The Way of Natural Devotion - Universalist Radha-Krishnaism

ity into a lifeless statue. Rather, we learn to see Radha-Krishna who are
already in the statue, and were already in the wood, stone, or metal
used to make the statue.
Yet the statue must be a suitable vehicle to hold our vision, imposition,
or projection of the deity—Radha, a beautiful young woman,
and Krishna, a handsome young man. If we can do that with a statue
or painting, why not with real, beautiful young women and handsome
young men as Ramananda did?
Ramananda introduced the practice of meditating in his spiritual
identity as Bishaka on serving Radha by bathing, dressing, and
intimately serving two temple dancing girls while perceiving them
as Radha. This was a physical acting out of what has become an inner
meditative practice.
The highest spirituality is to live the myth. As we surrender to
Radha-Krishna and allow them into our lives, we hope they possess us,
and we become God-dess intoxicated persons like Chaitanya, who constantly
heard Radha-Krishna’s pastimes from Ramananda and praised
his association with the dancers.
On one level for men, developing our identity as Radha’s female
associate involves getting in touch with the anima and developing our
feminine, spiritual side. Attaining an androgynous state of balance between
our masculine and feminine natures promotes wholeness in both
men and women. Radha-Krishna and Chaitanya’s examples benefit the
whole world as it suffers from feuding, patriarchal monotheisms, which
worship a male God without a consort.
Symbols help us contemplate ideas far from, or totally outside,
normal experience, by extending ideas we already possess. Human love
provides a natural symbol for transcendent joy or the longing of the
soul for God-dess. What symbol better expresses spiritual ecstasy than
sexual pleasure?
This comprises the beautiful symbolism of Radha-Krishna, the
Divine Couple, the highest, purest representation of God-dess. They
symbolize the perfection of erotic love according to classical Indian
aesthetic principles, which aid our mind’s entrance into Radha-Krishna’s
eternal love sports. The idea of entering into an erotic loving relationship
with God-dess engenders great attraction. Followers of Chaitanya
created a compelling mythos for developing such a relationship. I
humbly rework that mythos so Radha-Krishna may be seen and accepted
as a contemporary, universal symbol for God-dess.
For Chaitanya’s followers, as for the troubadours, longing and
intense desire lead us to the goal. Longing constitutes an act of worship,
pleasurable in itself, and pleasing to Radha-Krishna. Christian and Sufi
mystics also long for union with God-dess. While we remain in this
world, our primary relationship to God-dess consists mostly of separation
based on our existential situation. However, longing for union
seems almost as sweet and intense as union itself.
Men and women both embody the divine Radha-Krishna: women
are female due to a preponderance of Radha; men are masculine due
to a preponderance of Krishna. Love between man and woman embodies
in microcosm the love of Radha-Krishna who also experienced separation
and union. This makes sense from a number of perspectives—
spiritual, psychological, social, familial, and personal.
The union of a loving couple manifests the love of God-dess and
gives a foretaste of spiritual bliss. God-dess exists within us and constitutes
our very self. When we unite the male and female parts of our
psyche, we become whole and holy. Granting equal status to men and
women as partial manifestations of God-dess mitigates gender discrimination
and dominance. Seeing everyone as a manifestation of
God-dess, whom we love, goes a long way toward increasing peace and
justice in the world.
Radha symbolizes the highest devotion. Poets also saw her as a
real woman, and their poetry about her feels warm and personal. Based
on the simple stories of the Bhagavat, poets developed a complicated affair,
with all the jealousy, pain, hurt, joy, anger, and satisfaction of human
love. They developed the characters of Radha-Krishna according
to the aesthetic principles of the ideal hero and heroine found in classi-
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