Sharanagati

 “O my Lord Hari, o merciful Radhanath, all glories to You! Again and again I have petitioned You, but now I beg you to accept me as Your intimate company.” In another version it is said: “I have tried to escape You, I have tried to avoid You so many times, but this time, please, accept me!”[1]

How many times we have tried to escape God’s mercy?! We are very clever in this; very busy and very clever to avoid and try to escape from our divine destiny. Which is death. Immediate death. Death for the world and rebirth for the higher existence. Humans are very eager to avoid this divine destiny and “I am a human number one. I was best in this respect, trying to avoid You for so many lifetimes, living in my own knowledge and understanding. But this time, please, I want to finish with this typically human avoiding existence and I want to be Yours. Please, accept me now in Your intimate company.”

And this prayer is not directed to an ordinary God, but to Radhanath, a special type of God. He is the Lord of Radhika. Because that aspect of God is the loving God. God loves universally, but Krishna loves specially. There is a big difference between the general love of God and the special love of Krishna. In both ways: as the devotees love Him and as He loves the devotees. Both are special. “So this time, please, Radhanath, You take me! I have already taken You in my heart; now it is Your turn.” This is the intimacy of bhakti, devotional line. Because usually we understand that we should love God and we should be His property. But in the higher realms of bhakti, God becomes a servant.

Rasa dance is the symbol of meeting. And how is it performed? This is a round dance, circular dance. One Krishna – one gopi – one Krishna – one gopi… Who is the beginning and who is the end? Who is first and who is second? Can you decide? It is impossible to decide who is first, who is second, who is God, who is servant. Because usually the servants are running after the master; but in a circular dance everybody is running after the other, right? Krishna is running after the gopis and gopis are running after Krishna. This is the mystery of bhakti – that God is running after the love of His beloved. Maybe you do not understand it right now, but just try to have it in your mind, have it in the list of your future goals. This is some very, very secret point in bhakti.