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The Governing Body Commission (GBC) has released its latest Meeting Highlights Report for September 4, 2024. The report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the online GBC meeting highlighting the key topics discussed: ISKCON GBC MEETING HIGHLIGHTS REPORT 4 September 2024 We are pleased to present the 4 September 2024 GBC Meeting Highlights Report. […]

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Srila Prabhupada lecture:

So this janma is today and Rādhā, this name is sometimes not found in Bhāgavata. So the atheistic class of men protest this Rādhārāṇī’s name is not in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. How this name came, Rādhārāṇī? But they do not know how to see it. There is anayārādhyate. 

There are many gopīs, but there is mention that by this particular gopī He is served more pleasingly. Kṛṣṇa accepts this gopī’s service more gladly. Anayārādhyate. Ārādhyate. This ārādhate,this word, ārādhyate means worshiping. From this word ārādhyate, Rādhā has come. But Rādhā’s name are there in other Purāṇas. So this is the origin.

So Rādhā, so Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer and He wants to enjoy. So He’s the Supreme Brahman. He cannot enjoy anything, ātmarāma, He can enjoy it in Himself. Therefore Rādhārāṇī is the expansion of His pleasure potency. 

Kṛṣṇa hasn’t got to seek external things for His pleasure. No. He is in Himself full, ātmarāma. So Rādhārāṇī is expansion of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the energetic, and Rādhārāṇī is the energy. Just like energy and energetic, you cannot separate. Fire and the heat you cannot separate. 

And wherever there is Rādhā there is Kṛṣṇa. They are inseparable.

So Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī has described this intricate philosophy of Rādhāand Kṛṣṇa in one verse, very nice verse. Rādhākṛṣṇa–praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha–bhedaṁgatau tau [Cc. Ādi 1.5].

So Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is the one Supreme, but in order to enjoy, They have divided into two. Again Lord Caitanya joined the two into one. Caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam adhunā. That one means Kṛṣṇa in the ecstasy of Rādhā. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa is in ecstasy of Rādhā. Sometimes Rādhā is in the ecstasy of Kṛṣṇa. This is going on. But the whole thing is Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa means the one, the Supreme.

So Rādhā–Kṛṣṇa philosophy is a very great philosophy. It is to be understood in the liberated stage. Rādhā–Kṛṣṇa philosophy is not to be understood in the conditioned stage. But when we worship Rādhā–Kṛṣṇa in our conditional stage, actually we worship Lakṣmī–Nārāyaṇa.

You have seen that picture, this viddhi–mārga and rāga–mārga. Rādhā–Kṛṣṇa worship is on the platform of pure love, and Lakṣmī–Nārāyaṇa worship is on the regulative principles. So long we do not develop our pure love, we have to worship on the regulative principles.

So the lesson is that we should not treat Rādhārāṇī as ordinary girl, or Kṛṣṇa as ordinary man. They are the Supreme Absolute Truth. But in the Absolute Truth, there is the pleasure potency, and that is exhibited in the dealings of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. And Rādhā’s expansion to all the gopīs, and Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord.