VERSE 80:

RĀDHA DĀSYAM APĀSYA YAḤ PRAYATATE GOVINDA SAṄGĀŚAYE
SO’YAṀ PŪRṆA SUDHĀ RUCEḤ PARICAYAṀ RĀKĀṀ VINĀ KĀṄKṢATI
KIṀ CA ŚYĀMARATI PRAVĀHA LAHARĪ BĪJAṀ NA YE TĀṀ VIDUS
TE PRĀPYĀPI MAHĀMṚTAMBUDHIM AHO BINDUṀ PARAṀ PRĀPNUYUḤ

rādhā dāsyam – Rādhā’s service; apāsya – giving up; yaḥ – who; prayatate – endeavours; govinda saṅga – Govinda’s company; āśaye – desiring; saḥ ayaṁ – that person; pūrṇa – full; sudhā ruceḥ – moon; paricayaṁ – acquaintance; rākāṁ – fullmoon night; vinā – without; kāṅkṣati – desires; kiṁ – what; ca – and; śyāma rati – love for Kṛṣṇa; pravāha – stream; laharī – wave; bījaṁ – the seed; na – not; ye – who; tāṁ – Her; viduḥ – knows; te – they; prāpya – attaining; api – even; mahā – great; amṛta – nectar; ambudhim – ocean; aho – O!; binduṁ – drop; paraṁ – highest; prāpnuyuḥ – attain.

Anyone who gives up the service of Śrī Rādhā desiring Govinda’s personal company is like someone,
who wants to enjoy the full moon without the full-moon night.
Anyone who does not know that Rādhā is the seed of Śyāma’s pleasure is like someone,
who only gets a drop of the great ocean of nectar that is available to him!

THE BIRTHPLACE OF LOVE FOR KṚṢṆA:

Commentary:

The Lord is subdued by devotion, that is His nature. The Siddhānta Ratna states:

bhaktau khalu bhagavān svayam eva vaśībhūta tiṣṭhati,
tāmarasa koṣe madhupa iva rasika yuvatyāṁ rasika yuveveti śruti smṛtebhyaḥ pratīyate.

“God is certainly controlled by devotion, as a bee is caught by the lotuswhorl and a romantic youngster is captured by a romantic young girl.
This is said by the śruti and smṛti-scriptures.”

The Lord is mostly captured by the sweet love of the people of Vraja.

Śrīla Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura said to Śrī Kṛṣṇa:

gopālāṅgana kardameṣu viharan viprādhvare lajjase
brūṣe go vṛṣa hunkṛtaiḥ stuti śatair maunaṁ vidhatse śatam
dāsyaṁ gokula puṁścalīṣu kuruṣe svāymaṁ na dāntātmasu
jṣṇtaṁ kṛṣṇa tavāṅghri paṅkaja-yugaṁ premaika labhyaṁ muhuḥ

“O Kṛṣṇa! You play in the mud on the yards of the cowherders, but You are hesitant to appear on the pure sacrificial altars of the noble brāhmaṇas;
You cry out when You hear the mooing of the cows and bulls of Vraja, but when the great sages offer hundreds of reverential prayers to You, You remain silent.
You become the servant of the cowherdgirls in Vraja while You don’t even want to be the master of the austere ascetics.
O Kṛṣṇa! Thus I know that Your lotus-feet can only be attained by ecstatic love!”

Śrī Rādhikā is the greatest devotee of Vraja, so it is needless to say that to desire Govinda’s company without Her is like desiring the full moon without the fullmoon night.
Why is Kṛṣṇa, after all, called ‘Govinda’? Because all of His senses are pleased by Śrī Rādhikā.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa personally tells Her:

nirdhūtāmṛta mādhurī parimalaḥ kalyāṇi bimbādharo
vaktraṁ paṅkaja saurabhaṁ kuharitā ślāghābhidas te giraḥ
aṅgaṁ candana śītalaṁ tanur iyam saundarya sarvasva bhāk
tvam āsvādya mamedam indriya-kulam rādhe muhur modate
(Lalita Mādhava 9.9)

“O Kalyāṇi (beautiful, auspicious girl)! Your lips defeat the redness of Bimba-cherries and the sweetness and the fragrance of nectar,
Your face is more fragrant than the lotus-flower, Your voice is sweeter than that of the cuckoos and Your limbs are cooler than sandalwoodpulp.
Your body is the vessel of all beauty. In this way, O Rādhe, My senses are always gladdened by relishing Your sweetness!”

Therefore, the best way to make Kṛṣṇa relish this sweetness is to serve Śrī Rādhā.
Those who were so fortunate to relish Kṛṣṇa’s upswelling beauty by serving Śrī Rādhā have understood that it is completely useless trying to relish it by giving up that service.

