Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī says:

“O mind! Take shelter of the incomparable youthful loving couple of Vraja, Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, and thus increase your wonderful love for Them!”

            Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī is an eternal associate of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, known as Tulasī Mañjarī or Rati Mañjarī, and he has descended along with the Lord to teach the aspiring devotees the intricacies of the worship of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, thus taking them along to the Vraja-nikuñja.

The worship of the youthful Couple of Vraja as a spiritual maidservant is the unprecedented and most merciful gift of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

            One of the reasons for Mahāprabhu’s descension is to mercifully bless the sinful and fallen souls of the age of Kali by giving them this intimate worship of the Divine Couple of Vraja, which is rarely attained even by Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Uddhava and other great souls.

            Some may think:

“Mahāprabhu Himself has said (in Caitanya Caritāmṛta):

cāri bhāva bhakti diyā nācāimu bhuvana

‘I will make the world dance by giving it devotion to Kṛṣṇa in four different moods (servanthood, fraternal love, parental love, and amorous love).’ Then how can you say that He only came to give the intimate worship of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa?”

            The answer to this may be that:

“He may have said that, but factually He established during His discussions with Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and others, that the worship of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is the crown jewel of all human pursuits. He Himself as well as His direct disciples, the Six Gosvāmīs, who are the ācāryas of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya, mainly practiced and preached the amorous love for Kṛṣṇa as the highest attainment, and their books are filled mainly with this topic.

            How Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was immersed in worshipping the Divine Couple in mañjarī-bhāva can be clearly experienced as we go on discussing his Stavāvalī-prayers.

            It has been ascertained in various ways by the Gosvāmīs, who carry Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s teachings in their throats, that simply by worshipping Śrī Kṛṣṇa without Śrī Rādhā, one attains only a drop of the relish of the Kṛṣṇa-ocean.

            Śrī Kṛṣṇa is like a bottomless ocean of sweetness, which is hard to enter into.

            Nevertheless, the greatest way of experiencing God is relishing His sweetness. How can an insignificant living entity ever enter into this ocean of sweetness? Only if the living entities would receive a lot of mercy from a great energy through complete love would they be able to savour this complete sweetness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and become blessed. That great energy is Śrī Rādhā.

            Just as the ocean of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s sweetness increases unlimitedly when He is with Śrī Rādhā, Śrī Rādhā makes the living entities who surrender to Her lotus feet relish Kṛṣṇa’s full sweetness in sakhī- or mañjarī-bhāva.

            Not only that, She also makes them relish it even more than She relishes it Herself! 

rādhāra svarūpa – kṛṣṇa prema kalpalatā;
sakhīgaṇa hoy – tāra pallava puṣpa pātā
kṛṣṇa līlāmṛta yadi latāke siñcaya;
nija seka hoite pallavādyera koṭi sukha hoy
(Caitanya Caritāmṛta Madhya 8) 

            “Rādhā is a desire-vine of love for Kṛṣṇa, and the sakhīs are the buds, leaves, flowers of that vine. When that vine is sprinkled with the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, the buds and flowers experience millions of times more happiness than the vine herself.”

            They experience happiness a million times more because Śrī Rādhā can relish the great sweetness of Kṛṣṇa with them, but the sakhīs and mañjarīs who are surrendered to Her lotus feet can relish the sweetness of both Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa when They are together. They can also relish the wonderful savour of the service to this sweet Couple, and thus be blessed.

            The worship of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the mood of the mañjarīs is the highest stage the living entity can attain in the kingdom of divine flavours through the practice of loving devotional service. For this reason Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, though he is a nitya-siddha-mañjarī, has instructed the aspiring devotees of the world to become more attached to the lotus feet of Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava, on the pretext of instructing his own mind.

            It’s no wonder that a devotee who follows the instructions only of even this one verse, what to speak of all the other verses, will invoke a benediction for his sādhana.
(Śrī Rādhākuṇḍa Mahānta Paṇḍita Śrī Ananta Dās Bābājī Mahārāja)