Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrita Ādi 4.56

rādhā-krishna eka ātmā, dui deha dhari'

anyonye vilase rasa āsvādana kari'

SYNONYMS

rādhā-krishna — Rādhā and Krishna; eka — one; ātmā — self; dui — two; deha — bodies; dhari' — assuming; anyonye — one another; vilase — They enjoy; rasa — the mellows of love; āsvādana kari' — tasting.

TRANSLATION

Rādhā and Krishna are one and the same, but They have assumed two bodies. Thus They enjoy each other, tasting the mellows of love.

PURPORT

The two transcendentalists Rādhā and Krishna are a puzzle to materialists. The above description of Rādhā and Krishna from the diary of Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī is a condensed explanation, but one needs great spiritual insight to understand the mystery of these two personalities. One is enjoying in two. Śrī Krishna is the potent factor, and Śrīmatī Rādhārānī is the internal potency. According to Vedānta philosophy, there is no difference between the potent and the potency; they are identical. We cannot differentiate between one and the other, any more than we can separate fire from heat.

Everything in the Absolute is inconceivable in relative existence. Therefore in relative cognizance it is very difficult to assimilate this truth of the oneness between the potent and the potency. The philosophy of inconceivable oneness and difference propounded by Lord Caitanya is the only source of understanding for such intricacies of transcendence.

In fact, Rādhārānī is the internal potency of Śrī Krishna, and She eternally intensifies the pleasure of Śrī Krishna. Impersonalists cannot understand this without the help of a mahā-bhāgavata devotee. The very name "Rādhā" suggests that Śrīmatī Rādhārānī is eternally the topmost mistress of the comforts of Śrī Krishna. As such, She is the medium transmitting the living entities' service to Śrī Krishna. Devotees in Vrindāvana therefore seek the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārānī in order to be recognized as loving servitors of Śrī Krishna.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally approaches the fallen conditioned souls of the iron age to deliver the highest principle of transcendental relationships with the Lord. The activities of Lord Caitanya are primarily in the role of the pleasure-giving portion of His internal potency.

The absolute Personality of Godhead, Śrī Krishna, is the omnipotent form of transcendental existence, knowledge and bliss in full. His internal potency is exhibited first as sat, or existence — or, in other words, as the portion that expands the existence function of the Lord. When the same potency displays full knowledge it is called cit, or samvit, which expands the transcendental forms of the Lord. Finally, when the same potency plays as a pleasure-giving medium it is known as hlādinī, or the transcendental blissful potency. Thus the Lord manifests His internal potency in three transcendental divisions.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness