MAHA BHAV AS RADHA BHAV

        When love is completely directed towards the Supreme Being
as Krishna, that love conceals itself in the heart of the Gopi.  Thus,
the mystery of the Unknown is hidden in the hearts of the Gopies
and is enlightened in the maturity of realization of the illumination
of love, when each movement of thought and breath has become
Krishna.  In this way, the Gopies have realized Krishna, thereby
dispelling the mystery of the Unknown.

       Beyond the love of the Gopies and Krishna exists the manifestation
of  Sri Radha.  This love is the immovable existence wherein occurs
the silent mutation of love between the lover and the beloved.  It may
be likened to the river that flows between two banks;  the banks can
never meet because they exist within the limitations of their nature,
but the river is in continual contact with both, right from its source to
its culmination.  Existing within their respective dimensions of time
and space are the Atma and the Paramatma, the Supreme Spirit;
the two banks of the river of devotion.  The flow of Grace of this river
of devotion unites, through its touch, the dormant state of the individual
existence with the enlightened state of the Supreme.  Between every
thought and breath of each being, and between the immovable
consciousness of the earth and the consciousness of the entire creation,
and between the microcosm and the macrocosm, Grace flows.

       Within this concept, the Gopi signifies the incessant and creative
urge of 'sadhna' towards the supreme, while Krishna signifies the
treasury of all blissful propensities.  In their relation to each other,
each is essential to the existence of the other.  As the Gopi exists
in the thought of Krishna, so Krishna exists in the thought of the Gopi.
Therefore, when the longing in one's heart for realizing the Supreme
is established, that Supreme also realizes the longing of his burning
awareness in the heart.  In the silent mutation of Radha Bhav,
the individual spirit exists in relation to the Supreme, from the very
commencement of  'sadhna' for the realization of each other to its
fulfillment.  When the individual spirit realizes its union with the
Supreme where the Supreme is Krishna, this realization is Radha Bhav. 
Radha is the personification of love towards Krishna in the mood
of the Gopi and, as the joy-potency of the Supreme, she is the adored
deity of those who crave only for the love of the beloved Radha-krishna.  
It is only by the ambrosial sweetness and beauty of the love of Radha
that Krishna is forever attained. In Her Graceful Existence, She embodies
Maha Bhav.


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                                                                     Baba Sripadji