Rādhā Viraha

This episode is told in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 55 to 58 and 66 to 69. Akrūra comes to take Bhagavān Kṛshṇa from Vṛndāvana to Mathurā. Rādhikā (Rādhā) is overcome by viraha (the pain of separation), and her whole body burns with it. Her sakhī (friend) Ratnamālā tends to her. Kṛshṇa tries to console her, Brahmā and the devas come, the gopikās (cowherd women) break the chariot, and at last Kṛshṇa spends one more night with Rādhā and leaves at dawn with Balarāma in Akrūra’s chariot.

Rādhā’s lament at Kṛshṇa’s coming departure

Rādhikā heard that Kṛshṇa was about to leave Vṛndāvana with Akrūra for Mathurā. She fell into the deepest sorrow she had ever known. The separation, even the thought of it, was too much to bear.

She told Kṛshṇa: “I cannot live without you even for one moment. A moment of separation feels to me like a hundred yugas.” She told him that he was bound in the very hem of her garment, as the moon, the sun and the ātmā are bound in the sky. For a pativratā (a wife true to her husband), she said, separation from the beloved is a death worse than death. She reminded him that Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva, the greatest beings in creation, all meditate on his feet, and yet she, a cowherd woman, had not known his form of māyā. She said that her pride was now broken and her cherished hopes were undone.

She warned him that if he left her, she would go into the forest calling “Kṛshṇa! Kṛshṇa!” or plunge into the ocean of kāma (desire) and give up her body. She said that if he went, Brahmā’s anger would follow him and destroy his family line. The strength of her words drew Kṛshṇa to her side. He brought her back to herself with his kind touch, but she could not let go of her grief.

Kṛshṇa consoles her with ātma-jñāna

Kṛshṇa gave Rādhā the gift of ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the self), the deepest teaching. He told her: “This whole world of moving and unmoving beings is like a water-bubble, like a dream. It is unreal and comes from māyā. The body of five elements is a false construction. Names and forms are empty signs for those who grieve. Kāma, krodha, lobha and moha (desire, anger, greed and delusion) bind the jīva to the wheel of karma. Sleep, drowsiness, hunger, thirst, patience, śraddhā, dayā, lajjā, śānti, dhṛti, pushṭi and tushṭi are all the workings of Prakṛti, not the self.”

He said: “I am the Ātmā, the Sarveśvara, the reality made of knowledge. Without me the body falls into the five elements in an instant. My prāṇas are Vishṇu. My consciousness is Śiva. Because of the effect of Sudāmā’s śāpa, I shall be parted from you in waking life for a hundred years. But in dreams, Rādhā, I will always be with you. I have given you ātma-jñāna. Let your sorrow melt in this knowledge.”

Rādhā’s fire of separation and Ratnamālā’s service

After Kṛshṇa went away to see to other matters, Rādhā woke and found him gone. She cried out “Nātha! Ramaṇa! Prāṇeśa!” and searched the Mālatī forest calling his name. She fell to the ground like one who had died. Thousands of gopikās gathered around her with cāmaras (fly-whisks), sandalwood paste and flowers.

Her body burned with the fire of separation (viraha-agni) so fiercely that the lotus petals laid under her dried to ash. The sandalwood paste on her body dried up, her sindūra turned black, and her garments withered. Her closest sakhī, Ratnamālā, held her head and fanned her.

When Kṛshṇa returned and saw Rādhā’s state, he brought her back with a loving embrace. He held her on his chest, and they sat together on a jewelled bed.

Ratnamālā then spoke to Kṛshṇa directly, in the words of nītiśāstra (the science of right conduct): “Of all the dear ones in a woman’s life, the mother is dearest, then the brothers, then the sons. But the husband is dearest beyond all. A skilled and caring beloved makes a wise woman happy. Otherwise he is like poison to her. In a house where husband and wife are not alike in heart, Alakshmī lives, and their whole life becomes useless.” She told Kṛshṇa in full detail how Rādhā was, and urged him not to leave her.

Kṛshṇa answered: “I am Īśvara. I have the power to break any law of the cosmos. And yet I cannot do so now, because of niyati, the cosmic order that I myself have set in all the brahmāṇḍas. Even devas and munis follow this dharma. Sudāmā’s śāpa has made this hundred-year separation certain. But I have told her the truth: in dreams she will always be united with me.”

