PASTIMES FROM KRISHNA'S VRAJA LILA

Pastimes at Varsana

PASTIMES AT VILASA GARH (VARSANA)

This pastime place known as of Vilasa Garh is situated on top of
the hill known as Vishnu Parvata which is considered to be a
manifestation of Lord Vishnu. The word ‘vilasa’ means ‘absorbed
in pastimes’, and ‘garh’ means a ‘secluded place’, or in some
cases a ‘private room’. There is a temple here called Vilasa-
bihari Mandira and also a rasa-mandala commemorating the rasa-
lila pastimes that took place on this sacred hill.
In one of the first transcendental pastimes that took place here,
Radharani and her girlfriends were playing in a grove on the hill
when Krishna arrived on the spot and became absorbed in looking
at the beauty of Radharani. This was the period when Krishna was
just entering youth-hood and began noticing Radharani’s exquisite
features. Seeing Krishna standing there looking at Her, Radharani
forbade Him to come any nearer and insisted He should instead go
away and play with His friends. Nevertheless, He refused to leave
and very gradually inched closer. Suddenly a terrible dust storm
started to blow and thick dust clouds swirled everywhere, forcing
the gopis to close their eyes. Taking advantage of the situation,
Krishna sneaked up to Radharani and kissed Her on Her lotus face
and then ran away.
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Varshana
The beautiful Shriji Mandira at Varsana is situated on top of the
hill known as the Brahmagiri Parvata. Shriji refers to Shrimati
Radharani and local Vrajavasis often refer to the temple as the
Radharani Mandira. This temple is also known as the Larilylal
Mandira because the two deities installed in the temple are
Larily and Lala, who are the childhood forms of Radha and
Krishna. The word ‘larily’ means “dearly beloved daughter’ and
‘lala’ means ‘dearly beloved son’, which is an affectionate way
of addressing young boys and girls in Vraja.

TRANSCENDENTAL PASTIMES FROM KRISHNA'S VRAJA LILA

On one occasion when Sanatana Goswami was visiting Radha-kunda

along with Rupa Goswami, there was an amazing incident concerning
a discussion about a verse written by Rupa Goswami in one of his
books. On that day, Sanatana Goswami, Rupa Goswami, and
Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, had been discussing various
transcendental topics, when Sanatana expressed a grave doubt
about the use of a particular metaphor in a verse written by Rupa
in his book Catu Pushpanjali, in which he glorified Radha’s
luxuriant long black hair and compared it to the hood of a black
cobra. Sanatana felt that comparing Radha’s long black braid as
resembling the hood of a serpent may not be so tasteful. The
verse written by Rupa Goswami was, “O Radharani, O Queen, as
golden as fresh gorochana, O Queen, whose beautiful clothes are
as splendid as a blue lotus, O Queen, whose braid decorated with
jewels and flowers, is glistening like the hood of a serpent”.
After the discussions, everyone returned to their duties and
Sanatana went to the bank of Radha-kunda near Govinda Ghata to
take bath. As he was about to bathe, he noticed some young girls
playing on a swing hanging from a nearby tree. At that moment, he
suddenly saw a poisonous black cobra crawling up the back of the
young girl sitting on the swing. Sanatana immediately called out
to the girl to warn her. The girl immediately turned around and
Sanatana realized it was not a cobra, but the girl’s long black
hair braid that he had mistaken for a black cobra. The girl then
smiled very sweetly at Sanatana and then quickly disappeared
along with her friends. Sanatana was momentarily stunned by what
he had just seen and was experiencing the flow of ecstatic
symptoms throughout his body and mind. He then realized that this
was actually a vision of Radharani that he had seen; who had
appeared there in order to help him understand the truth
regarding Rupa’s super-excellent verse, which was a perfect
description of Radha’s exquisitely beautiful hair. Sanatana
immediately went to find Rupa to inform him of his vision and to
congratulate him on his perfect use of the metaphor, describing
Radha’s braid as the glistening hood of a serpent.
From the book Vraja Mandala Parikrama

