During his manifest pastimes, Guruji would always be present at the Kolkata Maṭha for Rādhāṣṭamī. For the last three years, however, we had been outside India and therefore could not stay in Kolkata for Rādhāṣṭamī. For this reason, the devotees of Kolkata specifically told us that this time we should stay in Kolkata during Rādhāṣṭamī.

But this year, we could not come here to Hyderabad during the annual function of the Math because Karunakar Prabhu had informed us that it was very hot at that time and that there was also a scarcity of water. Anticipating that we would face many difficulties, he had advised us not to come. It was not Kṛṣṇa’s desire, nor was it Rādhā-Vinodjī’s desire, nor Guruji’s desire. They expressed their desire through the medium of the devotees. That is why we did not come here during the annual function.

We then thought of coming here (Hyderabad) after celebrating Radhāṣṭamī in Kolkata. But when we informed the devotees here, they said no, as everyone will be busy due to Gaṇeśa Utsav and if we come after Radhāṣṭamī, it will be difficult for us to do the function here and after Viśvarūpa Utsav it will become very crowded. Hence, they requested us to come before Radhāṣṭamī and stay until Radhāṣṭamī, celebrate Radhāṣṭamī here and then proceed further wherever we desire.

I saw that it isn’t Krishna's desire that we stay at Kolkata Math during Radhāṣṭamī. I told the devotees that we cannot stay at Kolkata during Radhāṣṭamī, and decided to stay in Hyderabad Math, according to Krishna’s desire.

We make our programs but something else happens. Everything happens because of the Lord's desire. We have the opportunity of having darśana of the devotees coming to Math during Radhāṣṭamī and we have darśana of Śrī RādhaVinoda Jiu, whom we worship and seek mercy. It is Guruji's desire.

I have shortcomings, I am a conditioned soul. Guruji is the personal associate of the Supreme Lord and he has manifested his worshippable object here and he has the qualities of the Lord, gunā-śakti.

Situated within this body, with these material senses, mind, and intelligence, what can we understand? What can we say about Them? We shall only speak something inappropriate.

From what we see and hear, it appears that Rādhārāṇī and Kṛṣṇa have ordinary human forms as man and woman. But Nanda-nandana Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the source of all the avatāras. Human beings have bodies similar to His, but theirs are made of bones and flesh. Because their forms resemble those of the Supreme Lord, they are considered the foremost among all species. But Śrī Kṛṣṇa is pūrṇa sac-cid-ānanda vigraha; He is nirguṇa, and His body is not made of bones and flesh.

Kṛṣṇa's ārādhikā śakti—the potency by which the Lord worships Himself—is called ārādhikā; in short, Rādhikā. Rādhikā, or Rādhā, is not an ordinary woman made of blood and flesh. She is aprākṛta (transcendental). Only when the consciousness is purified does the aprākṛta form manifest.

Jīva Gosvāmīpāda has written that one should first chant the Holy Name without offences, having received it from a bona fide Guru; only then will one understand transcendental subjects. The Name encompasses the name, form, qualities, associates, and pastimes. If we hear the pastimes first, we shall not understand them; therefore, we must first chant the Holy Name. In this world, sound is the subtlest element. But in the transcendental world, subtlety begins with sound. The words of that realm are not the same as those of this material sky. They belong to the sky that is beyond the influence of the three modes of material nature. In that nirguṇa sky, the words (śabda) and the objects denoted by those words (śabdī) are one and the same. There is no difference between śabda and śabdī. Those transcendental words descend into this world as the Holy Name, which is received from a bona fide Guru.

The form is subtler than śabda. Everything is contained within śabda; nothing exists outside it. The Harināma I have received from Guruji contains everything.

Our Param Guruji had a sevaka. I heard this from my Guruji. Our Param Guru Mahārāja, the Founder of the worldwide Śrī Caitanya Maṭha and Gauḍīya Maṭha, Nitya-līlā-praviṣṭa Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, was the Lord's personal associate. Kṛṣṇa sent him to this world.

When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu disappeared and His personal associates also disappeared, no one properly understood His teachings. Everything was being propagated and understood in an improper way. Therefore, out of His causeless mercy, Kṛṣṇa sent His own personal associates—Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and following him, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. No scholar of this world could understand the doctrines of devotion. Therefore, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura appeared and destroyed all erroneous doctrines (apasiddhānta).

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in Bengal and preached Kṛṣṇa-prema. But later, when the people of Bengal lost faith in His teachings because of the improper practices of pseudo-sects, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura came and told them, “These are not the teachings of Mahāprabhu.” They established true bhakti with evidence from the scriptures. They shook the whole world, expanding themselves into many forms as their associates, such as our Gurudeva and his god-brothers, and preached throughout the world.

Therefore, Guruji is a non-different form of Prabhupāda. Even in physical appearance, he closely resembled Prabhupāda—so much so that many people mistook him for Prabhupāda's son. But Prabhupāda was a brahmacārī and had accepted sannyāsa; how could he have a son? Both possessed tall, golden-complexioned, radiant forms. Guru Mahārāja revealed and manifested his object of worship here.

I am a conditioned soul, always hankering to fulfil my material desires. Their glories are not manifested within me—how can I say anything? But it is Guru Mahārāja’s order that I should repeat what I have heard from Guru, Śāstra, and Vaiṣṇavas, remember them, and always pray for the grace of the Vaiṣṇavas, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Rādhārāṇī, the aṣṭa-sakhīs, and all the Guru-varga, especially on their appearance days, being fully surrendered to them. They are merciful, and when you pray to them, they will shower their mercy upon you and reveal their glories within your heart. Then you will understand. We will not understand anything through the efforts of our own mind and intellect; rather, we will understand everything in the opposite or wrong way.

