Vrndavana Gaura Purnima festival part 2

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Then we proceeded to Nanda Baba's palace where there are 84 pillars. The 84

pillars represents the 8,4OO,OOO species of life, said to be built by

Vishvakarma himself, the architect of the demigods. There were no Hari Katha

in this area as the pandas are famous for harassing the pilgrims for

donation. There are Deities of Krsna and Balarama in Nanda Baba's palace.

Usually the pandas will ask you to sit down and have you wait for few

minutes and then will ask you to crawl in order to get in. This is a

technique to get you become submissive so that donation will be easier to

get from anybody. We did not follow this and went through another gate.

Maharaja forced his way in being followed by me and the rest of all the

devotees. The darshan was closed at the time we went inside but then we

started to have a huge kirtan, and lo, the curtains opened as if Krsna and

Balarama would like to see who just arrived. We offered our obeisances,

continued to have kirtan for sometime and didn't waste our time wandering

around. We left the palace from the same entrance we we went in. This is

some kind of a miracle, we were not expecting to have darshan of Their

Lordships as the curtains were closed when we went in and we did and finally

the pandas did not give us trouble at all because of the Kirtan and the way

we went through the whole thing.

 

Then we went to Raman Reti, a short distance from Nanda Baba's palace. This

is a replica of the same Raman Reti in Vrndavana where Krsna and Balarama

and the Gopas would do their daily sports, playing in the sand. The sand

here is so fine that even if somebody throw the sand into your eyes, they

will not get hurt. Unbelievable! We took our morning breakfast here. More

Hari Katha from Maharaja and we left around 1:OO pm to go back to Sri Krsna

Balaram Mandir.

 

 

Day 2 of Parikrama, 2nd of April - Varshana:

 

We left Sri Krsna Balarama Mandira around 5:45am and reached Varshana around

7:OOam.

 

We passed through the place known as Sankari Kor. A very narrow passage

where many tax lilas were performed between Radha and Krsna, the Gopis and

the Gopas 5,OOO years ago. Since it is still quite early in the morning no

pandas were around. One youth tried to stop us though but of no avail to 2OO

strong devotees. Much to our surprise we were greeted by a dancing peacock

at Chitsoli, the village of Lalita Sakhi. The peacock was dancing with his

feathers wide open, no shorter than 8 feet long for the pleasure of the

devotees. A very auspicious sign indeed and one of the most cherished

moments in our entire parikrama. Few devotees took photos to record such a

most sought after moment of every photo enthusiasts. We are coming not as

tourist or sightseers but beggars for krpa or mercy from the Divine Couple.

 

Then we proceed to Gevarvana. Five thousand years ago this place was densely

populated by desire trees and so the place is very highly concealed that

even the sunlight cannot enter inside. Outsiders cannot see inside and so it

is a very highly confidential place, very private place, and many caves

could be found here. On top of the hill there is a peacock temple, Moir

Kutir. There is one siddha Baba who is blind and one night he had a vision

of Krsna and Radha dancing like peacocks. He asked his assistant to get some

painting material and from the vision within his heart he painted this

pastimes of the Divine Couple dancing as peacocks. Unfortunately, some

unscrupolous personalities stole the painting few years ago. What could be

found there now is some kind of a replica of the original painting. Varshana

is an incarnation of Lord Brahma. He performed tapasya last Satya Yuga. Due

to his austerities Lord Krsna became pleased with him and thus gave him a

boon to assist Srimati Radharani in Her pastimes. Even today one can see or

trace many white drops of milk on the rocks where tax pastimes were

performed. Every year the same pastimes is being reenacted by the

Vrajavasis, both man and women dressed up for the occassion.

 

In order to avoid "wrestling" with the pandas from the major temples in

Gokul at Nanda Baba's palace and in Varshana at Larli Lal mandir, Mahaniddhi

Swami decided to talk more of the Hari Katha nearby, not at the main

temples. Our strategy is to get in quick, have a quick darshan - pray to the

Supreme Lord to somehow give us the mercy so that we may be able to have

darshan of Him and His eternal Consort in the near future, and then we would

quickly exit. Somehow, this technique worked without much problems with the

pandas. Much to the amazement of Maharaja, he said that there is nothing

quite like this in the history of him going on parikramas for the last 2O

years in Vraja. No trouble at all with the pandas, "must be Radharani's

mercy", Maharaja quipped.

 

TO BE CONTINUED