Sacred Places of Interest

Introduction    Krishna Balarama Mandir and ISKCON     Kaliya Ghata
Radha Madan Mohan     Banke Bihari     Radha Vallabha     Seva Kunja
Imli Tala     Radha Damodara, Jiva and Rupa Goswami's Samadhi's and Bhajan Kutira
Radha Syamasundara     Radha Raman     Radha Gokulanada     Kesi Ghata
Radha Gopinatha     Gopisvara Mahadeva     Vamsi Vata     Radha Govinda
Nandagram     Varsana     Parikrama Map

Radha Gopinatha Temple

This Deity was worshipped by Madhu Pandita, one of the close associates of Lord Chaitanya. The Gopinatha Deity was originally installed by Vajranaba, Lord Krishna's grandson, 5,000 years ago. The Deity was rediscovered at Vamsi-vata by Paramananda Gosvami, and worshipped there by Paramananda Bhattacarya, who gave the Deity to Madhu Pandita. This temple was also desecrated by the soldiers of Aurangzeb in 1670. A new temple was constructed just behind the old one. The original Gopinatha Deity is in Jaipur, where He was sent for safe keeping. The Deity in this temple is the pratibhu-murti (replica) which is considered to be non-different from the original Deity.

There is a very nice story of how Ananga Manjari appeared on the altar at the Gopinatha temple. Normally in all temples Radharani stands on the right of Krishna, but in this temple she stands on the left and Ananga Manjari stands on the right.

In the late 16th century when Lord Nityananda’s eternal consort Janava Mata visited Vrndavana, she felt that the Deity of Radharani at the Gopinatha temple was too small. On her return to Bengal she had a new Deity of Radharani carved and sent it to Vrndavana. This new Deity of Radharani was than installed on the right side of Lord Gopinatha and the smaller one moved to the left side.

It so happened that all the devotees visiting the Gopinatha temple concluded that the new Deity looked more like Janava Mata than Radharani. This was because the new Deity was carved by one of Janava Mata’s dearmost disciples. The devotees soon came to realize that the newly installed Deity was in fact Ananga Manjari, Radharani’s younger sister, of whom Ma Janava is a direct expansion. Some devotees felt that out of her immense love for her younger sister, Radharani consented to allow Ananga Manjari to stand in Her own place next to Lord Gopinatha, allowing her the chance of serving the Divine Couple to her hearts content. It would appear that Ananga Manjari has her very own transcendental way of appearing on the altar so she may eternally render loving service to the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha.

Another very interesting point is that when Lord Balarama, Krishna’s elder brother, desires to take part in the amourous pastimes of conjugal love between Radha and Krishna and the gopis, the expands Himself and becomes non-other than Ananga Manjari, the younger sister Radharani.

Timings:
Summer/Winter same - Mangala 5 am; 
Darsana 7:30 am -11:45 am and 4:30 pm -8:30 pm