Sri Dauji

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Approximately half an hour drive from Gokula is the famous temple of Dauji. Established by Vajranabha, the great-grandson of Krishna around 4900 years ago, Sri Dauji is one of the 16 original Deities that were carved under the personal supervision of Vajranabha. Presiding over the southern petal in the lotus of Vraja, Sri Dauji is also one of the four presiding Deities of Vrindavan Dauji which literately means "elder brother" is a name for Lord Balarama and is with his height of 2 meters is the largest Deity of Vrindavan.

 

Pilgrims habituated of seeing Lord Balarama in his usual white color may be surprised to find this Deity is different. Dark complexioned Sri Dauji has his eyes opened wide. His right hand is raised and His left hand is holding a cup with Varuni beverage. His consort Revati devi is facing her Lord. Standing with her back to the wall to the left of the front altar door she can only be viewed from the right side door.

 

On the backside of the temple we find the Ksira Sagar Kunda.

 

Ksira Sagar means "Sea of Milk." Narration has it that this kunda had been constructed long time ago by the Vrajavasis, who filled it with the milk of 100.000 cows as an offering to Sri Balarama. For some time Sri Dauji has also remained hidden within this milk kunda.

 

A famous story about this temple dates back to the times of the Moslem king Aurangzep. Evil minded and demoniac in nature he had already destroyed many Hindu temples. Yet, completely intoxicated by pride he approached a Hindu scholar in order to find out who was the most powerful of all the Hindus. The Hindu scholar named Sri Dauji as the most powerful. Whereupon Aurangzep together with his army set out to destroy "this powerful Hindu God" intending to establish himself by this act as the most powerful.

 

 

 

Putting his evil mind to work, he convened a large army and set out to Dauji mandir. Marching for many days without reaching the temple, he began asking the village people how long it would take to get to Dauji? Whereupon he received the answer that it was only 15 minutes this way. Marching for another 6 hours they finally had to take rest.

 

The next day the army started off again. Once again they spent the whole day walking. Every time they asked, they received the same answer: "Oh, only 15 minutes this way." This way he marched with his army for many days when finally Aurangzep became very frustrated and declared in despair that Dauji was too powerful and couldn't be reached. Then the big demon, the big asura started to pray. Praying to Dauji he promised not to do any harm to His temple, but begged Him to let him have His darshan. 15 minutes later they had reached the temple. Then the king was granted mercy. He came, offering his obeisances to Dauji and he admitted that Dauji was so powerful that he couldn't do anything other than give total support to His temple, putting his word into deed he made a large land donation. This original document, signed by Aurangzep, giving this land donation to the Dauji mandir is still preserved in the Vrindavan museum in Raman-reti and can be seen there.

 

The worship of Sri Dauji has been going on for around 5000 years and our Guru Maharaja, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has taken the glory of Dauji all over the world.