(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 05 September 2011, Berlin, Germany, Radhastami, Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi Lila 142-145)
Question: Why has Srila Prabhupada instructed us to worship Radha-Krsna in the mood of Laksmi-Narayan?
The worship of Laksmi-Narayan takes place in awe and reverence, in the remembrance that they are the Supreme. Whereas the worship of Radha-Krsna takes place in the situation where the devotees are covered by yoga-maya – they forget that Radha-Krsna are the Supreme. Such kind of forgetfulness of Radha-Krsna, as the Supreme, is only possible for those who are at the stage where Radha-Krsna have become their life and soul. Because one who is fully dedicated to serving Krsna and doing everything for his pleasure, such a person, even if he forgets that Krsna is the Supreme Lord, will be completely respectful and favorable and so on. But if we start to practice forgetting that Krsna is the Supreme Lord, due to the fact that actually he has not completely taken over our heart, we tend to become disrespectful. Therefore, we cannot yet worship Radha-Krsna in that mood of forgetting they are the Supreme, because they have not yet become our life and soul.
So, we serve Radha-Krsna according to regulative principles, remembering that we are dealing with the Supreme Lord. That is very difficult. We like Deities but we are not like Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When he saw Lord Jagannatha, he saw Krsna and was ready to jump on the altar and embrace him! We fall asleep and think, ‘Shall I go for the darshan or not?!’ We are all the time reminding ourselves, ‘I am in the temple now, here is the Supreme Lord, I should bow down, don’t really want to but have to, well okay…’ Pujari is thinking, ‘Again I have to carry that plate with the water! I am on the roster again! Every Monday… I guess there are no other pujaris and I have to do this service…’
That is our current consciousness therefore we worship the Lord like Laksmi-Narayan, remembering, ‘No, no, it is not ordinary – I am allowed to carry the water for the Supreme Lord – that is not a small thing! I am allowed to close the curtains for the Lord.’ In this way, we need to constantly remember that we are dealing with the Lord so we can get ready for the direct worship of Radha-Krsna.