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
This famous temple was established by
Srila Sanatana Gosvami and was the first temple to be built in Vrndavana, 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 Vrndavana by the soldiers
of the fanatical Muslim Emperor, Aurangzeb.
Lord Chaitanya displayed intense love
for Sanatana Gosvami. Once, the Lord informed Sanatana that “Your body belongs
to Me, it is my principle instrument for executing many important functions. By
your body, I shall carry out so many tasks. You will have to ascertain the basic
principles for devotees, also Vaisnava duties
and Vaisnava characteristics; you will also have to explain about
devotional service to Lord Krishna, as well as excavating the lost places of
Krishna's pastimes, build temples and teach people how to adopt the renounced
order (sannyasa)”.
Madana-mohana, also known as
Madana-gopala was first discovered by Advaita Acarya, in the place 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 Choube's
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-mohana to Vrndavana, 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, Unfortunately about a hundred years
later when Emperor Aurangzeb sent his soldiers to destroy the temples of
Vrndavana, the Madana-mohana temple was also desecrated. This tragic episode
occurred in 1670.
Timings:
Summer — Darsana 6 am-11 am and 5 pm-9:30 pm;
Winter — Mangala (Kartik month only) 4 am;
Darsana 7
am-12 pm and 4 pm-8 pm
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