Shreenathji Temple

Here, at Gopi Talaiya under a shady tree, Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya halted. Krishnadas Meghan asked Shri Mahaprabhuji why Gopi Talaiya was there when the Gopis always lived in Braja and not near Dwarka at Gopi Talaiya. The guru explainec, “Once while Shri Krishna resided in Dwarka he praised the Gopis of Braja in front of his Dwarka Queen Rukmuni. The Queen then said that she was his completely faithful wife but the Lord mentioned, “No doubt your devotion to me is great, but the Gopis of Braja broke all their worldly ties and religious codes for My sake. They came to me in the middle of the night. I don’t think even you, my wedded wife would leave everything and come to me in the forest at midnight on the mere calling of my flute.’ Rukmuni confidently replied that she certainly would.

“That evening Shri Krishna came here to Gopi Talaiya and played His flute. Rukmuni and Lord Krishna’s other sixteen thousand wives stopped adorning themselves when they heard the flute but then they hesitantly thought that if their relatives and others were to ask them where they were going, they would not be able to answer them and ultimately reasoned that it would be better not to leave the palace. When the Gopis of Braja heard the flute, they left everything and came to this spot and sported with the immortal Lord. That is way the sacred clay here is called Gopi Chandan.

Krishnadas then prayed to have that divine vision and the guru gave all the bhaktas present there divine eyes to witness the Lord’s lila with the Gopis. After speaking the Bhagavata for seven days, Shri Mahaprabhuji proceeded to Shankoddhar.

At Dwarka, Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya stayed by the bands of the Gomati river. There, Lord Dwarkanathji came to met Shri Mahaprabhu and requested him to pass the four months of the rainy season there. Lord Dwarkanathji told the head priest of His temple Govindadas about Shri Mahaprabhuji’s divinity and that he could achieve true devotion through his grace. Govindadas then brought Shri Mahaprabhuji to the temple where the guru made the Lord’s divine services.

Govindadas, anxious to hear Shri Mahaprabhuji, attended one of his discourses. When it was about to start, Shri Nathji told Lord Dwarkanathji, “your disciple Govindadas is connected with your Dwarka lila. If he hears Shri Mahaprabhuji’s discourse he will become qualified for the Vrindavan lila. You should talk to Govindadas about this.”

Shri Mahaprabhuji overhearing Lord Dwarkanathji speak with Govindadas stoped the discourse and only later when Lord Dwarkanathji explained the entire situation to the guru did Shri Mahaprabhuji become please again.

Later, while Shri Mahaprabhuji was revealing the stories of Shri Krishna’s divine rasa dance many of the listeners become so involved in the lila that they lost consciousness of their bodies. Then, some rain clouds covered the area, and Shri Mahaprabhuji considered that if it started to rain, it would upset the divine mood there. Suddenly, the serpent god Shesha appeared and covered them with his thousand hoods while all the areas around them got drenched.


After celebrating Annaduta and prabodhini Shri Mahaprabhuji headed for Gopi Talaiya.

Here, when Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya took his seat under a shady tree Krishnadas Meghan asked how the Mulgomati river came to be. Shri Mahaprabhuji enlightened, “Mulgomati descended form the eternal realm and was born as a princess. When she was young she told her father that she would arrange for her own marriage. Lord Dwarkanathji appeared and told her to take on the form of the a river and then she would be able to merge with the Lord in his form as an ocean. Taking her Lord’s advice she became the Gomati river which meets the ocean near Lord Darkanathji’s temple in Dwarka.”

Later, one renunciate came to Shri Mahaprabhuji and said, “I used to live in the south and was a disciple of Shri Vishnu Svami. After my wife and children passed away, I took to the path of renunciation and coming here have been reading the Bhagavata daily. Four times death has come to take me, but I have sent him back each time. After seven ;hundred years, the Lord appeared to me and I requested Him to given me the sight of Lord Krishna’s childhood lilas and to be able to live by the Govardhan Hill. The Lord told me that my demands were difficult but could be achieved through your grace. He told me in a dream that you were coming here.”

Shri Mahaprabhuji rapliied, “You have resorted to your own means to achieve the Lord and therefore have had difficulty. Shri Mahaprabhu intiated him and after reading the Bhagavatam there for seven days told the rennciate that after three days he would I leave his body and would take birth as Harji Gwala near the Govardhan Hill and that his son Shri Gosainji would see to his liberation. From here, Shri Mahaprabhuji proceed to Shri Dwarka.

Here, Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya stayed under a large tree where he mentioned to his disciple Damala “when Krishna was king of Dwarka, he visited all these nearby holy places. This is where the sage’s Dhurvasa’s hermitage was.”

While Shri Mahaprabhuji was speaking the Bhagavata a Brahmin daily came and Listened. The guru asked him, “where do you live. He replied, “Here in this holy area. I have been wanting to hear you for a long time.”

Shri Mahaprabhuji smiled and fell silent. When the seven day discourse was completed the Brahmin disappeared and Krishnadas Meghan questioned. “who was that Brahmin?”

“Dind’t you hear him?” replied the guru. “He is the divine personified form of this holy area.”
Later, the religious guide of the area approached Shri Mahaprabhu and seeing his spiritual splendor requested initiation. Shri Mahaprabhuji advised. “This holy area will liberated you.” After giving him a generous gift, Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya headed onwards.

By the banks of a laovely pond, Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya spoke the Bhagavatam. One afternoon a Brahmin arrived there and said, “you should not spend the night here because a man-eating ghost wanders about at night.” Despite his warning, the guru did not move the camp.

That evening, Krishnadas went outside the camp to bath. There he saw the ghost and called out, “why do you wander about like that?”

The ghost replied, “you are a great devotee of Shri Krishna; shower your grace upon me a sad degraded soul.”

Later, when Shri Mahaprabhuji heard about the incident, the guru advised Krishnadas to shower some sacred dust over the ghost which he later did at that moment, the ghost dropped its demonical form and taking on a divine body, ascended to the eternal realms.

One devotee sang,

By taking the dust of your feet a ghost was instantly liberated. O Lord, you are so merciful a treasure chest of bliss.

Here Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya halted by the edge of the Krishna lake where he mentioned to Krishnadas, “This town was previously ruled by the great devotee king Satyavadi. The banks of this lake were blessed by Shri Krishna and Arjuna. The guru then decided to hold a discourse of the Bhagavata.

Once, two Brahmins Bala and Vada came to have Shri Mahaprabhuji’s sight. When they realized his divinity they prayed, “we have been lost in this worldly ocean, now shower your grace over us.”
 

After initiating them, Shri Mahaprabhu taught them about the path and told them to worship Shri Krishna. Their complete story is found in the 84 Vaishnavas accounts.