The following is intended to be meditated on daily while we imagine ourselves in our perfect spiritual identity as a character interacting in the play. It follows the basic plot outline given by Rupa Goswami in his Ashta-Kaliya-Leela-Smarana-Mangala-Stotram. We updated it for contemporary use, while trying to remain as faithful to the original as possible. It provides a simple outline, and each of us can flesh it out differently according to our personal loving relationship with Radha-Krishna.

Radha-Krishna are a young couple madly in love with each other. They spend much time together, but there are periods of separation. They are not married, but have a committed open relationship. Marriage is not an issue as there is no birth, death, disease, or old age, which erases many of the traditional reasons for marriage. People do form committed relationships if they so desire, but relationships are much more open there than here since Radha-Krishna and all their expansions including us simply want to share in their love and increase the enjoyment of all. Radha-Krishna are twenty years old. Their intimate friends are different ages ranging from eighteen to twenty, depending on their mood and relationship.

Radha-Krishna live in Braj, a magical mythical world that possesses an unimaginably beautiful rustic charm. Nature provides abundantly with little toil required. People work at whatever they do because they enjoy it and want to contribute to the enjoyment of others.  A sort of communal cooperative lifestyle is practiced. 

Krishna is the “son” of a leading couple and Radha, the “daughter” of another. They spend time with their families and have their own places as well. Everything is conscious, and by desiring something, it is. The problem of inert matter does not exist. Radha-Krishna enjoy sumptuous communal meals and entertainment provided by the talented community members who love pleasing them in this way. Radha-Krishna are so in love with each other and so loving to everyone that they are the center of everyone’s life. Everyone wants to please them and they please everyone. All enjoy a life of simple elegance.

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1. I extol Radha-Krishna’s eternal play in Braj and describe their daily activities, which those following the path of passionate natural devotion meditate upon. This emotional and mental visualization brings us to the loving association of Radha-Krishna by our intense desire to be absorbed in the play of Braj as a participant. It is unattainable by other means even if practiced by leading persons.

2. May Radha-Krishna protect us, as at dawn, they leave their forest love cottage and return to their homes in town. In the morning and evening, Krishna takes part in village activities helping, encouraging, and inspiring everyone. He eats in the communal dinning hall where Radha supervises the preparation of delicious meals twice a day. After the morning meal, Krishna tours the forests and meadows with his friends and tends the cattle. He slips away to join Radha and her friends at the lake and then returns to town in the evening. After dinner, Radha-Krishna participate in community entertainment and then slip away to their forest cottage for love play.

3. At dawn, I remember Radha-Krishna who are awakened by cocks crowing and birds singing. They unite one more time before rising and being greeted by their friends who spent the night in surrounding cottages, gazebos, and pavilions–well appointed for the enjoyment of all. Radha-Krishna each return to their own homes surrounded by loving friends.

4. In the morning, I take shelter of Radha who is massaged, bathed, dressed, and decorated by her most intimate female friends. She then goes to the community kitchen and supervises the preparation of the most delicious foods for Krishna and the whole community to relish. I also remember Krishna who is bathed and dressed. He goes about inquiring into everyone’s well-being and bringing joy to all. Krishna then goes to the dinning hall and eats sumptuously with Radha, their families, and friends.

5. In the late morning, I remember Krishna who along with his friends tends the cattle in the surrounding forests and meadows. He slips away to rendezvous with Radha for love sports at the lake. I also remember Radha who relaxes at the shore with her friends awaiting Krishna’s arrival.

6. At midday, I remember Radha-Krishna who look indescribably beautiful and radiant due to their passionate meeting. They are surrounded by intimate loving friends, like Lalita, who provide delectable snacks and drinks, pleasing companionship, and by their youthful beauty and passion create an erotically charged atmosphere that attracts the God of Love. They engage in playful fun in the forest and the water. They steal Krishna’s flute, swing, make love, drink honey wine, enjoy aromatic, sweetly rousing herbs and other delights.

7. In the late afternoon, I remember Radha who goes home, is bathed and beautifully dressed. She then goes and supervises preparation of the evening community meal. Krishna goes around town to see how everyone’s day went, encourage them, and show love for all.

