Love and Bliss
Explanation of the Doha -
śyāmā prem śyām sukh govinda rādhe.
hoḍ ho na jīte hāre koī batā de.
"Shyama is the embodiment of Love, and Shyam is the embodiment of Bliss. There is a competition between the two, but neither wins nor loses."
Shyama's Love -
Radharani is the embodiment of love. Just as, on Diwali, sweets are made in different shapes for children - such as a horse, an elephant, a gentleman, a lady, and so on - the children go to the shop and choose whichever shapes they like. Each sweet has a different shape, but the sweetness in all of them remains the same.
Worldly happiness is inert and perishable. In contrast, the essence of hlādinī shakti is love. It is divine and conscious. Thus, that very love assumed a form in the house of Vrishabhanu and appeared as Radharani in the form of mahābhāv. Her true form is mahābhāva prem.
Shyam's Bliss -
Shri Krishna is bliss; He is happiness. Throughout the Vedas, the words sukh and ras are used for Shyamsundar, that is, for Brahm -
raso vai saḥ, rasaṃ hyevāyaṃ labdhvānandī bhavati.
Bliss, too, is divine and conscious. It is precisely because He is divine and conscious that He can bestow bliss upon others. Thus, bliss itself became Shri Krishna.
In other words, love itself became Radha, and bliss itself became Shri Krishna.
Between the two, who is greater?
A contest has arisen between the two, and this contest has been going on since eternity. To this day, neither has won, nor has either lost.
Upon seeing Shyamsundar, love increased.
Then, as love advanced, Shyamsundar increased His ras even further.
Because of this, love increased still further.
So Shyamsundar increased His happiness, bliss, ras, and sweetness even more.
Thus, whether it is the love of the saints or the love of Radharani - it increased further and further.
In other words -
When a saint beholds God, he feels, "Ah! Anirvacanīyam! (indescribable) What divine rasa this is!" He closes his eyes. Then, when he opens his eyes and looks at Him again, this time he experiences even greater bliss. His love for Shyamsundar therefore increases further still.
Then Shyamsundar thinks, "This one has come chasing after Me." So He increases His bliss and sweetness in every single pore of His body.
The saint's love then increases further still.
And this contest continues endlessly - pratikṣaṇa vardhamānaṃ - increasing with every passing moment. There is no end to it anywhere.
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