From Seva Kunja the parikrama party went to Sri Radha Damodar Temple. and took darshan of Sri Sri Radha Damodar and circumambulated Their temple as well as the samadhis of great personalities there like Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Jiva Goswami, Srila Krsnadas Kaviraj, Srila Bugarbha Goswami, Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and more. From Sri Radha Damodar Temple, on the way back to Gopinath Bhavan we took darshan of Sringar Vat, the holy tree under which Krishna met Srimati Radhika after she left the Rasa dance and attempting to break Her mana (jealous anger), He decorated Her with flowers. This place is also where Nityananda Prabhu resided when He visited Vraja. Thus it is also called Nityananda Vata.
For more detailed description of the pastimes in these wonderful places, read Sri Vraja mandal Parikrama book by Sri Srimad Bhaktiventa Narayan Goswami available for download athttp://www.purebhakti.com/resources/e... Returning to Gopinath Bhavan, this video coverage ends with a quick darshan of our kitchen crew, in appreciation for their wonderful service of preparing and feeding prasadam to hundreds of our parikrama pilgrims from all over the world.
Baelvan Darshan: Journey to Lakshmi's place of austerity
Today the parikrama party crossed the Yamuna by boat to go to one of Vraja's main forest called Baelvan. It is a place known to be the bestower of perfection to austerities. And showing how glorious Vraja mandal and the Vrajavasis (especially the Vraja gopis) are, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune Herself left all her fortune to come and perform austerities in this sacred forest. Why? Because she too wants to enter into the Rasa lila of Sri Krishna. Unfortunately, she does not want to accept the position of being a cowherd girl and make cowdung patties and especially to be married to some other gopa so she can be a secret paramour lover of Krishna. Therefore upto now it is said that she is still performing austerities there. And so today we had darshan of her temple, and the remaining trees in what used to be a forest so abundant of Bael trees. It was a bit of a walk from the Yamuna with lots of happy and friendly honeybees buzzing around to welcome us. (Hey, those who came with us, you know what I mean.
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