Epilogue
Radha's love is a song of oblation, a perennial flow of joy. Her life was nothing but the story of love and longing. For her, the meaning of life was to give and keep giving! Her eyes were filled with an ocean of worship with waves of longing for Him.
Though I am an ardent fan and worshipper of the purity, divinity, intensity, romance, and myth associated with the Radha-Krishna's love saga, there is always one thing that bothered me about Krishna's decision to part with her towards the later part of their lives... how can a God be helpless and leave his most beloved person behind and never look back? How could a person who doled equal amount of love, respect and care to all his wives, be unable to do a little for the love of his life, his Pranadhika Radhika!
Was he helpless and incapable only when it came to Radha? No, he wasn't! I firmly believe that Krishna, the God of love, never separated from his Radha! She was always with him and he carried her in his heart; in all circumstances, she walked with him, holding his hand as his guiding force; though invisible to the human eye, together they were till eternity.
No other goddess combines the elements of Bhakti and Shringara quite as exquisitely as this divine milkmaid! Radha spans a vivid rainbow of imagery from the playfulness of Raas Leela to the soulfulness of her undying love for Him. This is the eternal story of the mysterious Radha, the epitome of love, who defied all conventional codes, yet transcended social prohibitions through the power of her spiritual and metaphysical love.
Radha, the bucolic milkmaid, followed the dictates of her heart, her instincts, her passion, to seek union with her innermost self, her Krishna! She was her own mistress even in the act of surrender to her beloved! And it is this aspect of her identity that is worshipped since ages.
We've heard great epic love stories, but they always had a happy ending. The crux of the Krishna-Radha story, however, was a gnawing longing for each other. They spent only a short span of time together and then there was a never-ending separation between them.
The Radha-Krishna romance epitomized real love, which was sweet, tender and passionate, surpassed words and remained a surreal experience beyond all human comprehension. Radha is forever the embodiment of pure love and no one can be a greater devotee than her.
It is interesting to know what transpired after that brief visit of Krishna on that fateful night.
The next morning after Krishna's visit --
Just like lightning, He visited her; she was in a daze, in a state of confusion. It all seemed like a dream to her. She looked around; the river Yamuna confirmed His presence with its wavelets. A memory of a soothing melody awakened her inner thoughts. "Yes, a few moments back He was with me, in my arms, I had entwined myself in His embrace!" She was exhilarated by the thought of the night's events. How she had longed for His darshan! When the waiting ended and the next meeting happened, what transpired in between, why it ended so soon? She was besieged by a whirlpool of emotions.
Time was moving like life's shadow, space has its own myriad ways to bring out the day from night. In those serene surroundings, she tried to revive the earlier night's dream. But her eyes refused to dream, though shut. He has there embedded on her eyelids. Her heart said with a wave of happiness, 'He is here for me, with me, within me, in my heartbeat!'
Slowly the village started waking up; the gopikas were heading to the river with empty pots to carry water in them. She started walking on the river bank recounting all those night long memories. She tried to inquire within and search who she really was at her core! She had immersed herself in a million magical moments, both transient and real, thoughts without words.
With each stride, her mind became clearer, more resolute, as if the growing physical distance between them had now become an emotional chasm. Her eyes became misty and a few droplets appeared in the corners of her eyes... she continued walking.
Suddenly she wiped her tears and in an effort to contain the turmoil within and hide her emotions, she hurried along. She was a maiden on a walk with an attitude of a warrior returning to the battlefield, in which she had to fight with her hankering, with that inevitable separation from her beloved and with that void she had to live from now on, and that walk of longing would last her whole life.
At that moment, she was looking like a sculpture carved by the ocean and installed on the sky! "The imprints of His feet are here, the music of His flute has amalgamated as the melody of the breeze, His love for me is imbibed in every bud and flower which will bloom every morning and spread His love as a sweet fragrance in Brindavan from now on," She thought.
While coming to the river, the milkmaids saw Radha going towards Nand's house, with luminosity on her face which had made the surroundings effulgent!
They were surprised and ran towards her. Vakula perceptively glanced at her, was astonished and questioned her, "Radha, how did you get that orange tilak on your chest? Why girl, why your cheeks are smeared with vermillion streaks? Why your eyes turned red, did you not sleep the previous night? Why are you looking like that? What is the meaning of that fulfilling smile amidst those flowing tears, Radha? What happened?"
She was startled for a while and her silence made them eager to know the reason. "Wake me not sakhis, wake me not from this reverie, from this bliss so deep. One Radha was enough for Him, but many Krishnas visited me at night! Do you know? Krishna was here last night!"
They dismissed her claim by looking at each other with a grin. They thought that it must be one more of her innumerable illusions.
