Vrindavan Town: Vrindavana, the Playground of God

Welcome to Vrindavan, the playground of God. Vrindavan town is the central part of Raja Mandala, the greater area in which Lord Krishna performed his transcendental pastimes when he was present on this planet 5,000 years ago. Some of his earlier childhood leelas took place here, and as a result, over the years, devotees have established many temples and shrines to commemorate those activities and to glorify Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. After the Lord performed His pastimes here, many of the temples and deities were lost.

But about 500 years ago, the six Goswamis of Vrindavan, all disciples and followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the most recent incarnation of Lord Krishna, were sent here by him to re-establish the lost holy places and find the deities which had been hidden or lost due to the influence of time. The six Goswamis and their followers established the seven main temples of Vrindavan, Radha, Madan, Mohan, in which the deity was one of the original 5,000-year-old forms of the law. Radha Govinda, also one of the original deities Radha Gopinath, another original deity Radha Damada, a more recent deity carved by one of the six Goswamis, Srila Rupa Goswami Radha Raman, worshipped by Gopal Bhatta Goswami Radha Gokalananda, worshipped by Srila Vishnath Chakravarti Thakur and Radha Shamsunda, worshipped by Baladevijabhushan. Initially, we will visit these temples.

Then we'll visit the Krishna Balaram Temple, established by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, who took Krishna out of Vrindavan and around the world. After that, we'll visit so many of the main sacred places in Vrindavan town. In Bhagavad Gita, the Lord says, To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I myself appear millennium after millennium.

In this regard, Srila Prabhupada says, So, to kill the demons, Krishna does not need to come. When he comes, he does so because he is requested by his devotees like Vasudeva and Devaki. Therefore, the real cause of his coming is at the request of his devotees. But when he comes, he simultaneously shows that he's prepared to kill anyone who is envious of his devotees.

Of course, his killing and maintaining are the same because he's absolute. Those who are killed by Krishna immediately attain salvation, which generally takes millions of years to get. So people may say that Krishna has come for this purpose or that purpose. But actually Krishna comes for the benefit of his devotees.

He always looks after the welfare of the devotees. And so we should understand that we should always be concerned with how to become devotees. Srila Prabhupada has told us that the Lord has performed so many pastimes to attract our minds from this material world to him. so we become inspired to become his devotees. He is very merciful to those who serve him and is waiting for us to turn to him and take shelter of him through bhakti or devotional service.

Visiting these holy places is a very important part of the process. There are histories behind many of them and in this DVD we have presented many of these. Please walk with us through the streets of the sacred town and take in the wonderful spiritual atmosphere that is pervading everything here.