The love of Shri Krishna and Radha is devotion itself! Radha is devotion! Radha is pure love. Pure love is devotion, and pure love means – when desire and craving are removed from love, it becomes pure love. It is said that Shri Krishna had sixteen thousand one hundred and eight gopis. Gopis mean devotion or devotees. A devotee can be a woman or a man. In a devotee, there is no such thing as male or female. When we say gopis, it doesn’t mean women. Gopis mean the souls that want to merge into the Supreme.
A devotee wants to merge into God; that’s why a devotee is neither male nor female. Both male and female are included in a devotee. Somewhere in the world, it is said that the devotee is the lover and the Supreme is the beloved. Those souls who were lost in Krishna’s love and devotion were all called gopis, and among those gopis, the ones who were the greatest were called Radha.
Radha was the pinnacle of love. When someone becomes like Radha, they will attain God, that is, Lord Krishna. Radha is the peak of renunciation and selfless devotion, so anyone who comes to pure love like Radha—that is, who reaches a state of renunciation and selflessness—will attain Lord Krishna, God. So, when your love for the Supreme Soul, God, increases and reaches a hundred percent, then you will become Radha.
Radha means someone who has merged into the stream of love, someone whose own self has fallen in love. Radha merged into Lord Krishna. Radha and Krishna didn’t remain two, they became one. Kabir says, ‘The lane is too narrow; two cannot fit; the path of love is so tough that two cannot fit in it.’ In love, everything becomes one. Radha merged in Krishna, and Krishna was constantly there in Radha, just as it is said, ‘the soul sees the soul,’ meaning the soul becomes one with another soul. So, this is Radha-Krishna!
Radha is within you, and Krishna is also within you. One day, Radha herself becomes Krishna; Radha is at Krishna’s feet, and Krishna is in Radha’s face—they are not separate. That’s why it is said that the relationship between Radha and Krishna was tied with pure love. Pure love! Where there is ‘I’, devotion cannot be complete; where devotion is complete, the ‘I’ disappears; only ‘You’ remains. That’s why Kabir said in a couplet, “When I was, Hari was not; now Hari is, I am not!” When devotion comes, the ‘I’ no longer exists. So as long as you are stuck in ‘mine’ and ‘I’, devotion cannot enter you. You have to subtract the ‘I’ from within yourself—that is, when the ‘I’ goes, devotion comes. Radha appears within devotion. Radha is in every body, and Krishna is in every body; the only difference is that you have to reveal Radha within yourself. You have to reveal Krishna within yourself because every devotee one day becomes God. As the state within you rises, gradually you will start enjoying this life.
That’s why every name has some kind of significance; that’s why we say Radha-Krishna, not Krishna-Radha. We say that woman comes first, but actually, it’s not woman who comes first, it’s devotion. God comes second because it’s the devotee who makes someone God. Lord Krishna says, ‘Radha, if you weren’t there, would anyone call me God?’ A devotee makes someone God; God doesn’t come from outside. Radha’s devotion made Lord Krishna God, which is why Krishna said, ‘You come first,’ meaning Radha-Krishna. This is a pure relationship.
To understand this eternal bond, you have to go inward from the body, to the doorway where the guru is waiting for you. When your inner journey begins, that’s when you meet the truth, when you meet God; only then does this life connect with the supreme life and your journey becomes successful.
