The Stroy of Krishna and Radha

When I was a little girl and it came to dress up time, I never wanted your run of the mill fancy dress outfit...oh no! My Ouma had to dig into her fabric collection to drape me in meters of silk and chiffon to make me a sari!
Yip...it's a fact, ask Oupa. I wore a sari and put a red dot on my forehead with Ouma's lipstick long before I even started school. Don't ask me where I got those ideas about being an Indian girl, but to this day I have a love and fascination with India, the people and their history, and I admire and enjoy Indian art, architecture, miniature paintings, sitar music, Madras curries and the Karma Sutra...and that all loooong before it was made fashionable by Bollywood!


Which brings me to the topic of this post...I have never been into Hindu belief at all, don't get the wrong impression by this post! I was brought up in a Christian home, where any curiosity in such heathen belief was seriously frowned upon...and of course, it is all quite complicated and so, I suppose, like most other Christians, I was never really bothered with it in case it brought bad vibes, if you know what I mean.....But once I did read a bit about Hindu mythology and belief, I found it is very beautiful, and most interesting! There are many parallels to more familiar stories, and the perfection of the paradise setting...so much like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and I could go into it deeper and point it all out and give you my wise opinion on it all, but time and space here does not allow for that today...but oh..THE ART..I LOVE the art!...and it is the art that tweaked my interest in the stories behind the paintings and sculptures in the first place...

By now regular readers to this blog will have figured out that I have a bit of a thing for Kitsch, and so, of course, I have a wonderful collection of garish Hindu paintings that my family cringe to look at...but being the Queen of this blog, I will force you to appreciate the beauty and romanticism of Hindu art by introducing it slowly, with the love story of Krishna and Radha.


The Radha-Krishna amour is a love legend of all times. It's indeed hard to miss the many legends and paintings illustrating Krishna's love affairs, of which the Radha-Krishna affair is the most memorable. Krishna's relationship with Radha, his favorite among the 'gopis', has served as a model for male and female love in a variety of art forms, and since the sixteenth century appears prominently as a motif in North Indian paintings. The allegorical love of Radha has found expression in some great Bengali poetical works of Govinda Das, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Jayadeva the author of Geet Govinda.

To cut a long and involved story short, as you should know, Hindu's believe in reincarnation, and so the Lord Krishna was the reincarnation of the Lord Vishnu. (I told you it's complicated!), but for now lets stick with one life time at a time....


So who was Radha you might well ask?
Well, Radha was one of the gopis in the Vrindavan village...and gopi is a word from Sanskrit (गोपी) meaning 'cow-herd girl'. So Rada was a cow herd girl from Vridavan, and also the reincarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi. Different 'sects' of Hindus believe different things about the deities and gods, some believe Radhar is a higher diety than Krishna and vice versa...but anyway...that's why it's complicated..


Just as Lord Vishnu was born as Krishna, Goddess Lakshmi was born as Radha! And so the story goes that Lord Krishna and Srimati Radha were each other’s best friend from childhood, and who grew up together. I must point out that Krishna was a married man, who had quite a few wives, who were also very jealous of Radhar! But for some odd reason he never married Radha. Then as I said, other Hindus believe she was his wife. In a number of versions of her story, although Radha's first love is Krishna, she is later forced to marry Abhimanyu, the son of Jatila. One source for this information is Sri Sri Camatkara Candrika by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. Other traditions give the name of the husband of Radha as 'Chandrasena'. Be that as it may, Krishna and Radha spent all their time in each other’s company, and they loved each other very much, so it seems odd that he didn't just marry her. So maybe all along they were these desperate lovers who couldn't have each other, Hinduism does confuse the matter somewhat..



Well.. taking a look at the art work featuring these two 'best friends' I can tell you without a doubt, Radha was absolutely smitten with Krishna! So if it wasn't that she was forced into an arranged marraige that she hated, then what's the story?
No ways does a woman look at a man like that when they are just 'friends'! But Krishna, *sigh*, typical male, thinking like men do, probably realized that to marry her would just spoil everything....and he was probably right too...I mean look at how marriages start off...and how they end up...oh hell..yeah.


And how did Krishna and Radha show their love for each other? (NO..not like that...!)
They wore each other’s colour and tried to be like the other person...(hmm..yeah ..right)

Okay, let me explain. As Krishna was as beautiful as the moon and his skin was blue as a cloud and softer than a blue lotus , Radha would always wear a blue sari and bedeck herself with blue sapphires. And because Radha’s skin was golden in colour like a flash of brilliant lightning, Krishna would always wear a yellow or golden dhoti. Radha wore tinkling anklets or payals on her ankles, and so Krishna wore them too. When they walked together it made a beautiful sound ...all far too romantic for just platonic friendship in my humble opinion! I mean just take a look at the pic below of them in different scenes together...


Krishna wore a peacock feather on his head, which shimmered and caught the light resembling a bright and beautiful rainbow, and a garland of pearls (moti). The pearl necklace that hung on his chest looked like a row of swans flying across a blue cloud. Krishna also wore a garland of colourful wild flowers called the Vaijantimala. Their bodies would shine with an unusual glow, and while Krishna shone and sparkled like the soft silvery moon, Radha seemed to dazzle like golden lightning.
Krishna also wore fish-shaped earrings and carried a flute. So when Krishna played his flute, Radha knew Krishna was in Madhuvana and she would go running to him.


All the cows, calves, deer and birds would stop on their tracks and listen enchanted by the divine music of Krishna’s flute. Krishna would hold the cow by its chin and Radha would pat its head. The swan would come waddling from the Yamuna and gather around them. The deer would rub its soft nose against Krishna’s feet and nuzzle. The birds would perch on the tree listening to the music of the flute. Sometimes when Krishna waited for Radha to join him, he would spend time talking to his animal friends in the solitude of the groves.

And a the story goes on , that the day would melt into evening, blue clouds and the moon would be up on the sky and Radha's eyes would be fixed on Krishna, and Krishna’s on Radha. Krishna was as beautiful as a moon and his skin was as blue as the heavens. Seeing the moon and evening sky, Radha would be full of love for Krishna. Krishna was her life and soul—the treasure of her life and the very life of her own life. Radha adored Krishna with all her heart, all she wanted to do was to make Krishna happy—and making him happy was what made her happy. She found joy in his joy. She did everything in her power to please him even if it meant putting Krishna and his wishes before herself and hers, asking for nothing in return. Hmmm...does seem a bit naive. Is that what true love is all about...ahh...don't you just wish!
And what about Krishna? What were his feelings for Radha? Let’s see what Krishna had to say about this himself…..

"The whole world finds true happiness when they are in my company, but what about me?I feel true happiness only when I am with Radha.

Everybody says that I am more beautiful than anything they have ever seen and that they feel joy in their heart when they just look at me. But my eyes find pleasure only when they rest on Radha.

The soft melody of my flute attracts everybody and everything to it, but my ears are enchanted by the sweet words of Radha alone.

Although my touch is cooler than coolness of many moons put together, I am refreshed only by the soft soothing touch of Radha.

I am the life and soul of the whole world but my life and soul is Radha, and Radha alone."

Oh my goodness...no wonder Radha was crazy for him! Such is the love of Radha and Krishna...*sigh*.. how do we put that back into our lives in this day and age of cold, harsh reality? Gosh..we can only try!