Rādhā: Beloved of Kṛshṇa and Supreme Prakṛti

Rādhā is the priyatamā (most beloved) of Śrī Kṛshṇa and the supreme Prakṛti. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa calls her the first pattern of every Purusha–Prakṛti pair, and the presiding devī of Bṛndāvana within Goloka. She sits at Kṛshṇa’s left side on the jewelled throne at the heart of eternal Bṛndāvana.

The other divine consorts are understood as reflections of this first union: Mahālakshmī, the consort of Nārāyaṇa; Sāvitrī, the consort of Brahmā; and Durgā, the consort of Śiva.

Identity and nature

In Chapter 30 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa, the teaching of Nārāyaṇa Muni names Rādhā plainly as Kṛshṇa’s dearest Prakṛti (priyatamā Prakṛti). All the other Prakṛtis, Mahālakshmī, Sāvitrī and Durgā, are the śaktis (powers) of Vishṇu, Brahmā and Śiva. Rādhā is the śakti of Kṛshṇa himself, the Parabrahman. So she stands at the top of all the Prakṛtis. This is from the Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa.

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa teaches deeply about her. She is to Kṛshṇa as heat is to fire: the same reality, joined to him and never apart, yet it can be told apart so that a bhakta (devotee) may meditate on her. She is not made in the way other beings are made. She is Kṛshṇa’s own svarūpa-śakti, the power of the Parabrahman that makes creation, upkeep and love possible.

Rādhā in Goloka

Chapter 28 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa describes Goloka in detail. There Rādhā sits to the left of Kṛshṇa on a great jewelled throne in the heart of eternal Bṛndāvana, on the Śataśṛṅga mountain. All the gopīs, ṛshis and devotees of Goloka adore the divine pair. The three worlds worship Kṛshṇa’s lotus feet, and Rādhā, as his priyatamā, shares that highest glory.

Rādhā and the Rāsa Līlā

All through the Brahma Khaṇḍa, the stotras of all the devas call Kṛshṇa Rāseśvara (lord of the Rāsa), Rāsavāsa (one who lives in the Rāsa) and Rāsakrīḍā-vāsī. The Rāsamaṇḍala is the circular dance of Kṛshṇa with the gopīs. It is shown as the highest expression of divine ānanda (bliss) in Goloka. Rādhā, as the chief gopī, is the inspiration and centre of this eternal dance. Her own name is called on mostly in the teachings on creation, and less in the story parts of the Brahma Khaṇḍa.

The birth of gopīs and gopas

The Brahma Khaṇḍa speaks of the birth of Rādhā and of the gopīs and gopas from Kṛshṇa’s own being, as part of the hidden order of Goloka’s people. The Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa treats this in more detail. The Brahma Khaṇḍa itself says that during the time of sṛshṭi (creation), Kṛshṇa fills Goloka with gopas and gopīs.

Rādhā in the Prakṛti Khaṇḍa

The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa opens with Rādhā as the fifth form of Mūla Prakṛti (the root Prakṛti). Nārāyaṇa Muni describes her to Nārada. She is pañcaprāṇa-svarūpiṇī (the form of the five prāṇas), Kṛshṇa’s very life and more than his life. She is nirguṇa, nirākāra, nirlipta, nirīha and nirahaṅkāra, and yet she appears in the form of a gopī in Goloka for Kṛshṇa’s rāsakrīḍā (Rāsa play). She is sanātanī and parāmānanda-rūpiṇī. The jīva (soul) who stays absorbed in brahma-bhāva through Vedic meditation alone can know her.

She comes down to Bhūloka in the time of the Varāha avatāra (incarnation) as the daughter of Vṛshabhānu. Brahmā performed sixty thousand years of tapas (austerity) just to see even the toenail of her lotus foot. At last he gained that darśana (sight) in Bṛndāvana.