Śrī Rādhārāṇī is Kṛṣṇa’s spiritual potency, the ārādhikā-śakti. How can we understand Her? She is not material energy.

Outwardly, we see Her as a woman of this world, but it is not so. In the spiritual world, there is no past or future. In Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa is nitya-kiśora—He is eternally in His adolescence—and so is Śrī Rādhārāṇī. Here, adolescence does not last forever. In this material world, there is no eternality: there is birth, existence, growth, transformation, dwindling, and death. But time does not function there as it does here. There is no birth and death; time always functions in the present there. How can we understand this? It is difficult.

Now, in Śrī Caitanya Maṭha in Māyāpur Dhāma, Prabhupāda had a servant named Sajjananda Mahārāja. He used to serve very well, and everyone respected him. Although he was a brahmacārī, he was addressed as Mahārāja. Prabhupāda used to eat very little, like a sparrow, and Sajjananda Mahārāja would cook for him.

After ten years, Sajjananda Mahārāja asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “I have served for so many years and have served Guru and Vaiṣṇavas, but I have not received anything.” Other disciples also had the same question, but they did not have the courage to ask Prabhupāda. So, they all came and sat before him, listening attentively to what he had to say.

Prabhupāda asked, “Did you not receive Harināma?”

Sajjananda Mahārāja replied, “Yes, I received it.”

Prabhupāda then said, “If you have received Harināma, then what is left? You have received everything. You have received the Name, within which the subtler form, qualities, and pastimes are all present. When the heart is purified, the form, qualities, and pastimes will manifest. When you constantly utter the Name, you will become purified, and gradually the form, qualities, and pastimes will be revealed. You do not attain them through your own efforts.”

Everything is present within the Harināma. Therefore, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are also present within the Harināma, and the meaning of the Harināma is also the same.

Even though everything is present within Harināma, we are instructed about the thirty-six kinds of sevā-aparādha and are required to follow many rules—for example, not drinking caraṇāmṛta in front of the Deities, not offering obeisances to anyone in front of the Deities, and not blessing or governing anyone in front of the Deities, and so forth. Whatever we purchase for the first time should first be offered to the Lord. If, without offering the first portion to the Lord, we directly give it to our children, that is an offence. There are many offences of this kind. Once, when our Maṭha was at Urdu-Gali, all these offences were written down.

But when we worship out of fear, we are not serving Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa; rather, we are serving Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. We are actually serving Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa in the mood of opulence, not Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, because Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa are worshipped in the mood of sweetness, in the mood of love. When there is fear, love becomes saṅkucita—contracted. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa are not worshipped with fear. How will we understand this?

Hanumān is Lord Rāma’s servant. He serves Him in the mood of reverence. But Kṛṣṇa’s servants Raktaka, Patraka, and Citraka—when they used to massage Him with oil, if Kṛṣṇa was playful, they would even slap Him. Could Hanumān ever slap Lord Rāma? Can a servant of Lord Nārāyaṇa do so? They cannot even think of doing such a thing. In Kṛṣṇa-līlā, even the servants situated in the mood of dāsya-bhakti experience such sweetness.

It is said:

aiśvarya-jñānete saba jagat miśrita
aiśvarya-śithila-preme nāhi mora prīta
(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 3.16)

“The whole world is influenced by knowledge of My opulences and serves Me with awe and reverence, knowing Me to be the Supreme Lord, but such love does not attract Me.”

āmāre īśvara māne, āpanāke hīna
tāra preme vaśa āmi nā ha-i adhīna
(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.18)

“I am not subdued by the love of one who considers Me to be the Lord and himself to be inferior to Me.”

In this world, when we see someone’s wealth, greatness, or dominating power, we consider such a person superior and become subservient to him. When we believe in such limited powers, what is the shame in acknowledging the greatness of the Supreme Controller?

But Kṛṣṇa says here that one who serves Me in the mood:

mora putra, mora sakhā, mora prāṇa-pati
ei-bhāve yei more kare śuddha-bhakti
āpanāke baḍa māne, āmāre sama-hīna
sei bhāve ha-i āmi tāhāra adhīna
(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.21–22)

“One who serves Me with the mood, ‘He is my son, He is my friend, He is my beloved,’ and serves Me with pure devotion, considering himself superior to Me—I become subdued by such devotion and become subordinate to him.”

When one has a son, the parents become senior to him. Father and mother govern Kṛṣṇa; they hold His ears and even strike Him with sticks. But it is not like this with His other forms. How can we understand the potency of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the potency of such Kṛṣṇa?

It is very difficult. Whatever it may be, I will try to remember what our Param Guru Mahārāja has written, what I have heard from my Guru Mahārāja, and the words of the scriptures. There may be mistakes in what I say, but without dwelling on them, we will try to understand.

It was in this way that Śrī Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī, an associate of Kṛṣṇa, appeared to serve in Gaura-līlā. He has written about Rādhārāṇī in Vraja-vilāsa-stava. What did he write?

He has written that in Rāval—we say Ravel—but in Bhakti-ratnākara also it is written as Rāval. This could perhaps be due to differences in pronunciation or transmission; perhaps it was Rāval in Vraja. I am trying to convey the essence; I do not exactly remember the śloka.

It is said that in Rāval Dhāma, Rādhikā appeared from the jewel-like womb of Kīrtidā Devī. Rādhārāṇī is compared to a maṇi, a jewel, a precious stone. And all the devatās, who appeared in human forms, came to take Her darśana in great bliss. This is mentioned there.

Some say that there is no evidence of Rādhārāṇī in the scriptures. But She is indeed mentioned in the scriptures. She is also mentioned in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, although not directly. Why this is so is also explained by our Paramgurudev Mahārāja in his Anubhāṣya.

To be continued..