জয় জয় রাধা-নাম, বৃন্দাবন যার ধাম,
কৃষ্ণসুখ-বিলাসের নিধি ।
হেন রাধা-গুণগান, না শুনিল মোর কান,
বঞ্চিত করিল মোরে বিধি ॥ ১০৮ ॥
jaya jaya rādhā-nāma, bṛndābana yāra dhāma,
kṛṣṇa-sukha-bilāsera nidhi |
hena rādhā-guṇa-gāna, nā śunila mora kāna,
bañcita karila more bidhi || 108 ||
Glory to the name of Rādhā, whose abode is Vṛndāvana. She is an ocean of playful pastimes that bring happiness to Kṛṣṇa. My ears have never heard the singing of Rādhā’s virtues; providence has deprived me.
The Ocean of Kṛṣṇa’s Happy Pastimes
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: To reveal the glory of Śrī Rādhā’s name, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya then said, jaya jaya rādhā-nāma, bṛndābana yāra dhāma, kṛṣṇa-sukha-bilāsera nidhi. The word jaya denotes excellence and obeisance. “Śrī Rādhā’s name is preeminent above all; therefore I bow to rādhā-nāma again and again.” Why is rādhā-nāma so excellent and glorious? Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatīpāda wrote the following in Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhiḥ 95:*
yaj-jāpaḥ sakṛd eva gokula-pater ākarṣakas tat-kṣaṇād
yatra premavatāṁ samasta-puruṣārtheṣu sphuret tucchatā |
yan-nāmāṅkita-mantra-jāpana-paraḥ prītyā svayaṁ mādhavaḥ
śrī-kṛṣṇo’pi tad adbhutaṁ sphuratu me rādheti varṇa-dvayam ||
“Let the two astonishing syllables rā and dhā always appear on my tongue. If someone chants them once only, Nandanandana Śrī Kṛṣṇa is immediately attracted. If one develops love for them, all other goals of life seem insignificant. Even Mādhava Śrī Kṛṣṇa himself lovingly chants a mantra adorned with her name.” The favorite mantra of Svayaṁ Bhagavān Vrajendranandana, the supreme deity of the entire creation, is rādhā-nāma. Therefore, Rādhā’s name is filled with excellence and glory. We see the following in Brahma-Vaivarta-Purāṇa:
rā-śabdoccāraṇād eva
sphīto bhavati mādhavaḥ |
dhā-śabdoccārata paścād
dhāvaty eva sasambhramaḥ ||
“If someone speaks the syllable rā, Kṛṣṇa is overjoyed and immediately rises to go to him. When the person says dhā, Kṛṣṇa eagerly runs after him without delay.”
Vṛndāvana is the abode of rādhā-nāma—bṛndābana yāra dhāma. Vṛndāvana is the land of Rādhā’s supremely sweet pastimes and the home of the sweeter than sweet rādhā-nāma. Because rādhā-nāma is Kṛṣṇa’s favorite mantra, the residents of Vṛndāvana consider it worthy of worship, to be sung, chanted, heard and remembered. Rādhā-nāma is in everyone’s mouth in Vṛndāvana. They speak it when addressing each other, when conversing, when paying respects, in commercial transactions—everyone says rādhā-nāma during all activities. Sweet rādhā-nāma is written on the walls of houses, on trees and so on. It is said that when the illustrious poet Śrī Tulasī Dāsa, author of Rāma-Carita-Mānasa, arrived in Vṛndāvana, he was astonished to hear śrī-rādhā-nāma coming from everyone’s mouth. Thoughts of Rāmacandra’s abode Ayodhyā came to his mind. He mused that in Ayodhyā, everyone speaks the name of Rāma. There, no one utters the pure name of Śrī Sītā, although they do say Sītā-Rāma. The difference is that in Vṛndāvana everyone always speaks the pure name of Śrī Rādhā. jaya jaya rādhā-nāma, bṛndābana yāra dhāma.
Once, a Bengali lady came for darśana of Śrī Vṛndāvana. Her name was Rādhā. When she was out on the street, she heard some residents of Vṛndāvana calling out jaya rādhe, jaya rādhe to each other. Startled, she looked in that direction to see if someone was addressing her. Then she could understand that everyone here, whether woman or man, greets each other by saying rādhe rādhe. It is the custom for everyone to invoke rādhā-nāma in all activities and conversations. One day she asked a devotee the reason for this. The Vaiṣṇava said to her, “Mother! On this earth there is a place where the custom is to speak sweet words before saying anything else. For example, if a person goes there to reprimand someone, he must first speak pleasantly to him. Vṛndāvana is that place. Here, there is nothing so sweet as rādhā-nāma. Therefore, everyone addresses each other with rādhā-nāma before speaking or doing anything else.” Truly, there is nothing in the world as sweet as rādhā-nāma. Śrīmad Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmipāda has said, rādheti nāma nava-sundara-sīdhu-mugdham. “This name Rādhā is fresh, beautiful and nectarous.” For this reason, rādhā-nāma is dearer to a Vrajavāsī than his or her own life. jaya jaya rādhā-nāma, bṛndābana yāra dhāma. Śrī Vṛndāvana is the abode of rādhā-nāma.