All the different items of spiritual practise performed in Vṛndāvana by a rasika devotee are useless, unless he sees Śrī Rādhā lovingly entwining the dark Tamālatree Śyāmasundara,
like a golden vine that bears fresh sprouts and leaves in the form of Her girlfriends and maidservants.
Why? Because Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness is enhanced by the presence of Śrī Rādhikā and the gopīs!

Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī offers the following examples of how Kṛṣṇa’s beauty is enhanced by Rādhikā’s in his ‘Viśākhānandada stotram (51-62)’:

govindānaṅga rājīve bhānu śrīr vārṣabhānavī; kṛṣṇa hṛt kumudollāse sudhākara kara sthitiḥ
kṛṣṇa mānasa haṁsasya mānasi sarasī varā;
kṛṣṇa cātaka jīvātu navāmbhoda payaḥ śruti
—
kṛṣṇa mañjula tāpiñche vilasat svarṇa yūthikā;
govinda navya pāthode sthira vidyul latādbhutā
grīṣme govinda sarvāṅge candra candana candrikā;
śīte śyāma śubhāṅgeṣu pīta paṭṭa lasat paṭī
madhau kṛṣṇa tarūllāse madhu śrīr madhurākṛtiḥ;
mañju mallāra rāga śrīḥ prāvṛṣi śyāma harṣinī
ṛtau śāradi rāsaika rasikendram iha sphuṭam; varītuṁ hanta rāsa śrīr viharantī sakhī-śritā
hemante smara yuddhārtham aṭantaṁ rājanandanam;
pauruṣena parājetum jaya śrīr mūrti dhārinī

“Śrī Rādhikā, the daughter of Vrsabhānu, is the beautiful sun that shines on the lotus-flower of Govinda’s amorous desires and She’s like the moon that shines on the heart of Kṛṣṇa,
that is like a Kumuda-flower (Kumuda-flowers thrive on the moonlight).
She is the excellent Mānasī-lake where the swan of Kṛṣṇa’s mind swims (swans go to this lake once a year to mate) and She is the fresh cloud that keeps the Kṛṣṇa-Cātakabird alive.
She is a splendid golden Yūthikā-flower on the beautiful Tamāla-tree named Kṛṣṇa, and She is a wonderful steady lightning strike in the fresh raincloud named Kṛṣṇa.
In the summer She is soothing camphor, sandalpaste and moonlight for all of Govinda’s limbs and in the winter She is a glistening yellow silk garment on Śyāma’s handsome limbs.
In the spring She is the sweet form of the vernal goddess of fortune that gladdens the Kṛṣṇa-tree, and in the rainy season She is the lovely Mallāra-melody that delights Śyāma.
In the autumn She selects Rāsaika Rasikendra (Kṛṣṇa, the only king of relishers of the Rāsa-dance) as Her husband and enjoys the Rāsa-dance with Him, accompanied by Her friends.
In the Hemanta-season She wanders around with prince Kṛṣṇa to fight amorous battles, in which She assumes the form of Jaya-Śrī (the goddess of victory) and defeats Him in a masculine way (taking the masculine role during lovemaking).”

O Surasika Bhāvuka-vṛnda (All the sensitive rasika devotees)! In this way Śrī Rādhā is the beauty of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes.

From this we can easily understand how little savour there is in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s company without Śrī Rādhā. Just as it is futile to desire the moonlight in the second or the third night of the light quarter, because there is only a fragment of moonlight available then, so also there is only a fragment of that happiness available from Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness alone, compared to the sweetness of Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa together.

Then again, Śrīpāda says:

kiṁ ca śyāma-rati pravāha laharī bījaṁ na ye tāṁ vidus te prāpyāpi mahāmṛtāmbudhim aho binduṁ paraṁ prāpnuyuḥ –
“Those who do not know that Rādhā is the seed of the tidal wave of love for Śyāma, has only gotten a drop of the great ocean of nectar he has reached.”

Śrī Rādhā is the origin of God’s pleasure potency, and She infuses all the ecstasy of love of God into the hearts of the devotees.

tasyāḥ hlādinyā eva kāpi sarvānandātiśayinī vṛttir nityaṁ bhaktavṛndeṣveva nikṣipyamāna bhagavat prītyākhyāya vartate.
(Prīti Sandarbha 65; Jīva Gosvāmī)

She is indeed the birthplace of love for Kṛṣṇa.

kā kṛṣṇasya praṇaya janibhūḥ? śrīmatī rādhikaika
(Govinda Līlāmṛta 11,122)

By taking shelter of Her, Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness becomes really relishable, and those devotees who worship Kṛṣṇa without taking shelter of Her,
get only a drop of that nectar, although they may have arrived at the shore of a great ocean of nectar.

