Remembering Radha-Krishna Throughout the Day
The following is intended to be meditated on daily while we imagine ourselves in our perfect spiritual identity as a character interacting in the play. It follows the basic plot outline given by Rupa Goswami in his Ashta-Kaliya-Leela-Smarana-Mangala-Stotram. We updated it for contemporary use, while trying to remain as faithful to the original as possible. It provides a simple outline, and each of us can flesh it out differently according to our personal loving relationship with Radha-Krishna.
Radha-Krishna are a young couple madly in love with each other. They spend much time together, but there are periods of separation. They are not married, but have a committed open relationship. Marriage is not an issue as there is no birth, death, disease, or old age, which erases many of the traditional reasons for marriage. People do form committed relationships if they so desire, but relationships are much more open there than here since Radha-Krishna and all their expansions including us simply want to share in their love and increase the enjoyment of all. Radha-Krishna are twenty years old. Their intimate friends are different ages ranging from eighteen to twenty, depending on their mood and relationship.
Radha-Krishna live in Braj, a magical mythical world that possesses an unimaginably beautiful rustic charm. Nature provides abundantly with little toil required. People work at whatever they do because they enjoy it and want to contribute to the enjoyment of others. A sort of communal cooperative lifestyle is practiced.Â
Krishna is the “son†of a leading couple and Radha, the “daughter†of another. They spend time with their families and have their own places as well. Everything is conscious, and by desiring something, it is. The problem of inert matter does not exist. Radha-Krishna enjoy sumptuous communal meals and entertainment provided by the talented community members who love pleasing them in this way. Radha-Krishna are so in love with each other and so loving to everyone that they are the center of everyone’s life. Everyone wants to please them and they please everyone. All enjoy a life of simple elegance.
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1. I extol Radha-Krishna’s eternal play in Braj and describe their daily activities, which those following the path of passionate natural devotion meditate upon. This emotional and mental visualization brings us to the loving association of Radha-Krishna by our intense desire to be absorbed in the play of Braj as a participant. It is unattainable by other means even if practiced by leading persons.
2. May Radha-Krishna protect us, as at dawn, they leave their forest love cottage and return to their homes in town. In the morning and evening, Krishna takes part in village activities helping, encouraging, and inspiring everyone. He eats in the communal dinning hall where Radha supervises the preparation of delicious meals twice a day. After the morning meal, Krishna tours the forests and meadows with his friends and tends the cattle. He slips away to join Radha and her friends at the lake and then returns to town in the evening. After dinner, Radha-Krishna participate in community entertainment and then slip away to their forest cottage for love play.
3. At dawn, I remember Radha-Krishna who are awakened by cocks crowing and birds singing. They unite one more time before rising and being greeted by their friends who spent the night in surrounding cottages, gazebos, and pavilions–well appointed for the enjoyment of all. Radha-Krishna each return to their own homes surrounded by loving friends.
4. In the morning, I take shelter of Radha who is massaged, bathed, dressed, and decorated by her most intimate female friends. She then goes to the community kitchen and supervises the preparation of the most delicious foods for Krishna and the whole community to relish. I also remember Krishna who is bathed and dressed. He goes about inquiring into everyone’s well-being and bringing joy to all. Krishna then goes to the dinning hall and eats sumptuously with Radha, their families, and friends.
5. In the late morning, I remember Krishna who along with his friends tends the cattle in the surrounding forests and meadows. He slips away to rendezvous with Radha for love sports at the lake. I also remember Radha who relaxes at the shore with her friends awaiting Krishna’s arrival.
6. At midday, I remember Radha-Krishna who look indescribably beautiful and radiant due to their passionate meeting. They are surrounded by intimate loving friends, like Lalita, who provide delectable snacks and drinks, pleasing companionship, and by their youthful beauty and passion create an erotically charged atmosphere that attracts the God of Love. They engage in playful fun in the forest and the water. They steal Krishna’s flute, swing, make love, drink honey wine, enjoy aromatic, sweetly rousing herbs and other delights.
7. In the late afternoon, I remember Radha who goes home, is bathed and beautifully dressed. She then goes and supervises preparation of the evening community meal. Krishna goes around town to see how everyone’s day went, encourage them, and show love for all.
8. At sunset, I remember Radha-Krishna who beautifully dressed enjoy a lavish banquet with their friends and families. After dinner, different people take turns entertaining with music, song, dance, and comedy. They tell stories of wondrous distant lands, of worlds filled with most wonderful creatures and heroic deeds, of insatiable love and danger too, where land and people can perish. Listening to such tales by the evening fire they sometimes fall into reverie, imagining themselves as participants in such stories.
9. At night, I remember Radha-Krishna who slip away with some close friends to their love cottage by the riverside. Radha-Krishna passionately enjoy each others company surrounded by their dear friends who sing, joke, and speak sweetly. They drink honey wine, enjoy sweetly intoxicating herbs, and dance lovingly. Their minds are all absorbed in love, their hearts are opened, and they relish the varied flavors of erotic joy in their personal love cottages.
10. Radha-Krishna are blissful in the company of their friends who serve them out of love with beautiful flower decorations, tasty morsels, cool drinks, and massages. After the girlfriends fall asleep, Radha-Krishna also doze off on their flower strewn bed sharing sweet loving murmurings of deep love. When they fall asleep, they even dream about tales they talked about and listened to, thus enjoying both their eternity and worlds of perishable nature in their dreams.
It may be nearly impossible for most of us to meditate on these pastimes in a disciplined way like the babajis for extended periods of time. Even Lalita Prasad Thakur lived a full life as a civil servant and after retirement was able to devote himself more fully to the practice. Even though I am technically retired and live a pretty secluded life, publishing a book is a full-time job.
However, if we begin as we are able early in life cultivating a mental picture of the spiritual Braj, Radha-Krishna, their friends, activities, etc. while developing our own spiritual identity in relationship to life in Braj, it can only help our spiritual progress and lay the groundwork for when we do have the opportunity to meditate in this way for extended periods of time.
It is not all or nothing. Whatever we can do to make gradual progress is good. Slow gradual progress is usually more sustainable than forced rapid progress. We can each find the balance that works for us. Aloha.
These are all guidelines, suggestions–wonderful meditational techniques mined from the depths of Radha-Krishna devotion and refined by Rupa and his followers. It is the process of becoming aware of Braj, longing to be there, knowing who we are, what we do, where we live, etc. The more clearly we can picture it and desire it, the more likely we are to attain it. We acknowledge our limited abilities and count on the grace of Radha-Krishna to supply what we lack.
Meditation is a creative process. One must start from somewhere, and that’s a canvas and our first brush strokes. As we add more shapes, colours and more substance, our image will be more meaningful, more real. We’ll become a part of it because the brush and colours are reality itself.
Because Radha-Krishna devotion is naturally sweet, the more we sketch and paint inside ourselves more we enjoy and perceive God-dess revealing himself-herself to us, both as creative inspiration and the object of our meditation; as both the painting (process) and the work of art.
That’s why it’s good to start this young. It takes time to develop the final vision. The more clarity we develop the better, but a rough sketch is better than nothing. Most people have no clue about where they want to go in the next life.
We usually think of renounced babajis doing this practice. However, as we read in Jaiva Dharma, married persons of both sexes can practice it as Bhaktivinode and his wife did.
Visualizing and longing in separation eventually opens the door to that spiritual reality. “Knock and it shall be opened.” This is our knocking.
Look at it as conscious dreaming. Entering into an alternate reality. We fix our intention on becoming the person we imagine ourselves to be in that reality. We become a character in the play of Radha-Krishna.