Radhashtami
What it is
Radhashtami is the appearance day of Shri Radhaji, celebrated on Bhadrapad Shukla Ashtami — the eighth day of the bright fortnight of Bhadarva, exactly a fortnight after Janmashtami. Shri Radha appeared in Barsana as the daughter of Vrishabhanuji and Kirtidaji, and Vraj rejoiced at her birth just as Gokul had rejoiced at Shri Krishna's. In Pushtimarg she is revered as Shri Swaminiji — Prabhu's own beloved, the embodiment of his hladini shakti, the bliss-giving power of his love, and the foremost of the swaminis who serve him in the nikunj leela.
The utsav in the haveli is kept with the same joy as Janmashtami: Thakorji receives abhyang and festive shringar, and ornaments such as nupur, chudi, nath and tanmaniya are offered with the bhav that they adorn Shri Swaminiji herself. Kirtans of her appearance — the vadhaai of Barsana — fill the seva. Falling in the monsoon-rich month of Bhadarva, Radhashtami crowns the season of janma utsavs, and the tradition regards it as the seed from which the Maharaas of Sharad Purnima later blossoms.
Why we observe it
Shri Radha is the supreme embodiment of prem-lakshana bhakti — love that asks nothing, fears nothing and exists only to please Prabhu. In Pushtimarg the whole purpose of seva is Prabhu's sukh, not our own fruit, and Shri Swaminiji is the perfect exemplar of that ideal: her love is so complete that Shri Krishna himself is said to be bound by it. To celebrate her appearance is therefore to celebrate the very bhav a Vaishnav aspires to bring into daily seva — tender, selfless, constant.
The tradition also teaches that Radhashtami is the beej, the seed, of the Maharaas: the longing for Prabhu's darshan that Radhaji personifies is what ripens, by Sharad Purnima, into the full moon of divine union. Observing this utsav, a Vaishnav prays not for wealth or worldly gain but for a drop of that longing — that our seva of Shrinathji may be done for his pleasure alone, in the shelter of Shri Swaminiji's grace.