80. Goverdhan Parikrama


Govardhana Hill has a Parikrama of about fourteen miles (23 km.) and can take five to six hours to complete if one walks at a brisk pace. People from all over India visit Vraja in order to perform Govardhana Parikrama. On auspicious occasions like Guru Purnima, Purusottamamasa or Govardhana-puja, over half a million people go around the sacred hill.

There is no time limit for performing Govardhana parikrama, for those who perform the da1f4avata Parikrama it may take weeks and sometimes even months to complete. The dandavata parikrama is performed by standing in one spot, offering obeisances like a stick (danda) by lying flat on the ground. One then places a stone where the fingertips touch the ground in order to mark the spot. Standing up, one moves to the stone marker and again offers obeisances like A group of ladies performing parikrama a stick, again marking the spot where the fingertips touch the ground, thus repeating the same process again and again all the way around Govardhana Hill. Some sadhus perform 108 dandavata Parikrama by offering 108 obeisances in one spot before moving to the next.
This can take a number of months to complete and one has to sleep wherever one is and accept alms from pilgrims passing by.

The six Gosvamis of Vrindavana regularly performed Parikrama of Govardhana Hill, especially Sanatana GosvamI and Raghunatha dasa GosvamI who, while staying near Govardhana, would perform parikrama every day. Sanatana GosvamI used to perform a much longer Parikrama covering a distance of twenty four miles and including such places as Candrasarovara, Syama Dhak, Ganthuli-grama, Surya-kunda, Mukharai and Kilola-kunda.

Other great personalities who performed Govardhana parikrama were Madhavendra Purl, Advaita Acharya, Lord Nityananda, VallabhAcharya, Narottama dasa Thakura, Srlnivasa Acharya, Raghava GosvamI, Visvanatha CakravartI and of course Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu who, upon seeing Govardhana Hill for the first time, fell down like a stick and began embracing one of the rocks. On touching the rock from Govardhana the Lord began to shed tears of love and almost became mad due to transcendental ecstasy.
Govardhan hill parikrama-

Comments

Post a Comment

50 Temples Mathura And Virandavan

20. Foot Prints Of Lord Krishna

Image
It is believed that Charan Pahari has the impression of Krishna's feet. Charan Pahari is situated on the southwest side of Nandagram, near the street that goes to Kamyavana. This place is a 1 km from Pavana Sarovara in Nandagaon of Mathura District. Indeed, even today, one can see these impressions unmistakably. The stones on the close-by slope where his companions were playing and the calves were brushing likewise softened, leaving impressions of their feet and hooves.
Read more

34. Kali Deh Temple

Image
Kaliya ghat or  Kalideh  is the place on the banks of river Yamuna where Lord Krishna during his childhood pastimes in Vrindavan subdued a poisonous serpent Kaliya Nag. Earlier Yamuna used to flow near to this place but during the course of time the river has drifted away. It’s said that once Krishna was playing with his Sakhas on the bank of river Yamuna. Suddenly their ball went inside the river. Fearing of Kaliya Nag, due to whom the water of Yamuna was also turned poisonous, no one was ready to go inside the river and bring the ball back. Knowing this Krishna decided to relieve the people of Vrindavan and river Yamuna of this poisonous serpent and thus jumped from the nearby Kadamba tree into the river.  Kaliya nag , who was sleeping, got angry at Krishna for disturbing his sleep. In a fit of anger he started releasing poison from his mouth. Krishna immediately jumped and mounted over one of the hoods of Kaliya who was having thousands of hoods. There was a long fight betw
Read more

23. Sankari khor

Image
This is the famous place where Kṛṣṇa’s dana-lila takes place: where he asks the gopis to pay taxes, steals their milk products, and breaking their curd-laden pots. Here Kṛṣṇa’s gopas would face off with the delicate gopīs in argument and flirtatious exchanges. In celebration of this occasion, the men from Nandagoan sat opposite to the men of Barṣāṇā, repeating the ancient songs of yore carrying forward the glorification of their personal ishtadevas (worshipable deities). The  buddhi-lila , namely the transcendental arguments between Kṛṣṇa and the gopis who are en route from Chiksoli village to Barṣāṇā. Nowadays the residents stand and shout at each other from atop the ravine. The lila concludes with the Matki lila, or the breaking of the earthen wares. According to  Vraja-bhakti-vilāsa , there are two mountains in Barṣāṇā – Brahmā and Viṣṇu. On the Viṣṇu mount is located Vilāsagarh and the rest of the mountain is Brahmācala. At the juncture of the two is Sankari Khor, wher
Read more