Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

Author(s): Shrivatsa Goswami

Reviewed work(s):
Source: India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3/4, JOURNEYS HEROES, PILGRIMS,
EXPLORERS (WINTER 2003-SPRING 2004), pp. 198-214
Published by: India International Centre
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 Darshan of Shri Radharaman, Vrindavan
photo credit: Robyn Beeche

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 Shrivatsa Goswami

Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

time immemorial people have been attracted to the land of

Krishna, called Vraja-Vrindavan. Lord Buddha, a great traveller,
From was also attracted to Vraja-Vrindavan and he journeyed there.
The Anguttara Nikaya documents the Buddha's disappointment with
the place, where he found the landscape very dusty and the roads
uneven and infested with ferocious dogs. There were many Mother
Goddesses and indomitable yakshas, and finally few alms

forthcoming!
Today, visitors from far and wide are attracted to Krishna's
Vrindavan which lies one hundred and thirty kms south of Delhi. Yet
in the early sixteenth century when Vallabhacharya, a great saint

philosopher devoted to Krishna came to Mathura and Vraja, he did

not find any pilgrim destination called Vrindavan. However, inspired
by his devotion, he created his own Vrindavan east of the hill of
Govardhan, in a village called Mehmoodpur. Soon after in 1515
Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came from Jagannatha Puri to Vraja.
He too was taken all around, but there was no Vrindavan to be found.
How had the famous playground of Krishna gone into oblivion? And
how did Vrindavan emerge as an important pilgrimage and cultural
centre today? All this happened through the dynamics of a journey: a

yatra lila and the lila of the yatris.

Born in 1486, Shri Chaitanyagrew up in the scholarly town of

Navadvipa in Bengal. His sharpintellect and polemical mind may

have generated fear in any scholar daring to challenge him. After the
death of his father the young Vishvambhara or Nimai as he was known
then, became a householder and started a Sanskrit school (tol) for

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200 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

Footprints: Shri Chaitanya prostrates himself

tempera on canvas by Ganesh Pyne, 1975
Collection: Mukund Lath, Jaipur

imparting scholastic education. To carry on his responsibilities as a

householder he travelled to northern and eastern Bengal, and while
he was away his wife Lakshmi died. At the insistence of his mother
Sachi Vishvambhara married Vishnupriya, his second wife.
Towards the end of 1508 he took a journey to Gaya to make

offerings for his departed father. The journey to Gaya was

Vishvambhara's journey from arrogant scholasticism to devotion.

Worshipping the Feet of the Lord and encountering a devout ascetic,

Isvara Puri, the arrogant scholar returned home as an ecstatic devotee.
Isvara Puri put Chaitanya on to a journey of a different nature, by

initiating him with the gopala mantra. When he resumed teaching at

his tol, Chaitanya found new meaning in the rules of grammar, poetics
and metaphysics. All his words and teachings had only one meaning—
Krishna. This ecstatic epiphany was beyond common understanding;
his well-wishers even suggested that he be treated for madness.
Vishvambhara had to close down his school and began to spend his
time in the company of close associates with whom he would be
closeted, drowned in singing the divine name.
But the doors of Srivasa could neither contain Vishvambhara nor
his sankirtan, as
they moved out into every lane and street of

Navadvipa. Many felt that Vishvambhara was moving away from

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 Shrivatsa Goswami / 201

tradition. The orthodox establishment, in collusion with the local

Muslim magistrate, the kazi, banned the sankirtan in public places;
and those who defied the order were severely punished.
Vishvambhara did not succumb to this pressure, nor did he accept
the ban on his freedom
of religious expression. He led a rally of the

chanting devotees and kept the magistrate's house under siege, until
a total and unconditional freedom of religious practice was restored.

By this time Vishvambhara was ready to make another journey.

At the age of twenty-four in 1510 he left his mother and wife and the
life of a householder to become an ascetic. He was initiated by Keshav
Bharati and renamed Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Vishvambhara renounced
his family and his town to embrace the whole world as Chaitanya—
to awaken the consciousness of Krishna in the hearts of all. Along
with his few close associates, Chaitanya travelled to Jagannatha Puri
via Jaleswar, Remuna, Jajpur, Cuttack and Bhuvanesvar in Orissa. He

stayed there for a few weeks, to receive darshan of Lord Jagannatha,

meet scholars like Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, and move on further
south. After worshipping Narasimha he reached Vidyanagar on the
banks of Godavari, accompanied by a solitary companion.
The major part of Orissa was under the rule of Gajapati

Prataprudra. Raya Ramananda was an erudite scholar, especially in

the philosophy of bhakti, and the governor of the province of Raja
Mahendri. Chaitanya entered into long philosophical discussions with
Ramananda which lasted several days. What emerged from these
discussions was to become the foundation of Chaitanyite philosophy,
aesthetics and ritualism.

