Prema-Samput The Treasure-chest of Love

by Syamarani dasi

God is love, and Love is God. There are two features of this divine love, and thus two features of God. He is the one-without-a-second Absolute Truth, and still He has two sides or features. The ancient Vedas proclaim that Lord Sri Krsna is the Supreme Potent, the Supreme Enjoyer of that love. Srimati Radhika, His complete potency, is the total reservoir of that love. As the Supreme Enjoyer, Sri Krsna always desires to taste that complete love, and for the enactment of His transcendental pastimes he always devises the means to do so.

Many Vedic scriptures tell of this supreme and total loving exchange, and they explain how we living beings can participate in it as well. One such scripture is Prema-Samput, translated into English as "The Treasure-chest of Love." Therein Lord Krsna, disguised as a beautiful goddess from the heavenly planets, comes to the home of Radhika and inquires about the nature of Her divine amour. Here are some excerpts:

Srimati Radhika told the demigoddess-disguised Krsna, "If You really want to know what is prema (divine love), then listen. There is only one desire in the heart of the beloved: 'How to please My beloved'. One should give up all other desires. If one tries to explain prema to others, it will be an imitation only – for prema is completely indescribable. It cannot be understood by consideration or by the refusal to consider. It can be understood by realization and nothing else.

"You cannot realize what prema is simply by My words. Rather, You should stay with those persons in whose hearts prema has arisen. Watch them and follow their activities. Stay with Me here in Vrndavana. Do not return to the heavenly planets. By watching My activities You will understand. As long as prema has not arisen in the heart, millions of studies will not help You understand its nature. It can be understood only by gradual realization."

"For a person who has achieved this prema, even great difficulty in serving the beloved will seem insignificant. This is understood only when one's consciousness becomes completely overwhelmed by the ecstatic emotion called raga."

Srimati Radhika continued, "The common conception is that I am always in the heart of Krsna and He is always in My heart, and that We have a complete meeting of minds – we completely understand each other. Don't believe this; this is not true – this is a mistake. Here is the real fact: in a lake there is a lotus plant, and from the root of that plant two flowers are growing – one blue and one yellow. Those two flowers are not different from each other, because they have one root. In the same way, My blue cloth signifies the colour of Krsna's body and His yellow cloth signifies the colour of My body. There is no difference between us at all. We are one soul, and for the sake of tasting our astonishing pastimes we take two forms."