Baigram is situated two km north of Jaitapura & 1.5 km from Basai. From this
How to get there: You can easily go to this place by Auto from Vrindavana.
Releasing Nanda Maharaja from the Clutches of Varuna
The Govardhana Ceremony took place on the new moon day. After this, there were torrents of rain and hailstorms imposed by King lndra for seven days. Nine days of the waxing moon having passed, on the tenth day King lndra worshiped Lord Krishna, and thus the matter was satisfactorily settled. After this, on the eleventh day of the full moon, there was Ekadashi. Maharaja Nanda observed fasting for the whole day, and just early in the morning of the Dwadashi, the day after Ekadashi, he went to take bath in the River Yamuna. He entered deep into the water of the river, but he was arrested immediately by one of the servants of Varuna Deva. These servants brought Nanda Maharaja before the demigod Varuna and accused him of taking a bath in the river at the wrong time. According to astronomical calculations, the time in which he took bath was considered demoniac. The fact was, Nanda Maharaja wanted to take a bath in the River Yamuna early in the morning before the sunrise, but somehow or other he was a little too early, and he bathed at an inauspicious time. Consequently he was arrested.
When Nanda Maharaja was taken away by Varuna Deva’s servants, his companions began to call loudly for Krishna and Balarama. Immediately Krishna and Balarama could understand that Nanda Maharaja was taken by Varuna, and thus They went to the abode of Varuna, for They were pledged to give protection. The inhabitants of Vrindavana, the unalloyed devotees of the Lord, having no shelter other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, naturally cried to Him for help, exactly like children who do not know anything but the protection of their parents. Demigod Varuna received Lord Krishna and Balarama with great respect and said, “My dear Lord, actually at this very moment, because of Your presence, I am materially defeated. Although I am the proprietor of all the treasures in the water, I know that such possessions do not make for a successful life. But this moment, as I look at You, my life is made completely successful because by seeing You I no longer have to accept a material body. Therefore, O Lord, Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supreme Brahman and Supersoul of everything, let me offer my respectful obeisances unto You. You are the supreme transcendental personality; there is no possibility of imposing the influence of material nature upon You. I am very sorry that by being foolish, by not knowing what to do or what not to do, I have mistakenly arrested Your father, Nanda Maharaja. So I beg Your pardon for the offence of my servants. I think that it was Your plan to show me Your mercy by Your personal presence here. My dear Lord Krishna, Govinda, be merciful upon me here is Your father. You can take him back immediately.”
In this way Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, rescued His father and presented him before his friends with great jubilation. Nanda Maharaja was surprised that, although the demigod was so opulent, he offered such respect to Krishna. That was very astonishing to Nanda, and he began to describe the incident to his friends and relatives with great wonder.
Actually, although Krishna was acting so wonderfully, Maharaja Nanda and mother Yashoda could not think of Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Instead, they always accepted Him as their beloved child. Thus Nanda Maharaja did not accept the fact that Varuna worshiped Krishna because Krishna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead; rather he took it that because Krishna was such a wonderful child He was respected even by Varuna. The friends of Nanda Maharaja, all the cowherd men, became eager to know if Krishna were actually the Supreme Personality and if He were going to give them all salvation. When they were all thus consulting among themselves, Krishna understood their minds, and in order to assure them of their destiny in the spiritual kingdom, He showed them the spiritual sky. Generally, ordinary persons are engaged simply in working hard in the material world, and they have no information that there is another kingdom or another sky, which is known as the spiritual sky, where life is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, a person returning to that spiritual sky never returns to this material world of death and suffering.
Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always anxious to give information to the conditioned soul that there is a spiritual sky far, far beyond this material sky, transcendental to the innumerable universes created within the total material energy. Krishna is, of course, always very kind to every conditioned soul, but, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita, He is especially inclined to the devotees. Hearing their inquiries, Krishna immediately thought that His devotees in Vrindavana should be informed of the spiritual sky and the Vaikuntha planets therein. Thus Krishna led all the cowherd men, headed by Nanda Maharaja, to the lake where Akrura was later shown the Vaikuntha planetary system at Akrura Ghata. They took their bath immediately and saw the real nature of the Vaikunthalokas. After seeing the spiritual sky and the Vaikunthalokas, all the men, headed by Nanda Maharaja, felt wonderfully blissful, and coming out of the river, they saw Krishna, who was being worshiped with excellent prayers.
