vasooponders: Vrindavan - Mathura Yatra March 2018

Vrindavan - Mathura Yatra March 2018

Sri Agrini KRISHNAdasa…… who runs the Tirthayatra.org is a young man with a whole headful of knowledge about the stories of Krishna and his leelas. No wonder his tours are made very attractive with his sthalapuranas, stories which are full of wisdom, sastras, his devotion and his wisecracks.

Yatris are largely attracted to his tours or yatras because he devotes the yatras to only that particular land and this time with us it was the VrajBhoomi, also his homepitch. At www.tirthayatra.org they believe in making every trip a really spiritual experience.

As he took us to so many acharyas’ (also called Goswamis) birthplaces, it was a revelation to us that about 550 years ago these great men have, with great difficulty but with great vision rediscovered these places for the benefit of future generations.

This is a long blog , as the stories are very interesting and I do not want to leave out any detail.

As he takes us to each revered place, we feel elevated to know that we are standing in the same place as Yashoda mai...where she saw the universe inside krishna’s mouth, where Radha played with Krishna or where he fed cows or played with his brother.

Around 550 years ago it was Chaitanya Maha Prabhu (1486--1534) who founded the Gaudiya Vaishnavism and and is revered as an incarnation of Krishna Himself and rediscovered the places of the great Leelas of Krishna.

Chaitanya had 6 main disciples known as Goswamis who in turn meditated upon the Lord and had many visions which validated all the places of the Great leelas. Thus was born the krishna movement. Here in Vrindavan, Radha and Krishna live in the heart of all people, be it a great industrialist, shopkeeper or dhobiwala, it is Krishna and Radha for them all the way.

We visited around 8 temples patronised by the Goswamis celebrating Krishna in many ways.

Sanatana Goswami

Ragunatha Goswami

Jeeva Goswami

Roopa Goswami

Gopala Goswami

Venkata bhatt Goswami.

The followers of the above Goswamis also carried on the unfinished work.

Chaitnya Maha Prabhu and his disciples started the chanting, reading Bagavatham and also the philosophy of Daasanu dasa Bhava.

Further these acharyas had many disciples who also lived Krishna and breathed Krishna.

So, about 500 years back immediately after the disappearance of Chaitanya… RadharaniGovindaji was discovered. Around 4800 years back Vajranabha the great grandson of Krishna, wished to have darshan of Krishna. Uthara, Arjuna’s daughter in law….describes Krishna to Vajranabha.

He brought 3 vigrahas and asks her to identify the Vigrahas and she says each vigraha resembled one part of Krishna.

The vigraha in which the lotus feet resembles that of Krishna’s, was called Madana Mohana.

That which resembled vakshasthala was Gopinatha.

That which resembled Mukaravinda was called as Govinda.

Vajranabha installed each vigraha on each mountain top.

As years rolled on, Vrindavan was covered and disappeared under the earth.

Chitanya ….started excavating but also gave his disciples, the Goswamis the task of discovering all these places. Further Narayana Goswami excavated more temples thereby discovering about 500 temples related to Krishna Leelas.

It is said that to enter Vrindavan we need the visa stamp from 6 ministers

VrindaDevi

Govardhan Parvath

Yamuna

RadhaRani

Gopeshwar Mahadev

Vraj ruj (dust)

VrindaDevi temple

When a cow was found giving milk on a mound by herself , an idol of Vrindedevi was found there. It was she who orchestrated Krishna’s leelas and she is none other than Yogamaya. She is said to have been the Choreographer of Krishna’s entire drama or leela in Vrindavan. She coordinated his leelas, controlling time, space and people beautifully so the Lord was spared all time for his wonderful leelas.

She had lakhs and lakhs of yellow parrots as her messengers and with their mystical cooing they communicated Krishna’s whereabouts, conveying effectively everything that went on in Vrindavan. She it was, who told Krishna of Radhas coming or Yashodas coming or his other Gopi friends coming.

Govardhan Parikrama

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-siEsTFUacuRUVKVy16WWJGakM5MVhDQmdzTlRqckwxdFkw/view?usp=sharing

( Video clippings...courtesy Sri Varadarajan)

Govinda Kund ( RadhaGovindji)

Vajranabha ,Krishna’s great grandson, installed this temple called Govinda temple

to celebrate this leela.

