Figure 1 - Guru Ma Shri (Shri Krishna Madhurya) in a Shri Sampradaya Temple, Vrindavan - UP
Summary from the Book Madhurya, the Rasa of Sweetness
Besides pastimes that became known through the direct appearance of Shri Krishna on the planet, there are some rare events of conjugal experiences with the Lord while He is not here directly. One such event is the appearance of Shri Andal who is recognized as consort of Shri Hari, more specifically in the conformation of Bhu Devi.
She was the foster daughter of Periyaalvaar, a brahmana devotee and one of Shri Sampradaya's alwar (poets and saints immersed in God) who found her in the garden of Vadapathrasayee temple in Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, India. She was named Godha and was raised listening to Krishna's lilas. Her divine identity came to be recognized when Periyaalvaar discovered that Andal tried the garlands before offering to the Deity and, upon forbidding her to continue manufacturing them, Periyaalvaar was warned by Vadapatrasayee deity to offer Him only flower's garlands worn before by Godha.
Andal's name "the one which controls" arose from this pastime and from such pastime Shri Andal decided that she would marry only Krishna. With this in mind she followed the Gopis and kept fast on month of Margashirsha for 30 days and composed one verse each day of what is collectively known as Tiruppaavai.
In the last night after she had completed the process, Periyaalvaar had a dream in which Shri Ranganatha asked him to take Andal dressed as a bride to Srirangam. When entering the altar of the Temple, Andal astonished touched the feet of the deity and disappeared.
Shri Andal is a partial incarnation (amshavataaram) of Shri Devi (Mahalakshmi/Radha/Rukmini/Sita). This coming of Shri Devi in human form (as Bhu devi or Andal) shows that jiva (soul), when being born in a human body, should aim at the realization of Paramaatma. To do that, the person has to devote thoughts, words and deeds to the Lord, through which, one achieves transcendental intimate relationship with God (rasa), what while consciously experienced through access of Siddha deha reveals Absolute Consciousness to the human person.
Andal in her poems (Tiruppaavai and Naacchiyaar Tirumozhi) shows a state of parama or para bhakti that causes intense desire for always being with the Lord. Those who experience this desire lose interest in external life if there is not some form of unity with Him.
It can be seen that Shri is Lakshmi, Radha, Rukmini, Sita i.e the main expression of the essence of Krishna's consort. Bhu is a projection of Shri for specific purposes, such as Bhumi Devi, Satyabhama, Padmavathi and Andal.
Such expressions of the same consciousness, Shri Radhe in the mood of conjugal attraction to Krishna, can be seen as different ways of being. The most extensive of these levels is Radha (Shri Devi/Mahalakshmi/Rukmini/Sita) which contains other two levels (Bhu Devi and Nila Devi). Bhu Devi contains expressions of Nila Devi in herself, but not the manifestations of Shri Devi, which, however, contains her. Nila (or Nappinnai) is an identity (an archetype) multiplied in order to draw the Lord's lila appearing in additional forms as expansions of Shri - as numerous gopis and wives of Shri Krishna.
Nila Devi is an archetype for numerous incarnations which exist as parts or expansions of Shri Devi. There are interactions between them, and they form a complete Whole, which has a Higher Meaning. Loving webs and Madhurya's waves of propagation that contain lilas of Shri Krishna include the gopis, the queens and the other manifestations of the ternary (Shri, Bhu, Nila) which is the consciousness of Radha.
Questions/Answers
Dialogue Between V d and Guru Ma Shri
1. When the three levels of expressions of Shri Radhe (Shri, Bhu and Nila) are mentioned, it gives the impression of hierarchy, in which they share love with the Lord. Despite oneness which is said to be for those who reach the transcendental loving world of the Lord, does the Lord really share more or less love with one or more of His personal associates in that loving transcendental world?
It's not exactly a hierarchy, but a gradient of the span of consciousness in the Supreme Goddess. Shri is Mahalakshmi, in unity with Durga and Sarasvati, in the Tridevi. She is the Supreme Goddess herself, Radha, Rukmini and Sita being humors of Her own. But Bhu is a partial avatar of Shri, so she doesn't have the same span of consciousness in the whole of creation-sustenance-destruction that Shri Devi has. Nila is even more partial than Bhu. Therefore, for Bhu and Nila, unity with Radha happens in episodes, while for Lakshmi (Shri Devi) it is eternal, because they are the same Supreme Goddess. In the transcendental world, all consorts are satisfied with their way of being and reciprocating love with the Lord, precisely because of these episodes of experiencing unity with Shri Devi. At the same time, there are experiences of jealousy, feelings of separation and lamentation in any of Krishna's consort forms, which can be seen in the lilas. The experiences are ecstatic, however. Being full of sat-cit-ananda, they don't cause the same kind of suffering as linearity.
2. What expression exactly is not present in manifestation of Bhu Devi and is only present in Shri Devi and what is it that is not present in Nila Devi (who is archetype for other consorts of Lord) that is present in Bhu Devi and Shri Devi?
Bhu Devi is a partial manifestation of Shri Devi, being the Divinity that presides over the Earth. Shri Devi in turn is Prakriti Herself, Nature, Adi-Shakti. She is Durga, while Bhu Devi is Ganga. She is Sarasvati, while Bhu Devi is Gayatri. Shri Devi is the fullest consciousness of the Goddess, so She contains in Herself Bhu Devi and Nila Devi, as in a hologram. Nila Devi is the whole consciousness of the gopis and Krishna's wives, other than Radha/Rukmini Herself (Shri) - Candravali/Satyabhama (Bhu). Shri Devi contains them in Herself and cannot be contained by the others, just as Krishna contains His partial avatars in Himself and is not contained by them.
3. In poems of Shri Andal and Mira Bai, it seems they only primarily showed one pointed devotion to the Lord. Did they not show devotion towards Shri Devi (Lakshmi/Radha/Rukmini/Sita) with the same intensity as they did for the Lord?
In her poems, Andal referred to Shri Devi as she was an ardent devotee of Hers. The Shri Sampradaya has both - Shri and Bhu Devi - in its worship and altars. Since Andal was the adopted daughter of one of the Sampradaya's Alvars, she never stopped devoting herself to Shri Devi (Mahalakshmi). However, madhurya bhava always denotes such conjugal attraction for the vishaya, for Krishna. This is natural, which differs from sakhya and manjari bhava. Mira Bai identified herself with Radha because of her episodic moments of unity with Her (within Her). At the same time, in many of her songs, she showed feelings of separation and suffering because she desired Him in gopi bhava, i.e. as part of Nila Devi's consciousness.
Figure 2 - Shri Sampradaya's Temple, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh
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