Chaitanya smiled and said to Ramananda: "I have taken this

long journey to reveal the Absolute reality. Please elaborate the reality
of Krishna, Radha, rasa and prema". Ramananda's response was that
Krishna is the Supreme Godhead himself. He is not an avatara but
takes incarnations in different forms. His body is made of sat (the
real), chit (consciousness), ananda (bliss), and 'that' alone is the son of
Nanda. He is the embodiment of amorous love, king among the rasas'.
He attracts and steals the heart and soul of everyone including himself.
But what is the Absolute reality, what is Bhagvan, the ultimate

omnipotent Being without its potencies? The ultimate reality has

innumerable manifestations of its potency, but they can be categorised
under three main shaktis; the first is internal conscious power; the
second is external maya, the power of the material world; and the
third is the potency of individual souls, including those of humans.

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202 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

The power to give bliss is Radha, who gives ananda to Krishna and
his devotees. The essence of Radha is undefiled love. The absolute
and pure state of emotion is embodied in Radha.
Ramananda's lucid and unprecedented exposition of the rasa

system of philosophy sent Chaitanya into ecstasy. Ramananda was

himself amply rewarded when he saw the 'king of rasa' and 'absolute
emotion' (mahabhava) jointly embodied in the body of Chaitanya.
The rasika Chaitanya, thus fully manifesting the philosophy and

system of rasa through Raya Ramananda, moved on. He asked

Ramananda to come and stay with him in Jagannatha Puri. Chaitanya
visited the famous temples and pilgrim places of Tirupati, Pana

Narasimha, Shiva Kanchi, Vishnu Kanchi, Kalahasti. Via Paksitirtha

he arrived at the banks of the Kaveri where stood the famous temple
of Ranganath or Sri Rangam, adored and worshipped by the famous
Alwar saints, and where devotional institutions were established by
the great
Ramanuja Acharya. The vision of Ranganath threw

Chaitanya into fits of ecstasy; when he regained consciousness he

found himself in the garden of Vainkata Bhatta, the chief priest of the

Ranganath temple.
The Bhatta family requested Chaitanya to perform his

chaturmasya as their guest, the four-month stay of an ascetic during

the rains. Chaitanya accepted the invitation and the ten-year-old

Gopala Bhatta, Venkata's son, was

appointed to attend upon him.
During these four months, Gopala Bhatta had the privilege of listening
to Chaitanya reading the Bhagavata to the Bhatta family. From
Chaitanya he received
the discipline and the shastra of bhakti. Before

resuming his journey further south, Sri Chaitanya took leave of the
Bhatta family, who made some ritual offerings to this holy man; but
the ascetic Chaitanya politely declined to accept anything. When the
Bhattas said in desperation that Chaitanya was not accepting their

gift because he was not happy with their hospitality, Chaitanya finally
agreed to receive a gift of his own choice. He settled for nothing other
than Gopala Bhatta, the only child among the three Bhatta priests.
To keep the honour of their word, the child was given away.

Chaitanya left the boy behind with a request that he be groomed as a

thorough-bred In the final meeting he had a very interesting

scholar.

question-answer session with the young Gopala. Chaitanya asked,

"What is the essence of all the wisdom?" Gopala replied, "that which
makes one a devotee of Krishna."

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 Shrivatsa Goswami / 203

Who is glorious? "A non-conceited devotee of Krishna."

Who is wealthy? "One who has love for the divine couple."
What is suffering? "The separation of a devotee from Krishna."
Who is liberated? "Lover of Krishna."
Which is the song? "Where the love games of the couple are sung."
What is a desired blessing in life? "The company of a Krishna
devotee."
What is to be remembered? "The name, attributes and the

pastimes of Krishna."
What is the focus of meditation? "The divine feet."
The place to live? "The land of Sridham Vrindavan."
What is to be heard? "About the place of the divine couple."
What is to be worshipped? "The holy Radha/Krishna names."
Who is unfortunate? "A scholar without devotion."
Who is fortunate? "A lover of Krishna drinking His nectar."
All these answers filled Chaitanya with the assurance that Gopala
was neither too young to receive his initiation, nor was his mind too

undeveloped to grasp the essence of his teachings.

