented relish. Thus, when it seems that Krishna desires Candravali, it is actually that He desires Sri Radha. Even Krishna’s mother and father, boy- and girlfriends and other relatives are all required to assist (mostly unknowingly) Him in relishing kanta-rasa (His pastimes with Sri Radhika). Krishna desires them also only because He desires Sri Radha. Hence it is said: ratri dina kunja krida kore radha sange (C.C.) “Day and night He plays in the kunja with Radha.” One may then ask: “If Krishna plays with Sri Radha in the kunja day and night, then when will He play with His relatives and His friends?” The answer to this is that even when He plays with them there is an underlying current of relishing Radha’s rasa flowing within Krishna’s heart. Rasikas can easily understand this.

The words goshtha yuva-raja, or prince of the pasturelands, are significant. He is the prince, and not the king of the pastures. He doesn’t have to worry about maintaining any kingdom. He can sport freely, He is the dhira lalita-hero. vidagdho nava tarunya parihasa visaradah; niscinto dhira lalita syat prayah preyasi-vasah (B.R.S 2.1.230). “A dhira lalita-hero is clever, young, expert in joking, careless and always controlled by the love of his darlings.” Therefore there can be no obstacle to the nourishment in His heart of His constant desire for Sri Radha.

Sri Radha, being the root cause of the Lord’s pleasure potency, is also present in the hearts of all the dedicated devotees of the Lord, be they practising devotees, advanced practitioners, perfected souls, or eternally perfected souls. Sri Krishna’s desire to relish the love of all the devotees originates in His desire for Sri Radha – and therefore Her name of goshtha yuva-rajaika kamita, She who is the only desired lover of the young prince of the pasture-lands, is most justified.

Sri Radha’s fourth name is Gandharvaradhika, She who worships Krishna with different kinds of expert arts, among which is the art of singing. It is said na vidya sangitaparah, there is no greater science than song, but in the Bhagavata it is said sa vidya tan matir yaya, the real science is to become fixed in consciousness of Sri Bhagavan’s lotus feet – yayaksharam adhigamyate. Sriman Mahaprabhu asked Sri Ramananda Raya: kon vidya vidya madhye sara “Which science is the greatest?”, to which Ramananda Raya replied Krishna bhakti vina vidya nahi ara: “There’s no greater science than devotion to Krishna.” Therefore, if this science of devotion meets with the science of song, it can delight Krishna greatly, but not otherwise.

The worldfamous scholar Madhusudana Sarasvati has written in his Prasthana-bheda that the Gandharva Veda is one of the subdivisions of the Vedas, and therefore belongs to the eighteen different Vedic sciences. The science of song exists from beginningless time. The first raga appeared from the holy mouth of Lord Siva, and five more ragas appeared from the holy mouth of Mother Parvati. Thus there were six ragas, and Lord Brahma learned them. Lord Brahma had five disciples, named Narada, Rambha, Tumburu, Huhu and Bharata. Of them, Tumbura, Bharata and others became known as Gandharvacaryas, or teachers of song, in the assembly of the gods in heaven, after teaching expertise in the art of singing there. Narada and Bharata became famous for teaching the scriptures on song. Bharata Muni, who first taught the art of dance in the assembly of the heavenly king Indra, wrote the Natya Sastra, the famous scripture on aesthetics. Sri Krishna and the gopis manifested all the items of the art of song and dance during the Rasa-lila, although they are actually the root cause of the entire science of song! In the book Sangita Sara it is written:

tavanta eva ragah syur yavatyo jiva jatayah
teshu shodasa sahasri pura gopikrita vara

“There are as many ragas as there are living entities in this world, but the 16,000 ragas that were sung by the gopis during the Rasa-dance were the most excellent.” The voices of the Vraja-gopis, who are called Rati-priya (beloved of Cupid’s wife), and who all have maha-bhava, are smoothened by the mellow of love. There is no mucus or phlegm in their throats, because they are made entirely of prema. Their throats are colored by anuraga (elevated prema), and the ragas and raginis that they sing are all very sweet and sprinkled with the juice of love. Because Radharani worships Rasaraja Sri Krishna in the Rasa-dance by singing sweet love songs for Him with Her innumerable gopi-friends, She is justly called Gandharvaradhika.

Sri Radhika’s fifth name is Candrakanti. That means that Her body glows like the moon, and when Krishna sees that aura, the burning pain in His mind and His eyes, that was caused by Cupid, is at once extinguished. He becomes like a Cakora-bird, which is at once enchanted by drinking the nectar of that aura. Not only that, but when all the conditioned souls, that are burning in the hellish fire of material existence, see Her transcendental luster of soothing love, they are immediately pacified and attain ecstatic love for Krishna. It is well-known that if a practising devotee sees loving Srimati Radha, he immediately attains love of God, even without performing any further sadhana. Particularly in this age of Kali, Sri Radha blesses the people of the world with prema, because in this age Sri Gauranga has descended to earth, accepting Her mood and complexion, and distributes the fruit of love of God to everyone, indiscriminately. Simply by seeing Sri Gauranga all the people of the world have been blessed with prema.