Indira performed the abisheka of Krishna here,when Brahma and all DEvas were present here,Surabhi cow gave so much of her milk for this abisheka,that a pond of milk was formed, Aiyravadha, Indira’s elephant sucked this milk and poured on Krishna ..also called Govinda.. Govinda ,,one who gives pleasure to cows or senses.

Madhavendra puri was the swami of Madhwa Sampradaya, whose disciple was Ishwara puri and whose Disciple was Chaitanya.

Madhwa sampradaya worshipped Krishna as Krishna. Madhavendra puri was ,once doing Govardhan parikrama and felt very thirsty and tired . A young attractive boy came forward and gave him a pot of milk, drinking this milk, Madhavendrapuri slept and dreamt of a vigraha being under the bush.

Based on his dream Madhavendrapuri takes some Vrajvasis with him ,excavates and finds the idol of none other than SrinathJi. He takes this idol on top of Govardhan hill and performs a grand abishek, he hands over this Srinathji to Vallabacharya.

During the Aurangazeb attack this Lord was taken to Bharathpur and then to Nathadwar, for safe keeping.

Seems that Aurangazeb had looted and rioted most of our holy places and it leaves a very bad taste I tell you!

Roopa Goswami

A beautiful 7 storeyed temple was built for Radha Govindji and at night times a huge lamp with ghee was lit. Aurangazeb could not stand the fact that there was a beautiful structure and in his inimitable style ordered the temple to be razed to ground, story goes that after his army destroyed 4 storeys a monkey army came in and protected the remains. Later Roopa Goswami built another beautiful temple and worshipped Govindji here.

Yoga Maya is also worshipped here in front of the Govindji temple. She is the external power of Krishna himself. She also manifests as Subadra Devi and Nidra Devi and further as Durga.

Interestingly Vrindavan abounds with naughty monkeys even today.

Shyam Kund / Radhakund

To absolve himself of killing the demon in the form of a cow Krishna, on Radhas advice had to bathe in all the holy rivers of Bharath. He in turn, invoked all the rivers who gladly assembled in one place - Shyam Kund - for him and He happily dipped in this Shyam Kund.

Radha , on whose side the body of the demon fell, had to take bath in a kund which is created by her and took bath in Radhakund, very next to Shyam kund.

Yamuna leela or Kalinga kund

The tree which still is green and one version says Garuda dropped a little Amruth on this tree and it lives. Another version is that as krishna dived into Yamune from this tree it still lives .The kaliya who Krishna stamped and danced on begged to be forgiven and was driven to live in Fiji islands,where he lives till date.

Madana mohana temple

Krishna was being worshipped by a family of Chobe Brahmanas. Sanatana Goswami found this very surprising ,that Krishna was treated as a family member not as a supreme Lord. Krishna demands to be taken away with him because he didn’t like being treated differently in Chobe Brahmans family Krishna wanted to be part of family .

They didn’t want to part with krishna but Krishna played a leela and Sanatana Goswami got Madana Mohana and took him along, begged food and made small bhattis with flour and offered Krishna. Krishna asked for some salt with dry chapathi which angered Sanatana.

Ramdas Naik who was a merchant passed by along the Yamuna and when storm hit his boat carrying salt, he came to ask Sanatana Goswamy advice. Sanatana Goswmi asked this merchant to pray to Madana Mohana. The storm blew over and in return this merchant built a beautiful temple with gold Vimanam for Madana Mohana.

This was robbed later. MadanaMohana moved to kamya vann where Vrinde Devi wanted to worship Him. So Madana Mohana instructed Vrinde Devi to arrange a big abishek for himself. The water collected from abishek became a pond, where a prathibhu vigraha was found which was later worshipped by Vrinde Devi.

Story goes that ,a devotee of Lord Shiva wanted a chintamani stone (touchstone), Lord Shiva tells him to ask Sanatana Goswami, Sanatana Goswami tells this devotee that it must be lying somewhere in a dustbin, shocked that such a precious stone should be found in a dustbin he asks why. Sanatana Goswami tells him that the most precious stone or Chintamani was the chanting of The Lord’s name.

The three vigrahas have a special relation with all devotees and surrender to these vigrahas will take us closer to HIM.

