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Devotion for Lord Krishna is equated with
a huge range of emotions and states of mind - from eroticism
and sensuality to renunciation and surrender. Complete immersion
of one's soul in Krishna's soul, is regarded as the path to unadulterated
devotion for Krishna. Radha and Mirabai are seen as the twin
zeniths of devotion for Lord Krishna. Opposites in some sense
and yet so much one in their love for the lord, the devotion
of Mirabai and Radha for Krishna show the oneness of eroticism
and renunciation, and finally, the convergence of both into the
omnipresent soul of Krishna in the form of single-minded love
and devotion.
Mirabai
Guide
this little boat over the waters,
what can I give you for fare?
Our mutable world holds nothing but grief,
bear me away from it.
Eight bonds of karma
have gripped me,
the whole of creation
swirls through eight million wombs,
through eight million birth-forms we flicker.
Mira cries. Dark One
take this little boat to the far shore,
put an end to coming and going. |
The
Dark One's love-stain is on her,
other ornaments Mira sees as mere glitter.
A mark on her forehead,
a bracelet, some prayer beads,
beyond that she wears only her conduct.
Make-up is worthless
when you've gotten truth from a teacher.
the Dark One has stained me with love,
and for that some revile me,
others give honor
I simply wander the road of the sadhus
lost in my songs. |
-- Poems by Mirabai
Meerabai was a born poetess. Through her numerous
poems, marked with simplicity and lack of pretension, she has
beautifully expressed her intensity and depth of love for Krishna.
Meerabai's bhajans (songs dedicated to the lord), composed centuries
ago still capture the thoughts and emotions of devotees today.
These songs are highly regarded for the mystic quality as well
as their rich inner meanings. Meerabai offered her soul to the
lord, singing and dancing, in a trance, to please her beloved
and her lord, Krishna. And through these songs and her devotion
she has left behind a legacy of thoughts and ways of making one's
soul reach Lord Krishna.
Portraying herself as a lover of Krishna,
longing for him, Mirabai's poetry puts love for Krishna above
love for friends and family. She perceived Krishna to be her
husband, lover, lord and master. Even though those around her
try to stop her from her quest for Krishna, she remains unstoppable
in her pursuit of Krishna, whatever the consequences.
Making use of erotic imagery as one of the
tools to portray her love for Krishna, she is able to describe
her pining for him, her quest for union with him. Even though
her symbolism is erotic, her love is divine and pure - selfless,
all-absorbing, immaculate, insatiable and endless. The expression
of Mira's love is very intimate in nature.
It is through love that she communes with
God. "Mira's Lord is none other than Giridhara." (Giridhara
being Krishna) - these are usually the ending words of Meera's
poems which are predominantly an expression of her oneness with
Krishna. Mira's love for Krishna is all-encompassing. The lord
of her heart and soul, she used to weep for him and spend sleepless
nights for a sight of him. Mirabai says she had "sold" herself
- surrendered herself - completely to him. She says "I
am colored with the color of dusk", dusk implying the
color of Krishna. As if her love for Krishna permeated every
pore of her body, just like dye permeates a garment. This aspect
of union through surrender is predominant in Mira's poetry.
For Mirabai, her freedom lay in her union
with her lord. She sings:
"Love in which there is laughter
and sobbing,
Moaning, throbbing and clasping in tight embrace,
That alone is liberation for me,
I care for no other."
This great saint of Hinduism and one the greatest
devotees of Krishna, Mirabai was born into the royal family of
Rana Ratan Singh of Merta in Rajasthan in 1498 A.D. As a three-year
old child she grew extremely fond of a statue of Lord Krishna.
So much so that her mother had once jokingly remarked that Krishna
would one day be the girl's (Mirabai's) groom. This remark made
an indelible mark on the impressionable mind of the young child.
She nurtured the notion of Krishna being her
sole lord, her lover, friend and husband as she matured into
a woman. She agreed to her marriage to Rana Kumbha of Mewar in
Rajasthan, against her heart's wishes, to honor her grandfather's
promise to Rana Kumbha. In spite of her marriage, her heart still
belonged to Lord Krishna and she spent a great deal of time in
the Krishna temple at her husband's palace, albeit after fulfilling
her household duties. Conspiracies were unfortunately hatched
against her by several around her, to defame her, and eventually
to kill her, but all of those could not deter her from her chosen
path of devotion. Her husband however is seen to have been a
sympathizer of Mirabai, till her death in 1546 A.D. According
to other versions, though, it is believed that her husband died
within ten years of their marriage. Such great was her devotion that it is believed
that she merged with the lord in his temple at Dwarka in Gujarat.
