Vrindavana – Part 1
Sri Sri Radha Madana-mohana Mandira
Please note, this is one of my old videos. For complete information watch the video at the bottom of the page.
After the disappearance of Lord Krishna Yudhisthir Maharaj along with his brothers retired to the Himalayas and coronated Pariksit Maharaj as the king of Hastinapur. Vajranabha, the great grandson of Lord Krishna, was made the king of Vrajadham.
Vajranabha understood that after Lord Krishna’s disappearance many of His pastime places had disappeared. He sat on the banks of the Yamuna under a Kalpavriksha tree and prayed to Lord Krishna to reveal His eternal abode. Krishna revealed the transcendental places of His pastimes in Vrindavana to him.
Vajranabha excavated many of those places and called for Vishvakarma to carve Deities to be installed in those places. The first Deity that was carved was Sri Madana-mohana, followed by Sri Radha Govinda and Sri Radha Gopinath. Uttara, who had personally seen Krishna, confirmed the special features of these deities. While Madana-mohana revealed Krishna’s body below His waist, Radha Govindaji revealed His beautiful smiling face and Radha Gopinathji revealed His flute playing hands.
The Deity of Madana-mohana was lost for many years.
The residents of Mahavana felt very fortunate to have Sanatana amongst them. Sanatana decided to stay at mahavana for the darshan of Madan Gopal everyday. Madan Gopal used to play in Ramanaka (Ramana Reti ) the sandy beach of the Jamuna. One day Madan Gopal came to play just like a cowherd boy with the other boys of Mahavana. Seeing the divine way the boy played Sanatana thought that this cowherd boy could not be an ordinary child. When the boys had finished playing Sanatana followed Madan Gopal home. He saw the boys enter the temple but by the time Sanatana entered he saw only Madan Mohan deity instead of Madan Gopal the cowherd boy. Sanatana bowed before the deity and returned to his own place saying nothing to anyone. This Madan Gopal was completely controlled by the devotional love of Sanatana.
Sanatana once saw Sri Madan Gopala playing with his friends on the bank of the Jamuna. Madan Gopala, who was bound by the love of Sanatana, also appeared in his dream and said, “I do not like living in Mahavana. I want to stay in your cottage.” Then he disappeared, leaving Sanatana in an ecstatic state of mind.
Advaita Acarya discovered the original Deity of Madan-mohan in Mahavan-Gokul and served Him in Vrindavana at the base of an old “vat” tree, where he was performing his bhajana, now known as Advaita Vata, which is just below the Dvadasaditya hill. When Advaita Prabhu was due to leave for Bengal he left Madana-mohana in the care of a brahmana named Choube, who kept Him just like one of his own children. Many years passed, both Rupa and Sanatana used to go to Mathura for collecting alms (madhukari), and it so happened that Sanatana Gosvami visited the house of that same brahmana. He received a sudden shock when he saw that Choubes children were playing with Madana-mohana. He immediately called Choube and chastised him for not showing proper respect to the Deity, and then explained to him all the rules and regulations of proper Deity worship.
That night, on returning to Vrndavana, Sanatana had a dream in which Madana-mohana told him that he had been very happy living in the brahmana’s house as one of his children, but now that the brahmana had introduced so many rules and regulations, He was not happy anymore. The same night, the brahmana also had a dream in which Madana-mohana told him that, “As you have so many children, and Sanatana has none, so please give Me to Sanatana”.
The next morning, Sanatana Gosvami rushed to the brahmana’s house to apologize and ask forgiveness, but to his surprise, the brahmana requested him to take Madana-mohana. At first, Sanatana refused because he was not able to offer nice food to Madana-mohana, as he lived only on dry chapatis. Later the same night in another dream, Madana-mohana told Sanatana that He would accept whatever Sanatana offered Him.
Sanatana Gosvami then brought Madana-mohan to Vrindavana, to the place where he did his bhajana situated on the top of the hill named Dvadasaditya, and kept the Deity in a nearby tree. Sanatana regularly offered simple dried chapatis, but one day Madana-mohana suddenly asked for some salt. Sanatana then told Madana-mohana, “Just see, now you want salt and tomorrow you will want sweets; I am an old man and have so many books to write so please just accept this dry chapati”.
It so happened that same day, that a wealthy merchant from Multan in Punjab, was taking three large boats full of salt and other merchandise down the river to Agra for sale in the local market. When passing Kaliya ghata, the boats got stuck on a sandbank and could not move. In great anxiety, the merchant, who’s name was Ramdasa Kapoor, came ashore to find help, when suddenly Madana-mohana in the guise of a beautiful cowherd boy came there and advised Ramdasa to seek the help of Sanatana Gosvami, a saint who lived on the Dvadasaditya hill. On climbing the hill, Ramdasa Kapoor saw Sanatana Gosvami engaged in his bhajana and asked him if he could help free his boat. Sanatana then advised him that he should pray to Madana-mohana, as only He could help him. Sure enough, when Ramdasa prayed to Madana-mohana, a storm suddenly appeared and it rained heavily, thus swelling the river and miraculously freeing the boats from the sandbank. Ramdasa was overjoyed and promised to return after finishing his business in Agra.
Within a short time Ramdasa Kapoor returned, having sold all his merchandise for a handsome profit and wanted to hand the full amount over to Sanatana, in appreciation for the help he had received from Madana-mohana. Sanatana asked him to build a nice temple for Madana-mohana, which he did. He also built a ghata below, all out of fine red sandstone.
Now I will explain how Sri Radha and Sri Lalita arrived in Vrndavana. This is explained in Bhakti-ratnakara.
When the Govinda deity was manifested, there was no Radhika deity with him. Lord Madana-mohana also appeared alone. The manner in which they got their consorts will now be narrated in brief.
Purusottama Jana was the son of king Prataparudra. He was an accomplished and beautiful boy. When he learned that the two deities were being worshipped without their consorts, he sent two deities of Radha Thakurani with utmost care and devotion.
When the deities reached Vrindavana the Vrajabasis became very happy.
Sri Madan-mohan joyfully told his priest in a dream, “Two images of Sri Radha have been sent but the sender does not know that actually one is of Sri Radha and the other is of Sri Lalita. Go without delay and bring the two deities. The smaller one is of Sri Radha and so place her on the left. The larger one is Lalita so place her on the right. The priest left as soon as he heard the Lord’s instructions. He brought the two deities and installed them as he had been instructed.
This 60 foot high temple was opened in 1580 on a 50 foot hill called Dvadasaditya Tila, next to Yamuna. This was the first temple built in Vrindavan, which at that time was just a forest. The original Deity of Madana-mohana was taken to Karauli in Rajasthan for safety during the attack on Vrindavana by the soldiers of the fanatical Muslim Emperor, Aurangzeb.