Radharani's Identity

The Vedic scriptures provide a satisfying answer 
to the question “Is God male or female?”
 
Prayer to Srimati Radharani
 
tapta-kancana-gaurangi
radhe vrndavanesvari
Vrishabhanu-sute devi
pranamami hari-priye
 
I offer my respects to Radharani, whose bodily complexion is like molten gold and who is the Queen of Vrindavana. You are the daughter of King Vrishabhanu, and You are very dear to Lord Krishna.
 
(Gita Introduction)
 
Radharani’s Identity
 
Radha Krishna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini saktir asmat (Cc. Adi 1.5). The ahladini-sakti is manifested as Radharani, but Krishna and Radharani are the same, although one is potent and the other is potency.
 
Srimati Radharani is a tenderhearted feminine counterpart of the supreme whole, resembling the perfectional stage of the worldly feminine nature. Therefore, the mercy of Radharani is available very readily to the sincere devotees, and once She recommends such a devotee to Lord Krishna, the Lord at once accepts the devotee’s admittance into His association.
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.23, purport)
 
It is not that Radharani is separate from Krishna. Radharani is also Krishna, for there is no difference between the energy and the energetic. Without energy, there is no meaning to the energetic, and without the energetic, there is no energy. Similarly, without Radha there is no meaning to Krishna, and without Krishna there is no meaning to Radha. Because of this, the Vaishnava philosophy first of all pays obeisances to and worships the internal pleasure potency of the Supreme Lord. Thus the Lord and His potency are always referred to as Radha-Krishna. Similarly, those who worship Narayana first of all utter the name of Lakshmi, as Lakshmi-Narayana. Similarly, those who worship Lord Rama first of all utter the name of Sita. In any case Sita-Rama, Radha-Krishna, Lakshmi-Narayana the potency always comes first.
 
(Cc. Adi Introduction)
 
The Lord appears in female form if necessary, but His perpetual form is purusa because He is originally male. The feminine feature of the Lord is displayed by goddesses of fortune Lakshmi, Radharani, Sita, etc. All these goddesses of fortune are servitors of the Lord; they are not the Supreme, as falsely imagined by the impersonalist. 
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.47, purport)
 
Radharani is daivi-maya. Just like we are, in our material conditional life, we are under the material energy. Similarly, in our liberated state we have to become under the spiritual energy. That spiritual energy is Radharani.
 
(Lecture on Introduction to Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Los Angeles, November 23, 1968)
 
Srimati Radharani is the principal head of all such goddesses of fortune, and therefore She is the pleasure counterpart of the Lord and is non-different from Krishna.
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.4.20, purport)
 
Radharani is the manifestation of the pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the Supreme Lord wants to derive transcendental pleasure, He has to create a woman from His internal potency. Thus the tendency to be attracted by womanly beauty is natural because it exists in the spiritual world. In the material world it is reflected pervertedly, and therefore there are so many inebrieties. 
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.31.38, purport)
 

Radharani's Identity

Durga and Radharani
 
Devotees of Krishna try to remain under the guidance of daivi-prakrti personified, Srimati Radharani. Materialists, however, are under the control of the apara-prakrti, personified as Goddess Kali, or Durga. 
 
(Dharma, the Way of Transcendence, Chapter 11)
 
Durga is the expansion of the internal energy and Radharani is the quintessence of internal energy. In that sense Durga is expansion of Radharani. 
 
(Letter to Uddhava, May 28, 1968)
 
Enchanter of Krishna
 
The Lord sometimes becomes mad after the beauty of Radharani. Poets describe that under those circumstances, although Lord Krishna is Madana-mohana, He becomes Madana-daha, or enchanted by the beauty of Radharani. Actually the Lord’s beauty is super excellent, surpassing even the beauty of Lakshmi in Vaikuntha. The devotees of the Lord in the Vaikuntha planets want to see the Lord as the most beautiful, but the devotees in Gokula or Krishnaloka want to see Radharani as more beautiful than Krishna.
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.42, purport)
 
Extremely Compassionate
 

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu

If one takes shelter of Vrindavana under Vrndavanesvari, Srimati Radharani, certainly all the problems of his life are solved very easily. 
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.24, purport)
 
If a devotee approaches Srimati Radharani to offer some service to Krishna, even Srimati Radharani thinks that the devotee is greater than She. 
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.1.27, purport)
 
The very name “Radha” suggests that Srimati Radharani is eternally the topmost mistress of the comforts of Sri Krishna. As such, She is the medium transmitting the living entities’ service to Sri Krishna. Devotees in Vrindavana therefore seek the mercy of Srimati Radharani in order to be recognized as loving servitors of Sri Krishna.
 
(Cc. Adi 4.56, purport)
 
The pure devotees of the Lord take shelter of the para prakrti, the internal potency of the Lord called Lakshmidevi, Sitadevi, Srimati Radharani or Srimati Rukminidevi, and thus they become actual mahatmas, or great souls. 
 
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.6.38, purport)
 
Radha-Krishna Affairs Not Mundane Lust
 
Actually Radha-Krishna is the exchange of love but not ordinary love. . . . Krishna’s embracing Radharani or His dancing with the cowherd girls in the rasa dance are generally not understood by ordinary men, because they consider these pastimes in the light of mundane lust. They foolishly think that Krishna is like themselves and that He embraces the gopis just as an ordinary man embraces a young girl. Some people thus become interested in Krishna because they think that His religion allows indulgence in sex. This is not Krishna-bhakti, love of Krishna, but prakrta-sahajiya materialistic lust.
 
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krishna
 
When Krishna desired to enjoy His pleasure potency, He manifested Himself in the separate form of Radharani, and when He wanted to understand Himself through the agency of Radha, He united with Radharani, and that unification is called Lord Caitanya.
 
(Cc. Adi Introduction)
 
Antahkrishna refers to one who is always thinking of Krishna. This attitude is a predominant feature of Srimati Radharani. Even though many devotees always think of Krishna, none can surpass the gopis, among whom Radharani is the leader in thinking of Krishna. Radharani’s Krishna consciousness surpasses that of all other devotees. Lord Caitanya accepted the position of Srimati Radharani to understand Krishna; therefore He was always thinking of Krishna in the same way as Radharani. By thinking of Lord Krishna, He always overlapped Krishna.
 
(Cc. Adi 3.81 purport)