The relationship of Radha and Krishna is the embodiment of love, passion and devotion. Radha's passion for Krishna symbolizes the soul's intense longing and willingness for the ultimate unification with God. Shri Krishna is the soul of Radha and Radha is definitely the soul of Shri Krishna. She is the undivided form of Shri Krishna. She will remain a mystery unless one can know her inexpressible divine elements. She is worshipper as well as his deity to be worshipped. She being a beloved of Shri Krishna is known as "Radhika".
The whole universe material and spiritual is the creation of Shri Radha - Krishna. Shri Radha is the presiding Goddess of Shri Krishna. The Paramatma - supreme Lord - is subservient to her. In her absence Shri Krishna does not exist.
Shri Krishna is not only the ultimate object of all love, but also is the topmost enjoyer of all loving relationships. Therefore, in the dynamic and expanding form of Krishna, He has unlimited desires to enjoy spiritual loving relationships or pastimes, known as leela. To do this, He expands Himself into the dual form of Krishna and Radha, His eternal consort and topmost devotee. In other words, Radha is the feminine aspect of Lord Krishna and is non-different from Krishna, but together (both the masculine and feminine aspects). They fulfill the purpose of engaging in sublime loving pastimes to exhibit supremely transcendental loving exchanges.
Brajbhoomi where Lord Krishna was born comprises the twin cities of Mathura and Vrindavan. It is not just a sacred land where Lord Krishna was born and performed His cosmic leela, but a place full of divine reminiscences. It was here that He ultimately found Radha, His inseparable companion. Vrindavan, 15 km from Mathura, was the favorite haunt of the divine couple.
The lotus-eyed, dark skinned Krishna is the complete and perfect man of Indian mythological traditions. That makes Krishna a major non-Aryan God in the Hindu pantheon. He was the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, the Preserver of Universe. He took the human form to redeem mankind from evil forces. Krishna was physically irresistibly appealing. Ancient texts dwell at length on his exceptionally alluring countenance: a blue complexion soft like the monsoon cloud, shining locks of black hair framing a beautifully chiseled face, large lotus like eyes, wild -flower garlands around his neck, a yellow garment (pitambara) draped around his body, a crown of peacock feathers on his head, and a smile playing on his lips, it is in this manner that he is faithfully represented since the ancient times to the modern.
Krishna was born in a prison cell more than 3000 years ago in Mathura. Legend has it that Mathura was ruled by a king called Ugrasena. One day, Ugrasena and his wife were taking a walk in the gardens, where a demon saw the queen and fell in love with her. In this lust for her, he diverted the attention of Ugrasena, assumed his form himself and fulfilled his desire. The child born of this union was Kamsa. Kamsa grew up to dethrone his father and imprison his sister Devaki (daughter of Ugrasena) and her husband Vasudeva. Devki later became the mother of Krishna.
It so happened that on the day Kamsa was driving his newly married sister and her husband Vasudeva to their new home, a voice from the heavens intercepted him. The voice conveyed to him that the eighth child of Devki would kill Kamsa. Consequently, he imprisoned the couple and started killing their children, year after year. Seven children were lost but the eighth one - the Lord escaped the hands of the butcher and lived on to slay Kamsa later. Lord Krishna was born at midnight on the 8th day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September) and was brought to Vrindavan by Vasudeva (Krishna's father) on the same night to save Him from Kamsa. He was brought up in Vrindavan by the cowherd family of Yashoda and Nanda Raja.
Radha is recognized as the loveliest of all the cowgirls. She was the wife of Ayana and the daughter of the cowherd Vrishabhanu and his wife, Kamalavati. Radha was a childhood friend and soulmate of Krishna and the two were inseparable as playmates and later as lovers. Theirs was a love hidden from society, given Radha's status of a married woman. They had their moments of love, passion and anger - just like any two lovers in love and yet their love could not stand the test of duty that Krishna had to face. He had to leave Vrindavan, and Radha, to ensure that the ideals of truth and justice were established but in the process had to let down the ideal of personal love. He became a king, defeated innumerable enemies and even married a number of times. And yet it is said Radha kept waiting for him to come back to her. Her love for Krishna is considered so divine and so pure that Radha herself obtained the status of a deity, with her name being insperably linked to that of Krishna. Most of Krishna's images are considered complete when Radha stands by his side.