The Rādhā Upākhyāna of the Prakṛti Khaṇḍa (Chapters 47–53) tells of Sudhāma, a gopa of Goloka. He went uninvited into Rādhā’s kuñja (grove) and found Rādhā and Kṛshṇa together. Rādhā laid a śāpa (a curse) on him: he was to be born on earth as a dānava. Sudhāma in turn cursed Rādhā: she was to be parted from Kṛshṇa and be born on earth as a human being. Kṛshṇa blessed them both. Sudhāma would return to Goloka after his life on earth. Rādhā would be joined again with Kṛshṇa, who would himself appear as Devakī’s son.

Rādhā was the first to be worshipped in Goloka. On Kārtika Pūrṇimā, Kṛshṇa himself performed her pūjā in the rāsamaṇḍala, with the gopīs, the gopas and divine beings around him. On earth, King Suyajña first performed Rādhā pūjā in Bhārata, guided by Śiva’s teaching. After him the practice spread, by divine approval, among devas, munis and devotees.

This is from the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1, 47–53.

Rādhā in the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa

The Sudāmā episode and Rādhā’s birth on earth (Chapter 3)

The Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa gives the background to Rādhā’s coming down to earth. A gopa named Sudāmā was deeply devoted to serving Kṛshṇa. He went without leave into the private kuñja of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa. Rādhā was angry and cursed Sudāmā to be born on earth as a dānava. Sudāmā in turn cursed Rādhā: she too would be parted from Kṛshṇa and be born on earth.

Kṛshṇa heard both curses and blessed both. Sudāmā would return to Goloka after finishing his life on earth. He was later born as the donkey-asura Dhenuka, a son of Bali, and gained moksha when Kṛshṇa and Balarāma slew him. Rādhā would be born on earth as the daughter of Vṛshabhānu, and Kṛshṇa himself would come as the son of Devakī to be joined with her again. This is why Bhagavān Kṛshṇa chose the particular circumstances of his birth as Devakī’s son: they could not be parted from Rādhā’s birth as Vṛshabhānu’s daughter in Gokula.

Rādhā’s sixteen names (Chapter 17)

Chapter 17 of this khaṇḍa keeps the sixteen holy names of Rādhā with their meanings. They are given where Bṛndāvana is described. The names show her as Kṛshṇa’s prāṇādhidevatā (the devī of his life-breath) and the eternal sovereign of Bṛndāvana.

Rādhā: she who gives (dā) the highest gift (rā means wealth, liberation).
Rāseśvarī: the consort of the lord of the Rāsa.
Rāsavāsinī: she who lives in the Rāsamaṇḍala.
Rasikeśvarī: sovereign of all the rasika devī-gaṇas (hosts of devīs who love the Rāsa).
Kṛshṇa Prāṇādhikā: dearer to Kṛshṇa than his own life.
Kṛshṇa Priyā: the most beloved of Kṛshṇa.
Kṛshṇa Svarūpiṇī: she who is the same in nature as Kṛshṇa.
Kṛshṇa Vāmāṅga Sambhūtā: born from Kṛshṇa’s left side.
Paramānanda Rūpiṇī: the form of supreme bliss.
Kṛshṇā: she who gives the highest moksha (kṛsh is moksha, ṇa is excellence, ā is giver).
Bṛndāvanī: she to whom Bṛndāvana belongs, or its presiding devī.
Bṛndā: she who has the bṛnda (company) of sakhīs (girl companions).
Bṛndāvana Vinodinī: she who finds joy in Bṛndāvana.
Candrāvatī: she who bears moons (her nails).
Candrakāntā: she whose radiance is like the moon, day and night.
Śarac-candra Nibhānanā: she whose face shines like the full moon of śarad (autumn).

The divine wedding (Chapter 15)

Chapter 15 of this khaṇḍa tells of the divine vivāha (wedding) of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa. Brahmā himself performed it in Bṛndāvana. The Nava Saṃgama (nine unions) is also described. After the wedding Rādhā goes back to Yaśodā’s home as an infant. This is a form made by māyā, so that the eternal bond of the divine pair can be present within the līlā (divine play) of Kṛshṇa’s childhood.