According to one version, she is believed to have entered the
sanctum of the temple in a state of singing ecstacy. The sanctum
doors are believed to have closed on their own and when later
opened, the sari (garment) of Mirabai was seen enwrapped around
the idol of lord Krishna.
Through her devotion-filled yet tumultuous
life she gained a number of enemies, owing to her rising fame
and her undeterred and unconventional devotion to Lord Krishna.
But more than she gained enemies, she gained followers and admirers.
Not only the common people, but also the Mughal emperor Akbar
and his famous court musician, Tansen, are believed to have visited
her in disguise and are said to have touched her feet, in awe
of her devotion for Lord Krishna.
What set apart Meera from the other devotees
of Krishna was that she looked upon Krishna as her husband, rather
than only as a master. She believed that in her previous life
she was one of the several gopis in Vrindavan, in love with Krishna
(Vrindavan was the place where Krishna spent most of his childhood.
Gopis were the several female companions of Krishna). Mira used
to consider herself an incarnation of one of the gopis mentioned
in the Bhagavata Purana, called Lalita, a very close female companion
of Radha, who was the greatest devotee and a beloved of Lord
Krishna.
Much like the gopis, as mentioned in tales
of Krishna, Mirabai looked upon Krishna as her lover, seeking
physical union with him. Her writings were at the same time,
spiritual and erotic. Mira's songs portray a personal universe
where the only existence was that of Krishna - her sole object
of desire.
Through her love songs addressed to her beloved,
Krishna, Meera paints on a literary canvas, the longing of the
individual soul (atman) to merge with the universal
soul (paramatman). These songs talk about the beauty
of the object of her love and her passion and longing for union
with him, the madness of her love, and the pain of separation
from him. They oscillated between feelings of sensual bodily
love for the lord to a state of spiritual love, but at all times,
openly describing her heart's longings. Within the songs, she
shifted between feeling anguish at being separated from her lover
to feeling jealousy and suspicion about her lover. At other times
she would be ecstatic with visions of being close to him. At
all moments, she would imagine herself to be a part of the existence
of Lord Krishna, as she would imagine him to be a part of her
existence.
Even when, at times, her poetry describes
scenes of Krishna's childhood pranks, as described in various
Hindu texts, she does not fail to superimpose her own character
as one of the lovelorn Gopis in the scenes. One of these songs
depicts the story of the young Krishna stealing the clothes of
the gopis as they bathed in the river Yamuna. Mirabai imagines
herself as one of the gopis and sings about her true spiritual
self being revealed to the lord as she stood naked in front of
Krishna.
Mirabai's state of mind is typically called madhurya by
the Vaishnavas, followers of a prominent school of Hinduism.
In such a state, love for God acquires the flavor of a relationship
that is found in the union of the lover with the beloved.
A Mira poem is traditionally called a Pada,
a term used by the 14th century preachers for a small spiritual
song. This is usually composed in simple rhythms and carries
a refrain within itself. Her collection of songs is called the Padavali.
Primarily devotional in nature, Mirabai uses sprinklings of eroticism
in her songs. The typicality of Indian love poetry of those days
was used by Mirabai but as an instrument to express her deepest
emotions felt for her lord. Her typical medium of singing was
Vraja-bhasha, a dialect of Hindi spoken in and around Vrindavan
(the childhood home of Krishna), sometimes mixed with Rajasthani.
As compared to the literature of the then-existing
Hindu schools of devotion (bhakti), which typically
saw devotees as servants of the lord, Meera Bai's poetic preoccupation
with worship and love as it exists between lovers, sets apart
her devotional philosophy. This love-based philosophy of Meera
Bai took time to catch on but as she grew popular, her songs
and philosophy caught the imagination of the common-folk as a
means of reaching out to their popular deity, Lord Krishna. Disregarding
her royal lineage, Meera Bai traveled across vast distances of
North India, spreading her gospel of love for Krishna being the
only weapon that could conquer the transient nature of life.
Through her tender and simple odes and hymns, which were rich,
sweet, inspiring, and yet void of any rhetoric or esoteric language,
she brought to the masses the genuine outpourings of a heart
dedicated completely to the lord.
