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| Radha waiting for Krishna by Raja Ravi Varma |
Radha's Devotion
After
a short while
Radharani
hears of Krishna's departure
from
Gokula
and
cries out with her heart
“O
Krishna! Govinda!
Thou
art my very life breath!
Without
Thy Presence,
how
shall this body continue?”
Her
skin becomes black
her
breath nil
her
heart still...
Yet
a final thought emerges,
“He
shall return!”
and
with this,
life
returns to Radharani.
Radharani is the Supreme Person in the form of a cowherd girl of Vrindavana who was the avatar Krishna's expression of Divine Love. They are inseparable, and yet, here they are, as common lovers who only have eyes for each other. From childhood through a 100-year separation when Krishna departs from Gokula, their hearts remain One. Radha is the supreme devotee in the highest relationship of bhakti, the beloved lover of God.
This relationship is described beautifully in the ecstatic poem Gita Govinda, written in the 12th-century by poet and scholar Jayadeva. Here he imagines their divine pastimes, when even the thought that Krishna might stray evinces in Radha an extreme mood of separation. Here is a passage, translated by Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami.
This relationship is described beautifully in the ecstatic poem Gita Govinda, written in the 12th-century by poet and scholar Jayadeva. Here he imagines their divine pastimes, when even the thought that Krishna might stray evinces in Radha an extreme mood of separation. Here is a passage, translated by Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami.
sä romäïcati sét-karoti vilapaty utkampate tämyati
dhyäyaty udbhramati pramélati pataty udyäti mürcchaty api
etävaty atanu-jvare vara-tanur jéven na kià te rasät
svar-vaidya-pratima prasédasi yadi tyakto ’nyathä hastakaù
"Deranged in separation She undergoes extreme transformations of passion: Her hairs stand on end, She heaves with remorse, weeps out loud, trembles with grief, meditates on You with rapt attention, wanders about Your pastime places,loses Her eyes in bewilderment, falls down, manages to stand up, faints and falls to the ground again. The lovesick girl is severely afflicted with a raging fever. If You feel pity, O best of physicians as skilled as the Açviné-kumäras, administer Your ambrosial medicine and rejuvenate Her. Otherwise She will die."
It is important to note that Krishna feels the same way. When he thinks that Radha has either rejected him or is in any way suffering, he feels that same near-death desperation and begs her friends to help him and her. It has all the painful sweetness of first love, doesn't it?
In my poem "Radha's Devotion," written in 1976 when I was only 19 years old, I imagine Radharani's feelings at the moment when she hears that Krishna has left Gokula. She does not yet know that he will not return (he never will) but she cannot bear any thought of separation from him. As in the verse from the Gita Govinda, she begins to die. She cannot breathe, her skin turns ashen, her heart stops... until she feels hope! He'll come back! And only then can she live on.
This mood of separation is called in Sanskrit viraha. It is love in separation, a form of ecstatic love, full of the continuous longing for the Beloved, for our own Divine Self. Yet, even this is lila or a divine play of God. It's as if we are jousting with each other in an eternal play of Love.
I love this poem today. There were so many years when I felt separated from my Beloved, when it seemed that I had forgotten the truth of my own nature. But as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali tell us, there can be no loss in the practice of yoga; it is impossible because there is no separation, there never was, there never will be. All this talk of separation is a smoke screen, and even then, it is our journey back to Godhead.
I can say today without fear or regret, never give up, never give up, never give up! This is the message of my life. There is no loss in yoga, in union. There is no time, no space, no birth, no death, no separation. You and your Beloved are one. You and I are one. There is no You and no I. There is only Brahman.
Om tat sat
Little Flowers of the Heart by Laura Tattoo may be purchased at all the sites of Amazon.com in the United States, Canada, and Europe. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545373531
Little Flowers of the Heart by Laura Tattoo may be purchased at all the sites of Amazon.com in the United States, Canada, and Europe. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545373531
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