(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 05 September 2011, Berlin, Germany, Radhastami, Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi Lila 142-145)
Srimati Radharani is the hladini shakti – the pleasure potency of Krsna. Her whole existence is simply for giving pleasure to Krsna, her whole being is for that very purpose, for nothing else. Rupa Gosvami says that Krsna is millions and millions of times more dear to her than her own life. Krsna is simply everything for her – his pleasure is all that is on her mind and nothing else. It is sometimes very complicated to understand the mood of the gopis, who are just acting like young girls in love, but who are yet different because they have no selfish desires; their only desire is to satisfy Krsna. That is something complicated to understand.
For example, when Akrura came and took Krsna and Balaram away to Mathura, the gopis at one point gave up all shyness, all social conventions and they just openly showed their love because of the emergency. They grabbed the reigns of Akrura’s chariot and held back the chariot, ‘Krsna, don’t go!’ But why did they do that, if Krsna wanted to go? Balaram was smiling. If they wanted to go, why did the gopis just not dance in front of the chariot, all the way to Mathura, throwing flowers in front of him? Why did they want to stop Krsna’s desire? Was it because they had personal desire after all? They could not bear Krsna’s leaving but Krsna wanted to go, so why would not they just fulfill his desire if they were only aiming to please Krsna?
So this is an interesting point – the acaryas explain that actually the situation was that Krsna going out of Vrindavan was not making any sense. The gopis could understand that there is no question that he can be happy outside of Vrindavan, ‘It is not possible, he will suffer! Somehow or other, he is gone mad, he is leaving Vrindavan but we cannot allow it because actually, only here in Vrindavan, can Krsna be fully satisfied and therefore we would not let him go!’ So even then, they were holding back Krsna and there was no self interest in the matter. They were simply concerned with Krsna’s happiness and that was the reason why they held back the chariot. It is very interesting how selfless the love of Srimati Radharani and the gopis is, and she is of course the topmost.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to give the topmost love to the most fallen, therefore in trying to understand the pure love of Srimati Radharani we are incapacitated, and it is only when we go through the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then it can be revealed to us.