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Radha is female and how can we call a male devotee as Radha?

[A question by Ms. Thrylokya]

Swami replied:- The Veda says that all souls are females and wives of God (Striyaḥ satīḥ puṃsaḥ). The soul is common for all human beings. The soul takes births of male and female as per its fruits and deeds. In this sense, even names have no restrictions. Even sages, who are males became females in the same birth and wanted to hug God Rama because sages are realized scholars of the Veda. ‘Radha’ comes from the word ‘Dhaara’, which means continuous stream of devotion to God without any break anywhere at any time. Hence, any devotee, male or female becomes Radha if such continuous devotion to God exists with the soul. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a male devotee was the incarnation of Radha and every day, His body was with high temperature, which used to subside only when Krishna embraces Him on that day. In fact, Radha was the incarnation of Sage Durvasa and Durvasa was the incarnation of God Shiva. Radha played a role of such devotee, who faced a lot of tension in the context of devotion to God. Nobody else other than God Shiva can bravely face such tension in the life of that role. Radha married Ayanaghosha (brother of Yashoda) being elder than Krishna. But, she never allowed her husband to even touch her body in the love of God Krishna. In those days of very strict rules of tradition especially for women, the guts to violate the strict tradition could be present with God Shiva only, who incarnated as Radha.

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