Previously it had been said that those who leave the service of Śrī Rādhā to aspire for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s company are like wanting to know the fullmoon night without the full moon.
Someone may now think: “But on the thirteenth or fourteenth night of the rising moon the moon shines just as if full, doesn’t it?

To remove such conceptions, he finally says that Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s company without Śrī Rādhā is useless, like tasting only a drop of a great ocean of nectar.

Hence Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī has written in his ‘Sva Niyama Daśakam (Ten vows)’:

sadā radhā-kṛṣṇocchalad atula khelā sthala yujaṁ
vrajaṁ saṁtyājyaitad yuga virahito’pi truṭim api
punar dvārāvatyāṁ yadupatim api prauḍha vibhavaiḥ
sphurantaṁ tad vācāpi hi nahi calamīkṣitum api
gatonmādai rādhā sphurati hariṇā śliṣṭa hṛdayā
sphuṭam dvārāvatyām iti yadi śṛṇomi śruti-taṭe
tadāhaṁ tatraivoddhata mati patāmi vrajapurāt
samuḍḍīya svāntādhika gati khagendrād api javāt

“Even if the greatly opulent Lord of the Yadus (Kṛṣṇa) would Personally invite me to come and see Him in Dvārakā,
I will not leave the land of Vraja, the eternal matchless playground of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, for even a moment,
even if I have suffered separation from the Divine Couple there for ages!
But if I hear even with my earlobe that, out of loving madness, Rādhā has gone to Dvārakā,
where She is clearly manifest and where Hari is holding Her to His heart, then with a jubilant heart I will immediately fly from Vraja faster than even Garuda,
who flies with the speed of mind and blissfully land in Dvārakā!”

Then Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī says:

anādṛtyodgītam api munigaṇair vaiṇika mukhaiḥ
pravīṇāṁ gandharvām api ca nigamais tat priyatamām
ya ekaṁ govindaṁ bhajati kapaṭī dambhikatayā
tad abhyarṇe śīrṇe kṣaṇam api na yāmi vratam idam

“Not even for a moment will I go near that impure place where a proud hypocrite worships Govinda alone without worshiping His most expert lover Śrī Gandharvā (Rādhā),
whose glories are sung by the Vedic scriptures and great sages like Nārada Muni, who carries the vīnā. That is my solemn vow!”

ajāṇḍe rādheti sphuṭad abhidhayā sikta janayā-
nayā sākaṁ kṛṣṇaṁ bhajati ya iha prema namitaḥ
paraṁ prakṣālyaitac caraṇa kamale taj jalam aho
mudā pītvā śaśvac chirasi ca vahāmi prati dinam

“But if anyone in the world, bowed down with love, worships Śrī Rādhā, Whose sweet name showers mankind, along with Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Aho!
I will wash that person’s lotus-feet and joyfully drink the water, carrying it on my head every day!”

rādhā dāsya parihare, ye jana lālasā kore,
eka mātra govindera saṅge
paurṇamāsī vyatīta se, pūrṇacandra abhilāṣe,
dhik dhik tāra buddhi manda

“Curses, O curses on the fool who wants to give up Rādhā’s service, only to accompany Govinda.
He’s like someone who desires the full moon without the full moon night.”

ṣola kalā pūrṇa vinā, asampūrṇa se candramā,
svalpa prabha kṣīṇa se mādhurī
rādhā saṅga vine hāy!, nandakula candramāy,
govindera aiche daśā heri

“The Lord’s sweetness is incomplete and feeble without Rādhā’s company, just as the moon is incomplete and dim without all of its sixteen phases.
Alas! Why should I see Govinda, the moon of Nanda’s clan, in such a state?”

tribhuvane aparūpa, śyāma rati pravāha rūpa,
amṛta laharī bīja dhāma
rādhāra karuṇā vinā, yebā cāhe kṛṣṇa premā,
śuno bhāi tāra pariṇāma

“Śrī Rādhā is the seed of the stream of love for Kṛṣṇa, that is unrivalled in all of the three worlds.
If anyone desires to love Kṛṣṇa without Her grace, then, O brother, I will tell you what’s the result:”

pāiyā amṛta sindhu, lābha kore eka bindu,
kṛṣṇa prema kori anveṣane
prabodhānandete koy, ei mora suniścoy,
sarva labhya rādhikā caraṇe

“He only gets one drop of the great nectarocean of love for Kṛṣṇa that he searches for!
Prabodhānanda says: I know for sure that everything is attained at the shelter of Rādhikā’s feet.”

 

– Śrī-Śrī Rādhā Rasa Sudhānidhi – Rādhākuṇḍa Mahānta Paṇḍita Śrīmat Ananta Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja