Temple Opening in Pandharpur

[Guest guest]

More than twenty years ago, the first Marathi Bhagavad-gitas were coming off

the press. Bhima das brahmacari grabbed the first 1000 copies and jumped in a

van with several other devotees including Lokanatha das brahmacari and headed

for a big yearly festival in Pandharpur. They arrived, setup a book table and,

with whatever little Marathi he knew, Bhima das and party began distributing

Marathi Bhagavad-gitas as fast as they could. Before the end of the day, the

whole stock was exhausted.

 

Now those seeds planted so long ago have fructified in the form of a simple but

beautiful temple resting on the peaceful banks of the Chandrabhaga River just

on the opposite bank from the famous Vitthala temple of Pandharpur. This was a

long cherished dream of His Holiness Lokanatha Swami, whose birthplace is just

nearby. And presiding over this temple are the strikingly beautiful Deities of

Radha Pandharinatha who were installed in a wonderful festival attended by over

2000 devotees from the 19-21st September.

 

We arrived one day after the festival began with the Adivasa ceremonies and

supposedly a procession with the utsava Deities around the temple of Vitthala.

I was a little sad that we missed the procession, but on arriving at 3 am in

Solarpur, we learned that because of rain, the procession had been postponed.

In Solarpur, there is a small preaching center run by Ekalavya Das, disciple of

Lokanatha Swami whom many of you have seen enlivening kirtans with his avid

trumpet playing. We were whisked away by some of the devotees to their center

where we bathed and rested from our journey. Pandharpur is 400 km. Southeast of

Bombay and 250 km. Inland from the Arabian Sea, so it is quite a long journey.

 

Then one of the devotees of Solarpur, Upananda Prabhu, drove our party very

comfortably the 60 or so kms to Pandharpur. We arrived just in time for morning

prasadam and were greeted by rivers of devotees flowing out from all the doors

of the temple after the morning program. The weather was very pleasant with

cool breezes blowing as it was raining almost daily, unfortunately always at

the time of lunch prasadam. Although the prasad pandal was waterproof, that

didn't keep the water from streaming inside on the floor, so everyone ended up

standing around honoring prasadam. But the mood was so ecstatic and association

of devotees so blissful, no one really seemed to be bothered by this small

inconvenience.

 

And prasadam was always in abundance, no matter when devotees arrived, they

received full plates of prasadam. All the prasadam for the festival was

sponsored by one devotee, Sri T. K. Chaudhury, from Doha. In the evenings the

devotees would cross the river and do Food for Life in Pandharpur.

 

Later there was the eye opening ceremony for the Deities performed by His

Holiness Radhanatha Swami and then a yajna for calling Their Lordships to be

present in every limb of the Deities. All these ceremonies were very lovingly

done with painstaking meticulousness by a very sincere devotee from Bangalore,

Sitalanga Gauranga Prabhu assited by Seva Atula from Juhu.

 

Later all the senior devotees present gave short lectures. Revathi Raman,

president of ISKCON Tirupati mentioned how the atmosphere of Pandharpur was

more like Vrindavan with simple pilgrims coming singing songs of bhakti

composed by great Marathi Vaisnavas like Tukaram and Namdev. He was really

touched by this, since in Tirupati everyone comes more in a mood of asking some

material benediction. He mentioned that one Panda in Puri told him that when

the Lord is hungry, then He comes to Puri and fills His belly. After eating, He

wants to do some exercise, so He goes to Vrindavan and dances with the gopis.

Then when He is tired, He goes to Ranganatha to rest. After resting then He

wants to do something, so He goes to Tirupati to do business.

 

Bhima Prabhu told of those early days of book distribution in Pandharpur. One

Lifemember and supporter of the temple, Mr. Malhotra told how he was so happy

that there was now a Radha Krishna Mandir here and told about the simple bhakti

of the local devotees who are known as Varkaris. Sanaka Sanatana, the German

temple president, told how beyond his understanding, the whole temple just came

together by the Lord's will. Sanaka Sanatana really worked hard to make this

temple and was running around with his German precision to make sure the

festival was a success.

 

In my lecture I mentioned that seeing the Deities without being fully dressed

and decorated, it seems that Radharani is very shy and demure and in the

background. Pandharinatha with His charming high cheekbones and impish smile

like Mother Yashoda just caught Him with His hand in the butter pot is stealing

the show. They seem to be the compliments of our Vrindavan Deities where

Radharani always steals the show. (See the attached picture.)

 

In the afternoon, all the devotees took a sankirtan procession on boats to the

other shore of the River Bhima. From the boats we could see how the river curls

around Pandharpur in the shape of a moon, thus getting the name Chandrabhaga at

this place. We took the utsava Deities on a flower decorated palaquin on a boat

with all the senior devotees. Then we did an exuberant kirtana up to the Temple

of Vitthala. All the devotees rushed in to take darshan of Lord Vitthala. One

has to go through railings winding back and forth as there are many occasions

where thousands of people come. In fact, next door to the temple is a seven

story building that looks just like a multilevel parking lot you would see

downtown in the west. It is meant just for big festivals to put the pilgrims in

line and they walk about 5 kms and stand in line fifteen hours.

 

The devotees finally come through railings one by one to the Deity room and

find Lord Vitthala standing on His brick. Everyone actually enters and actually

puts his head and hands on the Lotus feet of the Lord. From doing this for

thousands of years, His feet have almost been worn away! Then one goes around

the back to another temple where Rukmini also resides in the same pose with Her

hands on Her hips.

 

The kirtana party regrouped at the back of the temple and continued doing

kirtana through the town. Finally they came back to the banks of the river and

crossed over on boats to the other shore.