Rādhā’s palace in Goloka

During his long teaching to Nanda, Kṛshṇa also described Rādhā’s eternal home in Goloka. It is the highest reality beneath their life on earth. In Goloka, Rādhā’s citadel has three peaks. It is surrounded by sixteen rings of courtyards (kakshyas). Each is guarded by sixteen lakh gopikās, dressed in garments purified by fire and in jewelled ornaments.

Rādhā herself sits on a jewelled throne. She holds a jewelled lotus in her right hand and a jewelled mirror in her left. She wears a mālatī garland and a sindūra dot shaped like a pomegranate flower. Kṛshṇa explained that this eternal reality is not touched by the passing separation on earth.

Rādhā’s second viraha and Kṛshṇa’s adhyātma teaching

As the time of departure came near, Rādhā fell into the state of separation a second time, even more strongly. Kṛshṇa again came back to her and gave the deepest teaching of adhyātma-yoga:

“This universe is like a water-bubble, a dream, an illusion rooted in moha. The body of five elements is kṛtrima (made up). Kāma, krodha, lobha and moha bind the jīva. Ahaṃkāra (the sense of ‘I’) is the fifth kleśa (affliction). The three guṇas, sattva, rajas and tamas, are aspects of Brahmā, Vishṇu and Rudra. Śiva is made of knowledge. I am the Jyotiḥsvarūpa (the form of light), the Ātmā, without guṇas (nirguṇa). When I enter Prakṛti, I become saguṇa (with guṇas). Dharma, Śesha, Sūrya and Candra are all parts of my kalā (portions).”

Brahmā and all the devas arrive

At the decisive moment Brahmā himself came down from Brahmaloka, with Śiva, Śesha, Indra and all the devas. Brahmā bowed before Kṛshṇa and sang a great stotra from the Sāmaveda:

“Jaya jaya! O Nirguṇa! Nirākāra! Svecchāmaya! Bhaktānugraha-kāraka! Śāśvata-vigraha! Gopaveśa-dhārin! Māyāvī! Karuṇāsamudra! Śaraṇāgata-pañjara! Bhakta-vātsalya-yukta!”

After the stotra, Brahmā told Kṛshṇa that the time had come: “Go to Mathurā. Kill Kaṃsa. Free Devakī and Vasudeva. Build Dvārakā. Lighten the burden of the Earth.” An ākāśavāṇī (voice from the sky) also gave the same message.

The one who hears Brahmā’s stotra gets all wished-for fruits, sons, wealth and happiness. At the end of life he reaches firm Hari-dāsya (service to Bhagavān Hari) and bhakti greater even than mukti (liberation).

The gopikās block the chariot

Kṛshṇa left Rādhā and went to Nanda’s house. Rādhā woke again, found him gone, and began to wander and cry out.

Nanda made ready for the departure. Drums of every kind sounded: mṛdaṅgas, murajas, paṭahas, paṇavas, ḍhakkas, dundubhis and ānakas. The gopikās heard this and saw Kṛshṇa about to climb into the chariot. They came in fury from every direction. Strong gopikās surrounded the chariot and broke it apart with their feet. The gopas cried out in alarm. Some women carried Kṛshṇa away bodily on their chests. One gopikā slapped Akrūra. Another bound him with the end of her sari. Another pulled off his upper garment.

Kṛshṇa calmed them one by one. Then he went back to Rādhā to console her one last time. He said: “Go to Vṛndāvana with your sakhīs. Stay in the campaka grove. I must go. Akrūra has come with Kaṃsa’s call. You are the presiding devī of my prāṇas. My prāṇas are always with you.” He embraced her deeply and then got ready to leave.

The last night and the departure at dawn

A divine chariot came down from the sky, built by Viśvakarmā and set with gems. Kṛshṇa ate, rested, and spent the last night with Rādhā on a bed of flowers, holding her until dawn.

The next morning he performed the auspicious rites. He woke Yaśodā with tenderness. He chose a favourable muhūrta (moment): Candra was in good yoga, the gentle planets looked on kindly, and all the inauspicious doshas were absent. He put his right foot forward first, breathed through the left nostril, and set out with Balarāma in Akrūra’s chariot, leaving Vṛndāvana behind.

This was the end of Kṛshṇa’s Vṛndāvana-līlā (his play at Vṛndāvana). Next came his time in Mathurā.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 55 (Rādhā’s lament)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 56 (Kṛshṇa’s ātma-jñāna)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 57 (Rādhā’s viraha-agni, Ratnamālā)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 58 (Rādhā’s palace in Goloka)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 66–67 (the second viraha and adhyātma teaching)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 68 (Brahmā and the devas)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 69 (the chariot, the last night, the departure)