Another reason for Sri Radha having the name Candrakanti is explained in the Padma Purana: “There was once a Gandharva-maiden named Candrakanti who wanted to enjoy pastimes with Sri Gopala after seeing His wonderful beauty and sweetness, so a fraction of her descended to earth and lovingly danced for Him with some other women for the sake of attaining a suitable transcendental form to meet with Him. Thus she got the blessing from Sri Gopala’s pure devotee, Lord Brahma, so that she could fully descend to earth, with all her portions, and meet (merge) with Vrishabhanu-nandini Radha”. This merging indicates a monistic accomplishment of becoming identical with the deity, while it is said that amorous association of Krishna is only possible through the practice of raganuga bhakti. Therefore Sri Jiva Gosvami has given the following explanation, suitable for practitioners of raganuga bhakti: nitya tan maha sakti rupataya prasiddhayah sri radhaya vibhuti-rupa bala sabdena mantavya. kintu svayam sri radhika tu tasyah phalavasthayam tam sakhim vidhaya tasyah sadhana siddhi gatam sarvam kripaya atmana eva mene ityevabhedena nirdese karanam jneyam (Durgama Sangamani commentary on Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu 1.3.14) “The girl Candrakanti is a manifestation of Sri Krishna’s great potency named Sri Radha, but when she attained perfection, Sri Radha allowed her to become Her personal girlfriend, and thus considered all of Candrakanti’s activities, both as a practitioner and as a perfected being, to be performed by Herself. Only Sri Radha, the boundless ocean of compassion, could accept somebody like that. For this reason Candrakanti is considered to be non-different from Sri Radha in some of the devotional scriptures, and ‘Candrakanti’ is considered to be one of the names of Sri Radhika.

Sri Radha’s sixth name is Madhava sangini, the consort of Madhava. Can there by any consort of Madhava like Her? Although Radha and Madhava are non-different from Each other, They assume two separate forms to relish the flavour of Their transcendental pastimes.

mrigamada tara gandha yaiche aviccheda; agni jvalate yaiche nahi kabhu bheda
radha-Krishna aiche sada ekai svarupa; lila rasa asvadite dhare dui rupa (C.C.)

“Just as musk and its scent are inseparable, and there is never any difference between fire and its flames, similarly Radha and Krishna are One Truth, that has assumed two forms to relish the mellows of transcendental pastimes.” Although this formless energy is always dwelling within Krishna, it has assumed the visible form of Vrishabhanu-nandini to be Her eternal consort in the field of transcendental pastimes. Only She can fulfill Krishna’s desires for erotic mellows. Although She needs Her girlfriends to strengthen and nourish Her pastimes with Krishna, none of these billions of girls can single-handedly please and satisfy Krishna.

radha saha krida rasa vriddhira karana; ara sob gopigana rasopakarana
Krishna vallabha radha – Krishna pranadhana; taha vinu sukha hetu nahe gopigana (C.C.)

“All the other gopis are the cause and ingedrients for the increase of flavour of Krishna’s pastimes with Radha. Radha is Krishna’s beloved and the treasure of His heart, and without Her, the gopis cannot delight Krishna.”

Another meaning of the word sanga is ‘attachment’. Sri Radha is named Madhava Sangini because She is strongly attached to Madhava. It is described in the play “Vidagdha Madhava” that once Paurnamasi wanted to test Sri Radha’s love, so she told Her: “O Radhe! You are an ordinary cowherdgirl, and Sri Krishna’s lotus feet are coveted even by the goddess of fortune! You look like a dwarf wanting to catch the moon, and Your desire to attain Krishna will only make You seem ridiculous! Therefore, give up Your attachment to Krishna!”
In answer to that, Srimati suddenly said:

maya te nirbandhan muravijayini ragah parihrita
mayi snigdhe kintu prathaya paramasis tatim imam
mukhamododgara grahila matir adyaiva hi yatah
pradosharambhe syam vimala vanamala madhukari

 

“O Noble lady! On your order I will give up My passionate attachment to Krishna! But, O tender lady! Please bless Me then that I can now give up My body, so that today, at nightfall, I can still become a bumblebee flying nearby the spotless forest-flowergarland that is scented by the fragrance of Krishna’s face!” The holy mother Paurnamasi then told Nandimukhi:

pratyahritya munih kshanam vishayato yasmin mano dhitsate
balasau vishayeshu dhitsati tatah pratyaharanti manah
yasya sphurti lavasya hanta hridaye yogi samutkanthate
mugdheyam kila pasya tasya hridayan nishkrantim akankshati

 

“O Nandimukhi! Look, how amazing! The great sages try to withdraw their minds from the sense-objects for even a moment, just so that they can think of Krishna, but this girl is trying to force Her mind to forget Krishna! Alas! This bewildered girl vainly tries to throw Him, whom the yogis try to catch in their hearts for just a moment, by performing great austerities, out of Her heart!” This is another example of Radhika’s great attachment to Madhava, for which She is called ‘Madhava sangini’.

(Translation: Advaita das)