Sri Radha Dasyam

Book excerpt: If we have Śrī Kṛṣṇa we have everything and we do not need anyone or anything else (Śrī Caitanya Bhagavat). How do we get Śrī Kṛṣṇa? We can only get Him, Vrajendra-nandana Śyāmasundara, by loving devotional service to Śrīmatī Rādhika - Śrī Rādhā-dāsyam.Therefore we pray to Śrī Kṛṣṇa to get Radha-dāsyamśyāmasundara śikhaṇḍa śekharasmera-hāsa muralī-manohararādhkā-rasika māṁ kṛpā-nidhesva-priyā-caraṇa-kiṅkarīṁ kuruO Śyāmasundara, O beautiful dark-blue boy with a peacock-feather crown. Your playful smile and Your flute completely bewilder our minds. You are expert at tasting the nectar of Śrīmatī Rādhikā''s love, and You are an ocean of mercy. Please make me a manjari maidservant of Your beloved. (Śrī Rādhā-prārthanā, Śrī Viṭṭhalācārya) And we pray to Śrī Rādhā,tavaivāsmi tavaivāsmi na jīvāmi tvayā vināiti vijñāya devī tvaṁ naya māṁ caraṇāntike"Ha Devī Śrī Rādhike! I am yours! I am yours! I have no life without You. Knowing this, please give me shelter at Your lotus feet." (Śrī Vilāpa-kusumāñjali 96, Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī)Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī prays, "O Prince of the cow herders (Kṛṣṇa)! I offer my obeisances unto You and I pitifully pray to You: "Please make me the object of mercy of the crown garland of the young girls of Vraja (Śrī Rādhikā)!" (Śrī Utkalikā-vallarī, 19)We pray to Śrī Kṛṣṇa: "Please make me the object of Śrī Rādhā''s grace" and to Śrī Rādhā we pray: "May Kṛṣṇa give me mercy, knowing me to be Your maidservant!" Śrīman Mahāprabhu''s gift is revealed through the ācāryas. This Rādhā-dāsyam is an unprecedented gift of mercy. The conditioned souls are drowning in the ocean of material existence, but by some stroke of good luck some of them receive the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa in the form of the seed of the vine of devotion. saṁsāre bhramite kon bhāgyavān jīva; guru-Kṛṣṇa prasāde pāy bhakti latā bīja (Cc). By taking shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Guru a fortunate person can attain purification of the self. Gurudeva is bringing the remembrance of a long forgotten thing back into the heart. When fortunate sādhakas take shelter of Śrī Guru''s lotus feet in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya they become acquainted with the service of Śrī Rādhā. After establishing the self-identification as Rādhā''s dāsī, they continue their bhajana according to the love of rādhā snehādhikā (greater love for Rādhā than for Kṛṣṇa). How enchanting it is to think of oneself: "I am Rādhā''s fallen maidservant!" My bhajana is disturbed by bodily consciousness; my life is contaminated by all kinds of external behaviour! Nonetheless, I firmly consider myself Swamini Radhika''s maidservant. The ultimate goal of all the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas'' sādhanā is to attain the confidential nikuñja-sevā of Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava. Although our ācāryas are eternal maidservants in the Vraja-nikuñjas, they have descended along with Śrīman Mahāprabhu to teach the world how to perform śrī rāgānuga-bhajana. By giving a perfect example they have made the practising devotees in this world greedy after the nikuñja-rasa and are thus taking them along to the transcendental groves of Vraja. Without this, the advent of Śrīman Mahāprabhu could not have reached perfection, because the mañjarī-service of Śrī Rādhā is Śrīman Mahāprabhu''s ultimate and unprecedented merciful gift.(Adapted from the commentaries of Srila Ananta das Babaji Maharaja)It is our great pleasure and privilege to present this unprecedented harikatha about Radha-dasyam by Prabhupada Srila Premgopal Goswami. We hope that by making such nectar available to a wider readership among devotees we may invoke the blessings of Sri Guru. We apologize for any mistakes and shortcomings in this presentation. Our humble prayer is that it may invoke transcendental greed in the hearts of our readers to delve into the nectar ocean of Radha-dasyam and cultivate the precious mood of Srimati Radhika''s maidservants.The Editor