Maìgalä of Rädhä-Kåñëa and Kåñëa-Balaräma together ?!?!?
Question– MAHÄRÄJA JÉ, is it possible to do Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä Kåñëa and Kåñëa Balaräma together? MAHÄRÄJA JÉ, many Devotees in Våndävana ask me this question. Can you please elaborate on this?
MAHÄRÄJA JÉ – So your question is can we do Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa Balaräma and Rädhä Kåñëa together?
Well, you should know how Maìgala Äraté is being done in Braja and then, you can yourself answer whether they can be done together or not. Well, everyday Rädhä and Kåñëa, they meet at the bank of Yamunä. They perform Their eternal pastimes there. They sleep there as well. They get up there in the Kuïja and when They get up, Maìgala Äraté is done by Lalitä Sakhé. And it is only seen by Sakhés and maïjarés of Rädhä and Kåñëa, and no one else is there.
This is the meaning of Rädhä Kåñëa Maìgala Äraté. Rädhä & Kåñëa are only along with Sakhés and maïjarés are there. Well, if you talk about Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa and Balaräma, it is not done in Kuïja of Rädhä and Kåñëa. Because no male other than Kåñëa is there at night time. Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa and Balaräma is being done in Kåñëa’s home. And that too, later in the day. They are sleeping together. It seems that They are sleeping and, when They get up, Their Maìgala Arati is being done. So, Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa Balaräma and Rädhä Kåñëa cannot be done together. This is first thing.
Just think about it, Rädhä and Kåñëa are there in the Nikuïja and Sakhés and maïjarés are going Their Maìgala Äraté. Just imagine, they are meeting. They are not meeting openly. Rädhä and Kåñëa, they are meeting secretly. They are not meeting openly. Secretly They all come together, Lalitä, Viçäkhä, Rädhäräné, all the maïjarés. They all are married. They come secretly. They come by secret path and They perform pastimes at night. And in the morning, Their Maìgala is being done.
And Kåñëa is in a separate place at night and in morning time, Balaräma is at a separate place. How can They be in the same place and Their Maìgala can be done together? Just think, Rädhä and Kåñëa’s Maìgala is being done and Balaräma is in the Kuïja. Balaräma is sitting or standing next to Them. How is Rädhäräné going to feel? Just think, they are not mürti. Are you doing Maìgala Äraté of mürti? You are doing Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä and Kåñëa. You are doing Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä and Kåñëa. Until and unless you do things with bhäva, you will never get to the bhäva stage, Prema stage.
When Maìgala Äraté is being done of Kåñëa and Balaräma, first of all it cannot be done together. Secondly, in all Sampradäyas, Maìgala Äraté, only of one’s Iñöa Deva is done. Our Iñöa Deva are Rädhä and Kåñëa, plain and simple. Our Iñöa Deva are not Kåñëa and Balaräma.
Sarvabhauma Bhattäcärya in Sarvabhauma Çataka in verse 2 tells,
çré-rädhä-kåñëayoù seväà sthäpayitvä gåhe gåhe
çrémat-saìkértane gauro nåtyati prema-vihvalaù
(Särvabhauma Çataka Verse 2)
So, Iñöa Deva of Gauòéya Vaiñëava Sampradäya are Rädhä and Kåñëa only. Why would a Gauòéya Vaiñëava daily do Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa and Balaräma? Can anyone answer?
Before the invent of Iskcon and Gauòéya Maöha, no Gauòéya Vaiñëava Äcärya ever did daily Maìgala Äraté of any one, except Lord Gauräìga and Rädhä Kåñëa.
First of all, Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa Balaräma and Rädhä Kåñëa is not required together for any Sampradäya. Someone can do Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa Balaräma daily as per their rasa and someone can do Maìgala Arati of Rädhä Kåñëa as per their Sampradäya. That is ok. But together Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa Balaräma and Rädhä Kåñëa, it is not required. It is not done. It is not bonafide. It is simply not ok. It is not ok. It is not required. It is not even etiquettes. Rädhä and Kåñëa are meeting secretly and you are putting Balaräma in front of Them. Just think, you are doing Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä-Kåñëa and Krsna-Balaräma.
jayo rädhä çyäma sundara, rädhä, then jayo kåñëa balaräma…
Just think Kåñëa is standing next to Rädhäräné with his arm on Rädhäräné and Rädhäräné’s arm on Kåñëa. And all of a sudden, Kåñëa switches his arm and switches onto Balaräma’s shoulders. And nothing happens to you because you are doing everything mechanically.
