Who was Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj?

A teacher of Radha Krishna devotion, born at Mangarh in Pratapgarh in 1922 and known to his followers as Shri Maharaj Ji. The Kashi Vidvat Parishat gave him the title of Jagadguru in January 1957. He built Prem Mandir in Vrindavan, Kirti Mandir in Barsana and Bhakti Mandir at his birthplace, wrote thousands of devotional songs and couplets, and gave free hospitals and free schooling for village girls. He left this world on 15 November 2013.

What does Jagadguru mean?

Teacher of the world. The tradition counts four before him, Shri Shankaracharya, Shri Ramanujacharya, Shri Nimbarkacharya and Shri Madhvacharya, and JKP holds him to be the fifth. The distinction the tradition draws is that the earlier four each named a successor in their lifetime, while the title came to him from an assembly of scholars rather than through a line of succession.

What did he teach about Shri Radha?

That she is the goal of every living being, the essence of all the scriptures, and the highest state of divine love. In his own words, Shri Radha is the Soul of Shri Krishna. The practice he gave for it was simple and constant: chant her name through the ordinary hours of the day, and remember her form while you do.

Who is Swami Mukundananda?

A disciple of Kripalu Ji Maharaj and the founder of JKYog. He studied engineering at IIT Delhi and management at IIM Calcutta before leaving that path to travel India as a wandering monk. He has written a full commentary on all seven hundred verses of the Bhagavad Gita, along with books on the mind and on living well.

Does this site only follow one school?

No. This lineage is where the site's own voice stands, and every school of Radha Krishna devotion is honoured here. The Gaudiya, Nimbarka, Radha Vallabh and Pushtimarg traditions are close kin and are quoted often, and the wider Sanatan tradition is cited with respect wherever it illuminates the subject. Where the schools differ, the scripture tables show all of them plainly.

Our Lineage: Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj and Swami Mukundananda

Every site that writes about Radha and Krishna is writing from somewhere. This one is kept in the lineage of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, and of his disciple Swami Mukundananda. That shapes what we choose to say and where we place our emphasis, and it takes nothing away from any other school. The scripture tables here show what every tradition teaches, side by side and labelled. This page is simply about whose voice ours is.

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj

He was born Ram Kripalu Tripathi on the night of Sharat Purnima in October 1922, in the village of Mangarh in Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh. In January 1957 the Kashi Vidvat Parishat, an assembly of scholars and saints at Kashi, invited him to speak for nine days on the scriptures. At the end of it, on the fourteenth of January, they gave him the title of Jagadguru, teacher of the world. He was thirty four.

The tradition counts four original Jagadgurus before him, Shri Shankaracharya, Shri Ramanujacharya, Shri Nimbarkacharya and Shri Madhvacharya, and holds him to be the fifth. The distinction it draws is that each of the earlier four appointed a successor in his lifetime, while this title came from an assembly rather than through a line. His followers know him as Shri Maharaj Ji.

He left this world on 15 November 2013.

What he taught about Shri Radha

Three statements sit at the centre of it, and Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat records them as what he gave to everyone he met:

Shri Radha is the ultimate goal of every living being.

Shri Radha is the essence of all scriptures.

Shri Radha is the personification of the highest state of divine love known as mahabhava.
Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat

He explained her name by holding two opposite meanings together at once, and insisting both are right.

Its meaning is aradhana (worship) and upasna (worship). The word Radha has two meanings and both are correct. One meaning of Radha is the one who prays and worships Shri Krishn. The other meaning is, the one Who is worshipped by Brahm Shri Krishn is Radha. So, we have two opposite meanings. She is called Radha because She worships Brahm Krishn, and She is called Radha because Brahm Krishn worships Her.
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, Radhashtami lecture "Who is Shri Radha?"

From there he drew a chain that runs from the body all the way up, and it is the spine of the whole teaching.

Just as your body is a servant of your soul, similarly your soul is the body of God. And God is the Soul of our soul. In the same way, the Soul of Shri Krishn is Radha.
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, "Who is Shri Radha?"

In Prem Ras Madira he puts her beyond the reach of the scriptures themselves, and in the same breath within reach of anyone who is humble.

Shri Radha is the embodiment of the absolute essence of divine love, the personification of the utterly selfless amorous sentiment known as mahabhava. She is unknowable even via the Vedas and other scriptures, yet is easily accessible to the humble surrendered souls. How can Brahma, Vishnu, and Shankara possibly understand Shri Radha, when even the Supreme Lord, Shri Krishna cannot fathom the depths of Her love?
Prem Ras Madira 3.102

One guardrail he gave, which is worth carrying carefully. He warned against turning any of this into a ranking. Citing the Brahmavaivarta Purana, he taught that whoever forms the idea that Radha is greater than Krishna, or that Krishna is greater than Radha, has misunderstood them both. Gaurang Mahaprabhu's phrasing, which he quotes, is that Radha and Krishna are externally two and eternally one.

The practice he asked for

The instruction was not complicated. It was her name, through the ordinary hours of an ordinary day.

