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Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !!

 

Srila Madhu Pandit Goswami was a disciple of Srila Gadadhar Pandit, one of Lord Chaitanya's intimate associates. Madhu Pandit worshiped the Krishna deity in Vrindavan known as Sri Radha Gopinath, who was originally commissioned, installed and consecrated by Maharaj Vajranabh, Lord Krishna’s great-grandson.

Alongwith Sri Radha Madan Mohan, and Sri Radha Govind, Sri Radha Gopinath is considered to be one of the oldest deities that appeared in Vrindavan 5000 years ago. These three deities are the main worshipful titular deities for Gaudiya Vaishnavas.

After the departure of Sri Krishna, when – as foretold by Him - the city of Dwarka was submerged in a gigantic tsumani tidal wave, Arjuna assembled all the surviving members of the Yadu and Vrishni clans including little Vajranabh, Krishna’s lone surviving great-grandson born of Anirudhha, and took them all to Hastinapur, where he had them settled in Indraprastha. Vajranabh used to hear many enchanting stories from Uttara (the wife of Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna), about Lord Krishna; his close friendship with the Pandavas, his miraculous and divine deeds.  

Vajranabh very much desired to have a deity of Krishna carved as he wanted to see what he looked like. So he commissioned a sculptor (who was the celestial architect Vishwakarma in disguise), to carve a statue based on the description given by Uttara. When the statue was finished and Uttara saw it, she said, only the feet resembled Sri Krishna’s lotus feet and not the rest of the body. This statue was consecrated in Vrindavan as the Madan Mohan deity in a beautiful temple on the banks of the Yamuna. This marked the beginning of formal worship of Lord Krishna deities in Vrindavan.

Not one to give up, Vajranabh once again requested the sculptor to carve another statue and Uttara explained in detail the Lord’s enchanting form. When the statue was complete, Uttara was brought in to see it. She looked closely up and down at the statue and commented “...only the chest or vaksh-sthala of the statue closely resembles Lord Krishna’s attractive chest’, not the face”.

The beautiful statue was also installed in Vrindavan in a grand temple and was named Sri Radha Gopinath - Gopinath, the beloved of the gopis - as Krishna used to embrace the gopis to his chest where His heart is..

Disappointed but not daunted, the sculptor was again asked to work on a third statue and once again Uttara went to great pains to describe each and every feature of the Lord’s face, His lotus eyes, His prominent and long nose, His rounded cheeks, His full lips and shapely chin etc.

Finally when the sculptor had done his job, Uttara was brought in to examine the statue, and this time, she had one look and quickly covered her head with her veil! Yes, the face looked exactly like His, she said nodding. Vajranabh was overjoyed.

This charming deity was also consecrated in Vrindavan and was named Sri Radha Govind.

Vrajanabha, Lord Krishna's great-grandson, installed the original Gopinath Deity in Vrindavan over 5000 years ago. In due course of time, Vrindavan was completely overgrown by forest and bushes with only ancient ruins of temple structures hidden underneath.

There are two different accounts of the re-appearance of Shri Gopinath who was first worshipped at Vamsi Vat in Vrindavan 500 years ago. According to one of them, in a vision Lord Krishna appeared before Paramananda Bhattacharya and instructed him to dig his deity out from a mound of earth in Vamsi Vat.

The other version says it was Madhu Pandit who unearthed the deity when he dug up the earth adjacent to ancient Vamsi Vat to plant a branch from the old dying tree, so it would not disappear altogether. Madhu Pandit is largely credited with re-discovering and installing the Radha Gopinath deity.

Madhu Pandit was a disciple of Gadadhar Pandit in Navadweep and had gone to Vrindavan to “find Krishna” or die trying. Madhu Pandit worshipped the deity for 40 years in his modest hut.
Many years later Raja Raesaal Shekhawat (Rae Shilji) of Jaipur arranged for the construction of the present red sandstone temple for Him, sometime after Emperor Akbar’s visit to Braj Vrindavan in 1573 AD.
 
Madhu Pandit Goswami blessed Srinivas Acharya with Sri Gopinath’s garland just before Srinivas, Narottama, and Shyamananda departed Vrindavan for Bengal, with a bullock cart containing all the Goswami granthas.  

Madhu Pandit Goswami serves as Mandali-sakhi in the group of Champakalata-sakhi in the nitya leela in Golok Dham. 

Sri Radha Gopinath’s Miracles

In 1582, Nityananda Prabhu’s wife Jahnava Thakurani travelled from Navadweep to Vrindavan to meet the Goswamis and to have darshan of the Dham. As she was having darshan of Shri Radha-Gopinath, she reflected that the deity of Radhika was too small and that‚ if Radhika had been a little taller, the couple would look much more beautiful. Jahnava Thakurani returned to her dwelling place after beholding the evening aarti. That night, in a dream, Shri Gopinath asked Jahnava to arrange for a taller deity of Radharani. She received similar instructions from Radharani too and had a deity of Her made that was of a more proportionate size for the deity of Gopinath.

According to legend, on a subsequent trip to Vrindavan some years later, while gazing on Him, feeling the deepest love, she merged into this very deity of Gopinath, who today stands in Jaipur, having been moved there from Vrindavan in the 17th century. It is said that Shri Gopinath pulled her onto the altar and placed her on His right, where she resumed her eternal Vraja-lila form as Ananga Manjari (the younger sister of Smt. Radharani). Some say that when Gopinath pulled her onto the alter, she transformed into a deity, who stands by His side.

The Only Deity to Wear A Watch

One of the distinctive features of Sri Gopinath is that He has been wearing a wrist-watch for the past 40 years. Per local legend, once an Englishman in Jaipur visited the temple and was told that the deity is a living one and that He feels heat, cold, hunger and thirst. The Englishman smirked and gave his wristwatch for the deity to wear saying it only worked on the pulse beat of a person and he wanted to verify the information that Gopinath ji was a living deity. The watch was put on the Lords left hand. Lo and Behold! To his utter shock, the watch started ticking! Gopinath did not return the watch. To this day, more than 50 years since, the watch functions perfectly and only stops when it is removed in order to change the Lord’s clothes. When the watch is stapped back on Gopinath ji’s wrist, it starts ticking.

The original deity of Gopinath ji is located in a haveli in Tripolia Bazar area of Jaipur. It was moved there in mid-17th century to prevent desecration at the hands of Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb’s forces.

A pratibhu vigraha of Sri Radha Gopinath was subsequently installed in the same Radha Gopinath Mandir in Vrindavan where He is worshipped lovingly. The samadhi of Srila Madhu Pandita is located in the east side of the temple in Vrindavan.

 

Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Ki Jai !!
Jai Jai Sri Radhe!