Śrī Śrī Rādhikāṣṭakam (Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī)

VERSE 1:

rasavalita mṛgākṣī mauli māṇikya lakṣmī
pramudita muravairi prema vṇpī marālī
vrajavara vṛṣabhānoḥ puṇya gīrbāṇa valli
snapayati nija dāsye rādhikā māṁ kadā nu

When will Śrī Rādhikā, Who is the crown-jewel of all rasika, fawn-eyed goddesses of fortune, who is the swan in the lake of blissful Muravairi’s (Kṛṣṇa’s) love, and who is the wish-yielding vine of virtue of King Vṛṣabhānu, the best man of Vraja, bathe me in Her service?

Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā by Srila Ananta das Babaji:

Greatly eager to attain Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s direct service Śrīpāda Raghunātha anxiously falls on the bank of Śrī Rādhākuṇḍa. He cannot remain alive if he does not get devotional service. bhakti means sevā or dāsya. The transcendental forms of Śrī Rādhā’s maidservants are composed of sevā-rasa! Devotional service is their very life and nobody can understand how miserable they feel if they are deprived of devotional service.

In this heartbreaking mood Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī desires Śrī Rādhā’s service, revealing Śrīmatī’s forms, attributes and pastimes in this Śrī Rādhikāṣṭaka. He ends each of the following eight anxious prayers with the line snapayati nija dāsye radhikā māṁ kadā nu, When will Śrī Rādhikā bathe me in Her service? mañjarī bhāva sādhakas desire only Śrī Rādhā’s service, and this service automatically includes the service of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Actually, there are no greater servants of Kṛṣṇa than the mañjarīs, for they serve Him with the ingredient of mādanākhya mahābhāva! Their greatest service paraphernalia in Govinda’s service is their Śrī Rādhārāṇī, who is dearer to them than millions of life airs. Therefore, although they have no separate desire to serve Govinda, Govinda personally blesses them with devotional service. This is suggested by the use of the words nija dāsya, own service.

Śrīpāda Raghunātha nourishes a strong desire to be showered by Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s devotional service. From this it is understood that Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s service is such a wonderfully tasty and nectarean thing that it fills Śrīpāda’s heart with eagerness. Śrī Rādhā’s nectarean delicious service is the highest step that the sādhaka can ascend to on the staircase of relish in the kingdom of bhāva sādhana. Śrīpāda Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī has written: rādhā nāgara keli sāgara nimagnālī-dṛśāṁ yat sukham. no tal leśa lavāyate bhagavataḥ sarvo’pi saukhyotsavaḥ (Vṛ.M.) – “The festival of bliss of all devotional service that is rendered in the kingdom of God is just a drop compared to the transcendental bliss the fish-like eyes of Śrī Rādhā’s maidservants experience when they dive into the ocean of Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava’s pastimes.”

As Śrīpāda Raghunātha submits his prayers to be showered by the nectarean service of Śrī Rādhārāṇī, he also glorifies some of Her attributes. First of all he says: rasa valita mṛgākṣī mauli māṇikya lakṣmīḥ “She is the costly crownjewel of beauty of all the rasika fawn-eyed gopīs.” Here the word rasa means transcendental flavours of love of God. Hence the words rasa valita mṛgākṣī mean the eternal consorts of the Lord, and Śrī Rādhā is the costly crown-jewel of beauty of all these eternal consorts of the Lord. There are two ways of getting to know the Supreme Lord and His intrinsic potencies – one is rasa and the other is tattva. From the tattva-point of view Śrī Rādhā is the aṁśinī (origin) and the crown-jewel of all the eternal consorts of Kṛṣṇa, Svayaṁ Bhagavatī (the Original Goddess);

Kṛṣṇa kāntā-gaṇa dekhi trividha prakāra
eka lakṣmī gaṇa pure mahiṣī-gaṇa āra
vrajāṅganā-rūpa āra kāntāgaṇa sāra;
śrī rādhikā hoite kāntā-gaṇera vistāra
avatārī yaiche Kṛṣṇa kore avatāra;
aṁśinī rādhā hoite tina gaṇera vistāra
lakṣmī gaṇa tāra vaibhava vilāsāṁśa-rūpa;
mahiṣī-gaṇa vaibhava prakāśa svarūpa
ākāra svabhāva bhede vraja devī gaṇa;
kāya vyūha rūpa tāra rasera kāraṇa (C.C.)