When seen in the context of the conservative
and male-dominated society with a unidimensional perception of
life and religion, Mirabai can be seen as a perfect example of
a woman - a symbol of courage and defiance - who was far ahead
of her times in seeking freedom not only from social barriers
but also the ultimate freedom from the bondage of human existence.
The insane nature of Meera's love for Lord
Krishna and the sheer frenzy of her passion saw her face the
intense and brutal opposition of her ways by society and family,
with calmness and patience. Her intense experiences of love for
Krishna can only be explained as those had by a divine lover,
and not by a docile lover. The singular and all-encompassing
truth of her life was her love for the lord and that is what
allowed her to face all the turmoil and opposition that came
along with the conviction that she had towards her love. In her
state of frenzied pursuit of Krishna, she was totally oblivious
of the world of political intrigue and royal life she was surrounded
by.
Radha
At sunset,
on the river bank, Krishna
loved her for the last time and left...
That night in her husband's arms,
Radha felt
so dead that he asked, "What is wrong,
Do you mind my kisses, love?" And she said,
No, not at all, but thought, What is
It to the corpse if the maggots nip?
--Kamala Das, in "The Maggots"
from "The Descendants"
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Punish me, lovely fool!
Bite me with your cruel teeth!
Chain me with your creeper arms!
Crush me with your hard breasts!
Angry goddess, don't weaken with joy!
Let Love's despised arrows
Pierce me to sap my life's power!
-- Poet Jaidev in the Geet Govindam,
portraying the words of Krishna for Radha |
Love in all its forms finds its epitome in
the "dual-unity" of Lord Krishna and his beloved, Radha.
Krishna is seen as the universal symbol of the lover and the
ideal hero (nayak) while Radha as the universal symbol
of the beloved and the ideal heroine (nayika). As lovers,
their divine love-play encompassed a whole range of variations.
It is as if all lovers in the universe can find some part of
themselves reflected in the love of Radha and Krishna.
Such is the charisma of the love-lore of Radha
and Krishna, such is its vastness spread over a million emotions,
and such is its brilliance, that the name of their love and them
as lovers has become a sanctifying force for all contact between
the sexes, sometimes also a cover for human prurience.
Womenfolk in India feel a natural pull towards
Lord Krishna as a God. This is partly because Krishna is a God "created" specially
for women. This fact, in turn, has led to the stature of Radha
rise in Krishna-based lore. Radha seems to be, in a significant
measure, contributing to the aura surrounding Lord Krishna. The
personality and feelings attributed to Radha were in great measure,
identified by the Indian women, who felt those same feelings
as silent desires and fantasies.
Krishna is the master of love and yet allows
domination by his lover, Radha. As a result, Radha's love for
Krishna can be seen as being complete in all respects - love,
which is a devotion that God Himself worships. The story of Radha
and Krishna is able to talk directly to our innermost sensual
and spiritual feelings, thus being able to capture our very soul
in its ecstatic yet mystical and charming yet profound flavors.
The daughter of a cowherd-leader, Vrishabhanu
and his wife, Kamalavati, Radha was born in Barshana, a village
near Vrindavan, which was the childhood home of Krishna. She
was married off to a man known by the name of Ayan. She however,
could never love her husband because her heart belonged to Krishna.
The nature of her illicit and adulterous affair with Krishna
though might seem to be for her own-selfish interests, in her
union with Krishna, against the norms of family, society, and
even religion, she gives an example of how to give everything
up for God. For it was God who also loved Radha - her selfishness
actually being selflessness, the real truth behind the Raas
Leela - the love play of Radha and Krishna.
Krishna, even as a child, used to be a favorite
of womenfolk of Vrindaban, his childhood home. As he grew up,
his aggressive and yet attractive behavior with the strong but
transparent sexual overtones were secretly approved of by females.
As a lover, he turned out to be an ideal for each woman who experienced
his love. During his love sessions with the Gopis (female companions
of Krishna) he was careful and dexterous enough to create a divine
illusion of being individually available to each of the Gopis.
He was a perfect partner in lovemaking - both untiring and accomplished.
But his mastery over love was capped by his treating women as
partners in love rather than sex objects, by his experiencing
the same suffering of separation and longing as was experienced
by his lovers.
It was this heroic lover - a perfect lover
for many - whose heart was captured by Radha. Radha - who turned
out to be the special companion for Krishna - for whom Krishna
longed - but not only for her body and mind but also her soul
- wherein lies the divinity of Radha's love for Krishna.
Radha had, on the orders of Nanda, Krishna's
foster father and leader of the cowherds, escorted Krishna through
the forest each evening. However, on the way in a grove, Krishna
and Radha played out their secret passion. Krishna, however is
unfaithful to Radha as he indulges in his romances with several
other Gopis, while Radha's thoughts rest solely on Krishna. Radha
is jealous as she imagines the "vines of his great throbbing
arms circle a thousand gopis". More importantly, she
experiences, the turmoil in emotions of a proud, passionate woman
who feels deserted by her lover. She yearns for Krishna and this
draws Krishna's thoughts to Radha's.
Krishna's heart, which had always reached
out to many Gopis, pleasuring all and loving all, felt a unique
tug towards this unique woman - Radha. Radha became the focus
of Krishna's heart's desires - an irreplaceable lover whose power
of pulling Krishna to herself, could not be any longer ignored
by Krishna. Radha made Krishna repent for his straying ways and
when Krishna could finally take no more, she relented. At such
times, their passionate lovemaking was marked by an aggressive
sexual position taken by Radha. She took the man's position of
being on top, and even after they had made love, she commanded
him to plait her hair and attend to her toiletries.
As Jaidev writes so beautifully in the Geet
Govindam about this sequence:
"Paint a leaf on my breasts!
Put colour on my cheeks!
Lay a girdle on my hips!
Twine my heavy braid with flowers!
Fix rows of bangles on my hands,
And jewelled anklets on my feet!"
Her yellow-robed lover
Did what Radha said.
Such was the strength of Radha's love for
Krishna and her longing for him, that even He, being God, would
try to placate the angry Radha. Keshav Das, a celebrated poet
in his treatise on erotica, Rasikapriya, describes how Krishna
would send flowers to an angry Radha - "flowers which
longed to become fragrant by a touch of her breasts, or an ivory
necklace, yearning to fulfill its destiny by going on a pilgrimage
to her bosom, the seat of holiness."
The power of her longing was so great and
the focus of all her reflexes on Krishna was so concentrated
that her soul merged with Kirshna's soul to have achieved unity
with him (this state is termed aikya). Radha, when separated
from Krishna, became Krishna - reaching a state of blissful absorption
in him (tanmayate). As her spiritual reach for Krishna crossed
all limits, the separation of the desired and the desirer vanished
and so also did the pain of separation, the yearning and the
longing. Physical separation could no longer dictate mental or
spiritual separation from the lord, as Krishna appeared wherever
Radha set her divine eyes upon.
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KRISHNA
TENDS TO
RADHA'S FEET
GOD WORSHIPS DEVOTEE
Courtesy Exotic India |
Radha is considered to be Krishna's greatest
devotee. The love felt by Radha for Krishna transcended the conventional
limits of love and reached the highest pinnacle of devotion.
By extension, the love-making of Radha became her worship for
Krishna. Conversely, the love-making of Krishna became the worship
that God himself does, of his greatest devotee. In spite of being
distinct from her Lord Krishna, she was one with him - she was
his energy and power. Radha was the soul of Krishna, the God.
She is the female counterpart of the Godhead - a complement without
which even God would remain incomplete and cease to be God. The
soul's desire for unification with God is reflected in Radha's
passion for Krishna.
A beautiful portrait of Radha in words has
been painted by Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj, the founder
of the Divine Life Society, in his drama "Radha's Prem".
Here are a few words from the introduction to the play:
"She is the worshipped of all the
worshipped deities. She is the fosterer and mother of the worlds.
She is the presiding deity of the Lakshmis of Vaikuntha or
of the six divine attributes of Lord Krishna. She is the chief
of Krishna's divine energies. She is the seat of concentrated
beauties or the source and centre from which the Lakshmis draw
their beauties.
Radha is the embodiment of Mahabhava.
The word Radha etymologically means a devotee. Radha is the
chief of Krishna's sweethearts. All the Lakshmis of Vaikuntha
are Her Vilasa-Murtis. The queens of Dwaraka are Her reflections.
Lalita and other Gopis of Vrindavan are Her manifold forms.
She pervades the Gopis in Her subtle form in order to contribute
to Krishna's enjoyment. Radha is Krishna's delighter, charmer
and life's all. She is the queen of all the lovely maidens
of Vraja. She is the Crest-Gem of all celestial beauties. Radha
and Krishna are inseparable as fire and its heat, ice and its
coolness, the flowers and its fragrance.
