The Service of Sri Radha

How can we serve Sri Radha?

After a beautiful class yesterday evening exploring concisely the ontology of Sri Radha and the Lila of Sri Radha’s divine appearance, we the audience were ask this question, “How can we render service to Sri Radha?”

We were provided an answer that was “practical” and “relevant” to us:

• To identify a particular problematic anartha (anti-values) we have and strive to root it out
• To identify a particular devotional relationship we’ll invest in more deeply

What this has to do with the service of Sri Radha? We were told that Sri Radha is please when devotees are pleased and our hearts are pure. This was the only part of the class I found underwhelming. Theologically speaking anarthas are nullified by the power of bhakti (and not by any power of our own) and devotional relationships are nourished simply by engaging in bhakti in the form of hearing and vocalizing about the deity of the heart.

What I find somewhat insidious about these sorts of practical messages when it comes to the divine Lila’s of Bhagavan is that it tends to translate into the mundane mind that the divine Lila is a kind of mythos intended to provide psychological or existential guidance for the human condition. It displaces the divine hero and heroin from the center of Their drama and keep us, the conditioned soul, (empirical-) self-centered (rather than God-Goddess centered).

Reality (of Radha-Krsna Lila) is for Itself and by Itself. It’s purpose is centered intrinsically and we’re invited to allow our hearts to become enchanted enough to participate in Reality’s purpose for Itself.

I had another meditation when ask “How to serve Sri Radha?”

When the rAsa dance was underway, Krishna absconded with Sri Radha, leaving the other gopis forlorn. As the multitude of gopis began their search for Sri Radha-Krsna, there was some envy on the part of some gopis (who were not the direct friends of Sri Radha). Why had Krsna abandon all of us for this one Gopi? As they came near the spot where Sri Radha and Krsna were to be found, they came upon a Sri Radha, herself left forlorn by Krsna. In seeing hear ecstatic despair in separation from Krsna, all the gopis gave up any notion of self-centeredness and became reconciled to removing her sorrow. In such a state of other-centeredness in self-forgetfulness, they erupt in song laden with their tears. This was their service.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, endowed with the heart (bhava) and halo (dyuti) of Sri Radha, especially in gambhira, was always overcome with the ecstatic sorrow of separation from Krsna. When in that state, he was held only by the songs of svarupa damodara and ramananda raya.

This is how we can serve Sri Radha. Offer our voices in song (especially the songs of the gopis) to Sri Radha (Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu). There is the epitome of compassion’s potential.

Jaya Radhe - reflection on Radhastami