সখীগণ চারি পাশে, সেবা করি অভিলাষে,
সে সেবা পরম সুখ ধরে ।
এই মন-তনু মোর, এই রসে সদা ভোর,
নরোত্তম সদাই বিহরে ॥ ৭৮ ॥
sakhī-gaṇa cāri pāśe, sebā kari abhilāṣe,
se sebā parama sukha dhare |
ei mana-tanu mora, ei rase sadā bhora,
narottama sadāi bihare || 78 ||
Śrī Rādhā’s girlfriends are always near her, serving her with affection from all sides. Such service holds the highest joy. My mind-body is always immersed in this rasa. Narottama endlessly sports here.
The Joy of Service
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: The eminent author has revealed his desire to longingly weep for a vision of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s sweet forms. In Śrī Rādhā’s presence, Śyāma’s ocean of sweetness surges, and Śyāma’s form causes Śrī Rādhā’s sweetness to overflow! Śrī Kṛṣṇa says the following in Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.140-142:
yadyapi nirmala rādhāra sat-prema-darpaṇa |
tathāpi svacchatā tāra bāḍe kṣaṇe kṣaṇa ||
āmāra mādhuryera nāhi bāḍite abakāśe |
e darpaṇera āge naba naba rūpe bhāse ||
man-mādhurya rādhā-prema doṅhe hoḍa kari |
kṣaṇe kṣaṇe bāḍe doṅhe keha nāhi hāri ||
“Though the mirror of Śrī Rādhā’s love is spotless, its purity increases moment by moment. There is no room for my sweetness to expand, yet before this mirror it shines with ever-fresh beauty. My sweetness and Rādhā’s love both overflow and increase at every moment; neither can surpass the other.”
Moreover, the strong winds of the sakhīs’ and mañjarīs’ services and their erotic jokes and laughter around Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa churn the ocean of yugala-mādhurī. In this verse, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya reveals his desire to become deeply absorbed in the service of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa along with their sakhīs in his internally conceived siddha-deha, submerged in the ocean of their sweetness. He first says, sakhī-gaṇa cāri pāśe, sebā kari abhilāṣe, se sebā parama sukha dhare. Though Īśvara (God) is eternal reality, without the assistance of the cit-śakti he does not attain full development. In the same way, Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s love, though being eternal reality, does not fully develop without the help of the sakhīs. The sakhīs and mañjarīs can be regarded as blossoms on the branches of the wish-fulfilling creeper Śrī Rādhā, bestower of kṛṣṇa-prema. Just as the branches and blossoms of a creeper increase the creeper’s beauty, in the same way, the sakhīs and mañjarīs increase the beauty of the golden creeper Śrī Rādhā, attached by love to the tamāla tree Śyāma.
Śrī Lalitā, Śrī Viśākhā and the other sakhīs along with Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī, Śrī Rati Mañjarī and the other mañjarīs always surround Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, serving them with ever-fresh desire. To understand the gradations of yugala-sevā among the sakhīs and mañjarīs, their classifications must first be known. Though Śrī Rādhā’s sakhīs are countless, they have been divided into five groups. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda wrote the following in Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇiḥ 4.50:
asyāḥ vṛndāvaneśvaryāḥ sakhya pañca-vidhā matāḥ |
sakhyaś ca nitya-sakhyaś ca prāṇa-sakhyaś ca kāścana |
priya-sakhyaś ca parama-preṣṭha-sakhyaś ca viśrutāḥ ||
Vṛndāvaneśvarī Śrī Rādhā has five kinds of sakhīs, namely sakhī, nitya-sakhī, prāṇa-sakhī, priya-sakhī and parama-preṣṭha-sakhī. These are again divided according to three kinds of temperaments: kṛṣṇa-snehādhikā (more affection for Kṛṣṇa), sama-snehā (equal affection for both) and rādhā-snehādhikā (more affection for Rādhā). Sakhīs such as Dhaniṣṭhā, Vindhyā and others have more affection for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Priya-sakhīs like Kuraṅgākṣī and others, along with the parama-preṣṭha-sakhīs including Lalitā and the rest of the aṣṭa-sakhīs, have equal affection for both. Although among these sama-snehā-sakhīs, Śrī Lalitā, Viśākhā and the rest of the eight parama-preṣṭha-sakhīs bear equal love for Śrī Rādhā and Śrī Kṛṣṇa, they maintain the mentality that, “We belong to Rādhā.” Because of the high level of their love for Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, under certain circumstances, for a short time they may show more love for one than the other. For example, they show their love for Śrī Rādhā when she feels betrayed and angered by Kṛṣṇa’s infidelity. When she is in a bad mood and ignores Kṛṣṇa, they show their love for him. The prāṇa-sakhīs and nitya-sakhīs like Kasturī, Maṇi Mañjarī and others have more affection for Śrī Rādhā. They are also known as mañjarīs. The following is written in Vṛndāvana-Mahimāmṛta 16.94 regarding the differences between the rādhā-snehādhikā-mañjarīs and all the other sakhīs:
ananya śrī-rādhā-pada-kamala-dāsyaika-rasa-dhī
hareḥ saṅge raṅgaṁ svapana-samaye nāpi dadhatī |
balāt kṛṣṇe kūrpāsaka-bhidi kim apy ācarati kā-
py adaśrur meveti pralapati mamātmā ca hasati ||
