Śrī Rādhikāṣṭottara Śata nāma stotram – Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī

108 NAMES OF ŚRĪ RĀDHIKĀ

VERSE 3:

RĀDHĀ GĀNDHARVIKĀ GOṢṬHA-YUVARĀJAIKA KĀMITĀ
GĀNDHARVĀRĀDHIKĀ CANDRAKĀNTIR MĀDHAVA SAṄGINĪ

1) Rādhā
2) Gāndharvikā
3) Goṣṭha yuvarājaika kāmitā (the only girl desired by the prince of the pastures)
4) Gāndharvārādhikā (the girl who is worshipped by the Gāndharvā-angels)
5) Candrakānti
6) Mādhava saṅginī (the consort of Mādhava).

Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā by Śrīmat Ananta Dāsa Bābājī:

In this verse Śrī Raghunātha reveals 6 names of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
The first one he mentions is the main one, Rādhā. The Sanskrit verbal root rādh indicates ‘worship’. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is Śrī Kṛṣṇa-ārādhikā, hence Her name is ‘Rādhā’.
She is best known under this name because nobody can worship Kṛṣṇa with body, mind and words like Her. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is most satisfied with the relish of full prema rasa, and only Śrī Rādhā is able to fulfill Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s desire for relishing prīti rasa.
Although many gopīs make Kṛṣṇa relish the mellows of love, none of them is named Rādhā. They all have their limits in relishing prīti rasa, according to their own quantity and quality; but none of them is ‘Rādhā’. śṛṅgāra-rasa-ghana mūrati Śrī Govinda is most satisfied by relishing the full flavour of prema, and only Śrī Rādhā can satisfy these desires, because She alone is mahā-bhāva-svarūpinī. In Śrīmad Bhāgavata, paramahaṁsa Śrīla Śuka Muni, the vaktā (speaker) of the Rāsa-līlā, made this clear in the verse reme tayā svātmarata ātmarāmo’py akhaṇḍitaḥ (10.30.35): “Although Śrī Kṛṣṇa was Self-satisfied, He still fully enjoyed with Her (Rādhā).”

Although Śrī Śukadeva did not mention the name of any gopī, he could on the other hand not resist the temptation of mentioning the name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s greatest worshipper (ārādhikā), Śrī Rādhikā. In this way he blessed himself and the whole world with him by cleverly proclaiming Her complete worship of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Her great love:

anayārādhito nūnaṁ bhagavān harir īśvaraḥ
yan no vihāya govindaḥ prīto yām anayad rahaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavata 10.30.28)

“Surely She (Rādhā) has worshipped Lord Hari (better than us), therefore Govinda has abandoned us and has lovingly taken Her to a lonely place”.

During the Rāsa-dance Kṛṣṇa abandoned the gopīs and took Śrī Rādhā off to a lonely place. All the other gopīs were very upset with this and followed Their footprints into the forest. When they saw these footprints, some gopīs that were loyal to Śrī Rādhā (suhṛt pakṣa) spoke the above verse. This verse not only exclusively reveals Śrī Rādhā’s name, but also shows Her absolute superiority over the other gopīs. In the Toṣaṇī-comment on this verse it is written: rādhayati ārādhayatīti rādheti nāma-karaṇaś ca darśitam –
“Rādhā’s name is shown here in the word rādhito, which means worshiping.”

One may ask here: Why did Śukadeva freely mention the names of Kṛṣṇa’s Queens like Rukmiṇī and Satyabhāmā, and why didn’t he clearly mention the holy name ‘Rādhā’? According to Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī Śrī Sukadeva would have been so agitated by the sparks coming from the great fire of topmost prema after pronouncing this ecstatic Rādhā-name, that he would not have been able to complete the recitation of the Bhāgavata before Emperor Parīkṣit, who had only 7 days left to live. (See: Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta 1.7.158)

Those who argue ‘Why was Rādhā’s name not written in the Bhāgavata?’ may consider Sanātana Gosvāmī’s conclusion in Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta and can understand that the fact that Rādhā’s name is not clearly mentioned in the Bhāgavata does not show Her inferiority, but Her supreme superiority. For exactly the same reason Śrīla Śuka Muni did not mention any of the other gopīs’ name either in the Bhāgavata.

The second name of Śrīmatī’s that Śrīpāda Raghunātha mentions is Gāndharvikā. gāndharvaṁ kārayaty uccārayatīti gāndharvikā (Śrīpāda Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa)

The Gandharva-angels are very expert in the art of singing, hence the art of singing is also known as gāndharva vidyā. Śrī Rādhikā is the greatest singer, and therefore She is also called Gāndharvikā. In his treatise Ujjvala Nīlamaṇi, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī describes one of Rādhārāṇī’s twenty-five qualities, sangīta prasarābhijñā (She’s expert in singing), with the following example:

Kṛṣṇa-sāra hara pañcama svare muñca gīta kutukāni rādhike
prekṣate’tra hariṇānudhāvitāṁ tvāṁ na yāvad ati roṣaṇaḥ patiḥ

Śrī Viśākhā told Śrī Rādhā: “O Rādhe! 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 Kṛṣṇa-sāra-deer (a black antelope, or Kṛṣṇa) following You.” In other words: “Your voice is sweeter than that of a cuckoo, and it steals Kṛṣṇa’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!”