Rādhā in the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa: Chapters 27–28 and 52–53

Pārvatī shows Rādhā’s true nature (Chapter 27)

At the time of the Mārgaśīra Gaurī Vrata, Pārvatī came to the gathered gopīs and Rādhādevī in a divine jewelled chariot with one hundred yoginīs. She embraced Rādhā and told the gathered gopīs who Rādhā truly is:

“You are not an ordinary human woman. You came from Kṛshṇa’s vāma-āṅga (left side). Your tejas is equal to Kṛshṇa’s own tejas. All the deva-strīs, the divine women of every world, are only aṃśas and kalās (parts and portions) of you. Brahmā performed sixty thousand years of tapas just to get the dust of your lotus feet, and at last he gained that darśana in Bṛndāvana. You have kept this Gaurī Vrata only to show it to the world. You did not need its fruits yourself.”

Pārvatī then said to Rādhā: “Three months from now, in the lovely month of Caitra, on a pure moonlit night in the Rāsa Maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana, you will play with Hari together with all the gopīs.”

Rādhā’s stotra of Kṛshṇa from the Yamunā (Chapter 27)

In the Mārgaśīra Vrata episode, Kṛshṇa took the gopīs’ garments and told them to come out of the water. Rādhādevī stood deep in the waters of the Yamunā and did not come out. Instead, in full yogic focus, she made and recited a deep stotra (hymn of praise) to Kṛshṇa from within the river.

The stotra praises Kṛshṇa as:

Golokanātha (lord of Goloka)
Gopīnātha (lord of all gopīs)
Mānanātha (lord of all honour)
Prāṇapriya (more dear than life itself)
Dīnabandhu (friend of the distressed)
Dīnanātha (lord of the humble)
Sarveśvara (lord of all beings)
master of all devas, including Śiva, Ananta and Brahmā; the support of the three guṇas; master of all the ashṭa-siddhis (eight powers); Paramātmā

The phala (fruit) of Rādhā’s Kṛshṇa Stotra:

Said three times a day, it gives Hari-bhakti, Hari-dāsya-mukti and Rādhā-gati (a state like Rādhā’s own).
In danger, it brings wealth and good fortune at once.
Lost property is found again.
Relatives long parted are joined again within a month.
A young girl who hears this stotra for one year gains a husband equal to Kṛshṇa in virtues.

The Rāsa Līlā: the first meeting (Chapter 28)

On the night of Caitra Śukla Trayodaśī in Vṛndāvana, the great Rāsa Līlā began. Rādhā came to the Rāsa Maṇḍala with her thirty-three chief sakhīs, each leading groups of thousands of gopīs. When Rādhā and Kṛshṇa met in the Rāsa Maṇḍala, it was their first meeting face to face in the Vṛndāvana of earth. Both fell into mūrcchā (a swoon of divine bliss) and deep śṛṅgāra (loving feeling).

All the great devas came in divine vehicles to see this highest event: Śiva and Pārvatī, Brahmā and Sarasvatī, Dharma-deva, Indra and Śacī, Candra and Rohiṇī, Agni and Svāhā, Sūrya and Saṃjñā, Manmatha and Rati. All came to see the eternal Rāsa Maṇḍala in Vṛndāvana.

Kṛshṇa and Rādhā then moved through the thirty-three holy forests of Vṛndāvana and played in the waters of the Yamunā. The Rāsa Līlā went on for thirty days and nights.

Praṇaya-kopa: love-anger (Chapter 52)

After the long accounts of the breaking of pride (garvabhaṅga), Kṛshṇa said to Rādhā: “Now let us go to Vṛndāvana. The gopīs are distressed.” Rādhā said: “I cannot walk. Carry me.” Kṛshṇa smiled and said, “Get on my back,” and then vanished. Rādhā wept for a short time, searched for Kṛshṇa, and made her way to Vṛndāvana.

In the Candanavana, Kṛshṇa appeared before Rādhā and the gathered gopīs. Rādhā was in a state of praṇaya-kopa (love-anger at his earlier vanishing). She snatched away Kṛshṇa’s flute. She tore his flower garland. She tore his pītāmbara. And then, at once, with the same hands, she folded and tied the pītāmbara again. She put on a new flower garland. She gave back the flute. She smeared him with sandal-paste (candana), aguru, kastūrī and kuṅkuma. She gave him karpūra-tāmbūla (betel with camphor).