Yamuna

The river is black--Kalindhi- ,as was everything in Krishnas time. Yamuna , also Yama’s sister, helped Vasudev in taking Little Krishna across the river which was in spate. She is known to have parted her waters to allow Vasudev to go to Gokulam across.

Though the waters appear black in colour, it is as clear as any water when scooped in hand.

The Yamuna has receded, far back but signs of the leelas performed on her banks are still intact.

We took a boat across the river to a cleaner place to have a dip ,and felt quite refreshed.

Radharamana temple

Established by Gopala Bhatta Goswami from Srirangam, who followed Chaitanya Prabhu to Vrindavan.

When Gopala Bhatt Goswami dipped in Kantaki river, 12 saligrams came into his hands , he put them back and dipped again when again those 12 saligrams came back to his hand, he brings them to Vrindavan to worship them.

He wanted to dress Krishna nicely but slept off and when he woke up these saligrama became a small form of Krishna , believed to be the most beautiful idol ever on this earth and has formed of itself, also called Svayambu saligrama vigraha. As only Krishna was formed Radha Rani is worshipped here in the form of a crown kept next to Krishna.

Barsana

A hill top temple ,very famous for festival of Holi.

Once Bramha desired to have the revered feet of Radharani on his head so she permitted Brahma to stay in Vrajamandal as Barsana….there are 4 peaks for 4 heads of Brahma. A parikrama of 4.5 kms around Barsana surrounded by 8 villages all belonging to each of the eight Priya dharma sakhis of Krishna.

Here Radharanis lotus feet impression was given to NarayanBhat Goswami who started worshipping the same.

There is Mayur kutir where Krishna and Radha danced as peacocks.

LadliLall mahal….refers to Radharani temple. The haarthi , here was beautiful, established by narayana Bhatt goswami.

The world famous latmar Holi festival where women beat men of Nandgaon on Holi.

The Ladlilal temple also known as ShyamSunder temple, where 450 years ago, Shyamananda prabhu while cleaning (kainkaryam) the Vrindavan found a golden anklet . Radharani appeared in his dream and asked for the same to be returned to her.

He insisted that he saw her in person and Lo Behold! she appeared and collected the anklet and instead made a mark in his forehead, with the anklet which is being sported by Krishna followers till date.

He also wrote the first book on the leelas of Krishna and distributed it.

Nandgaon

Nand maharaj was Krishna’s foster father. From Gokulam, Nanda maharaj shifted to Nandgaon because there were numerous attacks on Krishna and considering safety the entire clan moved to Nandgaon. Krishna came back with his cows and calves in the evening after grazing, in-between meeting his Girlfriend Radha in a place called Saketh.

Ther Kadhamba

It is here that Krishna came with his cowherd friends and had his lunch and played his flute magically transforming everything ,the Kadhamba tree stands witness for 5000 years and is bent and is so because Krishna often stood on it and called out to his friends while inviting Radha to play with. He brought his simple food and partook of all his friends lunches too.

Ther-Kadambha, kadamba Vanam..a small forest full of kadamba trees. Known from the Bagavatham that Krishna and his friends would come here on a picnic herding their cattle, about 9 lakhs cows were brought to graze everyday. There is still a tree which exists since then and it has been properly protected. It is said that Krishna would climb on this tree and play his wonderful flute calling out to his cows and friends.

The Ther-Kadamba..has a sdahu sitting there narrating the story dramatically….transporting us to eras bygone.

Gopeshwar Mahadev

Every dham, here is protected by Lord Shiva who guards the entire Vrindavan.

Once Shiva wanted to have darshan of Krishna and desired to see Rasleela but was not allowed to enter the place, as the only Purush is Krishna. Shiva appeals to Powna Masi (Krishna’s Great Grand mother) , and she allows Shiva to have a bath in Mansarovarkund. After the dip, Shiva transforms into a female with all his snakes intact. He is not allowed inside because of his rough appearance.

Powna Masi interferes and allows him to be a guard for the Rasleela place, hence in this temple Shiva is dressed as a Gopi every evening. The Linga is dressed as a beautiful gopi here.

The leelas were performed all around Mathura almost spanning 164 miles in diameter, but the Rasaleela is considered the most superior leela of Krishna.

VrajRuj

The Vrajruj is the dust of Vrajmandal.The dust here is also held holy as several acharyas have walked in this Bhoomi and the Krishna Clan ,the Yadavas have also walked this Bhoomi.