“I see three kinds of consorts for Kṛṣṇa – the goddesses of fortune, the Queens of Dvārakā and the Vraja-gopīs, who are His greatest consorts. All these consorts expand from Śrī Rādhikā. Just as Kṛṣṇa descends, although He is the origin of all descents, similarly these three classes emanate from their origin Rādhā. The goddesses of fortune are Kṛṣṇa’s vaibhava vilāsāṁśas (particles that display His prowess), and the Queens His vaibhava prakāśas. The Vraja-devīs, that appear in so many forms and with so many dispositions, are the phalanx of Śrī Rādhā, and the cause of rasa.”

Also from the rasa-point of view premamayī Śrī Rādhārāṇī makes Kṛṣṇa relish the sweet flavors of pastimes like the Rāsa-dance, with Her elevated ujjvala rasa (erotic mellow) of Vraja, in an extramarital relationship which is completely devoid of awe and reverence:

tāra madhye vraje nānā bhāva rasa bhede;
kṛṣṇake korāy rāsādika līlāsvāde
govinda nandinī rādhā govinda mohinī;
govinda sarvasva – sarva kāntā śiromaṇi (C.C.)

“Amongst them, the consorts in Vraja have different moods and flavours with which they make Kṛṣṇa relish the flavours of pastimes like the Rāsa-dance. Rādhā delights Govinda, She enchants Govinda, She is everything to Govinda and She is the crownjewel of all of His consorts.”

Śrī Rādhikā is then called pramudita muravairī premavāpī marālī, the swan swimming in the love-like of blissful Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Just as swans always blissfully play in the lakes and subsist on their favorite food, the lotusstems, there, similarly premamayī Rādhārāṇī blissfully swims in the lake of love for Kṛṣṇa and subsists on the lotusstems of Her loving pastimes with Him there.

Secondly, only a swan is able to separate milk from water with its tongue, nobody else’s tongue can do that. Śrī Rādhikā is a golden swan that constantly swims and plays in the lake of causeless, selfless love for Kṛṣṇa, extracting the milk of the exclusive desire to please Kṛṣṇa’s senses from the water of desire for personal sense-gratification.

Accepting Śrī Rādhā’s mood, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu sang:

nā gaṇi āpana duḥkha, sabe vāñchi tāra sukha, tāra sukhe āmāra tātparya;
more yadi dile duḥkha, tāra hoilo mahā sukha, sei duḥkha mora sukha varya (C.C.)

“I don’t count My own happiness, I only desire His happiness. His happiness is My purpose. If He becomes happy by giving Me distress, then that distress is My greatest happiness.”

Then Śrīmatī is called vraja vara vṛṣabhānoḥ puṇya gīrbāṇa-vallī, the wish-yielding vine of virtue of king Vṛṣabhānu, the best man of Vraja. Why is Vṛṣabhānu the best man of Vraja, and not Kṛṣṇa’s father Nanda? Nanda Mahārāja is certainly fortunate since the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa descended in his house, but king Vṛṣabhānu is definitely more fortunate, because the greatest love, the greatest devotee, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, has descended in his home! The great devotees always praise the home where love of God descends even more than the home where the Lord Himself descends, because it is only through love that the Lord is controlled. Considering this, there is no home greater than that of Mahārāja Vrsabhānu in Vraja, for in his home Prema Lakṣmī Herself descended.

Śrī Rādhikā is the wish-yielding vine of Mahārāja Vṛṣabhānu’s virtue. Because of Śrī Vṛṣabhānu’s endless virtue Śrī Rādhikā, the vine of love, the presiding goddess of love, descended in his home. An ordinary desire-tree gives the applicant whatever he asks, not considering whether it is for his benefit or not. But this prema kalpa latā, Śrī Rādhikā, gives only the highest benefit, the greatest welfare, prema, nothing else. Śrī Raghunātha has absolutely no ulterior motive.
He simply prays to this prema kalpa latā:
snapayati nija dāsye rādhikā māṁ kadā nu – “May Rādhikā bathe me in Her service!”