From Srirangam Chaitanya moved to Ramesvaram, visiting
Madurai and other holy places on the way. From there he moved north
via the west coast. After visiting places such as Pandharapur he
reached Nasik, the source of the Godavari River. Then he cut across to

Ujjain to return to Puri via Rajamahendri. On the west coast, Chaitanya

found manuscripts of two important texts. One is Brahma Samhita
which declares the supremacy of Lord Krishna, and states that apart
from Krishna everything else is in the feminine mode. The second

important manuscript was of Krishna Karnamrta, in which Lilasuka

Vilvamanagala had sung the lilas of Krishna.

II

the autumn of 1515, Chaitanya set out on the journey of his

lifetime. As soon as the rains
Chaitanya left Jagannatha
ceased,
In Puri for Vrindavan, the abode of Sri Krishna. He was accompanied
by a solitary attendant, Balabhadra Bhattacharya, and this time he
cut across Mayurbhanj and the Jharkhand areas. The previous year
he had left on the same
journey to Vrindavan with a large number of
devotees; but hostility between Muslim rulers of Bengal and the Hindu
king of Orissa did not provide an environment for safe travel.

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204 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

On arrival, Chaitanya took a customary bath for pilgrims at the

famous Vishramghat in Mathura; then he visited the Keshavadeva

temple at the birthplace of Krishna. It was revealed that Chaitanya's

guru's guru, Madhavendra Puri, had visited a local Brahman in the

temple during his sojourn

of Vraja. Chaitanya requested him to be his

pilgrim guide and

together they visited many places before reaching
Govardhan, where the deity Gopala was installed on the hilltop. Sri

Chaitanya was very keen to visit that temple as it was founded by

Madhavendra Puri; but he was unable to climb the hill because, for
him, every single stone of Govardhan was the icon of Sri Krishna. He
was disappointed for not being able to have darshan of Gopala; but
Krishna did
not disappoint Chaitanya, and sent help from a most

unlikely quarter. At news of the invasion of Vraja and Agra by the

Lodhis, the priests of Gopala took the deity away for safety to a nearby
village. Chaitanya rushed to the village of Gantholi and spent three

days of ecstasy in darshan of Gopala.

On the fourth day the deity was restored on the hilltop, and on
the next day Chaitanya did parikrama of Mount Govardhan. At its
northern end he searched for the Radhakunda and Shyamkund, but
no one could tell him where they were. He himself pointed towards
two paddy fields as the lost kundas. Today two gorgeous water bodies
adorn this landscape, and are worshipped by millions. Chaitanya then

requested his pilgrim guide to take him to Vrindavan; but that was
not to happen, because Vrindavan had vanished from memory. The

priest took Chaitanya here and there covering many sites in the sacred
geography of Vraja; but all these visits did not satisfy him. All this
while he was dreaming of visiting Vrindavan, but that was not to be.

Chaitanya abandoned the pilgrimage, but not the hope of finding

Vrindavan. He settled himself at Akrura Ghat on the bank of the
Yamuna five kms north of Mathura. This old temple celebrated an

episode in Krishna's life: Krishna's boyhood friends, to satisfy their

hunger while
playing in the forests of Vrindavan, had gone to ask for
food from the wives of the priests performing sacrifices. The priests
would not allow the ritual food to be given away to the cowherds.

Seeing the gopas, the wives of the priests were very willing to break
the ritual rules and offer the sacred rice to Krishna and his friends.
Here Chaitanya spent his time in meditation, chanting and

remembering Krishna and his pastimes in Vrindavan.