Just have one bhäva na. And, Kåñëa will also be in Maìgala Äraté in one bhäva only, or ten bhäva simultaneously? He is in Kuïja. How can He stand like this with Balaräma?
Just answer to yourself.
Okay, He is home. He can do this because He is with Balaräma in His home. In the Kuïja, how can He stand with Balaräma and you blindly doing, mechanically doing, Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa Balaräma. Alongside you are doing Maìgala Äraté of Sétä Räma Lakñmaëa Hanumäna also. What are Sétä Räma Lakñmaëa Hanumäna doing in Kuïja at the time of 5 in the morning?
See, this kind of mechanical Bhakti with no understanding of spirituality will never take you anywhere in spiritual life. You can attend Maìgala Arati for 1000 years like this. And you will never advance even 1 % in spirituality. Because you don’t know what spirituality actually is.
I want to request all the Devotees chanting Hare Kåñëa that they must understand what Sampradäya actually is? Before understanding, what is Gauòéya Vaiñëava Sampradäya, you all must understand what Sampradäya actually is? Sampradäya means in which only Upäsanä of one bhäva is being done. Sampradäya bestows one bhäva. Entire Gauòéya Vaiñëava Sampradäya gives one bhäva, i.e. servitude of Rädhä and Kåñëa. So, if we are servants of Rädhä and Kåñëa, then why will we attend Maìgala of Kåñëa and Balaräma? Why will we attend that? If we are doing that, that means, we don’t understand. So, you will not see in any Sampradäya, Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa-Balaräma and Rädhä- Kåñëa being done together. You will never see that.
In every Sampradäya, you will see Maìgala Äraté only of the Lord is being done. And unless and until we do sädhnä with bhäva, we will never attain the stage of bhäva and Prema. We must understand. When we are in Maìgala Äraté, we Gauòéya Vaishanvas, we must understand that Rädhä and Kåñëa, in the form of the Deities, are there in front of us, to take our service. They are right there in the Kuïja and we are doing Their Äraté, so that, all the misfortune, evils happening to Them, can just be wiped off. This is the meaning of Maìgala Äraté.
And when we are offering Them bhoga, we must understand that we are offering Them bhoga in the Kuïja. Kåñëa is going to eat that. Rädhäräné is going to eat that. So, if you go and see Maìgala Äraté of Nimbärka Sampradäya, Rädhä Vallabhi Sampradäya, Haridäsé, it’s very clear that they are doing/attending Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä and Kåñëa. They are offering bhoga. You ask any devotee. He will say yes, we offered bhoga to Rädhä and Kåñëa. They accepted it in the Kuïja and we are Their däsés and we attended Maìgala Äraté.
Can you say this in your Iskcon or Gauòéya Maöha? You can’t.
Because you just don’t know anything about anything. You think Maìgala Äraté is a part of the morning program which you have to do. It is not a morning program. It is Maìgala program. It’s Maìgala Äraté for the auspiciousness of the Supreme Lord, for bringing out auspiciousness to Them, not for yourself. Maìgala Äraté is not for bringing auspiciousness upon yourself. Maìgala Äraté is to bring auspiciousness for the Supreme Lord. We have to remove Their misfortune, any evils probably happening to Them.
See, the loving devotees are always concerned about the welfare of the Lord. “O Something might not happen to Them. O something might not happen to Them.” They are always concerned about the welfare of the Lord.
Kåñëa-Balaräma and Rädhä-Krsna Maìgala Äraté together, is not required. No Sampradäya does it. It cannot be done with any bhäva. Because Kåñëa-Balaräma Maìgala Äraté is done in Kåñëa’s home. Rädhä-Kåñëa Maìgala Äraté is done at Nikuïja. And you can understand:
golokera prema dhana hari näma saàkértana
sei rädhä mädhava antaraìga
When ‘sei rädhä mädhava antaraìga’, then why do we do Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa- Balaräma every day? Just answer yourself. Okay, you might go sometime to a temple where Kåñëa-Balaräma Deities are there. You can attend Maìgala Äraté. No problem with that. We can attend Maìgala Äraté of any Deity, if we happen to go to Ayodhyä. We can attend Maìgala Äraté of Lord Räma also. That is not an issue. But daily attending Maìgala Äraté of Räma or Kåñëa-Balaräma, it is totally non bonafide.
