Rasayatra

In response to requests from our friends and in order to better facilitate the archiving of our pictures, we are compiling all the pictures of Gandharvika Giridhari Jiu in a blog titled Rasayatra, a Journey into our hearts and a Journey through the various Rasa filled moments of Gandharvika Giridhari Jiu. Here is the link.http://rasayatra.wordpress.com/

Gopastami 2012

Some meditations from Srila Prabnhupada's Srimad Bhagavatam and pictures of Gandharvika Jiu and Giridhari Jiu on the occasion of Gopastami 2012...

The gopīs at Vṛndāvana could not forget the Lord when the Lord was away in the forest cow herding. When the Lord boy Kṛṣṇa was absent from the village, the gopīs at home used to worry about Him traversing the rough ground with His soft lotus feet. By thinking thus, they were sometimes overwhelmed in trance and mortified in the heart. Such is the condition of the pure associates of the Lord.


"The eighth lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month of Kārttika is known by authorities as Gopāṣṭamī. From that day, Lord Vāsudeva served as a cowherd, whereas previously He had tended the calves."
SB 10.15.1, Translation and Purport: Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: When Lord Rāma and Lord Kṛṣṇa attained the age of paugaṇḍa (six to ten) while living in Vṛndāvana, the cowherd men allowed Them to take up the task of tending the cows. Engaging thus in the company of Their friends, the two boys rendered the land of Vṛndāvana most auspicious by imprinting upon it the marks of Their lotus feet.
Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to encourage His cowherd boyfriends, who had been swallowed by Aghāsura and then stolen by Lord Brahmā. Therefore the Lord decided to bring them into the palm-tree forest called Tālavana, where there were many delicious ripe fruits. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa's spiritual body had apparently grown slightly in age and strength, the senior men of Vṛndāvana, headed by Nanda Mahārāja, decided to promote Kṛṣṇa from the task of herding calves to the status of a regular cowherd boy. He would now take care of the full-grown cows, bulls and oxen. Out of great affection, Nanda Mahārāja had previously considered Kṛṣṇa too small and immature to take care of full-grown cows and bulls. It is stated in the Kārttika-māhātmya section of the Padma Purāṇa:
śuklāṣṭamī kārttike tu
smṛtā gopāṣṭamī budhaiḥ
tad-dinād vāsudevo 'bhūd
gopaḥ pūrvaṁ tu vatsapaḥ
"The eighth lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month of Kārttika is known by authorities as Gopāṣṭamī. From that day, Lord Vāsudeva served as a cowherd, whereas previously He had tended the calves."
The word padaiḥ indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa blessed the earth by walking on her surface with His lotus feet. The Lord wore no shoes or other footgear but walked barefoot in the forest, giving great anxiety to the girls of Vṛndāvana, who feared that His soft lotus feet would be injured.

Deepavali.

Taḍit-suvarṇa-campaka-pradīpta-gaura-vigrahe
mukha-prabhā-parāsta-koṭi-śāradendu-maṇḍale
vicitra-citra-sañcarac-cakora-śāva-locane
kadā kariṣyasīha māṁ kṛpā-kaṭākṣa-bhājanam.

O goddess whose form is as splendid as champaka flowers, gold, and lightning, O goddess whose face eclipses millions of autumn moons, O goddess whose eyes are wonderful, restless young chakora birds, when will You cast Your merciful sidelong glance upon me?

Deepavali is essentially a row of lamps, how would millions of autumn moons look like and what would that face which eclipses these millions of moons look like?

The Rainbow Gathering!

Hare Krishna! I deliberately chose the title despite the fact that this post has nothing to do with the Rainbow Gathering that happens annually, except that what i am going to be writing about is a gathering and happens outdoors. Thats about where the similarities end.

This is the month of Kartika, the month of Govardhan Puja, In his classes on Madhurya Kadambini in the month of Kartika, several years ago, Guru Maharaja encourages us to share our reflections and realizations with others in this month. I write this hoping that he will be pleased with my small offering.

 This morning, as I was reflecting on the Govardhan Puja pastime something very sweet unfolded in my thinking. Our Back to Godhead Magazine has the following motto-
"Godhead is light. Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." Elsewhere in our scriptures Sri Krishna is compared to the Sun. I was thinking how in the pastime of Krishna lifting the Govardhan hill, the Lord is like the sun. As per laws of physics when there is sunshine and rain at the same time, the rain drops act as a prism and refract the light to form a rainbow of colors ranging from Violet to Red. The famous VIBGYOR spectrum. Similarly in this pastime, the Lord is like the sun and even though there was intense rainfall, of the kind that appears at the time of Pralaya or the final devastating deluge, there was no destruction. Instead there appeared a Rainbow of colors in the form of the devotees assembled under Govardhan Hill.

In the Nectar of Devotion, different mellows are assigned different colors and different deities preside over various mellows and colors. Sri Giridhari is the reservoir of all mellows being the Akhila Rasamrta Murtih. When the entire Vraja took shelter under the expansive umbrella or the prism of Girirja Govardhana, they consisted of devotees practically of every rasa and every color of the spectrum in the rainbow. For seven days sakhas like Madhumangala and Subal, Gopis like Srimati Radharani and the Asta sakhis, servants such as Patraka, Vrajavasis in the mood of parental affection such as Nanda and Yashoda, those in fraternal mellow such as Balarama, animals and devotees in every other secondary mellow took shelter together, each relishing their own Rasa with the Reservoir of Rasa, Rasaraja Sri Krishna. It was a conglomeration of all the Rasas. A Rainbow Gathering! 

The most endearing part of this pastime was when the seven year old Lord Krishna gives freewill to the devotees, to  gather under the formidable Govardhan hill held atop the pinky of his left hand.

"O Mother, O Father, O residents of Vraja, if you wish you may now come under this hill with your cows." From the Srimad Bhagavatam,

The moral I learnt from his story was that when we endeavor to keep Krishna in the center of our universe at all times, and whole heartedly surrender to Him, even when the adversities threaten to delude us, only a lovely rainbow of colors and nectarean experiences can emerge. Trying times are very interesting because they intensify our Rasa with the Lord of our hearts. All Glories to my worshipable Gandharvika Giridhari Jiu and my Spiritual mentors for teaching me this valuable lesson.

Gandharvika Giridhari Jiu

It has almost been 6 months since we started worshipping Gandharvika Giridhari Jiu. Now everything seems so complete, satisfying. Here is a small video of 3 mins featuring Gandharvika Giridhari in Their various outfits, made at the behest of a dear friend. Praying to Gurudeva to keep us enthused in trying to serve this All Attractive Couple to the best of our ability.

Fall..

Srila Prabhupada has described Autumn elaborately and beautifully in the Light of the Bhagavata. The Autumn season in Vrindavan is characterized by blooming lotuses and a full moon.  For us here, it is quite the opposite, characterized by falling leaves and bone chilling winds...Gandharvika Giridhari however are transcendental to miseries afflicted by material nature and enjoy in their seasonal groves. Here they are in Their fall outfits!

Making their outfits was comforting because Krishna never forgets any little service rendered to Him, unlike us humans who praise someone for their seva one day and when they are no longer capable or unable to perform seva, we immediately shun them or measure them up with our myopic vision. Fortunately we have Krishna who is so endearing and Srila Prabhupada who has shown the way to love Him!