During all your activities of daily life such as eating, drinking or walking, always keep chanting the sweet name of Shri Radha. Don't ever forget the name of Shri Radhe, not even for a fraction of a second.
Radha Govind Geet 6597

And a caution against letting it become mechanical, in his own words: without loving remembrance and meditation on the form of God, a person derives no benefit even from chanting Radhe Radhe all their life.

On the morning of his last day he gave a final discourse. Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat records what he said in it:

Pay careful attention to the instruction I am repeatedly giving you. Firmly resolve, O mind! Meditate on the lotus feet of Shri Radha Rani.
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, his last discourse, 2013

The temples he built

Three temples, and the second of them is unlike any other in the world.

Temple	Where	What it is
Prem Mandir	Vrindavan	The Temple of Divine Love. Foundation stone laid on 14 January 2001, the anniversary of the day he received the Jagadguru title, and inaugurated in February 2012 after roughly twelve years and a thousand artisans. About 55 acres of white marble, with Shri Radha Krishna and Shri Sita Ram enshrined, and the Jhulan, Govardhan, Raas and Kaliya lilas carved life sized in the grounds
Kirti Mandir	Barsana	Dedicated not to Radha or to Krishna but to Kirti Maiya, Radha's mother. The first temple anywhere where Shri Radha Rani is enshrined as a child in her mother's lap. Inaugurated on Basant Panchami in February 2019
Bhakti Mandir	Mangarh	The Temple of Devotion, built at his birthplace and completed in 2005 after nine years. It stands on 112 black granite pillars and enshrines Shri Radha Krishna, Shri Sita Ram and the eight mahasakhis of Shri Radharani

Prem Mandir takes its name from a couplet he wrote, which is set at the temple itself:

premadhin brahm shyam ved ne bataya yate yay naam 'prem mandir' dharaya

"The Vedas declare the supremacy of divine love. It is so powerful that even the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna remains under its control. This inspired me to give the name 'Prem Mandir' to this majestic temple."
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, quoted at Prem Mandir

Kirti Mandir is the one that says most about the lineage's temperament. Braj is full of temples to Radha and to Krishna. Building one for Radha's mother, and seating Radha in her lap as a child, honours the love a mother has for her child as its own path to God. If you are in Braj, both are worth your time: Vrindavan for Prem Mandir, and Barsana for Kirti Mandir.

What he wrote

Work	What it holds
Prem Ras Madira	1,008 devotional songs of divine love in twenty one chapters, first published in Hindi in 1960
Radha Govind Geet	11,111 couplets, revealed across 1998 and 1999 and published in two volumes in 2000, with a whole chapter given to the importance of Radha's name
Bhakti Shatak	A hundred verses setting out the philosophy of the devotional path
Prem Ras Siddhant	A treatise on the ultimate aim of the soul
Yugal Madhuri	Sixty four devotional songs, first published in 1999

The work that carries his name

Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat runs three hospitals under the name Jagadguru Kripalu Chikitsalaya, at Kunda in Pratapgarh, at Barsana and at Vrindavan, and treatment at them is free. It also runs schools and a degree college for village girls at Kunda, including the Kripalu Balika Intermediate College and the Kripalu Mahila Mahavidyalay, and the education there is free as well.

He entrusted the Parishat to his three daughters. Sushri Dr. Vishakha Tripathi led it until her passing in 2024, and it is led now by Sushri Dr. Shyama Tripathi and Sushri Dr. Krishna Tripathi.

Swami Mukundananda

Swami Mukundananda studied engineering at IIT Delhi and management at IIM Calcutta, and had begun a career in industry when he left it to travel India as a wandering monk. He met Kripalu Ji Maharaj on that journey and became his disciple.

He founded JKYog, which teaches under three headings, wisdom, sadhana and seva, and which he sums up in four words: be good, do good, feel good. Its centres run in India and the United States, and the Radha Krishna Temple of Dallas, opened in 2017, is its American home.

His writing is where most readers meet him. He has written a full commentary on all seven hundred verses of the Bhagavad Gita, along with 7 Mindsets for Success, Happiness and Fulfilment and other books on the mind and on living well. He dedicated the Gita commentary to his guru:

This elucidation of the Bhagavad Gita is dedicated to my Beloved Spiritual Master, Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj, who is illuminating humankind with the purest rays of divine knowledge. He is immersed in the divine love bliss of Bhagavan and is lovingly engaged in inundating the entire planet with it.
Swami Mukundananda, dedication to Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God

On why love is the practice rather than the ceremony, in his own words:

Devotion that is drenched with divine love is the most pleasing to God. It is the highest yoga, and the sweetest path to liberation.
Swami Mukundananda

What this means for the site

It means our emphasis is Radha, and that the questions we choose to answer are the ones that bring a reader closer rather than the ones that start an argument. It means the practice we point to is her name.

It does not mean this is a closed house. The Gaudiya, Nimbarka, Radha Vallabh and Pushtimarg traditions are close kin here and are quoted constantly, and the wider Sanatan tradition is honoured wherever it illuminates the subject. Where the schools genuinely differ, the scripture tables set them out plainly, each labelled, and let you see all of them at once. A reader from any tradition is welcome, and will find their own school treated fairly.