here were hundreds, probably thousands of pilgrims bathing in the Yamuna this morning. It was a sea of color and noise, families splashing about, coming in and getting out all around, boats overfilled with passengers. We followed the parikrama marg (pilgrimage path) in the opposite direction to finally get to the mandir. With the Yamuna on our right, we walked continuously through the morning, barefooted and chanting softly. I would love to do this walk a bit earlier in the morning, before the sun starts settling in the sky, somewhere between 5 and 6AM.On our way there we passed by the Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha mandir, and I very much wanted to go in. This temples was just beautiful. In the front courtyard is the huge remnance of a tamarind tree where Krishna was said to have sat under while meditating on Radharani, after she disappeared from the rasa dance. The mural on the wall said that Krishna turned a molten gold complexion, the same as Radharani, while meditating upon her in separation. The wall also said that Radharani sat under the tree once and a ripe tamarind (fruit?) fell and somehow washed the decorations off her feet. I think the decorations are made with some kind of natural paint or dye. She then made a curse that no tamarind tree would bear ripe fruit in the vicinity, which still holds true today. Lord Caitanya also came and sat under this same tree, where He 'chanted the holy names of the Lord and spread love of Godhead."
The temple's presiding deities are Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha, as well as Sri Sri NitaiGaura. There is a large murti of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura to the left of the altar. Covering the temple walls all on sides are stunning, three-dimensional scenes of Lord Caitanya's ecstatic pastimes. Jaya Sita and I took the Lord's carinamrita (the sweet water the deities are bathed in each morning), circumambulated the temple, payed our obeisances and headed back out to parikrama marg. This temple was just a wonderful place. They have what seems to be a marble in-lay of Lord Caitanya's lotus feet, so I would like to ask someone if they are really His. I was under the impression His feet were extremely large, though, considering His substantial height.
After two and a half hours of walking we finally sat down at Srila Sanatana Goswami's beautiful little bhajan kutir. It was noisy all around, but a soft, sweet recording of the maha-mantra was playing from inside the tiny structure. I felt a great sense of peace here; in the distance there are fields and undeveloped land near the Yamuna, stretching far off into the distance. I do wish that I could have seen Vrindavana in its quieter days, but I am trying to absorb the mood here beyond the chaotic hoards of pilgrims and locals. What is happening to Vrindavana, the intense build-up, is just a fact of life. The more people want to come to Vrindavana, the more the Vrajbasis can make if they accomodate them. Our teacher Prasanta Prabhu told us today that just 20 years ago you could hardly even find a rickshaw driver (a bicycle driver!) to take you to Loi Bazarre, you just had to walk. Now, the honking cars and motorcycles leave little room for all the rickshaws and cows and pedestrians and its just piling up and up and up to an extreme.
If anything, the sadness of Vrindavana's changing atmosphere gives me greater incentive to chant more sincerely, to pray for the help to see and love Vrindavana for everything that it really is and always will be. I also await the time when I will set spiritual foot in Goloka Vrindavana, Krishna's eternal abode, the original inspiration for this place. For now my greatest task and pleasure is to try and experience the glories of this non-different Gokula.
We met Prasanta Prabhu at the bhajan kutir. We sat quite close to her while she chanted and chanted, a soft breeze blowing all around, monkeys jumping across the tarps which acted as an outdoor shade against the hot Indian sun. While there, we saw at least three monkey stealth- attacks; one managed to steal an entire box of ladhus and began eating them one by one in ecstacy. He hit the jackpot. I drew a sketch from where I was sitting, nestled right in front of the kutir, the beautiful Madhana Mohan temple in the right backround, trees intricately weaving their way up the pillars supporting the open walls of the kutir.
After some time she emerged from meditation and began sharing some Sanatana Goswami nectar with us, in celebration of his incredible life in Lord Caitanya's service. The goswami's were said to have slept very little, no more than one or two hours each night. They chanted an incredible number of rounds everyday, their taste for the holy names is something my feeble heart cannot begin to comprehend. This was the place where Sanatana Goswami stayed on occasion. It wasn't inside the kutir persay, this structure was built later ing commemoration of the spot. Like the other Goswami's he slept under a tree, and this was where that tree stood over 500 years ago. He would worship his deity, Madhan Mohan (Krishna, the attractor of cupid) and rest Him in the tree, hanging from a swing (a julan, I believe its called).
Sanatana Goswami spent hours upon hours studying sastra and writing books, on the order of Lord Caitanya. He would beg for flour and add water to make little dough balls, which he placed into the hot coals of a retiring fire. Offering these meager bread balls to Madhan Mohan, the deity eventually came to Sanatana in a dream and complained about the offering. 'It's just so plain, can't you at least add a little salt or something?' But Sanatana Goswami replied that he didn't have time to find salt as a mendicant, and if he added salt, next thing the deity would ask for sugar...so no way. But one day very soon after, as Sanantana was working away at this spot, he caught glimpse of a big boat stuck on a sandbar on the Yamuna. The boatmen were asking for help to unload the goods on board, and Sanatana went there. The boat was filled with salt. It was a salt carrier. So Sanatana Goswami got Krishna's little trick, and Sri Madhan Mohanji got His salted breadballs.
