History of Vrindavana
Introduction
The Lord
Descends Discovery
of Vrindavana by Lord Chaitanya
Srila
Prabhupada The
Sacred River Yamuna Vrindavana
Parikrama
The Six Goswamis Who
is Lord Chaitanya? Who
are Radha and Krishna?
Five thousand years ago when the Supreme Lord in His original form as Krishna advented Himself here on earth, this part of the world
was ruled by the most cruel and sinful King Kamsa. Kamsa had imprisoned his own father,
Ugrasena, and usurped the throne of Mathura. With the help of other
sinful and irreligious kings and his demoniac friends, Kamsa let loose a terrible reign of terror. As declared by Lord Krishna in the
Bhagavad-gita:
To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants,
as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I myself appear, millennium after millennium.
It was the Lord's divine plan to take birth in the
dynasty of Bhoja kings at Mathura, choosing Kamsa's very own sister, the
beautiful princess Devaki, who was a great devotee of the Lord, to play the part
of His so-called earthly mother.
Prior to Lord Krishna's appearance, King Kamsa
had been warned by a prophetic voice from the sky that the eighth son of Devaki
would kill him. Kamsa wasted no time in arresting Devaki and her husband
Vasudeva. He threw them into prison and murdered all their newborn babies one by
one. From the very beginning of His transcendental birth, Lord Krishna performed
the most amazing superhuman acts. He appeared before Devaki and Vasudeva as
their eighth child in His four-armed form of Vishnu-murti. He then miraculously
transformed Himself into a small baby. By His own divine will, baby Krishna was
transferred from the prison cell of Kamsa, to the safety of Gokula, and the
foster home of Nanda Maharaja and Yasoda Mayi, the king and queen of the cowherd
men.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna,
is called Bhagavan. This means He is full with six opulences: all strength, all
beauty, all wealth, all fame, all knowledge and all renunciation. There is no
one greater than God in these six opulences, even when He is playing as a small
baby on the lap of His mother. The Lord is also called Yogesvara, or the master
of all mystic powers. When Kamsa came to know that baby Krishna had escaped, he
became furious and ordered all the newborn children in the kingdom to be
immediately slaughtered. When he somehow understood that Krishna was still
alive, he sent a number of his powerful demoniac associates in search of Krishna
with orders to kill Him immediately. Due to the attack of so many demons sent by
King Kamsa, like Putana the witch, and Trnavarta the whirlwind demon, Nanda and
Yasoda took Krishna from Gokul to Nandagram, in the hope of giving protection to
their transcendental child. As Krishna grew a little older, He used to go to the
pasturing grounds with the cows and calves, accompanied by His cowherd
boyfriends and His elder brother Balarama, whose mother was Rohini, another wife
of Vasudeva. Throughout Krishna's life, so many demons tried to kill Him -
Putana, Aghasura, Dhenuka, the poisonous serpent Kaliya, Pralamba, Kesi,
Vyomasura, not forgetting the evil King Kamsa. Each one failed, however, and in
turn were killed by Lord Krishna. When Krishna reached the age of six or seven,
He became friendly with the beautiful young cowherd girls, the gopis of Vrindavana.
They all worshipped Krishna as a great hero, due to His killing many demons.
They also worshipped Him as the most beautiful person in the creation, and all
desired to marry Him. The young gopis were deeply in love with Krishna and
desired to serve Him as much as they possibly could. They were not able to
forget Krishna even for a moment. The most beautiful and qualified amongst the
gopis was Srimati Radharani, Krishna's most beloved and favorite gopi damsels.
As Lord Sri Krishna is the source of all the incarnations of Vishnu, Radharani
is the original source of all the goddesses of fortune (Laksmis). Just as
Krishna descended from the spiritual world, Radharani also descended, along with
108 important gopis for offering different kinds of service to Lord Krishna.
Devotional service to God, out of pure love, is the topmost activity for all
living entities; even the great yogis aspire to be eternally engaged in the
loving service of Krishna. There are a total of five holy dhamas of Lord Sri
Krishna on earth, but the most important one is Sri Vrindavana dhama. It is the
highest and most super-excellent abode, where only very intimate, transcendental
loving pastimes are enacted by the Lord. By material vision, Vrindavana Dhama has
a radius of forty-two miles with Mathura in the center, and is known as the
Vraja Mandala, which includes the twelve important forests. The forest of Vrindavana
however is the most important; Vrindavana means forest (vana) of Tulasi plants
(Vrnda).
In this forest of Vrindavana, Lord Krishna enacted His most intimate pastimes
with the beautiful gopi damsels of Vraja. In the evening, Krishna would come to
the forest of Vrindavana and play on His transcendental flute, thus calling all
the beautiful gopis to come and enjoy the wonderful rasa-lila, the divine dance
of love. Lord Krishna would then dance in spiritual ecstasy with hundreds of
beautiful gopis, and each gopi would have the opportunity of personally dancing
with Krishna. The gopis also exchanged intimate loving glances with Krishna and
were embraced by the Lord to their hearts' content.
The wonderful pastimes of Lord Krishna unfolded one
after another, day after day, thus enchanting the lives of all the inhabitants
of Vrindavana. After attaining the age o9f eleven, Lord Krishna, accompanied by
Balarama, decided to go to Mathura to kill the evil King Kamsa and release his
parents, Vasudeva and Devaki, who were still in captivity. Lord Krishna's going
to Mathura, and later Dvaraka, form whole new chapters in the transcendental
life and pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna.
Those interested in understanding more about the
wonderful pastimes of Lord Krishna would do well to read the books of His Divine
Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada especially Krishna, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, a summary study of Krishna's pastimes mentioned in the
great classic Srimad-Bhagavatam.
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