Three manifestations of Rādhārānī

Today is a very special day, it is the Shukla Ashtami of the month of Shravana which is the appearance day of Śrīmati Rādhārani, the personification of the most exalted stage of spiritual love. What does it mean that God is both masculine and feminine ? When standing before the Deities of Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, we are witnessing the forms of the Absolute Truth - the Supreme controller (Kṛṣṇa) and His śakti, or potency, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī . Because God is non-different from His potency, it is said that Rādhā & Kṛṣṇa are the Absolute Truth.

Rādhārāṇī is Kṛṣṇa's śakti (svarūpa śakti) and She manifests in three ways:

(1) The cit-śakti displays Her three transcendental functions in a pure and unlimited way. These three functions are to please Kṛṣṇa (the potency of pleasure, hlādinī śakti), to manifest a variety of moods in relationships (saṁvit śakti) and to manifest the places of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes and everything in them (sandhinī śakti). These three functions are present in jīva-śakti in a minute degree and in māyā-śakti in a distorted way.

(2) The jīva-śakti, which is a minute part of cit-śakti, is the śakti from which we living entities emanate. The particularity of this śakti is that even though it is completely spiritual, it can come under the control of the illusory energy (māyā-śakti).

(3) Māyā-śakti, which is a perverted or distorted reflection of cit-śakti, creates the material world and all the material objects within it.

So in Jaiva-Dharma, the question is raised: if Rādhārāṇī is Kṛṣṇa's energy who manifests everything spiritual, material and in-between, what are Kṛṣṇa's qualities independently of Rādhārāṇī? The answer is that Kṛṣṇa is the only purusa (male and enjoyer) and because His śakti is feminine, all of Her manifestations, including the jīvas (souls), are by nature feminine. So the Supreme Absolute Truth is quite literally both masculine and feminine and this is how we can try and understand this even though such matters are inconceivable for our material minds to conceive of. Everything that we see is Rādhārāṇī, even if it is material, as it is a transformation of Her form of cit-śakti (māyā-śakti); and everything that we will see and experience when we will have developed spiritual vision will also be Rādhārāṇī Herself in Her cit-śakti aspect. This is just a speck of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī's greatness that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura comments about in his Jaiva-Dharma (Chapter 14; Prameya: Śakti-tattva).