Śrī Śrī Prema-Bhakti-Candrikā 107 (comm. by Śrī Anantadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

রাধিকা-চরণ-রেণু,        ভূষণ করিয়া তনু,

অনায়াসে পাবে গিরিধারী ।

রাধিকা-চরণাশ্রয়,        যে করে সে মহাশয়,

তারে মুই যাই বলিহারী ॥ ১০৭ ॥

rādhikā-caraṇa-reṇu,        bhūṣaṇa kariyā tanu,

anāyāse pābe giridhārī |

rādhikā-caraṇāśraya,        ye kare se mahāśaya,

tāre mui yāi balihārī || 107 ||

     After decorating your body with the dust from Rādhikā’s lotus feet, you will easily get Giridhārī. Those who take refuge in Rādhikā’s lotus feet are great souls. I sing their praises.

The Dust from Śrī Rādhā’s Lotus Feet

     Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: Beginning from this verse, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya will for three verses discuss the worship of Vṛndāvaneśvarī Śrī Rādhā. Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas sheltered at the lotus feet of Śrīman Mahāprabhu have more affection for Rādhā than for Kṛṣṇa. For them, these three verses are like a life-giving elixir that bestows the highest good. Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya first says, rādhikā-caraṇa-reṇu, bhūṣaṇa kariyā tanu, anāyāse pābe giridhārī. “If you accept the dust from Rādhārāṇī’s lotus feet as a bodily ornament, you will easily obtain Giridhārī Śrī Kṛṣṇa.” The only way to obtain Kṛṣṇa is through prema; this is the conclusion of all the śāstras. The astonishing power of serving the foot-dust of great souls to attain bhakti or Bhagavān can be seen in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other śāstras. Brahmarṣi Bharata said the following to King Rahūgaṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.12.12:

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti 

na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā |

na cchandasā naiva jalāgni-sūryair 

vinā mahat-pāda-rajo’bhiṣekam ||

     “O King Rahūgaṇa! Without being sprinkled with the foot-dust of a great soul, one does not obtain knowledge of Bhagavān even by performing austerities or Vedic rituals, making charitable donations, building houses for others, studying the Vedas, worshiping water, fire and the sun, or by any other sādhana.” Śrīla Prahlāda Mahāśaya said the following in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.32:

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghrīṁ 

spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ |

mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo’bhiṣekaṁ 

niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat ||

     “If one does not bathe in the foot-dust of the great devotees who claim nothing as their own, the desire to abandon all anarthas at the lotus feet of Bhagavān never appears.” Great souls are differentiated by the amount of prema they have. prema-tāratamyenaiva bhakta-mahat-tāratamyaṁ mukham (Bhakti-Sandarbhaḥ 187 anuḥ). Therefore, it should be understood that the power of the great souls’ foot-dust to bestow bhakti is also differentiated according to the degree of their prema. Śrī Rādhā’s prema is supreme. Therefore, nothing equals the power of her foot-dust to bestow bhakti or to enchant Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatīpāda wrote the following in Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 4:

yo brahma-rudra-śuka-nārada-bhīṣma-mukhyair

ālakṣito na sahasā puruṣasya tasya |

sadyo-vaśīkaraṇa-cūrṇam ananta-śaktiṁ 

taṁ rādhikā-caraṇa-reṇum anusmarāmi ||

     “Great souls led by Brahmā, Mahādeva, Śukadeva, Nārada and Bhīṣmadeva are unable to perceive the Supreme Person by their own power. I always remember the dust of the lotus feet of Śrī Rādhā, which has unlimited potency. It is like a magical powder that immediately brings Svayaṁ Bhagavān Vrajendranandana under her control.” Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatīpāda has said in Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 5 that Śrī Kṛṣṇa becomes thoroughly subjugated by prema and that Śrī Rādhā’s foot-dust is like a kāmadhenu* who gives realization of prema-rasa—bhāvotsavena bhajatāṁ rasa-kāmadhenuṁ taṁ rādhikā-caraṇa-reṇum ahaṁ smarāmi.

     Now the question will be, how can the sādhakas render service to Śrī Rādhā’s lotus foot-dust and how can they decorate their bodies with it? This Vrajadhāma is the site of Śrī Rādhā’s eternal pastimes. She forever sports in Vraja along with her girlfriends and her beloved Śrī Govinda. Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatīpāda has written, rādhā-padāṅka-vilasan madhura-sthalīke, meaning, “Śrī Rādhā’s footprints adorn Vṛndāvana, the abode of sweetness.” Therefore, the dust of Vraja is the dust from Śrī Rādhikā’s lotus feet. If it were not so, why would a companion of Bhagavān like Śrī Uddhava Mahāśaya, a direct embodiment of knowledge, pray to take birth as a blade of grass or a shrub in Vraja to serve the dust of Vraja? Śrī Uddhava says the following in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.47.61:

āsām aho caraṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṁ syāṁ 

vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām |

yā dustyajaṁ svajanam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā 

bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām ||

     “Oh, I wish for such a rare thing! The shrubs, creepers and herbs in this Vṛndāvana are most fortunate because they always bear the gopīs’ foot-dust, the dust of Vraja, on their heads. These girls have with difficulty relinquished their own people and the noble path (loyal devotion of a wife to her husband) to follow the path of Mukunda, which is to be sought even by the śrutis. Alas, will I ever be blessed with birth in Vṛndāvana as a blade of grass or a shrub like these?” To adorn oneself with Śrī Rādhā’s lotus foot-dust means to settle in Vraja and serve the dust of Vraja with intense devotion. This implies devotion to Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet. Through this, Giridhārī is easily obtained: anāyāse pābe giridhārī.