For solitude Chaitanya used to slip in the wild arid land further
north, to sit and meditate under a tree on the banks of Yamuna. The

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 Shrivatsa Goswami / 205

peninsula formed by the river had no buildings, no ghats, no temples,

and not much habitation. Occasionally, officers and members of the
Lodhi entourage would come there to hunt for wild boars. One day
on the full moon of the month of Kartik, sitting under a huge kadamba
tree at Chirghat, Chaitanya started talking to the tree. "You are a tree
of great antiquity, you must have witnessed Krishna play around you."
That night was the night of Rasa Purnima when Krishna had danced
the divine Rasalila with the gopis at Vrindavan, as described in the

Bhagvata Purana. That piece of land on which he sat was revealed to

Chaitanya as the area of the celestial dance! In ecstasy, Chaitanya did

not go back to Akrura Ghat. Instead, he danced in the new-found
Vrindavan with
every tree and creeper, bird and animal under the
bright autumn moon. That night Vrindavan was recreated by
Chaitanya. After four to five months' stay in Vraja-Vrindavan,
Chaitanya returned along the route of the Ganga to Prayag
(Allahabad).
When they came to know about Chaitanya's visit to Vrindavan,
three able Hindu ministers of Nawab Husein Shah of Bengal, Sakir
Mallik, Dabir Kas, and Anupam Mallik, fled to join him on his journey.
The eldest, Sakir Mallik, better known as Sanatana Goswami, was
not as lucky as the younger Rupa and Vallabha (or Anupama).
Sanatana was detained and put into custody. Rupa and Vallabha traced

Chaitanya and met him in Prayag at the house of a south Indian priest.

Apart from discussing the Krishna lilas

with Mahaprabhu
Vallabhacharya, Chaitanya's main purpose of staying at Allahabad
was to initiate Rupa Goswami in the philosophy and discipline of
bhaktirasa, already propounded so elaborately in his discussions with

Raya Ramananda. For Chaitanya the rasa includes intensity of service

and devotion to Krishna, the informality of friendship, parental care
and the ultimate offering of oneself in love. Madhura bhaktirasa is the

highest aesthetic experience.

When Chaitanya had been in Varanasi earlier on his way to
Vrindavan he was extremely disappointed to see that no one was
interested in "buying" his philosophy of bhaktirasa.
Satisfied with Rupa Goswami's grasp of all this, he ordered him
to go to Vrindavan, and he himself walked back to Varanasi. In the
meantime Sanatana, who was in prison in Bengal, came to know

through Rupa Goswami about his meeting with Sri Chaitanya.

Desperate, Sanatana bribed his way out of prison, took unknown

routes, arrived in Varanasi dressed as a dervish, and met Chaitanya.

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206 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

Sri Chaitanya did not waste time and taught Santana the philosophy
and practice of Krishna devotion.

III

Ihe journeys of Chaitanya to south and north, west and east,

had finally come to cease after six years. He became a resident
-1. of Jagannatha Puri, occupying a very small hut, Gambhira. Now
his journeys were limited to the Jagannatha temple; but Chaitanya's
dialectic of journeys was in full swing. While Chaitanya was not

moving, other people were. Rupa Goswami and his brother Anupam
travelled towards Vrindavan, and after a few months they left for
Jagannatha Puri.
Unfortunately Anupam died on the banks of the

Ganga in Bengal. Rupa stayed in Jagannatha Puri for nearly ten

months, to be intensely instructed by Sri Chaitanya and his senior
devotees on the path of Krishna bhakti. His poetry and the initial

portions of the drama which he had already started at Vrindavan were

discussed and appreciated by this scholarly gathering. At the end of
the swing festival, Chaitanya bid Rupa farewell and blessed him.

Go to Vrindavan and remain there, and I at once shall send

Sanatana and others there. You determine the rasa shastras of Vraja
and recover all those pilgrimage places which have been hidden.

Preach the bhakti of the rasa of the service of Krishna, and I shall
go there once to see you.

So far in Vrindavan, the Goswamis gathered and led a life of

Vaishnava piety. Rupa Goswami used to do theparikmma of this sacred
land. One
day he was astonished to see a cow dropping milk by itself.
The scene was repeated for many successive days. One night a voice
came to him:

Rupa, you are not receiving the message given during the day;
now at night I direct you to go and dig me out from the spot where
the cow drops the milk.

