July/August 2012 [Vol 23. No. 4] - Chinmaya Mission San Jose

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the jnana marga (path of knowledge), the rational
intellect questions the validity of all this and
needs to be convinced in a rational way. The
acharyas were too perceptive not to understand
the needs of a thinking, reasoning intellect.
Hence the Radhika of the Bhagavata Purana gets
changed into the Radha of the Vaishnava literature
in order to add deeper symbolism for the benefit
of intellecturals.
Upanishads declare that the Lord and the
individual are ever together, inseparable from
one another. The Mundakopanishad declares:
Two birds (jivatma and paramatma), bound
one to the other in close friendship, perch on
the self-same tree. One of them eats the fruits of
the tree with relish while the other looks
on without eating. (III:I:I)
The Lord is never without His creative expression,
the jiva (the individual). By the same token, the
jiva, which is only a reflection of the Lord, can
never exist without the Lord nor be separate from
Him. All the jiva’s successes and achievements
are the Lord’s alone. The word Radha is derived
from the root radh, which means “to accomplish,
to achieve, to succeed.” Thus the couple, Radha-
Krishna are one in two and two in one -- like a
flower and its fragrance. Though every individual
is a combination of the two, it is not every Radha
that is worshipped, but only the Radha who has
turned away from the lures of the world to pine
for the unknown Krishna.
The following beautiful symbolic illustration
points out the true meaning of Radha. In the
rainy season, the rain comes pouring down. It
falls everywhere, over hills and dales, on the
plains and on the seas. The rain water thus
pouring down is pure, naturally distilled and
sparkling. When such water gathers on the peak
of a mountain, it is pure, calm and crystal clear.