     We have previously discussed how prema is obtained by serving the foot-dust of great souls and Kṛṣṇa is obtained through prema. The nectar of mahābhāva flows in an incessant stream from Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet. Wherever she places her feet in Vraja, the dust particles there are saturated in the sentiment of love known as mahābhāva. There is no doubt that service to those particles of dust is a powerful sādhana for obtaining Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the lifter of Govardhana Hill. There are some intriguing connotations here in the use of the name Giridhārī rather than another name of Kṛṣṇa. On the advice of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Nanda Mahārāja and the other Vrajavāsīs canceled the sacrifice to Indra and established a sacrifice to Govardhana Hill. Indra was blinded by anger and began a great rainstorm using Sāṁvartaka and other clouds of destruction to annihilate Vraja. Śrī Kṛṣṇa could have crushed Indra’s pride by other means, but eager to proclaim the glory of Śrī Girirāja and to see the elusive Śrī Rādhā and the other gopīs for an extended time without restriction, he held Govardhana, king of mountains, on one finger of his left hand for seven days and seven nights. Having seen Śrī Rādhā for seven long days and nights, he felt so much joy that he conversed with the great offender Indra, being satisfied by his humble prayers. Brahmā is superior in position to Indra; he is Kṛṣṇa’s son and the creator of the world, but in the brahma-mohana-līlā he kidnapped Kṛṣṇa’s beloved cowherd boys. Even though he begged for Kṛṣṇa’s forgiveness with a long prayer filled with glory and sweetness, Kṛṣṇa did not converse with him at all. Longing to see Śrī Rādhā, he held the huge Girirāja for seven days and nights, forgetting to eat or sleep. Needless to say, if someone imbued with devotion decorates his body with Śrī Rādhā’s foot-dust, he can easily obtain Giridhārī—anāyāse pābe giridhārī. It should be understood that in this case pābe means that along with experiencing Śrī Rādhā-Giridhārī’s sweetness, the bhakta will also be blessed to serve them. To get the good fortune of tasting Giridhārī’s sweetness is to truly attain him.

     On the other hand, there is no way to taste Śyāma’s sweetness without worshiping Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s foot-dust. Śrīmad Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmipāda wrote the following in the first verse of his Svasaṅkalpa-Prakāśa-Stotra:

anārādhya rādhā-padāmbhoja-reṇum 

anāśritya vṛndāṭavīṁ tat-padāṅkām |

asambhāṣya tad-bhāva-gambhīra-cittān 

kutaḥ śyāma-sindhoḥ rasasyāvagāhaḥ ||

     “How can one bathe in the sweet nectar of the Śyāma ocean without worshiping the lotus foot-dust of Śrī Rādhā, without taking shelter of Śrī Vṛndāvana, which is marked with her footprints, and without conversing with the bhaktas who deeply love Śrī Rādhā?”

     Then Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya said, rādhikā-caraṇāśraya, ye kare se mahāśaya, tāre mui yāi balihārī. One who takes shelter of Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet is called mahāśaya, meaning, mahāmanā vā mahātmā, athavā atisūkṣma-buddhiḥ (Śrī-Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛtam 2.5.178 ṭīkā). “Those whose minds have been offered to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, or those who are his devotees, are high-minded, magnanimous souls.” But Śrī Kṛṣṇa himself has said, ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ, mad-bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās te me bhakta-tamā matāḥ (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 11.28). “O Pārtha! One who is devoted to me alone is not my bhakta. One who is devoted to my bhakta is my true bhakta.” If even a slight inclination toward the hlādinī-śakti appears within a jīva, that person is called a bhakta. Śrī Rādhā is the embodiment and presiding deity of that hlādinī-śakti. Therefore, Śrī Kṛṣṇa depends most on those who take shelter of Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet. Hence, a bhakta who has surrendered to Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet is truly a mahāśaya or high-souled person.

     Moreover, one meaning of the word mahāśaya is bhakti-rasa-lampaṭa, or “greedy for the nectar of devotion.” Those who are eager to taste bhakti-rasa are blessed to do so under the shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Rādhā, the presiding deity of prema. They are indeed mahāśaya. Seeing Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya’s eagerness for bhakti-rasa and understanding him to be surrendered exclusively to the lotus feet of Śrī Rādhā, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda gave him the title mahāśaya. Finally, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, tāre mui yāi balihārī. The great souls of this world who have taken refuge in Śrī Rādhā’s lotus feet truly deserve our gratitude. I praise them hundreds of times.

* A heavenly cow yielding all desires (Apte)