Excited, Rupa could hardly wait for the morning. He gathered

all his companions and took help from outside to dig that mound of
the cow—and they could not believe what they found. This was the
black shining image of Govinda, playing the flute! News of the

appearance was immediately sent to their master Chaitanya at

Jagannatha Puri. Promptly came the orders: "Build a mansion of gold

for Govinda." Another specific order was for Gopala Bhatta, who was

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 Shrivatsa Goswami / 207

asked to undertake an arduous journey to Damodarakunda, a

Himalayan glacier in Nepal, the source of the river Gandaki. When

he returned to Vrindavana, Gopala Bhatta had found
twelve holy

shalagrama stones. Returning back, he also three young men,

found
Harivamsa, Gopinatha and Damodara from the town of Deobund,
later of Dar ul-Ulum fame.
While living in Jagannatha Puri, Chaitanya's heart and mind

constantly travelled to Vrindavan. One of his close devotees,

Jagadananda Pandit,
always desired
to go to Vrindavan; but he was
never permitted to do so by Chaitanya. When Rupa and Sanatana
had settled there, Chaitanya readily allowed him to go. He carried an

important message from Chaitanya to the Goswamis: "I am coming—

keep a place for me." An ecstatic Sanatana found an ancient structure

on the mound of the twelve
suns. He cleaned that place and built a
thatched-roof shelter
for Chaitanya. When Jagadananda Pandit

begged his leave, Sanatana gave him a few presents for Chaitanya:
some sand from the rasamandala and a stone (shila) of Mount
Govardhan, some driedripe pilu fruit and a garland of gunja seeds.
Chaitanya was very happy to receive these gifts, and to have news
from Vrindavan.
Around the year 1530, a messenger arrived in Vrindavan from

Jagannatha Puri with Chaitanya's loin cloth, his earthen pot, his
garland and his wooden seat. In Chaitanya's letter Rupa and Sanatana
were instructed to let Gopala Bhatta wear his loin cloth, put the garland
on his neck, sit on his ritual seat and be anointed as his successor.

Gopala Bhatta refused and went into depression. First of all, how could
he dare to wear his Master's clothes and garlands and sit on his sacred
seat? He took it to be blasphemy. But the real cause of his sadness was
the inkling that the Master was thinking of taking the journey away
from this world, and hence the need for appointing his successor.
Sanatana prevailed upon Gopala Bhatta's feelings by saying that a
disciple has no choice but to obey the orders of his guru, in letter and
spirit. Gopala Bhatta placed all the holy objects on his head while he
was anointed. The news and the couriers continued to travel back
and forth. In July 1533 one piece of news drowned everybody in the
ocean of misery. It was the news of Chaitanya's journey from this
world back to his heavenly abode—his journey from manifest to
unmanifest form.

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IV

Goswamis, Sanatana, Rupa,

Raghunathdas, Gopala Bhatta,
Raghunath Bhatta, Jiva, Bhugarbha and Lokanatha, dedicated
Eight themselves fully to Chaitanya's project in 'resurrecting Vraja
Vrindavan, the Dham of Krishna'. Keeping Vrindavan as their centre,
for some time they dispersed and lived at various places, including
Gokul, Nandgaon, Radhakund, Sanket and other places. The sacred

geography identified by Chaitanya during his journey to Vraja

Vrindavan was now being located on a physical map. The foremost
task of Chaitanya's managers was to create a corpus of literature which
was to cover Chaitanya's total vision of Krishna and his lilas. The

literary recreation provided a Krishnaite body to Panini's grammatical

spirit in Harinamamrta Vyakarana. The grammar and the aesthetics of

devotion were elaborately laid out and propounded in Bhaktirasamrta
Sindhu, Ujjvala Nilamani and Nataka Candrika. The plays and pastimes
of Krishna were captured in Lalita Madhava, Vidagdha Madhav, Madhava
Mahotsav, Gopala-Campu and so on. The code of conduct for Chaitanya's
vision of a Vaishnava lifestyle was elaborately codified in the
Haribhaktivilasa. In a rare feat of scholarship Gopala Bhatta had

compiled this magnum opus of twenty chapters, quoting elaborately

from 273 sources without the presence of any library!
The basis for all this creativity came from the teaching of

Chaitanya, who believed that the essential Krishna is the Krishna of

Vrindavan; the path to attain his love is to follow the path of the
devotion of the gopis; the summum bonum of human life is loving
devotion to Krishna; and the source of valid knowledge is the

Bhagavata Purana. Declaration of love as the fifth purusartha or goal

was an epiphany in the history of Indian spirituality, so far limited to
its fourfold goals. Chaitanya also established the fifth Veda: the

