Dwarka Darshan

Dvaraka is one of the seven principal holy places in India. The others are Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Ujjain and Kanchipuram. These seven places are known as mokṣadā, meaning that they are the givers of liberation to all those who die there. Dvaraka is also considered as one of the four dhāmas. the others being Rameshwaram, Puri and Badrinath.

It is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam that Lord Krsna established Dvaraka at a time when Mathura was besieged by His enemies some five thousand years ago. There are nice descriptions of Dvaraka in the Bhagavatam. It was a fabulously a fabulously opulent city, containing palaces for each of Lord Krsna's 16,108 queens. Srimad-Bhagavatam says, When Narada Muni arrived at Dvaraka, he saw varieties of parks and gardens filled with all kinds of flowers and trees bearing fruit.

The 900,000 palaces were all built of first-class marble, and the gates and doors were made of pure silver, studded with valuable gems. The large avenues and crossings were very neat and clean, and at regular intervals, large trees provided shade. The architect of this wonderful city was Visvakarma, the engineer of the devas, and each of Lord Krsna's queens had a separate palace. The The pillars were made of coral, and the ceilings were bedecked with jewels.

The chairs and other furniture were made of ivory, decorated with gold and diamonds. However, at the time of Lord Krsna's disappearance from this world, Dvārakā became inundated by the ocean. The name Dvārakā is derived from the word door, indicating that it is a gateway to the transcendental realm. Dvārakā is situated on the shore of the Arabian Sea in western Gujarat in India.

It was also one of the four original centers founded by Śaṅkara Ācārya. As such, it is a very important place of pilgrimage for all those who are followers of Vedic culture, and many hundreds of thousands of people come from all over to visit every year. According According to historical accounts, the original temple of Lord Dvarkadis was destroyed by Muslim invaders in the eleventh century. It had been built by Lord Krsna's grandson, Vajranabha, on the site of Lord Krsna's personal palace.

The existing Dvarkadis temple dates from 1730 A.D. It is 52 meters tall, with five stories, and stands on 72 pillars. The temple has two entrances. The main gate is called moksha-dvara, the doorway to salvation.

The other entrance is called svarga-dvara, the doorway to heaven. The main deity is Lord Dvarkadis, a four-armed form of Lord Visnu. This Deity is made of black stone and is about five feet tall, but the amazing thing is that whoever has the good fortune to touch the lotus feet of this Deity finds that they are as soft as the feet of a human being. To the right of the main Deity room is the temple of Lord Baladeva, the brother of Lord Krsna.

To the left is a temple of Padumna and Aniruddha, Dhaniruddha, the son and grandson of Lord Krsna. Nearby is the deity of Lord Siva, and outside the temple is the deity of Devaki, Lord Krsna's mother. There are also temples of Lakshmi Narayan, Goddess Saraswati, Radha, Jambavati and Satyabhama. The Dvarakadesa temple and Satyabhama.

The Dvarkadis temple opens at five in the morning, and there is a mad rush of visitors who have come to see the deity. Legend has it that the original deity of Dvarkadis left the temple some eight hundred years ago and went to Dakor. The story is as follows. Once, on the day of Holi, everyone worshipped Krishna except one of the cowherds one of the cowherds named Vijayananda, who was very proud.

Even his wife had gone to worship Krsna, but Vijayananda had stayed at home. Lord Krsna then came to Vijayananda's house, disguised as one of His friends, and asked him to perform holy puja. Vijayananda did so, and after returning home, he realized that his friend was none other than Lord Krsna. At this time, Vijayananda went to help Krsna, and the Lord revealed to him His true identity.

Vijayananda then offered his apologies. Being compassionate, Lord Krsna informed Vijayananda that he would be born again in Gujarat four thousand two hundred years later in a ksatriya family, and his present wife, Sudha, would again be his wife, named Gangabai. In that lifetime, Vijayananda would have the darsana of the Lord and thus achieve liberation. Thus, eight hundred years ago, Vijayananda Bodhana appeared at Dakor in Gujarat in a Rajput family.

Vijayananda Bodhana was a great devotee of Lord Krsna. Every six months he would walk to Dvaraka and worship the Lord. He did this without fail until his seventy-second year, but due to old age he began to find it difficult. Lord Krsna then appeared to Vijayananda Bodhana and told him to take a bullock cart to Dvaraka the next time, so that he could accompany him back to Dakor.

The next trip, when the priests of Dvarakadi saw that Vijayananda had come in a bullock cart, they were surprised. When questioned Questioned by them, Vijayananda Bodhana replied that he had brought the cart to take the Deity back to Dakor. When the brahmanas saw the old cart, they hardly believed such a thing, but still, that night they locked the temple doors very securely. Then at midnight, the Deity broke the door and woke up Vijayananda Bodhana and told him to take him to Dakor.

Vijayananda Bodhana drove for a while, and then Krsna told him to take rest while He Himself drove the bullock cart. In this way they quickly reached Dakor. Meanwhile, back in Dvaraka, when the brahmanas saw that the deity of Dvarakadishva was missing, they gave chase to Vijayananda Bodhana. Vijayananda Bodhana became frightened, but Krsna told him to hide him at a bathing ghat on the Gomati River.

This was done, but when Vijayananda Abodhana went to meet the brahmanas, one of them angrily killed him with a spear. At that time, Lord Krsna also felt the pain, and as a result, the water of the Gomati became red with the Lord's blood. Even today, the clay at that spot has a reddish color. The brahmanas then sat on the banks of the river, fasting, until the Deity would return to Dvaraka.

At last the Deity told Vijayananda Bodhana's widow to give the brahmanas the equivalent of his weight in gold to appease them. Being very poor, however, she could not do this, and so the Deity became so light that her small gold earrings tipped the scale in her favor. The brahmanas were very disappointed, but the Deity told them that they would find a replica of him at a certain well with steps at Dvārakā. Dvārakadeśa told them to look at a certain time, but the brāhmaṇas were impatient, and so when they went to the well, they found a smaller deity which was similar to the original one.

Dvārakā is located by the side of the river Gomati, where the river meets the sea. If you go out of the back entrance of the Dvārakadeśa temple, you will see the Gomati river, where Where the river meets the sea, there is an imposing temple called Samudra Narayana Mandir. Thirty kilometers north of Dvaraka is an island in the middle of the sea called Beit Dvaraka. It takes twenty minutes by boat to reach this island, which is said to be the remains of the original Dvaraka that Lord Krsna built within the sea.

One and a half kilometers from the Dvarakadesa temple is the Rukmini Devi temple. Rukmini was Lord Krsna's principal queen. The walls of the temple are beautifully decorated with paintings depicting the pastimes of Lord Krsna. There is an interesting story behind this temple.

One day Durvasa Muni, who is very easily displeased, was invited to dinner by Lord Krsna and Rukmini. The etiquette was that until the guest had been fed, the host must not partake of any food or drink. Rukmini became very thirsty, however, and so Krsna put His foot in the ground so that Ganga water immediately flowed out for her to drink. This was done while Durvasa Muni was not looking.

But as Rukmini was drinking, Durvasa suddenly turned around and saw this, and so he angrily cursed that she would have to live apart from Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is for this reason that Rukmini's temple is outside of Dvārakā.