With an emphatic tone, she implored, "Believe me; He was with me, talked with me while resting His head on my lap." Radha was in joyful elation, her sensations were ample and in series, and in her phantasmic trance, a smile of innocence and experience brought a wave of sweet earthly joy to her appearance.
The intoxicating Kasturi [ musk] fragrance around her surprised them. That was familiar to them; it was their Krishna's sweet fragrance! She was in trance, didn't reply. There was a peacock feather stuck on her chest, they took it in their hands to look at it observantly! There was a pink floral garland adorning her neck. They never saw those flowers in Brindavan!
Vaishnavi exclaimed, "Look at this side, here are the marks of the chariot wheels, someone had come!" They looked at each other with wide eyes in disbelief! Reality dawned on them! Krishna was here, for sure! They were totally flabbergasted! They looked at her with a thousand doubts; they asked her many questions at once!
She smiled a little, a smile with a twist to it; it looked like the smile of a child who was determined not to cry!
With a low voice, Radha started narrating the reason behind his visit,
"He was here to share His grief, the grief for the upcoming, all-pervasive war. Sorrow for the destruction it amasses on mankind. He is going as a messenger to meet the enemies now. While going, he halted here for a while to seek the blessings of his motherland, His Brindavan, and from the river Yamuna. He said if I meet my sakhis and Maa Yashoda, I may not be able to leave this place again. This is why he visited this place without anyone's notice and left for Hasthinapur with a peace proposal for them."
With wide eyes, they stared at her, awestruck. "You met Him Radha? How lucky you are! Your penance for Him was successfully completed with His darshan!"
"Radha, how does He look now? We saw Him many years back as a prankster, a young boy! Does He still remember all of us with whom He played blissfully in those halcyon days?"
With a smile, she said, "Now he looks like a savior of humanity, a preacher to mankind. I have seen commitment in His glowing eyes, Vaishnavi. War and peace are His two eyes now, one for extinguishing the enmity and the other for propagating unity. He wants to save the kings and the knights from that sin inflicting conflict. I have seen a God with flowing peace from His divine eyes."
"Alas, we haven't seen Him! He left before we realized His presence!" Vakula spoke in a broken voice.
"Vakula, He didn't leave us. His thoughts are imprinted on our souls to lift the spiritual being in us! He is present in every new life on this earth, to spread love and bliss in this universe. We are small wavelets which push life's flow towards the vast sea of devotion and unites with His ultimate love. Let us carry this love as the perennial dhara through every river and bower. Let us strengthen those shoulders that are bearing the responsibilities of this entire universe, through our worship."
Radha was talking like a saint in deep meditation. Nature was listening to her words with wonder and awe! She was defining love and life as a divine message. Her words sounded like hymns of love, giving new definition to that pure bliss!
The blush of love flashed across the sakhis' faces and Radha's tears of joy streamed down her cheeks.
They touched her hands with revere. They were happy beyond words. They felt that by meeting Radha, He met all of them! They saw Krishna in her eyes.
"My Krishna hasn't gone anywhere! He is with me, forever we are together!" Radha started walking towards Yashoda's house.
She walked a few steps, but His soft touch came to her mind and she smiled. She took some more steps and the recollection of His embrace stopped her. Krishna, your hug is the only treasure I have in this world today. You carried the best part of me with you. Without you, I'm not me anymore,' she talked to herself.
In that dawn, the sweet rhythmic sound of cowherd maidens churning curd was ringing in every house, as the milkmaids were singing glories of their prankster Krishna. Those dulcet tunes created a wordless melody in her heart. Radha looked at the horizon, she saw a light coalescing the earth and the sky. Wisdom dawned on her, as she gazed into the endlessness of the bright sky. The dusty path under her feet was silently writing the Radha Krishna stories of love on the heart of the earth to preserve these for future generations! -----
Now and then, she heard stories from wandering yogis and sadhus, who told of Krishna's exploits and conquests, of the Kurukshetra war, of his great teachings to Arjuna on the battlefield. Radha smiled a secret smile and knew that she was there with him when all that was happening.
This story is pure fiction, written from Radha's perspective. I tried to recreate from reliable sources of mythology, a sublime saga of their iconic love in their brief association together. This is an endeavor to lend a new definition and meaning to Radha's love. For me, she was a protagonist with decisive powers over her Krishna, and she as His Sakhi and Shakti, had motivated Him to be an inspirational teacher and preacher.
Radha and Krishna's romance is complete and sanguine... the lilting tunes of his flute linger long after their bower stood empty, waiting for two lovers to reunite in their comforting embrace in future because time knew that together they were timeless! [ 17000 words]
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