The body of Radha is made up of sweet
tenderness and loveliness for Sri Krishna. The substance of
her subtle form as Mahabhava is Krishna Prem. Ardent passion
for Sri Krishna is her dress. Her sweet radiant smile is the
camphor. All good qualities are her garlands. All the Bhavas
form the ornaments, her limbs. Lord Krishna's name, qualities
form the ornaments of Her ears. Krishna's name and qualities
flow out in a stream from Her tongue. She serves Krishna with
the drink of Premarasa or Shyama-rasa."
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RADHA
KRISHNA IN THEIR
HIDDEN LOVE NEST
IN THE FOREST
Courtesy Art of Legend India |
The tale of Radha and Krishna, and their love,
has to be termed as "adulterous" in plain human terms.
Radha and Krishna's secret rendezvous in the forest at night
was always with the acknowledgement that they would have to separate
at dawn, going back to the social mores and conventions of the
world. Radha, in no way reflected the virtues listed out for
women in Hindu religious texts, or even in unwritten common social
norms. She does not also come close to being the mother-goddesses
of Hindu mythology. Yet, in madly craving for her lover, she
succeeded in inducing a similar craving for her in him - God
himself - she has personified "mahabhava" - the untouched
emotional state which exists both within and beyond all social
and religious norms and conventions. The spiritual symbolization
of this "adulterous" affair of Radha's being the highest
devotion, being passion for God, is not merely a symbol - it
was in reality the highest devotion, the greatest passion for
God. The erotic and sexual love between Radha and Krishna, which
could not even be celebrated or acknowledged by them innocently
or publicly, is considered "pure love", as opposed
to impure worldly love persuaded by selfish desire.
In spite of Radha being someone else's wife,
she steals out in the night to be with Krishna. The interpretation
of this is thus: The union of our soul with that of God is possible
only if our craving for this union is frenzied and urgent like
that of a passionate but illicit affair, instead of the calmness
and quiet that exists in a married conjugal state. It is only
when our craving is so ardent and so passionate that we are ready
to abandon all and risk everything for achieving what we desire,
instead of taking our object of craving for granted.
Music plays a monumental role in the expression
of the love between Radha and Krishna. As Krishna played his
divine flute, Radha could not resist the pull it induced in her,
and in spite of being married to another man, she used to run
to a passionate rendezvous with her lover, Krishna. The secret,
adulterous and scorned love shared between the two found its
outlet in Krishna's beautiful music.
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KRISHNA
MEETS PARENTS IN
JAIL IN MATHURA
Courtesy Art of Legend India |
The tale of Radha and Krishna usually focuses
on the aspect of love-play between the two lovers. Little else
is popularly known about the life that the two had beyond their
secret affair. In his youth, Krishna left for Mathura, his
birth-place where the evil king Kansa (who was also Krishna's
maternal uncle)
had kept Krishna's real father (and the actual king) and his
mother in chains. After killing Kansa and rescuing his parents,
he went on to Dwarka where he became a king. Later in life,
he played a pivotal role in the feud between the Kauravas and
Pandavas
- later to form a major chunk of the Hindu epic, Mahabharata.
However, Radha does not find a mention in this epic even once.
And yet, Radha seems to be so big a force in Krishna's life
that the term "Radha-Krishna" is universally known.
It is said that before Krishna left Vrindavan
for Mathura, he had told Radha that she would never ever see
him again. Radha was left alone with her love for Krishna, with
no hope of ever setting her eyes on him again - Krishna had to
leave Radha to make himself available as the savior of righteousness.
After the war of Kurukshetra, when the Pandavas, assisted by
Krishna defeated the Kauravas, when a stray poisoned arrow of
a hunter pierced the feet of Krishna in Dwarka, his time for
heavenly ascension had come. It is said that Radha along with
the Gopis of Braj (Vrindavan and the adjoining areas) joined
Krishna in his heavenly abode. In another version, it is said
that before his ascension, Krishna disappeared from Dwarka and
appeared in Braj, where the supreme divinity left Krishna's body
for His heavenly abode, followed by Vishnu and Lakshmi leaving
Krishna's body for their abode in Vaikunth. Finally, Krishna,
Radha and the Gopis went to their abode in Golok. Radha's lifetime
of love, devotion and yearning for Krishna had succeeded in drawing
him to her, even if not during her lifetime. Radha merged with
Krishna, in body, mind and soul, for an eternity, in Golok.