Bhagavata Purana, the fruit and nectar of all Vedic tradition. Yet this
was a journey away from tradition.
The Chaitanyaite philosophers propounding their system of

thought did not comment upon the mandatory texts of Upanishads,

the Gita and the Brahmasutra. Rather, they based their main

philosophical treaties, the famous Bhagavata Sandarbha, popularly

known as Sat-Sandarbha, on the Bhagavata Purana itself. They gave
elaborate commentaries upon the Bhagavata Purana like
Kramasandarbha, Brhat Vaisnava Toshini, Laghu Vaisnava Tosani. Their

theological viewpoints were presented through Brhat Bhagavata Amrita

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 Shrivatsa Goswami / 209

and Laghu Bhagavata Amrita. They delighted in collecting the anthology

of Vaishnava verses in Sanskrit in Padyavali. They commented upon
Lilasuka Bilvamangala's Krsnakarnamrta, which was rescued by
Chaitanya in his southern journeys. Their own experience of the rasa
of Krishna bhakti exploded in a very rich corpus of poetry, collected
in Stavavali, Stavamala and so on.
If the Bhagavata Purana provided the material for an amazing
creation of over seventy volumes, the tools were provided to the
Goswamis by Chaitanya in his logic of achintya-bheda-abheda. The

history of Indian logic and philosophy has moved through the dialectic
of duality and non duality, bheda and abheda. The Buddhist logician
Nagarjuna had
quickly realised the fact that both these logical

categories presuppose each other, hence they lack reality in themselves.

He declared that any conception about reality is false; and reality in
itself is devoidof any category of thought. Chaitanya took the positive
side of Nagarjuna, and he preferred to use his epistemological

terminology of advaya in place of Shankara's metaphysical term of

advaita. Following the Bhagavata Purana, Chaitanya and the Goswamis
declared that the ultimate reality is non-dual; but due to variety in
the capacity of its seeker, it appears variously Through the path of

knowledge, it is Brahman;
from the path of yoga and will power, it is
Paramatman; and through the path of love and devotion, reality
manifests as the blissful Bhagawan. Achintya-bheda-abheda provided
space for the inclusion of various possibilities of understanding, and
it possessed the capacity to transcend the seeming opposition.
Very assiduously the Goswamis had been working on

Chaitanya's command to create 'a mansion of gold' for the deity,

Govinda Deva. These religious leaders had no inhibition in carrying
on a dialogue with the political powers of the time. While they blessed
the Rajput kings of Amera, they were equally comfortable with the

Mughal rulers. This dialogue resulted in the building of the Govinda

Deva temple, which took twenty-four years to complete in 1590. In
the inscription of dedication they blessed the Mughal emperor as
"Akbar the Great, in whose reign people have freedom to openly

practice their own

religion".
The temple was not only a dialogue of the Rajput and Mughal

powers with the Goswamis of Vrindavan, but equally a dialogue

between Hindu and Islamic architectural techniques. Here intersecting
Persian arches were used for the first time to create a large space in
the main hall, to serve the needs of holding the Rasalila and ritual

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210 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

dance-dramas. It was also a dialogue between two cultures and

sensibilities. Akbar on his part, despite the ban on the use of the red
sandstone except for royal buildings, allowed the use of this stone.
The royal atelier, which had just finished building Fatehpur Sikri, was

provided by the emperor to create this unprecedented example of

Indian architecture. Building the temple on a traditional sarvatobhadra

ground plan, the Goswamis had the freedom to create exteriors

without the traditional embellishment with images, in order to respect
the Islamic sensitivities of the Mughals. An amazing dialogical
dalliance between the Islamic and Hindu spirit gave birth to a unique
child, called the temple of Govinda Deva.
The benefits of this dialogue were not only spiritual and cultural
but equally economic. The blessings to the Rajput kings brought a
tax-free status and the neighbouring
to Vrindavan area. The dialogue
with the emperor produced, at the end of the sixteenth century, a
declaration of Vrindavan as an independent revenue entity, wherein
all the land of the new Vrindavan was vested
with the deity of Govinda
Deva. Under the guardianship of Jiva Goswami there were rights to
sub-let the land rights to other temples, institutions and individuals

emerging in the new recreation of Vrindavan. Govinda Deva temple

alone had a grant of nine gold mohurs for its daily expenditures.

was not Chaitanya alone who had

consciously built his team;
the team was equally alert in reinforcing itself. In the 1530s Jiva
It Goswami had heard about a devout scholar in the Telangana

region. He sent a letter with a message that:

without worshipping the feet of Radha, without walking on the

land sanctified by Radha's walk, without tasting the name of
Radha and without living in the company of the devotees of Radha,
how can one even imagine tasting the nectar of Krishna?

