I used to be quite an ecsta­tic dancer in kir­tan, but now I don’t do that. I think it’s a cul­tural prac­tice that just isn’t part of the cul­ture I live in. Now kir­tan is my wife and I chant­ing sit­ting before our home altar.
Just as the Orissa devo­tees moved from loud kir­tans to more personal, […]

God-dess para­dox­i­cally indi­cates union of the oppo­site ideas of dif­fer­ence and non-difference lead­ing to a higher, fuller unity. This means per­fec­tion, or the abil­ity to encom­pass all extremes of expe­ri­enc­ing reality.

We cul­ti­vate a higher taste like when we enjoy music, lit­er­a­ture, plays, art, and poetry. Free the mind from the dross, and learn to taste the inef­fa­ble beauty and bliss of spir­i­tual life.

Yet, absorbed in each other’s love and lost in each other’s thoughts there is scarcely room in their hearts for thought of any­thing else. God-dess and the devo­tee become mutu­ally sub­servient to each other and sur­ren­der their free­dom to each other. The pure divine love of the devo­tee con­trols God-dess.

Thus, we arrive at a point where the high­est human con­cep­tion of God-dess and the high­est ser­vice one can ren­der them is for them to be a lov­ing young cou­ple, with us as their friends and lovers, totally unaware of their divin­ity. Deep, intense love remains the key element.

Braj is a place of pil­grim­age in Uttar Pradesh, India, but the spir­i­tual Braj exists in the hearts of devo­tees wher­ever they are. Radha-Krishna’s pas­times go on there now and for­ever. One can see them only by the grace and sweet will of Radha-Krishna or their beloveds.

Prab­hu­pada Is Always Right (Click for a humor­ous, yet insight­ful article.)

They com­bine breadth of spirit, intense mod­u­la­tions, eter­nal peace, and calm per­fec­tion with dynamic, eter­nally self-revealing, self-fulfilling cre­ative activ­ity, and quick­ness of move­ment with intense har­mony and grace. Radha-Krishna awaken these mod­u­la­tions in us, sat­is­fy­ing our long­ings for love, knowl­edge, and peace in an inte­gra­tive synthesis.

In our pro­gres­sive aes­thetic view which uses the amount of sweet taste as a mea­sure of spir­i­tual rap­ture, Undif­fer­en­ti­ated One­ness is con­sid­ered the low­est man­i­fes­ta­tion of divine self energy and Radha-Krishna are the high­est manifestation.

To Radha on Her Appear­ance Day