Then Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, kṛṣṇa-sukha-bilāsera nidhi. Śrī Rādhā is an ocean of playful pastimes that bring happiness to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa no doubt sports with Candrāvalī and the other beautiful girls of Vraja. But just as the ocean is the source of all rivers, streams, lakes and so on, in the same way, Śrī Rādhā is the source of pastimes that make Śrī Kṛṣṇa happy. The other gopīs exist only to nourish Kṛṣṇa’s loving pastimes with Rādhā. Śrī Rādhā is an inexhaustible storehouse of ingredients for sporting with Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the embodiment of the deep erotic sentiment (śṛṅgāra-rasa). kimbā kṛṣṇa-krīḍā-pūjāra basati nagarī (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Ādi 4.84). She is the abode of Kṛṣṇa’s worship and play. Śrī Rādhā’s name is also an ocean of pastimes meant for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure because the name and the named are one. We see the following in the sixth act of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmipāda’s Vidagdha-Mādhava-Nāṭakam: After going to Vṛndāvana to search for Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa mistakenly ran to embrace a group of land-lilies and yellow amaranths he mistook to be her. Then, Kṛṣṇa’s dear friend Madhumaṅgala joked that he would give him Rādhā in the palm of his hand, so he wrote her name on a leaf and placed it in Kṛṣṇa’s hand, saying, “Here is Rādhā.” When Kṛṣṇa saw Rādhā’s name, he said to Madhumaṅgala, “Friend, I have truly obtained the highest satisfaction from this gift, because—
kramāt kakṣām akṣṇoḥ parisara-bhuvaṁ vā śravaṇayor
manāg adhyārūḍhaṁ praṇayi-jana-nāmākṣara-padam |
kam apy antas toṣaṁ vitarad avilambād anupadaṁ
nisargād viśveṣāṁ hṛdaya-padavīm utsukayati || (VMN 6.45)
“If a man sees or hears the letters of his lover’s name, then naturally those letters immediately create satisfaction and great eagerness in his heart.” A mahājana sang the following in Kṛṣṇa’s words:
śuna rādhe ei rasa, āmi se tomāra baśa, tomā bine nāhi bhāya mane |
japite tomāra nāma, dhairaja nā dhare prāṇa, tuyā rūpa kariye dheyāne ||
‘śrī-rādhe’ śrī-rādhe’ bāṇī, ye dike yāra mukhe śuni, sei dike dhāya mora mana |
cātaka phukāre yena, ghana cāhe bariṣaṇa, tena heri o cānda-badana ||
karete muralī thāke, ghana rādhā bali ḍāke, yata-kṣaṇa nā pāya dekhite |
tomāra nūpura-dhvani, āpana śrabaṇe śuni, tabe mora kṣamā haya cite ||
rādhā-kṛṣṇa duṭi nāma, tāhe tumi āguyāna, āmi kari tomāri bharasā |
tabe se saphala haba, tuyā pada parasiba, dāsa bṛndābanera e āśā ||
“Listen, O Rādhā, to this rasa. I am under your control; without you, there is no light in my mind. My heart becomes restless when I say your name or think of your form. My mind races toward those who say the words ‘Śrī Rādhā, Śrī Rādhā.’ I gaze at you, O Moonface, like a weeping cātaka gazes at a raincloud. My flute stays in my hand; it constantly cries out ‘Rādhā!’ so long as it cannot see you. My mind becomes tranquil when I hear the sound of your anklets. Of the two names Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, you come first. I rely upon you. I will attain success when I touch your feet.” Vṛndāvana Dāsa dreams of this.
This desire has been expressed: May that most excellent, sweeter than sweet nectar-filled rādhā-nāma appear constantly on my tongue. Then Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, hena rādhā-guṇa-gāna, nā śunila mora kāna, bañcita karila more bidhi. Even though his heart has gone to Rādhā, due to humility or the non-sating nature of bhakti, he says, “My ears have not heard the singing of the virtues of Śrī Rādhā, whose name is glorious. Alas, it is nothing more than a trick of providence on an unfortunate creature like me.” Actually, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya is teaching something to the sādhakas of the world. The great goal of life for the sādhakas is to hear and sing of the names, qualities, pastimes and so on of Śrī Rādhā, who is the embodied presiding deity of prema, and whose names, qualities and pastimes are the supreme attractor and great enchanter of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In this, the tongue, ear and other senses attain true success. One who has been deprived of the hearing and singing of Śrī Rādhārāṇī’s names, qualities and pastimes shall be known in the world as having truly been deceived by fate.
*(Author’s note) See the Rasa-Varṣiṇī commentary on this verse in my edition of Śrī-Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhi.