Narayana Bhatta got the message when he was doing his

morning duties on the banks of the river of his village. Instead of

returning to his village he immediately set off on a journey to

Vrindavan, to join the Goswami club.

The aesthetic
experience of Krishna, his name, his forms and his

pastimes were manifest in an explosion of artistic creativity. Vrindavan

was the place of Krishna's famous dalliance and dance with the gopis

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 Shrivatsa Goswami/ 211

in the autumn full moon night—the very night in which Chaitanya

put his finger on this piece of land as the celestial Vrindavan. The re
enactment of that dance and other pastimes of Krishna as a musical
drama by devotees is the highest mode of religious realisation, that
is, Krishna's love. In dialogue with the Mughal court, the Goswamis
took the opportunity to collaborate with a court dancer, Vallabha, who

helped them to choreograph these dance dramas. Traditional Sanskrit

drama and folk plays were fused together; dhrupada and rasiya music

sang together; kathak and folk forms danced together; Sanskrit and
Braj bhasha spoke together in this dialogically inspired theatre form
which was revived by the Goswamis.
The temples of Govinda, Gopinath, Madan Mohan, Radha
Damodar, Radharaman, Vinodilal, Radha Shyam Sunder and others
became living houses of the Lord of Love. Culinary skills manifested
in offerings for the mouth of the Lord. The samaja singing, which was
based on dhrupad, fused with Buddhist chants and the qawali to make

offerings for the Lord's ears. The beautiful Sanjhi creations in the

temple courtyards incorporated both Vedic and Buddhist mandalas,

bringing great delight to Krishna's eyes. When it was summer, the
Lord would relax in beds of flowers. Ornaments and
dress gave
comfort to the bodies of the divine couple, competing in grandeur
with the dress and ornaments of the Rajput and Mughal courts.
Vrindavan and its surroundings became a vibrant destination.

VI

the realm of dialogue, an epiphany between the masculine and

feminine took place in Vrindavan itself. As instructed by
In Chaitanya, the Goswamis believed that the male is not opposed
to the female, or vice versa; they should not compete with each other.
Or if they must, then they should compete in dancing together to
create the blissful aesthetic experience of human existence. When Rupa
Goswami found the image of Govinda Deva, Chaitanya arranged to
send an image of Radha from Orissa with the words, "Govinda is

very lonely without his darling Radha."

When the Govinda Deva temple was being consecrated in 1590,

they installed the historical image of Krishna as Govinda Deva.

According to tradition this image had been consecrated by Krishna's

great-grandson, Bajranabha himself. That temple during the course

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212 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

of time had turned into the mound Rupa Goswami

where found the

image! And who would flank the left side at the lion throne in the
sanctum sanctorum of this grand temple? Would it be Lakshmi or
Rukmini or any of his other wives, or the powerful sister of Krishna,

Subhadra, as in the temple of Jagannatha Puri? The Goswamis decided

to honour none of them. They installed image of Radha sent
the same
earlier by Chaitanya—as the supreme divinity of the sacred geography
of Vraja-Vrindavan. These original images of Radha and Govinda made
a journey from Vrindavan to Rajasthan in the later part of the
seventeenth century. They are now housed in a beautiful temple of
that name in the Jai Niwas gardens of Jaipur. Radha is neither a

goddess nor a wife or a sister; she is just a woman beyond the accepted
social norms.
The Goswamis had the courage to celebrate pure womanhood!
In the realm of love, Radha reigns supreme because she can give
without any consideration for self-gratification in return. The central
doctrine of the Brahma Samhita, the text rescued by Chaitanya from
the south, says that in Vrindavan "Govinda alone is male; everybody
else is female, including the creator father Brahma and Shiva, the
manifestation of supreme masculinity in the linga."
Shiva was given a seat of honour in Vrindavan by the Goswamis
who, in the words of the Bhagavata, is the Vaishnava par excellence.
His lingam in Vrindavan is decorated every evening as a gopi, a full
fledged female adorned even with a nose ring! Interestingly, Narayana
Bhatta chose not to settle in Vrindavan but near the hills of Barsana,
the little town of Radha's birth. He built a temple of Radha; but later
he added Krishna's image to her right, realising that the divine couple
are inseparable.

