A milkmaid of Vrindavan
Radha is wonderfully sweet. She acts on behalf of her Lord, surrendered entirely to the will of her Lord. Radha is devotion and surrender personified and the ultimate female aspect of divinity, and who, interestingly, is also the source of all the variegated forms of Shakti - from Durga and Kali to Lakshmi and Saraswati. In her original form, she is simple yet mysterious ... the (extra)ordinary milkmaid that captures the heart of the Lord of the Universe.
Lord Krishna - the Absolute - is just a cowherd boy to her. Radha is irresistibly drawn to him and remembers him constantly, waiting only for the moment when she may hear his flute, glimpse him or dance with him. Krishna is at the centre of her world and everything she does is driven by his allure.
Being a divine servant means letting go of control, enjoyment or any self interest in order to fulfill the ultimate will of the divine according to divine guidance, moment by moment. As the energy of divine flows through, ultimate fulfillment for the soul is achieved.
I compare it, somewhat, to when I stand still on the dance floor and bring my full attention on the music, release my energy into the ground and surrender to flow wherever the music takes me, with pure stillness of mind. The music can make me fly and I can dance incessantly for hours, driven purely by the energy in the music. The way the music moves me when I surrender to it is the way I image the Lord directs me in the dance of life, if and when I allow him to take the lead. In the transcendental planes, He directs the dance and She dances.
Fear often leads us to take the role of the director, the controller, roles of the Supreme Male ... what is called enviousness. In Vaisnava philosophy, it is said that the eternal transcendental nature of all jiva souls is feminine and irresistibly under the spell of the masculine.
In spiritual life, be inspired by Radha. In human life, call upon Shakti in her various forms to help you on your way to this spiritual attainment. Life on earth can sometimes need a warrior, but in the spiritual dimension the goddess is always a lover.
Goddess brings up so many mental images of different archetypes and mythologies ... all aspects of the feminine divine energy. Despite depictions from Kali and Lilith to Lakshmi and Sati, they all spring from the naturally devoted, gentle, playful, spontaneously loving milkmaids who knew nothing about scriptures and yogic practices, but knew Krishna in their hearts. The topmost of them all was Radha.
Shakti in its manifest form is powerful, sometimes fearsome and sometimes utterly beautiful. In eastern stories, she is often depicted as having the ultimate upper hand due to her charm and since she is the "doer", the masculine is powerless without her.
The power of the Goddess is way underrated by most theistic traditions. Without getting into that curious fact, many eastern traditions and old religions indicate several facets of the divine female. Each of the archetypes or goddesses represents one of the various energies pervading the world as we know it, which is created largely by the Shakti Durga, with the combined effort of the trilogy Saraswati-Brahma, Lakshmi-Vishnu and Shakti-Shiva who create, maintain and destroy the cosmic universe within time and space.
Each goddess has a name that corresponds to her vibration. She may come alive as required for the higher good in those surrendered to her will or those overcome by false ego alike ... whether as a service to others or for one's personal awakening. Connecting with different material energies through the Goddesses as we need them is possible through mantras. Higher still is offering oneself to the Supreme Goddess as her servant, whatever may be her will to use you for the pleasure of Krishna. Moment by moment, we must choose love and dedication or choose separation and exploitation.
Being a divine servant means letting go of control, enjoyment or any self interest in order to fulfill the ultimate will of the divine according to divine guidance, moment by moment. As the energy of divine flows through, ultimate fulfillment for the soul is achieved.
I compare it, somewhat, to when I stand still on the dance floor and bring my full attention on the music, release my energy into the ground and surrender to flow wherever the music takes me, with pure stillness of mind. The music can make me fly and I can dance incessantly for hours, driven purely by the energy in the music. The way the music moves me when I surrender to it is the way I image the Lord directs me in the dance of life, if and when I allow him to take the lead. In the transcendental planes, He directs the dance and She dances.
Fear often leads us to take the role of the director, the controller, roles of the Supreme Male ... what is called enviousness. In Vaisnava philosophy, it is said that the eternal transcendental nature of all jiva souls is feminine and irresistibly under the spell of the masculine.
In spiritual life, be inspired by Radha. In human life, call upon Shakti in her various forms to help you on your way to this spiritual attainment. Life on earth can sometimes need a warrior, but in the spiritual dimension the goddess is always a lover.
Goddess brings up so many mental images of different archetypes and mythologies ... all aspects of the feminine divine energy. Despite depictions from Kali and Lilith to Lakshmi and Sati, they all spring from the naturally devoted, gentle, playful, spontaneously loving milkmaids who knew nothing about scriptures and yogic practices, but knew Krishna in their hearts. The topmost of them all was Radha.
Shakti in its manifest form is powerful, sometimes fearsome and sometimes utterly beautiful. In eastern stories, she is often depicted as having the ultimate upper hand due to her charm and since she is the "doer", the masculine is powerless without her.
The power of the Goddess is way underrated by most theistic traditions. Without getting into that curious fact, many eastern traditions and old religions indicate several facets of the divine female. Each of the archetypes or goddesses represents one of the various energies pervading the world as we know it, which is created largely by the Shakti Durga, with the combined effort of the trilogy Saraswati-Brahma, Lakshmi-Vishnu and Shakti-Shiva who create, maintain and destroy the cosmic universe within time and space.
Each goddess has a name that corresponds to her vibration. She may come alive as required for the higher good in those surrendered to her will or those overcome by false ego alike ... whether as a service to others or for one's personal awakening. Connecting with different material energies through the Goddesses as we need them is possible through mantras. Higher still is offering oneself to the Supreme Goddess as her servant, whatever may be her will to use you for the pleasure of Krishna. Moment by moment, we must choose love and dedication or choose separation and exploitation.
RSS Feed