Neither Gaura Kiçora Bäbäjé did it nor Bhakti Vinoda Öhäkura did it. Nor Jagannätha Däsa Bäbäjé, nor any Siddha Äcärya in our Gauòéya Vaiñëava line ever did that. This is completely made up. This is not required. There is no bhäva in it. There can never be any bhäva in it.
Can you imagine the elder brother of your husband sitting next to you, when you are on your bed, playbed? Can you imagine that scenario? Doing Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä-Kåñëa, Kåñëa-Balaräma is just like that. Elder brother of Kåñëa, Balaräma, is in the Kuïja, and Rädhä-Krsna having made love and Balaräma is sitting next to Them and that too every day.
Can you imagine such a bhäva-less scenario of Maìgala Äraté in Iskcon? And these people are doing this in the Våndävana temple. The temple of Våndävana is named as Kåñëa-Balaräma temple. All devotees of Iskcon go to Våndävana and they are being misled. Våndävana Iskcon center should be for guiding everyone, for spreading guidance to everyone on how to serve Rädhä-Kåñëa, not to spread ignorance all over. They are putting Kåñëa-Balaräma alongside Rädhä-Kåñëa and that too daily.
My simple request to you is go to Våndävana, go to Navadvépa or Jagannätha Puré. Just go to any temple of Nimbärka Sampradäya, any temple of Rädhä Vallabhi Sampradäya or at least go to Bäìke Bihäré temple. Just see how Maìgala Äraté is being done. Do they do Maìgala Äraté of one Deity or many Deities together? At least have this common sense. Don’t be an institution of fanaticism. That you don’t even want to understand what Maìgala Äraté is. You don’t even want to understand what Maìgala is. You have been doing something daily for the last 50 years and you don’t even want to understand what Maìgala Äraté is? All the paths are fine. Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa-Balaräma is fine, Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä-Kåñëa is also fine. But together doing Maìgala Äraté of Them is absolutely not fine and it is not required. It is not bonafide. It is not a part of Gauòéya Vaiñëava Sädhanä.
Maìgala Äraté is very specific sädhanä, very-very specific. Specific in the sense that a devotee will attend Maìgala Äraté of his Iñöa Deva, not of other forms of the Lord.
In Prema Bhakti Candrikä, it is mentioned that Hanumänajé was being called upon by Dvärakädhéça. He sent Garuòa. Dvärakädhéça sent Garuòa. “Tell Hanumäna, I, the Lord Dvärakä, is calling Him.” Hanumänajé heard that. But He didn’t go there. Being directly called upon by Dvärakädhéça, Hanumänajé didn’t go there because of His ekäntika Bhakti towards Lord Räma. He didn’t even go there for once. And then Dvärakädhéça told Garuòaji – “Tell Hanumäna that Räma is calling.” As soon as Garuòajé told Him that Räma is calling, He immediately ran, He reached that place even before Garuòa could reach. But even if Dvärakädhéça was calling He didn’t go there. This kind of Ekäntika Bhakti pleases Dvärakädhéça also and Lord Räma also. He didn’t do any offense against Dvärakädhéça.
How can you do/ attend Maìgala Äraté of other forms of the Lord that too every day? And more unfortunate are Iskcon Dvärkä Devotees. These don’t attend Maìgala Äraté of Rädhä and Kåñëa, rather attend Maìgala Äraté of Rukmiëé Dvärakädhéça every day. The most unfortunate Devotees on the planet. Even for one day, you will not attend, go anywhere else if you are fixed in your Bhakti. Things should be clear. It is not Sampradäya Gauòéya. Maìgala Äraté of Kåñëa-Balaräma, Rädhä-Kåñëa together is not Sampradäyika. It is not done in any Sampradäya. It is not done in Gauòéya Vaiñëava Sampradäya.
Go there and see any Sampradäya, how Maìgala Äraté is being done. Any Sampradäya of your choice. We are not telling you to believe us. We are telling you to go and search for yourself. What the truth actually is. Know the truth and honour the truth, then only you will reach the spiritual world. Hare Kåñëa!