It is said that the goswamis were born already in bhava bhakti. At the age of 5, Sanatana Goswami had a dream where little boy Krishna came to him. Krishna handed him a Srimad Bhagavatam and told him to study it very carefully. When Sanatana woke, he was so pleased to have seen Krishna, but distressed when there was no Bhagavatam there. A few days later a child came to him and directly handed him the Srimad Bhagavatam, and then disappeared. Sanatana Goswami realized that this boy was also Krishna, coming back to personally give him the book, as he had desired.
In the teachings of Lord Caitanya to Sanatana Goswami in the Caitanya Caritamrita, it is written:
"O my Lord, there is no limit to the unwanted orders of lusty desires. Although I have rendered these desires so much service, they have not shown any mercy to me. I have not been ashamed to serve them, nor have I even desired to give them up. O my Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, recently, however, my intelligence has been awakened, and now I am giving them up. Due to transcendental intelligence, I now refuse to obey the unwanted orders of these desires, and I now have come to You to surrender myself fully at your fearless lotus feet. Kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me." -CC 22.16
This is now one of my very favorite prayers. Service to Krishna is like a shining sun in the heart of the devotee, gradually dispelling the darkness in all the hidden nooks of the conditioned soul. Somehow, a simple way of life becomes so attractive, and so many desires which once pulled me left and right now have no substantial hold. But, there are still so many things to work on. So many anarthas, unwanted attachments, fears, unfulfilled desires, hanging on for dear life, trying to keep me from truly loving and surrendering. Sometimes, when I reflect on all the anarthas I am discovering within myself, I feel like I was a better person before I began practicing devotional service. But actually, I just never realized the contents of my own heart. There is an analogy that makes so much sense in this regard.
If your house is very dirty, and you decide to clean it, in the beginning stages it may seem you are making even more of a mess. The dust is flying everywhere, there are so many clothes to get rid of so they are lying in piles to be sorted and donated, the garage needs to be tackled with a back-hoe...all of these things. So when we actually begin to clean the house, that's when we start to realize just how filthy it really is. We didn't even know when we started what we were getting into. We didn't know how many dust bunnies were under the bed, or how many cat hairs were stuck to the chair in corner. But the point is, its getting clean. And eventually, after all the hard work, if we can maintain patience, enthusiasm and determination to continue, the house will be spotless. Absolutely spotless. So this devotional service is cleaning the house of our heart so that we can engage in real loving exchanges with our dear most friend. We want nothing more than to love Krishna with a pure heart, so bhakti (loving devotional service) is therefore both the means to achieve the goal and the goal itself. So please, 'my dear Lord, kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me!'
After all this we followed Prasanta Prabhu wherever she wanted to take us. First we got to take darshan at Sanatana Goswami's samadhi. It's a beautiful dome building, and inside there is a representative murti, just a ovular white marble stone about the size of a mini refrigerator. The murti is adorned with Vaishnava tilaka and offered flower garlands, fruits, sweets, incense, etc. We offered flowers, and received maha prasadam- a garland and ladhus (deliciously sweet balls). We circumambulated the samadhi and also paid obeisances to Sanatana's book samadhi, housing all the books he wrote. SO AMAZING!
After, we went to the temple where the replicas of Sri Sri Radha Madhan Mohan are worshiped. When the Muslims invaded Vrindavana some centuries ago, they ransacked, defaced or completely flattened most of the major temples in Vrindavana. It is still very noticeable- many temples have defaced walls, the high temple domes are cut off to nubs, entire temple rooms are reduced to nothing but rubble. In order to protect the deities, who were big targets for the Muslims who only see Them as idols, the Vrajbasis would hide Them wherever they could find safe space- even burying them in kunds (sacred bathing spots) or underground. Most of the deities were taken to Jaipur in Rajasthan, where the ksatriya (warriors / administrators) stronghold kept them safe from Muslim attack. They are still being worshipped there today, but replicas, actual expansions of the original deities, were re-introduced here in Vrindavana. So most of the main deities here are expansions of the originals now in Jaipur. I would love to travel to Jaipur one day to see Radha Madhan Mohan, Radha Damodhar, all of them...
Just after we arrived at Madhan Mohan, the pujaris opened the curtains. To Prasanta Prabhu's delight, the six goswamis were there too, beautifully painted wooden figures seated on the floor in front of the deities, with huge offerings of all kinds- rice, dahl, subjis, greens, sweet rice, malpuris, and on and on and on. I managed to steal a few great pictures. Madhan Mohan looks like he has very very big ears, which was just so sweet. We were given maha prasadam right off the altar- banana leaf cups filled with rice, subji and sak, spinach. An arati began, which was much shorter than an ISKCON temple arati, and so difficult for the ears to bear. Two adults were banging gongs back and forth while a small child was pulling the rope on a huge bell hanging from the ceiling. We basically covered our ears the whole time. Afterwards, we indulged in Radha Madhan Mohan's maha prasadam and caught a rickshaw back to the Krishna Balaram Mandir. It was a spectacular morning with Prasanta Prabhu. Wizard school extracurricular sadhu-sanga with 'Sastra on Wheels."
Srila Vyasudeva ki Jaya!
Srila Sanatana Goswami ki Jaya!
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