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G.21 Gauri-kunda / Gauri Tirtha
The holy place near Govardhana Hill known as Gauri Tirtha and it
was the playground of Chandravali, Radha’s cousin and bitter
rival in achieving Krishna’s love and affection. There was a
continual battle going on between these two cousins as to who
could please Krishna the most. At Gauri Tirtha, Chandravali
regularly performed puja at the Gauri Mandira and Krishna would
go there on some occasions to meet with Chandravali and enjoy her
company. The area around Chandra-sarovara, which also included
Gauri Tirtha, was very dear to Chandravali and was one of her
favorite places.
One day, after hearing rumors that Radha was having a secret
love-affair with Krishna, Abhimanyu, and Radha’s supposed
husband, approached Paurnamasi for her blessings to send Radha
away to Mathura. Paurnamasi informed Abhimanyu that simply on the
strength of rumors, he should not resort to such a drastic
action, saying that if he himself caught Radha and Krishna
together, then only could he contemplate sending Radha away. In
order to further pacify Abhimanyu, Paurnamasi informed him that
from that very day, she would initiate Radha into the worship of
the Goddess Gauri, so that Abhimanyu could gain more wealth and
increase the number of his cows. Abhimanyu became very happy at
the thought of such an increase in his wealth, as he had heard
that after Chandravalli began worshiping Gauri Devi, the wealth
of her husband Govardhana Malla had suddenly increased.
After being instructed by Purnamasi, Radharani went to Gauri
Tirtha to perform Gauri-puja. Krishna, wanting to enjoy some fun,
also went there and just to tease Radharani, He deliberately
addressed Her as Chandravali, Radha’s cousin and rival. In an
angry huff, Radharani refused to talk to Krishna and immediately
ran off to pick flowers for the Gauri-puja. Krishna began
thinking what He could do to pacify Radha’s angry pique and
regain Her association. At that moment, Krishna’s friend
Madhumangala arrived there bringing all the dresses, ornaments,
sandal paste, and various cosmetics for the worship of goddess
Gauri. Krishna then decided to dress up in the deities clothing
and disguise Himself as a girl by applying cosmetics to His face,
He could then secretly approach Radharani and pacify her anger.
Krishna requested Vrinda Devi to support Him and say that He was
her fair complexioned sister whose name was Nikunjavidya. Vrinda
Devi agreed and Krishna entered the Gauri Mandira to decorate His
face and dress-up as a girl.
Very soon Radharani arrived at the Gauri Mandira accompanied by
Lalita and Vishakha, and on seeing Vrinda Devi, asked her where
Krishna had gone. Vrinda replied that He was last seen in the
temple talking to her sister Nikunjavidya, but had now gone
elsewhere. Radha and Her friends immediately went to the temple
to see for themselves and to meet Vrinda’s ‘sister’ Nikunjavidya.
Immediately upon seeing Vrinda’s beautiful fair complexioned
sister, Radha informed Vrinda, that just by seeing her sister
Nikunjavidya smiling at Her, She was automatically feeling
intense love towards her. Being completely overcome with
affection, Radha placed Her arms around Nikunjavidya and embraced
her. Nikunjavidya in-turn embraced Radharani and began
passionately kissing Radha’s beautiful lotus-like face. At that
moment Radha realized the true identity of Vrinda’s so-called
‘sister’. Lalita and Vishakha were surprised and somewhat
embarrassed to see Vrinda’s sister so unabashedly embracing
Radharani and kissing Her face, but at that moment also realized
Nikunjavidya’s true identity.
Having heard a rumor that Radha and Krishna were meeting secretly
at Gauri-kunda, without any warning, Jatila suddenly arrived
there with Abhimanyu hoping to catch Radha and Krishna red-
handed. Shocked at hearing Abhimanu’s voice as he entered the
temple with his mother, Radhrani immediately fainted on the floor
in front of ‘Nikunjavidya’. On entering the temple, Jatila saw
Radharani lying prostrate before Nikunjavidya and asked
Abhimanyu, who was the attractive and fair complexioned girl who
illuminated the whole temple with here dazzling and effulgent
beauty. Abhimanyu replied that it must surely be the goddess
Gauri. Lalita and Vishakha quickly spoke up saying that while
Radharani was engaged in worshiping the goddess, out of her
mercy, the goddess has stepped out of the deity and was now
standing before them. Jatila then asked Lalita what Radharani was
praying for. All of a sudden the goddess began to speak in a very
grave voice, saying, ‘the pure and faultless Radha was praying to
save Abhimanyu from a great calamity hanging over his head’.
Vrinda then immediately intervened saying that after two days,
King Kamsa was planning to make a human sacrifice to Lord Shiva
and had decided that Abhimanyu was to be the sacrificial man-
animal, but due to Radha’s great love and devotion towards the
goddess Gauri, the danger has now been averted. Abhimanyu
immediately bowed down and profusely thanked the goddess for
saving him, promising that he would never ever think of taking
Radharani to Mathura, but instead would insist that She came
every single day to Gauri Tirtha to worship and serve goddess
Gauri. Abhimanyu and his mother then left the temple thinking
what great fortune had been bestowed upon them by Radha’s great
devotion to Gauri Devi.
How To Get There: This kunda lies about 200mt south of
Sankarshana-kunda by walking across agricultural fields (see map
no. 15)
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Dana-nirvartana-kunda
This is another place where the tax-collection or dana-keli
pastimes took place. One day, when the gopis were going to
Govinda-kunda with a large stock of milk products that were to be
used in a great sacrifice being performed by the local brahmanas
headed by Bhaguri Rishi, Krishna and the cowherd boys blocked
their path and demanded a tax, but the gopis flatly refused and
an argument ensued with each side making rude remarks about the
other. Eventually the cowherd boys decided that the gopis could
take their milk products to Govinda-kunda, but only after the
gopis had promised to return the next day (nivartana) and pay the
tax (dana). The next day, as the cowherd boys were waiting on the
banks of Dana-nirvartana-kunda for the gopis to arrive and pay
the tax, suddenly hundreds of gopis descended from all directions
and in a furious mood they caught hold of Krishna and His
boyfriends. The gopis then tied them all to trees and gave each
of them a thorough tongue lashing and some of the cowherd boys
who had passed rude remarks about the gopis received a few good
slaps as well. The gopis then demanded a tax from Krishna because
His cows were eating all the grass from around Govardhana Hill.