Jiva Goswami’s stay at Nanda Ghata
Shrila Jiva Goswami spent some time staying at Nanda Ghata where he lived inside an old disused crocodile hole on the bank of the Yamuna. Due to his youthful enthusiasm, he was banished from Vrindavana by Shrila Rupa Goswami because he dared to challenge Vallabha Bhatta, thus displeasing Rupa Goswami, his uncle and spiritual master. One day Vallabha Bhatta, who was later known as Vallabhacharya, paid a visit to Rupa Goswami’s
Therefore, when Vallabha went to the Yamuna to bathe, Jiva followed him and raised the issue of Vallabha’s critique regarding the invocation written by Rupa Goswami. Jiva then systematically refuted with shastric evidence each of the points raised by Vallabha, thus proving to Vallabha that he was wrong in his opinions and that what Rupa had written was actually perfect and needed no editing. Confronted by Jiva’s superior knowledge of Sanskrit grammar, Vallabha was defeated and forced to admit his critique was misguided. On returning to Rupa’s kutira, Vallabha mentioned his encounter with the young sannyasi and the discussion that had ensued, informing Rupa that the original invocation was perfect and needed no correction. Sometime later, when Jiva returned, Rupa Goswami was very upset that Jiva had dared to challenge such a senior devotee and greatly learned scholar like Vallabha Bhatta. Admonishing Jiva for being too proud and lacking in proper Vaishnava humility, Rupa ordered him to return to his home in Bengal until he had learned more about Vaishnava etiquette and humility. He further said that Vallabha Bhatta was only trying to help and that due to his passionate nature; Jiva had unnecessarily challenged him.
After being rejected by Rupa Goswami, Jiva was on his way out of Vrindavana when he decided it was better to remain in the holy Dhama and undergo severe penance in order to redeem himself in the eyes of Rupa Goswami. He then went to Nanda Ghata and remained there living in an old crocodile hole. Later the Vrajavasis built him a kutire of thatched leaves. He subsisted by performing madhukari, begging a little flour from the local Vrajavasis and after mixing it with water from the Yamuna, ate it raw. No one in Vrindavana knew the whereabouts of Jiva until one day; Sanatana Goswami was traveling to some of the holy places nearby, when someone mentioned to him about a young and much renounced sannyasi living at Nanda Ghata. Sanatana was informed that the young sannyasi was very frail and thin due to subsisting only on raw flour and water. Sanatana could immediately understand that the young sannyasi must be his nephew Jiva. After going there and meeting Jiva at Nanda Ghata and hearing everything from him, Sanatana returned to Vrindavana to meet Rupa, whose writing work was suffering due to not having Jiva there to help him. It was Jiva who used to make the paper for writing and also edit all the Rupa’s books.
On arriving in Vrindavana, Rupa Goswami was talking with other Vaishnavas on the subject of giving mercy to all the jivas (living entities). After the talks, Sanatana spoke to Rupa and enquired about the work on his most important book the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Rupa explained that his book was finished, but since their nephew Jiva’s absence, the editing work was incomplete and not going so well. Sanatana then told Rupa that although he was lecturing others about giving mercy to all the jivas, he himself was not. Rupa Gosvami could immediately understand the meaning of Sanatana’s comment.
After hearing about Jiva’s whereabouts from Sanatana, without further delay, Rupa Goswami made arrangements to bring Jiva Goswami back to Vrindavana and after nursing him back to full health, immediately entrusted him with the task of editing the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, the most important book on the science of devotional service ever written. While staying at Nanda Ghata Sri Jiva Goswami wrote his six Sandarbhas. Under the direct guidance of his two uncles Rupa and Sanatana, Jiva Goswami went on to become the greatest ever Sanskrit scholar and philosopher that has ever lived. After the disappearance of both Rupa and Sanatana, Jiva Goswami was the undisputed leader amongst Lord Chaitanya’s followers and became the next acharya of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya. He went on to write over twenty-five important books of which Sat Sandharba and Gopala-champu are the most well known.