Śrīmatī’s third name is goṣṭha yuvarājaika kāmitā, the only girl who is desired by the young prince of the pastures, Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

This young prince of the pasture-lands 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 ātmārāma (Self-delighted) and premārāma (delighted with love). Śrī Rādhārāṇī is the presiding goddess of prema, which is the essence of the Lord’s hlādinī-, or pleasure-potency. She appears as His consort to be always exclusively desired by Kṛṣṇa for Her mādana prema. Kṛṣṇa can relish the love of all the gopīs through Her alone, for Her mādana prema is the cause of all the gopīs’ ecstasy.
Therefore Śrī Rādhā is the only one He desires. It is only for the sake of relishing Rādhikā’s different moods, like māna (jealous anger), khaṇḍitā (disappointment) and kalahāntaritā (remorse after making a quarrel), that Kṛṣṇa sometimes cheats Her with another girl, like Candrāvalī for instance. This astonishes Him with an unprecedented relish. Thus, when it seems that Kṛṣṇa desires Candrāvalī, it is actually that He desires Śrī Rādhā. Even Kṛṣṇa’s mother and father, boy- and girlfriends and other relatives are all required to assist (mostly unknowingly) Him in relishing kāntā-rasa (His pastimes with Śrī Rādhikā). Kṛṣṇa desires them also only because He desires Śrī Rādhā.
Hence it is said: rātri dina kuñja krīḍā kore rādhā sange (C.C.) “Day and night He plays in the kuñja with Rādhā.”

One may then ask: “If Kṛṣṇa plays with Śrī Rādhā in the kuñja 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 Rādhā’s rasa flowing within Kṛṣṇa’s heart. Rasikas can easily understand this.
The words goṣṭha yuva-rāja, or prince of the pasture-lands, 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 dhīra lalita-hero.

vidagdho nava tāruṇya parihāsa viśāradaḥ;
niścinto dhīra lalita syāt prāyaḥ preyasī-vaśaḥ (B.R.S 2.1.230).

“A dhīra 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 Śrī Rādhā.

Śrī Rādhā, 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. Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s desire to relish the love of all the devotees originates in His desire for Śrī Rādhā – and therefore Her name of goṣṭha yuva-rājaika kāmitā, She who is the only desired lover of the young prince of the pasture-lands, is most justified.

Śrī Rādhā’s fourth name is Gāndharvārādhikā, She who worships Kṛṣṇa with different kinds of expert arts, among which is the art of singing. It is said na vidyā saṅgītaparaḥ, there is no greater science than song, but in the Bhāgavata it is said sā vidyā tan matir yayā, the real science is to become fixed in consciousness of Śrī Bhagavān’s lotus feet – yayākṣaram adhigamyate. Śrīman Mahāprabhu asked Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya: kon vidyā vidyā madhye sāra “Which science is the greatest?”, to which Rāmānanda Rāya replied Kṛṣṇa bhakti vinā vidyā nāhi āra: “There’s no greater science than devotion to Kṛṣṇa.” Therefore, if this science of devotion meets with the science of song, it can delight Kṛṣṇa greatly, but not otherwise.

The world-famous scholar Madhusūdana Sarasvatī has written in his Prasthāna-bheda that the Gāndharva 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 rāga appeared from the holy mouth of Lord Śiva, and five more rāgas appeared from the holy mouth of Mother Pārvatī. Thus there were six rāgas, and Lord Brahmā learned them. Lord Brahmā had five disciples, named Nārada, Rambhā, Tumburu, Huhu and Bharata. Of them, Tumbura, Bharata and others became known as Gāndharvācāryas, or teachers of song, in the assembly of the gods in heaven, after teaching expertise in the art of singing there. Nārada 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 Nāṭya Śāstra, the famous scripture on aesthetics. Śrī Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs manifested all the items of the art of song and dance during the Rāsa-līlā, although they are actually the root cause of the entire science of song! In the book Sangīta Sāra it is written:

tāvanta eva rāgāḥ syur yāvatyo jīva jātayaḥ
teṣu ṣoḍaśa sāhasrī purā gopīkṛtā varā

“There are as many rāgas as there are living entities in this world, but the 16,000 rāgas that were sung by the gopīs during the Rāsa-dance were the most excellent.”

The voices of the Vraja-gopīs, who are called Rati-priyā (beloved of Cupid’s wife), and who all have mahā-bhāva, 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 anurāga (elevated prema), and the rāgas and rāginīs that they sing are all very sweet and sprinkled with the juice of love. Because Rādhārāṇī worships Rasarāja Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Rāsa-dance by singing sweet love songs for Him with Her innumerable gopī-friends, She is justly called Gāndharvārādhikā.