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Vilachu-kunda / Vilachuvana
The forest of Vilachuvana has now disappeared but the beautiful
Vilachu-kunda can still be seen. It is said that during the
attack on Vrindavana by the Mughal tyrant Emperor Aurangzeb, the
deity of Lord Harideva was hidden in this kunda for some time
before being moved to Barauli.
This very beautiful and secluded kunda within the forest of
Vilachuvana, was a favorite sitting place of Radha and Krishna,
where They would spend hours just sitting and talking to one-
another. There is also an old stone bench which is now broken
where it is said the ‘divine lovers’ used to sit. On one
occasion, Radharani lost Her ankle-bell here and began searching
for it. When Krishna arrived, He jokingly asked Radha if she was
looking for His flute that had been lost. Radha told Krishna to
stop joking and help look for the lost ankle-bell (nupur). When
Krishna persisted in making jokes, Radha became angry and refused
to talk with Him. In order to pacify Radharani, Krishna got down
on His knees and started to franticly dig up the earth with His
bare hands while searching for the ankle-bell. To Radharani’s
utter amazement, Krishna began digging up all kinds of ankle-
bells, some of them were made of silver, and some of them were of
gold, Krishna also dug up a few precious gems as well. Placing
all the ankle-bells before Radharani and with a beautiful smile
on His face, Krishna asked Radharani which of the ankle-bells was
Hers. Feeling great happiness at Krishna’s endeavor to please
Her, Radharani immediately embraced Krishna and They both sat
down on the bench to enjoy Their intimate love-talks. Due to
these pastimes between Radha and Krishna, this forest is also
called Vilasavana, which means the ‘forest of ambrosial
pastimes’.
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