Bankey Bihari Temple

The Banke Bihariji temple is the main deity in Vrindavan. Situated inside a gully very near the Lohi Bazaar, it has a big hall with stairs on both sides and Banke Bihari stands on centre stage holding court. The temple is crowded to the brim all days, but darshan is possible with a little patience.

The prasada is sold in the market outside in boxes , peda to be offered to the Lord.

In fact, we saw shops selling this brown milk peda all over Vrindavan ,as an offering to any temple.

The street food in Vrindavan is a must experience, as the lassi available here is thick, rich and a meal by itself.

NidhiVan

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-siEsTFUacubGJfcnFmYVNKOTZuVVlZWjY0dHNVakJFX1FV/view?usp=sharing

Nidhi Van is a forest and one of the most important of the (12) dwadasa van (forests) that surround Vrindavan, here it is said that Krishna performed the best Leela of all,The RasaLeela...with all his Gopis all night everyday of his stay in Vrindavan.

Even today it is closed after 6pm as Krishna comes here and all the bushes and small trees transform into Gopis and the area around is closed to public all windows in the nearby buildings, facing the Nidhi van remain closed always. It comes alive at nights and Gopeshwar maharaj stands guard.

The Re-discovery of lost temples

Rajasekara swami from the Iscon group enlightened us on how he physically mapped the entire Vraj bhoomi , walking to most places doing the mapping ,finding it a mystical place casting its magical web on him as he still lives here.

Mathura

The birth place of Krishna

As we travel to Mathura from Vrindavan, crossing Gokulam on our way ,we admire the beautiful home of Yashoda, 84 pillars which are carved like wood, such intricate carvings and we are blessed to rock the cradle which has a Vigraha of Kutty Krishna

( 84 pillar palace, some of them)

There is a Goshala here which is very well maintained.

In Mathura temple, we are not allowed any mobile phones or cameras or any chip based cards.

We walk into the jail where Krishna was born and touch the platform made of stone.

It feels as cold as Kamsa’s heart. After a hearty tour of Vrindavan , having treasured all of Krishna’s leelas we are not very disturbed to see the jail here.

Ramana reti

This is a playground enroute to Mathura where Krishna and Balram played innumerable games with their cows and friends. We had a good roll in the ground where the sand is extremely soft and Vrajvashis say it is so, because Krishna rolled here and it was the sand’s kainkarya to be soft and soothing to touch.

Swetha Varaha Temple

Also known as Kapila Varaha Murthy...this temple is in Mathura .We had to go up a winding lane narrow streets to have darshan of Swetha /Varaha murthy.

He is a vigraha worshipped from the Kritha yugam,onto Thretha yugam, Dwapara yugam and now in Kaliyugam also. He is one of the few deities who has survived all the 4 yugas.

Story goes that Kapila Muni requested Narayana that he wanted to worship the Kolavaraha murthy daily.This Varaha murthy brings prosperity wherever he is.

Hence Naraynana installed all his powers nin Varaha murthy and gave it to Kapila Muni in Krutha yugam.

In Thretha Yugam before the advent of Rama ,Indira had the Varaha murthy. When Ravana conquered the Indira Loka he brought the Varaha Murthy into Lankapuri , where Varaaha gave much prosperity to Lanka and Lanka flourished.

Rama ,when he conquered Ravana ,brought back this murthy to Ayodhya.

When rishis and Sadhus were disturbed by Lavanasuran they appealed to Rama and he sent his brother Satrugnan to destroy Lavanasura.The 14 years that Rama was in exile , Satrugnana was on a diet without salt and this qualified him to fight Lavanasura.

He destroyed this Asura and and another asura called Madhu. As he vanquished them in this city he named it Madhura and now it is Mathura. He bought this Varaha murthy here to Mathura for his daily worship.The Yadava clan worshipped him here and were bountifully blessed. He satyred on in Mathura.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Er1NCyrRCRuOigKpcu2D81R9-7t_RVd/view?usp=sharing

( Video clippings...courtesy Sri Varadarajan)

Eco friendly School bus

We noticed a school bus pulled by two bullocks and some locals said it was a regular feature here and bulls used are not strong enough to plough the fields. What an intelligent way to save some fuel which the world is sadly lacking.