Seven Temples

I was able to visit all seven original temples. I had gone to a few of them by myself, but wasn't getting along fast enough. I had heard about a mother and son from New Zealand who were going every day to all seven and met them at a party. The son, N, was 10 years old and was actually going by himself these days. His mother said that he would love to take me and so we planned to meet the following day at Radha Syamasundara.

It was great and we had such a great time. He was a wonderful guide, knew all kinds of things, where special places were, and all the shortcuts! We went from Radha Syamasundara Mandir to Radha Damodara Mandir, then took a rikshaw to Madan Mohan Mandir (old and new) and saw some samadhis. Then back by rikshaw to Gokulananda Mandir, then walked to Radha Raman Mandir, more samadhis and appearance place, Radha Gopinatha Mandir (picture above of the older one) and samadhi, then Govinda Mandir (old and new) and Yogamaya's spot there. Quite a whirlwind tour. I think we did it in 2-1/2 hours.

In general, I was very happy with the level of Deity worship. I know that sounds very stuck up, but when we came twenty years ago, things were pretty abysmal. Deity rooms were dirty, outfits were mismatched and subpar, pujaris were often not present--it just wasn't what you would expect. This time I felt that Everyone was well taken care of and that there was great attention to detail. Even with all the controversy about Radha Damodar Mandir and Srila Prabhupada's quarters, I must say that everything looks very good there.

I spent some time at the Govinda Temple of Rupa Goswami (pictures to the right and below). In looking at the years that things were built and when people died, I found some interesting things I hadn't known. For instance, Rupa Goswami never saw the Govinda Temple. He died in 1564 and the temple was completed in 1590. Raghunath Bhatta Gosvami and his disciples began construction some time after 1570. It's an absolutely exquisite building. I can't imagine what it looked like before it was taken apart. I really loved it there.

I went into the cave of Yogamaya next to the temple. It's also the spot where the Govinda Deity was found. You have to walk up a bunch of stairs to get to the door, enter a little vestibule, then go down some stairs with a very low ceiling to get to the shrine. The ceiling there is also very low. Apparently this Deity of Yogamaya (Lord Krsna's sister) was also worshipped by Rupa Goswami and was put in safekeeping during the raids and then reinstalled.

There was a kirtan going on in the cave, very quiet and sweet. Then two women starting crying--at first very softly, then louder and gasping for air, in ecstasy. This kind of crying has happened to me. It just takes over and you can't control it. It can be very embarrassing. So here I was on the other side of it as an observer. I appreciated it but then I wanted it to stop. Not very kind on my part. I guess I didn't understand it. I found myself wanting to know more about what they were feeling and why.

I've never heard about the Goswamis worshipping Yogamaya. It seems a very interesting idea. Almost as if two traditions have overlapped here. Anyone out there know about this?
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