“One who serves Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet with undivided attention will not engage in romantic pastimes with Śrī Kṛṣṇa even in her dreams. If Śrī Kṛṣṇa does something such as trying to remove her bodice by force, she will cry out, ‘No! No!’ with tearful eyes. Seeing this, my dearest Rādhā begins to laugh.” It should be understood that Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s laughter here arises from her seeing the mañjarī’s extraordinary devotion. Because of the firmness of their love, the mañjarīs have been blessed with the most confidential service of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. This sevā is rare or unobtainable for even Lalitā and the other parama-preṣṭha-sakhīs, not to mention the other sakhīs. Śrīmad Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmipāda wrote the following in his Vraja-Vilāsa-Stava:
tāmbūlārpaṇa-pāda-mardana-payo-dānābhisārādibhir
vṛndāraṇya-maheśvarīṁ priyatayā yās toṣayanti priyāḥ |
prāṇa-preṣṭha-sakhī-kulād api kilāsaṅkocitā bhūmikāḥ
kelī-bhūmiṣu rūpa-mañjarī-mukhās tā dāsikāḥ saṁśraye ||
“I take shelter of Śrī Rādhā’s maidservants led by Rūpa Mañjarī. By actions such as offering tāmbūla, massaging her feet, bringing water, arranging trysts and so on, they provide perpetual satisfaction to Vṛndāvaneśvarī Śrī Rādhā. They are less hesitant than even Lalitā and the other prāṇa-preṣṭha-sakhīs when entering and leaving the places of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes.” Śrīman Mahāprabhu and the ācāryas who have taken shelter of his lotus feet have propagated this mañjarī-bhāva-sādhanā in the world. Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava obtain the greatest happiness from the mañjarīs’ pure and selfless service, and when the mañjarīs see them so happy, they float in an ocean of happiness themselves. se sebā parama-sukha dhare. There is no comparison anywhere to the joy they receive from seeing the playful couple at the time of their sevā. Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatīpāda wrote the following in Vṛndāvana-Mahimāmṛta 1.54:
rādhā-nāgara-keli-sāgara-nimagnālī-dṛśāṁ yat-sukham |
no tal-leśa-lavāyate bhagavataḥ sarvo’pi saukhyotsavaḥ ||
“All the happiness available in the kingdom of God cannot compare to even a tiny particle of the happiness of the sakhīs, whose eyes are submerged in Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava’s ocean of amorous play.”
Then Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, ei mana-tanu mora, ei rase sadā bhora, narottama sadāi bihare. He prays, “May my mind-body, meaning my mentally conceived siddha-deha, be absorbed in mañjarī-bhāva-rasa so that it attains the great fortune of roaming with Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in their pastime places, always engaged in their service.” The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sādhakas establish their sense of self in this mind-body, the guru-given siddha-deha, and contemplate the service of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa during the eight daily time periods. This is the method of bhajana on the rāga-mārga. Externally, in their sādhaka-dehas, they perform śravaṇa, kīrtana, arcana, vandana and the rest of the nine processes of bhakti. Along with that, they always contemplate performing sevā in their mentally conceived siddha-svarūpas.
bāhya antara ihāra dui ta sādhana |
bāhya–sādhaka-dehe kare śrabaṇa-kīrtana ||
mane–nija siddha-deha kariyā bhābana |
rātri-dine kare braje kṛṣṇera sebana ||
“There are two kinds of sādhana on this path, namely external and internal. Externally, in the sādhaka body, the sādhaka performs śravaṇa and kīrtana. Mentally, he contemplates his own siddha body and in it serves Śrī Kṛṣṇa day and night in Vraja.” (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 22.156-157)
The revered author has used the words ei rase sadā bhora: always immersed in this rasa. The purport is that only those who have identified somewhat with their siddha-deha can understand the extraordinary degree of rasa-enjoyment here. Not to mention those who have obtained the great fortune of contemplating the sevā of Śrī Rādhā-Mādhava while absorbed in their siddha-deha, siddhi comes to one who simply identifies with the siddha-deha, according to the doctrine of the Gosvāmīs: astu tāvad-bhajana-prayāsaḥ kevala tādṛśatvābhimānenāpi siddhir bhavati (Bhakti-Sandarbhaḥ 344 anuḥ). Therefore, the rāgānugīya-sādhaka must give up any absorption in or reliance upon the material body made of five elements and remain absorbed in her own mind-body or siddha-deha. During the time of bhakti-sādhana, the sādhaka-bhakta must think, “I am the eternal servant of Śrī Bhagavān, and Śrī Bhagavān is my eternal master.” These truths remain inseparable in all circumstances. This master-servant relationship defines bhakti-dharma. Therefore, it is characteristic for an uttama-bhakta who is very dear to Śrī Hari to have established his or her sense of identity in a siddha-deha suitable for service to Śrī Bhagavān.