Narayana Bhatta wrote Vrajabhaktivilasa on the sacred geography

of Vraja. It describes every grove, every water body, all the pastures
and hills connected to the pastimes of Radha and Krishna. Following
the journey of Chaitanya, Narayana Bhatta established the green ritual
of vana yatra, where pilgrims from far and wide come and journey on
foot from one holy station to another for at least twenty-three days.
The purpose of this journey is to transport a seeker in the time and

space of the divine couple.

Narayana Bhatt added the rasalila as a processional theatre to go

along with the pilgrims; the events were enacted in their original
locales. Probably those lilas known as budhililas or ancient lilas are
the oldest surviving form of processional theatre anywhere. Even

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 Shrivatsa Goswami/ 213

today the rasalilas, with or without the yatra, and the vana yatra with
or without the rasalilas, are the major manifestation of creativity in

Vrindavan—involving participation in huge numbers.

For a devotee of Radha and Krishna in union, the path and the

goal has to be green: because when the blue Krishna is dancing in

union with the golden Radha, they become
green.
Therefore, in their natural spirituality Chaitanya and his followers
celebrate the amorous couple, Radha and Krishna, as dwelling in the

green bowers, nikunja. The ritual pilgrimage is the green journey in

the sacred forests, and the presiding goddess is Vrinda Devi. When
the temple of Govinda Deva was built, two additional chapels, one to
the left and one to the right of the main sanctum were added. The

right chapel was dedicated to the subterranean goddess Yogamaya.

The left one was dedicated to Vrinda Devi, the presiding goddess of
the theatre of Radha and Krishna, who lends her name to Vrindavan,
the grove and forest of basil or tulasi. Chaitanya and the Goswamis
rooted their ecological theology of ecology in this new green goddess,
Vrinda. The lilas of Krishna and Chaitanya are grounded in love, where
the weakest is most
powerful, and we learn to serve without any
expectations. Sri Krishna invested the supreme power into tulasi, the
weakest plant which does not even bear fruits. Today tulasi has become
a centre of piety in the life, home and rituals of every Hindu.
And the journey and the lila of the divine couple goes on... Then

play of love in Vrindavan is punctuated by the pangs of separation.

Even when they are inseparably united in the embrace of love, the
fear of possible separation haunts them. The desire and the logic of
love force Radha and Krishna to be together in one physical form—
that is, in the body of Chaitanya, where the dark Krishna is hidden in
the embrace of the golden-complexioned Radha. But the dialectic of
love does not stop there.

Chaitanya always intended to settle down

Upon in Vrindavan.
his request, Sanatanapreparedevena dwelling for him. In 1533,

Chaitanya merged with the form of Jagannatha, only to reappear in

1542 as Radharamana on Vaisakha Purnima, the appearance day of
Lord Buddha. But it was an inverted
Chaitanya. Due to the intense

loving devotion of Gopala Bhatta Goswami, the golden complexion

of Chaitanya was now the dark black lustre of Radharamana. Here
Krishna was hidden in
Chaitanya, as Radha is hidden in
Radharamana. Radharamana did not leave the precincts of his

temple—even when all other deities of Vrindavan fled!

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214 / Journey as Creation: Vrindavan

For Chaitanya, the journey to Vrindavan was his highest

recreation. In the process, Vrindavan was recreated along with its
various rich manifestations in architecture,
art and literature, economy
and music, philosophy and drama.In fact, Chaitanya had no need to
undertake the journey to Vrindavan—as one of his disciples reminded
him that Vrindavan is "where you are". However, the Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu intoxicated with Krishna had the audacity to relocate

Vrindavan and recreate it in the eye of the storm as it were—on the

marching route of the invading armies! It was his dialogical tradition

that has given us Vrindavan.
Vrindavan has been recreated not once, or in one place. The
Madhvaites believe Udipi on the western coast to be their Vrindavan.

Jagannatha Puri was also taken as Vrindavan of the Blue Lord.

Vallabhacharya founded his Vrindavan at Chandrasarovar, near

Govardhan. Even in the twentieth century we find many
manifestations of Vrindavan, whether it is the Uttar Vrindavan in the

Himalayas near Almora, following the vision

of Yogi Krishna Prem,
or it is ISKCON's New Vrindavan in West Virginia. The 'journey' of

creating Vrindavan will go on....

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