 

Then Radhanatha Maharaja gave a wonderful lecture on the glories of Pandharpur,

highlighting the significance for the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Five thousand years

there was a devotee named Pundarika, called Pundalika in the local language.

His parents were very great Vaisnavas and he was always faithfully engaged in

their service. One day, the Lord was so pleased with Pundalika's service to His

devotees that He personally came from Dvaraka to see him. When He arrived,

Pundalika was very busy serving his old devotee parents and being very poor, he

offered a Lord a brick to stand on and told Him to wait. He waited like that

with his hands on His hips enjoying seeing Pundalika serving His devotees. So

He never left and still He's standing like this in the Temple. He got the name

Vitthala which means standing in the local language.

 

Lord Balarama also came here on pilgrimage when the Kuruksetra Battle was going

on. Later five hundred years ago, Lord Nityananda visited this place and stayed

with a brahmana godbrother of Madhavendra Puri. Later the guru of that

brahmana, Sri Laksmipati came and according to an order from Lord Balarama in a

dream, he initiated Lord Nityananda. Lord Gauranga visited Pandharpur on His

South Indian tour, apparently searching for His brother Visvarupa. He met one

Brahmin here named Ranga Puri, godbrother of His guru, Isvara Puri. Ranga Puri

informed Mahaprabhu that Visvarupa had taken sannyas and became known as

Sankararanya. He finally came to Pandharpur and having achieved perfection, he

entered into samadhi here.

 

After this class that went very late in the evening, the utsava Deities were

put on a swing and a few on the senior devotees swung Their Lordships. Then

hundreds of little ghee lamps were lit all around the altar and all the

electric lights were turned off. His Holiness Lokanatha Maharaja performed a

very special artika with some many different lamps. Some with five wicks, some

with eleven wicks, some with eight, one shaped like a five-headed cobra with a

wick on each head. One shaped like a tower with many wicks. It created a very

enchanting atmosphere. And then the utsava Deities were put to rest on a very

special bed as part of the installation procedures.

 

Next morning after an ecstatic Guru Puja, Lokanatha Maharaja sat on the

Vyasasana to give class and instead led ecstatic kirtans for which he is

renowned. In fact, the time for abhisheka came and he still continued kirtana.

All the senior devotees present took part in a very joyful abhisheka performed

with the traditional milk, honey, ghee, sugar water, and plain water. Bhima

Prabhu was seen constantly on the altar organizing and engaging all the

devotees. Then it culminated with bathing Their Lordships with various types of

fruit juices. For the grand finale, there was the Sahasradhara Abhishek, or

pouring water over Their Lordships through a pan with hundreds of holes. First

there was yellow water, then orange, and with each color change, the devotees

roared with Haribol. Then red, purple, green, and again finally plain water.

Lokanatha Maharaja, in the joy of a dream come true, was still jubilantly

leading kirtana.

 

While Their Lordships were being dressed, decorated, and offered Chappan Bhoga

(56 offerings), the devotees went for taking breakfast prasadam. Lokanatha

Maharaja kept on going with his melodious kirtanas.

 

When the word went out that it was time for the first darshan, all the devotees

rushed to the temple room in intense anticipation. Lokanatha Swami appeared

from behind the curtain to blow the conch. Then it seemed like an eternity

while he washed the conch and got ready to open the curtain. When the curtain

finally opened, we were all plunged into even more anxiety as so much incense

smoke billowed out, we could barely make out the forms of Their Lordships.

Someone handed me the mike and I began kirtana. As we chanted, it was as if our

hearts were being cleansed and gradually we were able to clearly see the

exceedingly enchanting forms of Sri Sri Radha Pandharinatha. Everyone was

overwhelmed by Their captivating beauty.

 

In the evening, Sanaka Sanatana performed the first Sandhya Artika. Then

Sarvabhauma Prabhu gave class saying that it was very rare to find a Radha

Krishna Temple in Maharastra outside of the Bombay area as all are like

Vitthala Temple with only Krishna alone. This was a very important temple in

that sense. But he said that Radharani is standing a little back as She seems

to be worried that today the ISKCON devotees are here, but tomorrow the local

devotees may come and they will try to touch the feet of Pandharinatha as they

are used to do with Vitthala and look up and say hey, what's She doing here!

 

At the end of his lecture, he asked me, now what was my realization of Radha

Pandharinatha. I said when I see the shining face of Pandharinatha with His

delightful three-fold bending form, then I think that He's stealing the show,

as Radharani is very shy and demure. But when I look at Radharani, now that

She's completely decorated, there's such a charming sweetness in Her shyness,

that I think that She's stealing the show. Then again I look at the dynamic

beauty of Pandharinatha, I think He's stealing the show. After a while it

becomes apparent that there's an eternal competition going on between Them!

 

To complete evening, the children of the Solapur congregation performed a

typical folkdance of Krishna and the gopis. Afterwards a singing troupe from

the congregation of nearby Raichur, sang bhajans in classical melodies. Then to

serenade Their Lordships to rest, they played two fascinating evening ragas of

shenai music.

 

The following day was Radhastami, the first festival of the new Temple. There

were enlivening classes by Sarvabhauma Prabhu, Bhagavan Das, who originally was

translating books into Marathi, and myself. Then all the devotees

circumabulated the temple three times with the kalasha and flag. Several

devotees headed by Sitalanga Gauranga Prabhu climbed up the bamboo scaffolding

while Lokanatha Swami watched from the roof. They then established the Kalasha

and flag on top of the dome.

 

Ultimately we concluded that the other side of the river where Vitthala was

standing alone is Mathura. The Chandrabhaga is the Yamuna. Then on our side

where the beautiful Radha Pandharinatha preside is Gokula.