All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupada and Guru-Parampara (disciplic succession).
Please accept the blessing of my beloved Srila Gurudeva, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj and convey the same to all members in your congregation.
Today is eight waxing moon circle day of ‘Bhadra’, the name of a Vedic month we, members of the Gaudiya Vaisnava community should feel fortunate to have this opportunity to observe the appearance day of the pleasure potency of Sri Krishna, Sri Vrishavanu Nandini, Srimati Radha Thakurani (Daughter of Vrishavanu Maharaj). Radharani is our main Acharya; who is teaching us how to please Krishna. She is non-different from Krishna and appeared here with us from the left side of Sri Krishna. We can see from scripture that after long prayers, towards Kattyayani Devi (Gouri Mata, consort of Lord Shiva) Vrishavanu Maharaj and Kirtida Devi (mother of Radharani) were given Radharani.
Also we know from scripture that Radha appeared with her eyes closed and would not accept any food from any one; even mother Kirtida devi could not feed her breast milk. Therefore, Kirtida devi was lamenting in the name of Kattyayani devi that after our long prayers you gave me the child but my child has become blind and not able to eat anything. How is my child to survive. There is some history behind this, it follows:
In Golden age there was a Brahmin, named Sutapa. Sutapa once started to do meditation with the purpose of getting Lord’s consort as his consort. Naturally, the Lord was not agreeable with the prayer of Sutapa. But the Supreme Lord’s nature is to bestow affection to all His devotees. Out of the nature of affection the Lord accepted the prayers of the Sutapa. After the incident, the Lord explained His promise to Sutapa to His consort. Although His consort was not feeling happy inside, in order to honor the Lord’s promise, she accepted with two conditions – one was that after her appearance the first food she will take is the Lord’s remnants and another one was that the first vision she would have is of the Lord’s beautiful face. Therefore, Radharani appeared with closed eyes and not eating anything from anyone. Gradually the message came to Gokul, the place of Nanda Maharaj (father of Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna). Nanda Maharaj and Vrishavanu Maharaj were friends. Therefore, out of curiosity to see such a child Nanda Maharaj came with Yasoda Devi and little Krishna at Ravel (a place, where Radharani appeared). While Vrishavanu Maharaj and Kirtida Devi was describing their child’s present condition at the same time Mother Yasoda Devi was holding Krishna in her arms very tightly. But Krishna wanted to fulfill the conditions that Radha wanted . So little Krishna saw a nice garland made of pearls on the neck of His mother, Yosoda Devi. In order to meet with little Radharani, Krishna ripped the garlands and Yasoda took Krishna out of her arms and started to collect all the pearls on the floor with the help of everyone. At that time, Krishna went to meet with Radharani; as soon as Krishna came He kissed Radharani then immediately Radharani open her eyes. When everyone saw that Kirshna was with the little girl Radharani; they were thinking that Krishna’s naughty nature could create lots of harm for Radharani. In order to protect Radharani, Yasoda ran towards Krishna then she became surprised and started to say, Kirtida! you said your daughter was blind with closed eyes but now I see that your daughter has very nice and attractive eyes. Then everyone came to see the same and all present persons became very happy. After the incident Krishna wanted to fulfill her second condition to give his remnants to Radharani.
Srimati Radharani’s Most Glorious Lotus Feet
Therefore Krishna was showing all of them He is hungry and started to nag mother Yasoda for giving Him some butter. Mother Yasoda gave little butter to Krishna and jokingly said that your little sister, Radha not eating since she appeared here on the earth. She is feeling hungry too. Please share the butter with her. Immediately Krishna replied ‘no’ with His body language. On this issue all the surrounding members started to joke with Krishna. Then Krishna kept a little piece of butter on top of His tongue and said if you want me to share with Radha then please collect the butter from my tongue and give it to her. Then they did so and immediately Radha started to chew the butter and everyone become ecstatically happy.
Radharani once got the blessings from a great sage , Durvasa Rishi that if anyone honors her cooking then the person’s duration of life will increase. Therefore, Yasoda Devi used to call Radharani for cooking in order to feed Krishna. Today, while we cook for the festival at that time we should keep our mood that we are cooking under the guidance of Radharani for Krishna. Krishna likes milk products therefore we should cook sweet rice, Panir dishes etc as much as possible as well as all dishes should be made by ghee (clarified butter) instead of oil.
Sri Gopinath Math's Blog 