By B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami - http://www.vrindavan.org

Haribol! The title of today’s chat is the Radhastami. Radharani is Sraddha devi , the giver of divine faith in Krishna’s holy name and divine service. She is our only shelter and hope. We know very little about this greatest personality who can even make Lord Krishna mad. He is so much in love with her that he renounced even Vrindavan and his dear flute to get her love again.

How is that possible? Because she is the internal feminine part of the very same personality of Godhead. Krishna is under her full control. Love above reason. Her love is more important then the rest of the creation. She is more important to him than he is himself import for him.

We have seen the sloka where Krishna speaks about Uddhava. You are more dear to me then even laksmi and Balamaram etc. And Uddhavaji tells us that he wants to take birth in Vrindavan as a blade of grass so that the Gopis with their lotus feet will step on his head. And the Gopis all take shelter of the extraordinary love Radharani has for Krishna. Even Chandravali says: “If Krishna will come back to Vrindavan it will be only because of that love in separation which Radharani experiences.”

Radhastami is the most holy of all holy days. It is Krishna’s favourite day, as the Kadamba is his favourite tree, and as her Kunda is his favourite Lake in Vrindavan. And for us Sraddha devi is the only reason why Mahaprabhu has come to give us mercy. He has inspired this faith in the holy name. Sri Gurudeva is the representative of The Sraddha department of Srimati Radharani. How could we go on to try to get out of Maya without his encouragement?

Sraddha - divine faith - is our only impetus. It is what makes us get up for Mangal artik, what makes us to chant our rounds. It is what lets us sit attentively in class, what brings us day after day to preach and work for Krishna. And it is sraddha that makes us to give up the fruit of our work for the service of Krishna in the sankirtan spirit.

It is very hard to renounce anything. The normal thing is that people want to get things, even illegally in order in the mood of exploitation, in violation of the second sloka of the Isopanisad by all means. And here we find ourselves inspired to work hard to give and give and give. To Krishna. Just like Srila Prabhupada showed us by his loving example. Go and serve Krishna. Sleep under trees or in vans. Tolerate all difficulties. Approach those who have no faith yet with so much love that they will accept the holy names on their lips and start feeling the new real life. The life of faith in divinity. Indifference to society familiy and love. Disgusted with Knowledge, power and opulence. Falling into the dust of the Braja bhasis, the souls who only live for him. Those who are ready to beg from door to door. Take Hari nam, that is the only treasure in this life. Chant the holy names, they will change your misfortune into real assets. You will see that even your sufferings were the key to find the real love our heart longs so much to get.

Sraddha devi is really always with us. She checks our progress, how much eagerness is developing in our heart, to be a real devotee. A good devotee. A loving devotee. She sees how disgusted we get when sexual thoughts come into our mind, and how careful we are to uplift the agitated and suffering people and sometime devotees as well.

Radharani has unlimited love for Krishna. And she knows how much Krishna loves all of us. and she knows that Krishna will only be happy when we get out of our illusion and learn to love him. And if we are under her shelter, by serving our Gurudeva, then Krishna is highly pleased.

The real high devotees are so much absorbed into her love that they are partial with her even to the point of chastising Krishna, like Lalita and Visakha. But that is so high that we can only admire such type of information. Srila Guru Maharaj Bhakti Raksak Sridhar deva Goswami, whenever such a topic appeared used to fold his hands above his head and say we worship such a thought.

Sradha is our daily food for the grow. We are always permanently indebted to her. And she does not like it when any Vaisnava minimizes others what to speak of the mad elephant offence, to offend another devotee. That is the only way to become rejected in the land of divine service. By giving trouble to other Vaisnavas. Blasphemy or making them sad.

And we should be very careful to consider that every soul involved in this movement are included. Even the visitors to the temple can be offended if we are not loving and a good example. I remember one devotee girl married to the temple president. She was jealous of other pretty girls who visited the temple. Afraid her husband may be attracted to them she mistreated them, so that they would not return. In a dream She was approached by Srila Prabhupada. He told her: “Why do you make abortion?” She replied: “No Srila Prabhupada, I never did any abortion. Then he repeated the same accuse even much stronger. Again she replied that she had not done any abortion. Then Srila Prabhupada told her:" Then what about all these girls you send away. You destroy their spiritual chance by mistreating them. That is also abortion." She was so shocked when she woke up, and she called me immediately and confessed her sins. From that day on she became very kind with every person and also for me it was a great lesson of Srila Prabhupada to teach others to be very, very careful with every visitor which comes into our vicinity or temple.

