More on Sri Radha Syamasundaradevajimaharaja

I just have to write some more about this temple. You must visit their website http://www.radhashyamsundar.com/ Such beautiful pictures! This is what hundreds of years of Deity worship looks like. They, the Divine Couple, are so beautiful. Oh, the title of this posting is from a shawl that was given to me by the pujaris. All around the border it says "Sri Dhama Vrndavana," then in big letters down the middle it says, "Sri Radha Syamasundaradevajimaharaja."

I loved going there in the mornings to chant. It was just unbelievable to watch the pujaris apply the sandalwood designs to Their faces. The pujaris leave the doors open so you can see what they're doing. (You can see from this picture that He has incredible designs on His face.) It's a wonderful meditation. When I was there it was cold, the Deities wore mittens, so only Their faces were decorated.

First, using a small stick and a cup of sandalwood paste, the pujari draws the outline of the arch above His eyes, then waits for it to dry. Then he makes the dots above the arch, then pulls the sandalwood in each dot down to touch the arch. Once that's all dry, he can make the other decorations on His cheeks and chin and fill in the arches.

This one morning, there was drama going on. The pujari made the arches and was beginning to make the dots above one arch. The head pujari came by and talked to him about it, then walked away. He came back and said something else, then took a wet cloth and erased part of the arch and some of the dots over one eye. The other pujari then went back to work redoing the arch and dots. The head pujari came by again, said something, and erased a little more above both eyes, then walked away. The other pujari went back to work. Again, the head pujari came back. This time he erased it all and walked away. The other pujari went back to work, without a word. The head pujari came back again. This time he erased everything and did it himself. He worked very quickly. He studied the Lord's face, rested his arm on Krsna's hand, and finished all the decorations adeptly. It was amazing to watch! While all this was going on, I was moving from one side to the other to keep up with the drama. Very fun! What a great morning.

On my last full day in Vrndavana I wanted to see Syamananda's bhajan kuti. It's underground. Apparently they found it while doing construction on a new building in the temple complex. So, down a flight of stairs into a small, vaulted room. Made, or reinforced, with brick, it was quite warm on this cold January day. Inside there were Deities of Syamananda and Rasikananda, his disciple. It reminded me of a sensory deprivation tank. You couldn't hear anything and were impervious to weather and just about everything, including monkeys!

I can see this kutir as a way to focus for meditation, but I so love the world that Krsna has created. I love to see Him in all of everything.
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