Radha

Radha is the gopi of Vrindavan, Krishna's supreme beloved, and in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition the highest embodiment of devotional love (madhura rasa). The Bhagavata Purana interprets her as the internal blissful energy (hladini shakti) of the divine; in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teaching, the devotee's ideal is to attain Krishna through Radha's mood. Radhashtami, on the bright eighth of Bhadrapada, is celebrated as her birth festival. The joint Radha-Krishna icon is worshipped throughout Vaishnava circles.