This praṇaya-kopa is protest and devotion together. It shows how deep Rādhā’s love is, since even her anger is shown through the acts of dressing and caring for him.

The meaning of Rādhā’s name (Chapter 52)

Nārada asked Nārāyaṇa why the Veda and Āgama always say “Rādhā-Kṛshṇa”, with Rādhā’s name before Kṛshṇa’s. Nārāyaṇa gave the deep reason:

“Prakṛti is the mother of all worlds, and Purusha is the father. In all three worlds the mother is always counted greater (garīyasī). The Veda and Āgama say ‘Rādhā-Kṛshṇa’ and ‘Gaurī-Śa’, never ‘Kṛshṇa-Rādhā’ or ‘Īśa-Gaurī’. When ‘Rā’ of Rādhā’s name is spoken, Mādhava overflows with joy. When ‘Dhā’ is spoken, he at once runs to the one who calls. To turn the order round and name Purusha before Prakṛti goes against the Veda. Such a person is equal to a mātṛ-ghāta (killer of his mother). Bhārata-varsha is the karma-kshetra, the most auspicious land. Within it, Vṛndāvana is made holy by the dust of Rādhā’s feet. Brahmā performed sixty thousand years of tapas to get that foot-dust.”

Kṛshṇa adorns the sleeping Rādhā (Chapter 53)

After the long Rāsa and the forest sports at Bhaṇḍīra-vana, Vasantika-kānana, Candana-kānana, Campaka-vana and Padma-vana, Rādhādevī fell asleep. Kṛshṇa looked at her. Her sindūra-tilaka was smeared and her kajal had spread. Her face glowed like the autumn moon. She wore maṇi-kuṇḍala earrings and a pearl nose-ornament.

Kṛshṇa then gave himself to adorning the sleeping Rādhā. All the devas who were present gave gifts for this service.

He wiped her face with a fine cloth washed with gold.
He combed her hair and arranged it in a braid with Mādhavī and Mālatī flowers.
He tied her waist with a ratna-studded paṭṭa-paṭṭī (waistband).
He put a sindūra-varṇa tilaka on her face, with candana below it and kastūrī spots around it.
He made fine makara-patra-rekhā (patterned lines) on her cheeks.
He put kajal on her eyes and red dye on her lips.
He gave her a ratna-darpaṇa (gem mirror) to see herself.
He placed a Pārijāta flower in her braid, given in secret by Brahmā.
He put kastūrī-kuṅkuma-śrīgandha on all her limbs.
He placed a divine lotus of a thousand petals in her right hand, given in secret by Śiva.
He gave her the Kaustubha gem, given in secret by Dharma-deva.
He gave her a rare āsava (flower-wine), a gift of the Aśvins.
He gave her the rarest, thinnest and most precious silk garment, made by Varuṇa and Bṛhaspati.
He gave her a lovely elephant-pearl nose ornament, given by Indra.

Rādhā’s viraha: the great separation (Chapters 55–57, 66–69)

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa got ready to leave Vṛndāvana with Akrūra, to carry out his great purpose in Mathurā. Rādhikā was overcome by viraha-agni (the fire of separation) that nothing could soothe. Her body burned so fiercely that the lotus petals laid under her dried to ash. The sandal-paste put on her skin to cool it dried up. Her sindūra turned black and her garments withered. Her sakhī Ratnamālā cared for her and spoke to Kṛshṇa himself, calling on the rules of love: “In a house where husband and wife are not of one heart, Alakshmī lives.”

Rādhā said to Kṛshṇa: “I cannot live without you even for a moment. A moment of parting feels like a hundred yugas.” She warned that she would go into the forest calling his name, or throw herself into the ocean of kāma and give up her body. Kṛshṇa comforted her again and again with ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the self) and with a promise: “In dreams, Rādhā, I shall always be with you.” He told her that the parting on earth came from Sudāmā’s śāpa and would last 100 years, but in the eternal truth of Goloka they were never parted.

The gopikās saw Kṛshṇa about to climb into Akrūra’s chariot. They broke the chariot with their feet and carried Kṛshṇa away bodily on their chests. Kṛshṇa went back to Rādhā for a last night together on a bed of flowers (pushpa-talpa), and left at dawn.

