VMA 2.39 :: May Radha's sakhis be ever venerated



śrī-vṛndā-kānane'tyadbhuta-kusuma-lasad-ratna-vallī-nikuñja-
prāsāde puṣpa-candrātapa-caya-rucire puṣpa-palyaṅka-talpe |
rādhā-kṛṣṇau vicitrau smara-samara-kalā-khelinau vīkṣya vīkṣyā-
nandād vihvālitaṁ saṁluṭhad avani-tale vandyatām āli-vṛndam ||

In the Vrindavan forest
in a palatial grove filled with most wondrous blossoms,
where, upon a bed of petals,
under garlanded awnings and and glistening vines ,
Sri Sri Radha and Krishna are engaged
in a wonderfully playful amorous battle, 
Watching over and over, Radha's sakhis
are overcome and roll about on the ground in bliss!
May they be ever venerated!

As we have seen, the VMA has four principal subjects the supreme subject and object of divine love, Radha and Krishna. The other two are the sakhīs and the dham itself. Together they form the single tattva. So far, we have gone into some detail about sakhī-bhāva or mañjarī-bhāva, which distinction Prabodhananda does not make, in the following verses:

VMA 1.54: 
VMA 1.84,
VMA 1.95,
VMA 2.22,

After meditating on the Yugala Kishor's divine union in the past few verses, Prabodhananda comes to the climax, realizing that this vision of the nikunja pastimes of the Divine Couple, this moment of divine climax comes to him through the grace of the nitya-sakhis both in the present sādhaka-līlā as well as in the nitya-līlā.

vṛndāraṇya-nikuñja-sīmasu sadā svānaṅga-raṅgotsavair
mādyanty adbhuta-mādhavādhara-sudhā-mādhvīka-saṁsvādanaiḥ |
govinda-priya-varga-durgama-sakhī-vṛndair anālakṣitā
dāsyaṁ dāsyati me kadā nu kṛpayā vṛndāvanādhīśvarī ||

When will the queen of Vrindavan,
who deep in the hidden forest groves,
intoxicated by drinking the succulent nectar of Krishna's lips,
the festival of undulating amorous pastimes,
invisible to even the dearest devotees and friends of Krishna,
be pleased to make me her maidservant? (RRSN 128)

Vishwanath Chakravarti says that one must take birth among the gopis before one can truly perfect one's identity as a Vraja gopi. This is supported by Bhaktivinoda Thakur in his Siddhi Lālasā, song #2, "Identity with the spiritual body."

 dekhite dekhite, bhuliba bā kabe,
nija sthula paricaẏa
nayane heriba, braja-pura śobhā,
nitya cid-ānanda-maẏa 

At that very moment I will forget
my gross bodily identity.
Then, before my eyes, I will behold the beauty of Braj,
made of eternal, conscious bliss.

 bṛṣabhānu-pure, janama la-iba,
jābaṭe bibāha habe
braja-gopī-bhāva, ha-ibe svabhāva,
āna bhāva nā rahibe

 I will take birth in King Vrishabhanu's citadel,
and be married in Javat village.
My only identity will be that of a Braja gopi,
and no other spirit will remain in me.

 nija siddha deha, nija siddha nāma,
nija-rūpa, sva basana
rādhā-kṛpā-bale, labhiba bā kabe,
kṛṣṇa-prema-prakaraṇa (3)

 My own eternal spiritual body, my own eternal name,
my beautiful form and clothing --
When will I acquire all these by the power of Radha's mercy,
along with the methods of serving Krishna in love?

 yamunā salila, āharaṇe giẏā,
bujhiba yugala-rasa
prema-mugdha hoẏe, pāgalinī prāẏa,
gāiba rādhāra yaśa (4)

While off to collect water from the Yamuna,
I will suddenly understand the Divine Couple's love.
Infatuated with love, almost mad with it,
I will sing out Sri Radha's glories.

 Only after taking birth as a Braja-gopi can one be free of all the superfluous conditionng or samskaras that are the inevitable state for one who is a sadhaka in this world. Only then will one be able to say, "My only identity is that of a Braja gopi, and there is no other spirit within me."

This is the stage Bhaktivinoda Thakur calls vastu-siddhi or "concrete perfection" as opposed to svarūpa-siddhi, which is identification with the spiritual body while still in this world. In vastu-siddhi there is no more distinction between the sādhaka-deha and the siddha-deha.

sādhana-bhajanaa-siddhi lāgālāgi tāya |
liṅga-bhaṅge vastu-siddhi tomāra kṛpāya ||

At this stage, one’s practice of bhajan borders success. When, by Your grace,
all subtle identifications fall away, one attains concrete perfection. (HNC 15.55)


 As the devotee follows this method of cultivating rasa, the gap between his practice and perfection in bhajan narrows. Within a very short time, he realizes his spiritual identity, which is known as svarūpa-siddhi. Krishna’s will to elevate the practitioner naturally follows the mercy of the yūtheśvarī. Once that comes about, the illusory subtle body that was the result of turning away from Krishna is easily destroyed and the jiva gains entrance into Vraja in her original spiritual form. This is called vastu-siddhi.

The liṅga-deha is the living being’s subtle form, which is carried by the jiva from one gross body to the next. As long as one’s subtle body is intact, one has to transmigrate. The full destruction of this body means the end of such transmigration. Thus “concrete perfection” (vastu-siddhi) cannot truly take place in this world, but only after one has gone to join the eternal pastimes in an appropriate spiritual form. Svarūpa-siddhi means the realization of one’s spiritual form even while living in this world. That is the difference in the meaning of the two terms.

This beautiful verse reminds us that the eternal companions of the Divine Couple are to be venerated by the sādhakas of madhura-rasa, because it is they who are our rasa-gurus. They are the ones who have access to the Divine Couple's internal pastimes, and indeed it is given to them alone to share this with the enthusiastic sādhakas.

The rasika-guru is the one who has attained svarūpa-siddhi, who shares the rāgānugā tradition in disciplic succession. Only those who have heard about the rasika tradition directly from the mouth of such an elevated premi bhakta, or by reading about it from the books of the great founding authors of this tradition like Prabodhananda Saraswati or Rupa and Raghunath Goswamis, and other acharyas will develop a thirst for association of devotees for whom this mood of Braja bhakti is their life and soul.

Bhatkivinoda Thakur has outlined the path for such an aspirant in his Hari-nāma-cintāmaṇi in the 15th chapter entitled Bhajana-praṇālī.


One who yearns to serve Radha and Krishna in the most confidential pastimes should not think that it can be attained by simply chanting the Holy Name without recourse to the mercy of the rasika-guru as described by Bhaktivinoda Thakur here and in his other works like Jaiva-dharma,  The mercy of the Holy Name is to give us the association of such a guru. If one's guru is not a rasika who has attained svarūpa-siddhi through the grace of the disciplic succession, one should take his permission to move on to this inner or antaraṅga-sādhana. Only in the rarest circumstances can such a step be circumvented. That is the purpose of this statement by Prabodhananda Saraswatipada, vandyatām āli-vṛndam



VMA 2.38 A fair and dark couple now fills our eyes
VMA 2.37 : My Swamini and her peerless lover, Shyam
VMA 2.36 : Churning the Shyamsundar ocean to extract his essence
VMA 2.35 : The play at the center
VMA 2.34 : The fortunate, the more fortunate, and the most fortunate of all
VMA 2.33 : Vrindavan, on the divine island
VMA 2.30-32 : The ever youthful Divine Couple sport in the kunjas of Vrindavan
VMA 2.29 : Some dark ineffable youth has taken form to play here

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