Who Is Radha? How the Great Teachers Explained Radha Tattva

Swami Yugal Sharan Ji

What have our spiritual scientists said about Radha Tattva? Swami Yugal Sharan Ji walks through the presentations of some of India's great teachers, and shows how their approaches to Radha and Krishna differ from one another.

Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharya

Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharya worshipped Nirgun Nirakar Brahma, the impersonal Brahma, and carried that philosophy the length and breadth of India.

And yet he composed devotional hymns. The man who taught Nirgun Brahma could not keep himself from glorifying Radha and Krishna in his verses.

Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya

Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya worshipped in Shanta and Dasya Bhava, the modes of neutrality and servitude. Swami Ji points out that neither of them speaks of Radha Tattva as such.

The reason lies in where they stood. Radha Tattva belongs to Madhurya Bhava, while these two Acharyas propagated Aishwarya Bhava — the mode that approaches God through His majesty, as in the worship of Vishnu.

Nimbarkacharya: Bimba and Pratibimba

Nimbarkacharya says it without hesitation. Radha and Krishna are Bimba and Pratibimba — object and image.

One reality, appearing as two. And it appears as two so that there may be an exchange between them, a living one.

Vallabhacharya: Radha Is Brahma Itself

Vallabhacharya is the most forthright of them all on this question.

“Radha is Brahma itself.”

Gauranga Mahaprabhu: Bheda and Abheda

Achintya Bhedabheda (inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference)

Gauranga Mahaprabhu put forward a relationship between Radha and Krishna that repays some thought. Bheda and Abheda, he said, are present at the same time.

There is likeness between Radha and Krishna, and there is unlikeness. Difference and non difference stand together — and that simultaneity is Achintya, past the reach of the human mind. This is Achintya Bhedabheda: oneness and difference at once, and inconceivable.

Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj

Swami Ji comes at last to Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj, the fifth original Jagadguru of this Kali Yuga. On Radha Tattva he is plain, and he leaves nothing hidden.

There is one principle, he tells us, which is the only principle. Nothing stands equal to it. It has no parallel.

“That is Radha Tattva.”

The other Acharyas compare, or reconcile. He does neither. He states Radha Tattva as the supreme and unparalleled principle, directly.

And Shri Krishna is the other form of Radharani — which no one in the history of Vedic science had said before.

The Different Presentations of Radha Tattva

Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharya — Nirgun Nirakar Brahma; outwardly silent on Radha Tattva, while composing verses in praise of Radha Krishna Tattva

Ramanujacharya — Shanta Bhava

Madhvacharya — Dasya Bhava

Nimbarkacharya — Radha and Krishna as Bimba and Pratibimba

Vallabhacharya — Radha is Brahma itself

Gauranga Mahaprabhu — Bheda and Abheda together, and Achintya

Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj — Radha Tattva as the unparalleled principle; Shri Krishna as the other form of Radharani

Conclusion

Six teachers, and six ways of coming at the same tattva — from silence, from servitude, from the image in the mirror, from the bare identification. Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj ends the sequence by ending the comparison: Radha Tattva is the unparalleled principle, and Shri Krishna is the other form of Radharani.

To be continued…

Radhe Radhe