Chāyā-Rādhā and the true Rādhā (Chapter 89)

At the close of the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, the Purāṇa makes an important point about Rādhā’s nature. At the end of the līlā on earth, Nanda, Yaśodā, the gopikās and Rādhā went up to Goloka. The Purāṇa says that the Rādhā who went was Chāyā-Rādhā, a shadow-form, an earthly form made for the līlā on earth and for the experience of viraha-bhakti (devotion in separation). The true Rādhā is Kṛshṇa’s eternal beloved, the prāṇādhishṭhātrī-devī (the devī who rules his life-breath), the queen of Goloka. She had never really come down. She had stayed in Goloka in Kṛshṇa’s care through the whole drama on earth. So the viraha felt on earth was real in its devotion and in its effect on all who saw it, yet the eternal union in Goloka was never broken.

This teaching says that the eternal bond of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa goes beyond all separations on earth.

Rādhā in the Pātāla Khaṇḍa

As the first Prakṛti

The Pātāla Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa also tells of Rādhā’s supreme place. Śiva tells Pārvatī: “The first (primordial) matter is Rādhikā, dear to Kṛshṇa. Durgā and others having the three constituents are a part equal to a croreth of croreth portion of her. The excellent Vishṇu himself is produced from the touch of the dust of her feet.” (Chapter 69)

She is “the will-power, the power of knowledge, and the power of action of the controller of the world.” She is “of the nature of creation, maintenance, and destruction; of pure energy, quick power, and the nature of knowledge.” She holds the highest heap of Vishṇu’s great joy. She cannot be reached even by Brahmā, Rudra, and the lords of the siddhas. (Chapter 71)

Nārada sees her at Bhānu’s house

Nārada went to Gokula and visited every house in search of Kṛshṇa’s beloved. At the house of the cowherd Bhānu, a friend of Nanda, he met a girl who seemed dull, blind and deaf. He lifted her and set her on his lap, and he fell into a trance for two muhūrtas. When he came back to himself he said: “I have wandered through all the worlds, through the worlds of Brahmā, Rudra, and Indra. Nowhere have I seen any being even a croreth part of her in beauty. Pārvatī does not have such beauty. Lakshmī, Sarasvatī, Kāntividyā do not touch even the shadow of her. Even Vishṇu’s Mohinī form, how can it be similar?”

When Nārada praised her in a quiet place, she at once took her divine form: a girl of fourteen years of rare beauty, with young companions around her. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Pātāla Khaṇḍa, Chapter 71)

Rādhā as Lalitā in Nārada’s Vṛndāvana

Nārada entered the Amṛta lake and was changed into a woman. The first to greet him was the devī Lalitā. She named “this city” as Vṛndā, “always dear to the Moon in the form of Kṛshṇa”. Nārada, as a woman, spent a year with Kṛshṇa in Vṛndāvana. Then Rādhā appeared and said: “I am Devī Lalitā and that Rādhikā who is celebrated in songs. I am called Vāsudeva, who always is of the nature of the art of love. I am truly of a feminine form, and I am the ancient woman, and I am Devī Lalitā, and in a manly form I have Kṛshṇa’s body. O Nārada, there is no difference between us.” (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Pātāla Khaṇḍa, Chapter 75)

Rādhā as Vṛndāvanīśvarī

Kṛshṇa himself gave Rādhā rule over Vṛndāvana. Because she is like Vishṇu, she is called Vṛndāvanīśvarī. The Pātāla Khaṇḍa describes her: “She who leads the full life of a woman, who is affectionate to the helpless, who is of a pure heart, who has fully drunk the nectar of Kṛshṇa’s name, is called Rādhā. Rādhā is endowed with a prolonged smile, has the lustre of heated gold, is the river of surging love, a choice collyrium for better vision.” (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Pātāla Khaṇḍa, Chapter 77)

Sources

Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa
Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1, 47–53
Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 3, 15, 17, 27–28, 52–53, 55–57, 66–69, 89
Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Pātāla Khaṇḍa, Chapters 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 77