Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 133 (Janmastami), Was Lord

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Digest 133, August 26th, 2005. (Janmastami) Answers by His Holiness Romapada

Swami Maharaja

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Was Lord Krishna Unfaithful to Radharani?

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Q 1: We all know of the great epic of Lord Krishna, the holy war between good

and bad but on the other end I have few questions unanswered:

We have always heard of Radha-krishna rasa lila but once Krishna left Gokul,

the entire focus of Mahabharat goes to war and other important topics, but

there is no explanation of what happened to Radha and her life. With all true

respect I am somehow not convicned why it was not possible for Lord Krishna to

be with Radha and why He had to marry Rukmini. This act is totally unfaithful;

the very typical answer is that for the sake of the world, God has to leave

everything and move to save the world and defeat the evil. If that was the case

why in the first place did He love Radha?

 

Answer:

Krishna's leaving Vrindavana and all of His beloved associates there was not an

act of unfaithfulness; rather it has very deep spiritual import. You might have

heard that the Supreme Personality of Godhead accomplishes many purposes

through one action. The external reason for Krishna's leaving Vrindavan was to

attend to other affairs such as killing the demons and establishing religious

principles (as He had promised Mother Earth prior to His appearance, and which

He did in the battle of Kurukshetra) as well as to reciprocate with His other

devotees in Mathura and Hastinapura.

 

However, the internal reason was His desire to reciprocate with the

unparalleled love of the residents of Vrindavan. Krishna actually never leaves

Vrindavan - this is the statement of scriptures. Rather He remained with the

gopis and mother Yashoda in His bhava expansion, and apparently in separation

only for the reason of increasing their ecstatic love for Him. (Cf. Krsna Book,

Ch 11)

 

Krishna explains this in His message through Uddhava, "My dear gopis, in order

to increase your superexcellent love for Me, I have purposely separated Myself

from you. I have done this so that you may be in constant meditation on Me."

(Cf. Krishna book Ch 12) The gopis had attained such an intense degree of love

for Krishna that Krishna felt unable to repay them; He explains later on that

the only way He could further increase their transcendental happiness was by

having them serve Him in separation.

 

This method of loving and serving in the mood of separation is the highest form

of absorption in Krishna and the highest source of spiritual ecstasy - and this

fact is very difficult to understand from the material point of view. Krishna

Himself was constantly absorbed in this mood of love in separation from

Radharani while in Dvaraka.

 

His marrying Rukmini and other queens should also not be seen from the mundane

platform. Rukmini and all the other queens of Dvaraka are actually expansions

of Srimati Radharani and are the internal spiritual energy of the Lord. There

is nothing immoral, unfaithful or reproachable in the divine pastimes of the

Supreme Lord - they are all meant simply for increasing the spiritual happiness

of His devotees.

 

Please refer to further discussion on this topic from previous digests:

 

Digest 40 Question 1 Why Krishna does not marry Radharani?

http://www.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest40

 

Digest 7 Question 11 Did Krishna leave Radharani?

http://www.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest07

 

 

This digest on the web:

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest132

 

All previous digests in one file (with responses to about 400 questions):

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest00

 

Responses to Some Frequently Asked Questions (Karma, free-will, demigods, Lord

Siva, why are we here, how to control the mind, Deity worship, marriage, Jesus

Christ, spiritual and material relationships and morality of Lord Krsna's

conjugal pastimes, spiritual master, spirit soul/jiva/living entity):

http://www.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest999_faq

 

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