For a servant of Sraddha devi, every contact in this world is very meaningful. Every soul may be a new devotee, just like we one day, by Her grace, discovered that devotion to Krishna is the greatest treasure. We cannot know who is the next soul and what about the grace if you can be her instrument to give that faith that love and trust to some other soul. Be ready. Be always alert. Do not let anybody escape. Nobody is ordinary. Otherwise they would not be in front of you. They get the chance to hear about spiritual love. If they are not ready today, they may be tomorrow or in 20 years. It is not for you to decide who gets this mercy. You just have the right and duty to be that loving instrument of Sradha devi to deliver her message whithout attachment or without any right to enjoy any result. And she showers us with the blessings of sadhu sanga, with those who have that treasure of faith as well. And the best of all sadhus is that person who is very advanced in this life of dedication and who takes you into consideration, and - if he is not your Guru - has high appreciation for how the holy name came to you. That is very important. If the devotees minimize or consider of only relative value how the holy name came to you , they cannot further your faith, your sradha. They become asadhu for your spiritual growth, even if they have much scriptural knowledge.

Often a person is blinded by pride when he gets some knowledge or position in a mission. That is a danger. Pride comes before the fall. And any lack of kindness and sensitivity for the sradha of others, is a clear symptom or arrogance and pride. Krishna may protect them from further decay in their spiritual growth. But we should stay away from anyone who has no regard for my spiritual family. Sometimes, due to the mayasic superiority complex in this world, we find that a lack of generosity is prominent even in groups of missions who consider those who are not part of their mission to be inferior.

That is definitely the mood of total neophytes. Real devotees always feel that the only bad devotee is he himself. They know that love and surrender is totally under the control of her divine lordship sradha devi and that we shall admire her wherever and whenever she decides to appear in any part to create faith in divine service and the holy name. If a person thinks that is only valid in his own mission , means he does not understand anything about her supreme love and power. Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaj said:" We all pray for causeless mercy, but when we see someone else outside of our influence gets the mercy, we ask about the cause for it or doubt its true impact.” Childish to say the least.

The world of Sradha is all pervading. Her love is all we are made of.. Her love is there in Gaura Nitai. Door to door. Country to country. Everywhere, even on the radio, we find her with My sweet lord Hare Krishna, everywhere. She calls us. She has a great campaign. And you are aloud to take part of it. Jump to the sky. Shout in ecstasy. Nitai Gouranga. Jay Sri Radhe. Samkirtan ki jay!

You are so small but she has given you permission to be her little instrument in the great work of distribution of faith in the divine couple and their expansion of greatest magnanimity. Causeless mercy for all Jivas. Hariiiiiiiiibol That is celebrated on Radhastami. Forget your pains and lamentations. Join the Kirtan of love. Cook and distribute her prasadam. We are so fallen. Imagine, born in the land of mlecchas. Ex meat eaters.

When I joined, there was one book and one fold out paper to preach, Today the seva in Colombia has 1400 different books , tapes, CD:s, video or other preaching items. Causeless mercy to distribute into every home. We can give them hope , and knowledge. But nothing is more important than the association with the real loving souls , the Servants of Srimati Radharani. Srila Prabhupada’s group of preachers are part of that inspiration. He told Lord Krishna in his prayer:“My dear brother , you better help me in my mission. Because it is not my mission . It is Radharanis mission, and if you do not help me, you will be in trouble with her.”

Krishna tabe punya habe bhai. Do you get it? Without her we would be nowhere. Lost is our terrible Karma. But she was so kind to send her empowered representative to come and help us. What else can we do then to try to serve him? Even though we are not qualified or capable in any way, she makes good use of anybody praying to her in some way. Even the animals are getting mercy by her kindness. And the plants and trees all over the world are getting chance for service.

A nice idea came to my mind a few days ago. Krishna is the akhilarasamrita murti, the fountainhead of all rasas, devotional varieties. He got a little bored with the only Indian traditional style of music and food. So he inspired his loving devotee Srila Prabhupada to go out into the world so that he gets some bhajans with all musik styles and food of all varieties like Arepas, papa a la Huancayina, obleas con arequipa, castanias y piniones etc. Since that is the realty of today. Reggae, bolero and even a salsa in its sweet vaiety to Hari Kirtan!!! Very orthodox people get frightened. In India it even exist temples that only offer vegetables, mentioned in Sastras. But in the streets everybody eat fried potatoes. Thanks to the Inka farmers. Like that, Krishna went to the streets and the towns in the world through His new devotees and eats the pizza made of His devotees with great pleasure. Well, this is my interpretation. Radhastami Ki Jay! And the 108 preparations that you can offer to her, Ki Jaya!

Open for questions and commentaries on this holy occasion. I thank you all for giving me your association here on this day. Have a nice festival everywhere and pray and pray and pray for Srimati Radharanis mercy our only hope forever. Distributed by her devotees alone. All the rights reserved by the surrendered souls.

Question: Reverencies, Gurudeva, excuse a maybe simple question, but what is Srimati Radharani’s most preferred dish?

Answer: Radharani loves plum chutney.