Śrī Rādhikā’s fifth name is Candrakānti. That means that Her body glows like the moon, and when Kṛṣṇa 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, that 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 Kṛṣṇa. It is well-known that if a practising devotee sees loving Śrīmatī Rādhā, he immediately attains love of God, even without performing any further sādhanā. Particularly in this age of Kali, Śrī Rādhā blesses the people of the world with prema, because in this age Śrī Gaurāṅga has descended to earth, accepting Her mood and complexion, and distributes the fruit of love of God to everyone, indiscriminately. Simply by seeing Śrī Gaurāṅga all the people of the world have been blessed with prema.

Another reason for Śrī Rādhā having the name Candrakānti is explained in the Padma Purāṇa: “There was once a Gāndharva-maiden named Candrakānti who wanted to enjoy pastimes with Śrī Gopāla 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 Śrī Gopāla’s pure devotee, Lord Brahmā, so that she could fully descend to earth, with all her portions, and meet (merge) with Vṛṣabhānu-nandinī Rādhā”.

This merging indicates a monistic accomplishment of becoming identical with the deity, while it is said that amorous association of Kṛṣṇa is only possible through the practice of rāgānugā bhakti. Therefore Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī has given the following explanation, suitable for practitioners of rāgānugā bhakti: nitya tan mahā śakti rūpatayā prasiddhāyāḥ śrī rādhāyā vibhūti-rūpā bālā śabdena mantavyā. kintu svayaṁ śrī rādhikā tu tasyāḥ phalāvasthāyāṁ tāṁ sakhīṁ vidhāya tasyāḥ sādhana siddhi gataṁ sarvaṁ kṛpayā ātmana eva mene ityevābhedena nirdeśe kāraṇaṁ jñeyam (Durgama Saṅgamanī commentary on Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu 1.3.14) – “The girl Candrakānti is a manifestation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s great potency named Śrī Rādhā, but when she attained perfection, Śrī Rādhā allowed her to become Her personal girlfriend, and thus considered all of Candrakānti’s activities, both as a practitioner and as a perfected being, to be performed by Herself. Only Śrī Rādhā, the boundless ocean of compassion, could accept somebody like that. For this reason Candrakānti is considered to be non-different from Śrī Rādhā in some of the devotional scriptures, and ‘Candrakānti’ is considered to be one of the names of Śrī Rādhikā.”

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

mṛgamada tāra gandha yaiche aviccheda; agni jvālāte yaiche nāhi kabhu bheda
rādhā-Kṛṣṇa aiche sadā ekai svarūpa; līlā rasa āsvādite dhare dui rūpa (C.C.)

“Just as musk and its scent are inseparable, and there is never any difference between fire and its flames, similarly Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are One Truth, that has assumed two forms to relish the mellows of transcendental pastimes.”

Although this formless energy is always dwelling within Kṛṣṇa, it has assumed the visible form of Vṛṣabhānu-nandinī to be Her eternal consort in the field of transcendental pastimes. Only She can fulfill Kṛṣṇa’s desires for erotic mellows. Although She needs Her girlfriends to strengthen and nourish Her pastimes with Kṛṣṇa, none of these billions of girls can single-handedly please and satisfy Kṛṣṇa.

rādhā saha krīḍā rasa vṛddhira kāraṇa; āra sob gopīgaṇa rasopakaraṇa
Kṛṣṇa vallabhā rādhā – Kṛṣṇa prāṇadhana; tāhā vinu sukha hetu nahe gopīgaṇa (C.C.)

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

Another meaning of the word saṅga is ‘attachment’. Śrī Rādhā is named Mādhava Saṅginī because She is strongly attached to Mādhava. It is described in the play “Vidagdha Mādhava” that once Paurṇamāsī wanted to test Śrī Rādhā’s love, so she told Her: “O Rādhe! You are an ordinary cowherdgirl, and Śrī Kṛṣṇa’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 Kṛṣṇa will only make You seem ridiculous! Therefore, give up Your attachment to Kṛṣṇa!” In answer to that, Śrīmatī suddenly said:

mayā te nirbandhān muravijayini rāgaḥ parihṛtā
mayi snigdhe kintu prathaya paramāśīs tatim imām
mukhāmododgāra grahila matir adyaiva hi yataḥ
pradoṣārambhe syāṁ vimala vanamālā madhukarī

“O Noble lady! On your order I will give up My passionate attachment to Kṛṣṇa! 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 Kṛṣṇa’s face!” The holy mother Paurṇamāsī then told Nāndīmukhī:

pratyāhṛtya muniḥ kṣaṇaṁ viṣayato yasmin mano dhitsate
bālāsau viṣayeṣu dhitsati tataḥ pratyāharantī manaḥ
yasya sphūrti lavasya hanta hṛdaye yogī samutkaṇṭhate
mugdheyaṁ kila paśya tasya hṛdayān niṣkrāntim ākāṅkṣati

“O Nāndīmukhi! 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 Kṛṣṇa, but this girl is trying to force Her mind to forget Kṛṣṇa! Alas! This bewildered girl vainly tries to throw Him, whom the yogīs try to catch in their hearts for just a moment, by performing great austerities, out of Her heart!” This is another example of Rādhikā’s great attachment to Mādhava, for which She is called ‘Mādhava saṅginī’.