Radhastami, Radha Ashtami Katha, Legends of Radha Ashtami, Stories of Radha Ashtami
Godess Radha is also known as Radharani and Radhika, is the childhood friend and lover of God Srikrishna. There are a lot of stories of Radha and Krishna depicting their love. Radhastami is the birthday of Godess Radha. On Radha Ashtami Day, devotees read a number of stories. A few of such stories are given below.
Birth of Radha
Radha was the child of Vrishbhanu and Kirtikumari. Vrishabhanu was king Suchandra in his previous life. He and his wife prayed to Lord Brahma for children. They wished that Goddess Lakshmi or Laxmi to be their child. Brahma pleased with their worship appeared and asked them what was the wish for which they had worshipped him. Suchandra prayed to Brahma and replied that they wanted Goddess Laxmi as their child. Brahma replied that it was not possible for them to have Laxmi as child in this life but assured them that they would have Goddess Laxmi as child in their next life.
As assured by Brahma Radha who is an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi became the child of Vrishbhanu. The legend also states that while Vrishbhanu was going by a river side he heard the crying of a baby. He followed the sound and found a little girl in a lotus flower floating on the river. Vrishabhanu and his wife had no children and was very happy to see a baby girl and adopted her as their daughter.
Sage Narada visited Vrishbhanu and told that the baby girl was none other than Goddess Lakshmi and asked them to bring her up treated her as the goddess Lakshmi.
From then onwards the baby girl was known to the world as the daughter of Vrishabahnu. She was named as Radha and was deeply in love with Lord Krishna who is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The love of Radha and Krishna is the most famous and is also an example of divine and selfless love. In the love of Radha and Krishna, there is no longer a difference in Krishna and Radha as two separate bodies which is to say that there is no difference in the devotee and the lord.
Radha Ashtami the Legend of Hot milk
Once all the gopikas who were envy of the love of Radha and Krishna hatched a plan to hurt Radha.
They gave Radha a pot of Hot milk and said that it was sent by Lord sri Krishna for her to drink. Radha without even looking at the contents inside the pot drank instantly.
All the Gopikas felt happy for hurting Radha and left home. As they were going home they wished to visit Lord Krishna. They went to Lord Krishnas house and were astonished to see that Lord Krishna had blisters.
These blisters in the mouth of Lord Krishna which were as a result of the hot milk that Radha had consumed. Gopikas then understood the love of Radha and Krishna. They also understood that the love of Radha was over physical attraction and Radha had reached a stage where there was no difference between Lord Sri Krishna and herself.
Gopikas also understood that Lord Sri Krishna would take care of all his devotees and would be ready to take the pain of his devotees.
Charanamrit (Charana Amrit)
The love of Radha and Krishna is known to be best ever and is cited as an example for love. The love of Radha and Krishna is divine and eternal. There are lot of incidents which show the selfless love for each other. One such incident is the Legend of Charanamrit. The water which washed the feet is known Charanamrit.
Once lord Shri Krishna was very ill and was on bed for few days. All the gopikas were worried and prayed that Lord Krishna would get well soon. They even prayed to Lord Krishna to help them to cure him. Lord Krishna after hearing to their prayers said that he would get cured if he drank the Charnamrita of a pure and true devotee. He asked Gopikas to find a devotee of such quality and get the charanamrita.
All the Gopikas who were boasting that they were the true devotees and have extreme love for Krishna backed off to give the Charanamrita. They were afraid that if Lord Krishna would not get well then all the other s would make fun of them. They had no faith in their own devotion and love towards Lord Krishna. When approached for Charanamrit, Gopikas said that they did not want to offer the Charanamrit, as that would cause them to go to hell.
As soon as the news of Charanamrit reached Radha, Radha wasted no time in offering the charanamrit to Lord Krishna. Radha declared that she has no worry of going to hell or any place much worse than hell as long as Lord Shri Krishna is cured and recovers from the illness.
Radha offered the Charanamrit and lord Krishna got cured. This Leela or drama was scripted by Lord Krishna to show the world the meaning of true love and devotion.
