(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 23 September 2012, Durban, South Africa, Radhastami Lecture)
All of Vrndavana is serving Krsna but not only serving Krsna, Vrndavana is serving Radha and Krsna. It is said that love of God is manifest in five different rasas or five different types of relationships with the Supreme Lord. One is a neutral relationship, santa rasa. Santa rasa means that we are just offering prayers to the Supreme Lord, remembering his glorious eternal nature, how he is eternal, how he is all powerful and so on. It is said that santa rasa is not very much desired by devotees because in this relationship, one is not very active in the service of the Lord.
Dasya rasa, the relationship of being a servant, is different. Krsna has so many servants and these servants make so many arrangements for Krsna. They are very actively absorbed in making all the different arrangements for Krsna. But higher still is sakhya rasa, the relationship of friendship. Krsna has many cowherd friends who are close to Him, like Sridham and Madhumangal.
Then higher than sakhya rasa is the parental affection for Krsna, vatsalya rasa, because in parental affection, parents would give their own lives to protect their children. Their children are more dear to them than their own life, what to speak if Krsna is your child! So parental affection is even deeper than friendship. But the topmost is that madhurya rasa, the conjugal love.
The gopis do not care about anything but Krsna! When Krsna attracts them by playing his flute at Vamsi Vata, they leave home, which from a social point of view is a disaster! I mean, it would still be a bit frowned upon if young girls in the family, upon hearing a flute somewhere in the dark, suddenly go out but the gopis did not care at all – only Krsna!
This is kecit kevalaya bhakti vasudeva parayanah (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.15), this is the kind of bhakti that we are speaking about – unalloyed, pure devotional service with no compromise. So Radhastami is our day to contemplate, to look at Srimati Radharani as our example. She, who gives everything for Krsna. Once, Radharani had said, ‘Now that Krsna has left, I have given up sleeping because in sleeping, even I forget Krsna.’ Srimati Radharani has no attachment to anything in this world. There is nothing which can attract her, it is not possible. Her only source of attraction is Krsna. But not just Krsna, it is Krsna’s happiness that she desires.