8. At sunset, I remember Radha-Krishna who beautifully dressed enjoy a lavish banquet with their friends and families. After dinner, different people take turns entertaining with music, song, dance, and comedy. They tell stories of wondrous distant lands, of worlds filled with most wonderful creatures and heroic deeds, of insatiable love and danger too, where land and people can perish. Listening to such tales by the evening fire they sometimes fall into reverie, imagining themselves as participants in such stories.

9. At night, I remember Radha-Krishna who slip away with some close friends to their love cottage by the riverside. Radha-Krishna passionately enjoy each others company surrounded by their dear friends who sing, joke, and speak sweetly. They drink honey wine, enjoy sweetly intoxicating herbs, and dance lovingly. Their minds are all absorbed in love, their hearts are opened, and they relish the varied flavors of erotic joy in their personal love cottages.

10. Radha-Krishna are blissful in the company of their friends who serve them out of love with beautiful flower decorations, tasty morsels, cool drinks, and massages. After the girlfriends fall asleep, Radha-Krishna also doze off on their flower strewn bed sharing sweet loving murmurings of deep love. When they fall asleep, they even dream about tales they talked about and listened to, thus enjoying both their eternity and worlds of perishable nature in their dreams.

Without any help of pictures and paintings, our best conscious effort to visualise a face is its semi-abstract form, with several key points: basic shape of the head, position of eyes, nose, hair, lips. We generally tend to “tag” a certain face with an emotion, like “funny guy”, or “sad eyes”, etc. that help us pull out from remembrance all additional details associated with that tag.

Sometimes it takes few venues to remember someone’s eyes colour.

Having this is mind, it actually doesn’t matter which image of Radha and Krishna we have in front of us, because in our minds they’ll transform into semi-abstract imagery as soon as we turn our heads away from the image.

The idea with devotional meditation and remembrance is similar to that one practised by great artists – not to keep one image in mind and endlessly remind ourself about it, but rather to dwell into it, explore, build up positive thoughts about it and pull it out from the fragmented memory into our conscious mind. Layer by layer, patiently, with even more intricate details which are not only visual, but emotional.

At moments that image comes alive and moves, causing a sensation that resembles flame of delight going up. We should try to follow the image, whilst keeping our attention to the process.

Reminding ourselves of Radhika in every female face, figure and smile is certainly a highly effective meditation and arresting approach. Many wondered divine Raphael (as the famous painter was called during his time and ever after) was blessed by Madonna and was able to see her everywhere solely because his Madonnas were so breathtakingly beautiful and ethereal.

In our everyday life we should try to be positively creative too, and channel our thoughts into creation. Creativity is inspiring and life-changing. Wonderful examples are artists, who have created magnificent art through history. The power of their visualisation was absolutely incredible and is still enchanting us. Here’s what Jacopo Tintoretto, late Renaissance and Mannerist Italian artist per excellence, wrote:

“Beautiful colours can be bought in the shops on the Riato, but good drawing can only be bought from the casket of the artist’s talent with patient study and nights without sleep.” He reminds us what are the fundamentals of a good composition – creativity, passion and good drawing skills. Why drawing skills are so important? In figure and realistic painting, applying colour usually comes at end, and colour only emphasises and completes good initial design, not overpowering it or losing itself in a seemingly dazzling, but formless and pointless colour mess.

Translated into our inner meditative and devotional life that means we should first learn how we express our thoughts and feelings, shape them and learn about them and ourselves, put core values and hopes of our lives where they create a nice devotional sketch … and then add colour.

Tintoretto further adds, “Drawing is the foundation of a painter’s work, but drawing from life in the nude should only be essayed by well-practiced men, as the real is often wanting in beauty.” Here he points that the beauty is experienced in the heart of a true artist, and such an inner vision surpasses beauty of anything found in this world. Good artists often idealise everyday beauty because they use real-life models just as symbols to express feelings of an overpowering spiritual and aesthetic rapture that is beyond comprehension. 

We should try to develop similar passion for everything we want to achieve in our spiritual lives. Tintoretto had his inspiration as well, in Michelangelo and Tizian. We should also have our devotional inspiration, or a role model too. It helps enormously and isn’t it amazing to see how art and natural devotion are so much alike?

– Zvonimir Tosic