Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines

—Krishna is rasa and Radha rati; Krishna is Madana and Radha Madana's supreme intensification. Like Shiva and Shakti, or wisdom and skilful means, the sportive play and joyful delight of Radha and Krishna are the practitioner's final goal.

To realise this, one must experience through practice that every man and woman is a manifest form of Krishna and Radha, and that their love and union constitute the Sahajiyas' highest state. This divine current of love flows unbroken like a stream of oil through every particle of the universe; practice uncovers it.

How is this unbroken current of divine love revealed, and how is human love divinised? The Supreme Principle can be conceived in three forms: Brahman, Supreme Self, and Bhagavan.¹ As Bhagavan, Krishna possesses three powers: the power of his own nature, the power of living beings or the marginal power, and Maya-power. His own-nature power contains three principles: being, consciousness, and bliss. Their other names are the supporting power, the knowing power, and the bliss-bestowing power. Radha is this bliss-bestowing power.

Enjoyer and enjoyed

Bhagavan contains both enjoyer and enjoyed. How could the condition or joyous delight of the enjoyer exist without the enjoyed? Radha is eternally enjoyed and Krishna eternally the enjoyer: one at the root, two for the sake of playful sport. This līlā too is of three kinds: apparent, illusory, and practical. These will be explained in their proper places.

For now, remember that līlā is not bhoga. When bindu moves upward, there is līlā; when it moves downward, there is bhoga. Failure to remember this exceptional distinction makes līlā difficult to understand.

Forest Vrindavan, mind-Vrindavan, and eternal Vrindavan

The play unfolds in forest Vrindavan, mind-Vrindavan, and eternal Vrindavan. Forest Vrindavan contains its manifest play, and mind-Vrindavan its inward play. In eternal Vrindavan—also called the eternal realm or hidden Moon-city—the eternal, divine, enchanting love-play and rāsa of Radha and Krishna continue forever. This is the “innate.”

Only when love-practice yields even one particle of the loving Lord's love can a practitioner enter that eternal play in a divine disposition and perfected body. The nature of the feeling-body and perfected body will be discussed later in its proper place.