Varied Indian cultures and media - religious
and erotic, classical literary and folk - have rendered this
tale poetically, but with remarkable similarity with each other's
renditions. The tale of Radha-Krishna, instead of being based
on a definite plot with characters having a shared life, progressing
to a definite future - tragic or happy, is rather a text recalling
and describing the ephemeral moments of love spent between them,
the pains and pleasures resulting from those moments, and eventually,
through them, creating an exemplary love-devotion concept which
remains unparalleled to date.
The suppressed personalities of
women in India find an opening to freedom and self-worth through
the persona
of Radha. The desire for physical fulfillment, which more often
than not is consciously or sub-consciously swept under the
carpet by women, especially in the conservative environment of
India,
is exhibited to be pursued so openly by Radha, with Krishna.
Radha, for the Indian womenfolk, is a means of believing that
the clamp of social norms and customs and social-propriety
can be broken, for fulfillments of one's soul's desire. Even
if this
means was the secretive, illicit and adulterous affair of Radha
with Krishna.
Conclusion
Lord Krishna's mystique has created an aura
around him in Hindu Mythology. The equation that the feminine
gender shares with him is unique in the Hindu religion. In spite
of being Narayana himself (one of the trinity of supreme Gods
in Hindu religion) his personality is that which humans can identify
with. He is a God and yet loves passionately and indulges in
love-relationships which do not conform to the conventional societal
and religious standards that "good" beings are believed
to work within. He is all-powerful yet surrenders to his greatest
lovers. He is the highest deity and yet he worships all those
whose devotion for Krishna envelopes their very soul.
It is this
Lord Krishna, to whom so many have dedicated their souls to.
Devotion and love for Lord Krishna
has been the sole purpose of their existence. But for a few
of those, their existence itself had become synonymous with love
for Krishna. Their love for Krishna shone in brilliance which
was as brilliant as the aura of Krishna himself. Radha and
Meerabai
were two such devotees, whose love for Krishna reached a pinnacle
of devotion, where their identities merged into Krishna's.
And in spite of the same love for the same lord, Meerabai differed
from Radha in soul and mind.
Krishna was besotted with Radha - his eternal
beloved - and for this love of his for Radha, he could let himself
be spurned and at times even humiliated by Radha - to please
his lover. Radha often was the dominant of the two partners,
summoning Krishna to even attend to her toiletries, chiding him
when he sneaked out for his secret dalliances with the rest of
the Gopis, and in love-making, often assuming the role of the
man, by being on top of Krishna. Krishna did all within his powers
to keep Radha happy, as any passionate lover would do for his
mistress. But he had to leave her, for her entire life, only
to be with her again till eternity, after his ascension, along
with Radha and all other Gopis.
Meerabai on the other hand, never had Krishna
near her. She imagined herself to be Lalitha, one of the Gopis,
so much in love with Krishna. And in spite of the love and desire
for Krishna, like all the other Gopis, she could not have Krishna
exclusively for herself - for Radha was the one who ruled Krishna's
heart. For a Gopi, the pleasure of arranging for Krishna to be
with Radha was more than the pleasure of having him for herself
- so also was the state of soul of Meerabai - how else would
she be, for she was Lalitha. Meerabai lived a life of pain and
suffering where not only was she looking for Krishna, but also
knew that Krishna's heart lay elsewhere. Her mind was that of
a subjugated lover, instead of the mind of the dominating lover
that Radha had. Meerabai was the passive waiting lover rather
than the demanding mistress that Radha was. But her passion was
as ardent as Radha's and so also her love for Krishna. And her
love too, like Radha's was rewarded by Lord Krishna by eventually
having her soul merge with his - after all Meerabai was Lalitha
- the Gopi - and Krishna did take all the Gopis with him, along
with Radha, to his heavenly abode after his ascension.
Meerabai and Radha were the epitome of devotion
- both equal in their love for Krishna but opposites in the manifestation
of the love. That is why their lives were different, but their
fates the same - unity with their love, unity with Lord Krishna.
This article was written by:
Madhuri Guin Our efforts have been directed at making this article informative and refreshing for you. We will truly appreciate all forms of feedback. Please send your feedback to newsletter@dollsofindia.com.
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