The word Radha means the greatest worshiper of Krishna. No other gopi in Vrindavana has such a significant name as Sri Radha. Of course, all the Braja gopis love and give pleasure to Krishna. However, compared to Radhika's ocean of love for Krishna, the other gopis are merely pools, ponds and rivers. As the ocean is the original source of all the water found in lakes and rivers, similarly the love found in the gopis, and in all the other devotees has its origin in Sri Radha alone. Since Radha's love is the greatest, she gives the greatest pleasure to Krishna. 'Krishna enchants the whole world, but Srimati Radhika enchants even Him. Therefore, Radha is the Supreme Goddess.' In Vrindavana, people are accustomed to chant Radha's name more than Krishna's name.
Radha's love for Krishna is all consuming and compels her to ignore her family honor and disregard her husband. Radha serves as a symbol for all of the Gopi girls' love for Krishna. Their relationship develops on Krishna's captivating charm and aura of passion as Radha falls into a state of desire for this God. Radha is the soul; Krishna is the God. Krishna is the shaktiman - possessor of energy - and Radha is His shakti - energy. She is the female counterpart of the Godhead. She is the personification of the highest love of God, and by her mercy the soul is connected with the service and love of Krishna.
The relationship between Radha and Krishna is the example of the highest and purest love, an indissoluble union of the highest intermingling and completion; it is also a love expressed through music. Music underlines the illicit relationship; this love shadowed by secrecy, adultery and scorn, finds its outlet in Krishna's charming and passionate musical talents.
Radha is married or involved with someone else, and still cannot resist Krishna's musical call. In being with Him she risks social censure, alienation and humiliation. Riddled with shame and inappropriateness, this is hardly a relationship that purportedly embodies the highest union of pure love. Music becomes the voice of their illicit love which is too passionate, and secretive. Krishna is the cosmic musician who woos the gopi's (cowherd girls) with his tunes. Krishna's flute sounds so powerful that they embodied the energy of the cosmos. His beauty, charm and musical skill impassion women everywhere; at the sound of his flute playing, the gopis "jump up in the middle of putting on her makeup, abandon her family while eating a meal, leave food to burn on the stove, and run out of her home to be with Krishna". In the embrace of Krishna, the gopis, maddened with desire, found refuge; in their love dalliance with him who was the master in all the sixty-four arts of love, the gopis felt a thrill indescribable; and in making love with him in that climatic moment of release, in that one binding moment, they felt that joy and fulfillment which could not but be an aspect of the divine.
Through their experience, thus, the erotic the carnal and the profane became but an aspect of the sublime, the spiritual and the divine. This cumulative myth sustained one basic point: for women, Krishna was a personal god, always accessible and unfailingly responsive. He was a god specially made for women. In the popular psyche, Krishna and Radha became the universal symbol for the lover and the beloved. Krishna was the ideal hero, and Radha the ideal heroine.
This is the tie that binds Him and Radha; erotic musical passion overrides the social and female responsibilities Radha is tied to and she relinquishes herself to her adulterous, but passionate affair with Krishna.
Krishna led a very pampered and amorous life in the Gokul, alongside thousands of gopicas, the cowherdresses who were all enthralled at His beauty and were thrilled whenever He played the flute. There are numerous playful instances of Krishna, playing mischief with the gopikas including breaking their butter pots.
Krishna represents the private life of the Absolute. His relationship with Radha, His Divine consort, actually constitutes the private life of Krishna. In this relationship, Love reigns supreme as Krishna surrenders to Radha. Krishna is lovestruck while Radha has taken over control. He has surrendered to the Power of Love. Very few people really understand this relationship and the message it contains. The supreme object of devotion, Krishna, worships the highest devotion, Radha. The zenith of Radha and Krishna's love affair is the Raas-Leela, the circular dance of love. The Raas-Leela points to the highest potential of the soul. It is within this context of the circular dance that the highest is couched in apparent selfishness.
Radha Krishna is the original principle of loving relationships (conjugal Love). The sex principle exists in the Absolute in its pure form without any inebriety or impurity, because Krishna is in fact Radha. In other words, the Lord is one, but for His pleasure and enjoyment, He expands himself to enjoy loving relationships. The original expansion is Radha. Together, Radha and Krishna enjoy eternal pastimes of transcendental love.
Real love exists between Radha and Krishna. Real love is transcendental and spiritual. We have to become attracted to spiritual love and give up false love and beauty, which are only skin-deep. There is nothing beautiful underneath the skin. Krishna consciousness means to be serious and determined to transcend the material attraction between man and woman in order to become attracted to the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna. Srila Prabhupada said, "The sum and substance of material life is attraction for woman. And the sum and substance of spiritual life is attraction for Radha-Krishna".
