Radha Gokulanand temple was the bhajan kutir of Lokanath Goswami. He was born in the Jessore district of Bangladesh. His father’s name was Padmanabha and his mother was Sita. They were great devotees and associates of Sri Advaita Acharya. When he was a young man, he went to Sri Navadwip dham and took shelter of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya told him that soon He was going to accept sannyasa and that he should leave for Vrindavan since he would not be able to bear the pain of seeing the Lord accepting the robes of a sannyasi and His beautiful hair being cut..Lokanath Goswami left for Vrindavan along with Bhugarbha Goswami and they were waiting for the Lord to arrive there.
After the Lord accepted sannyasa he settled in Puri and left for His South India tour. When Lokanath Goswami came to know about this, he immediately left for south India to meet the Lord. As he approached the southern provinces he was informed that Lord had returned to Puri. Lokanath Goswami started for Puri but by that time Lord had started for Vrindavan. Lokanath Goswami was so eager to meet the Lord that he immediately started walking to Vrindavan. But when he finally arrived in Vrindavan he was informed that after 2 months of staying in Vrindavan, Lord Caitanya had left
for Prayag. Hearing this Lokanath Goswami fainted and when he returned to consciousness he decided to go to Prayag the next morning. In the night Lord Caitanya appeared in his dream and told him, “These are all My past times. I want you to stay in Vrindavan. Because very soon, Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatt Goswami, Raghunatha Das Goswami, Gopal Bhatt Goswami, Jiva Goswami, will all be coming to Vrindavan. I want you to live with them. You remain in Vrindavan and you will feel My presence always.” This was the nature of the service attitude of these great devotees. Lokanath Goswami wanted to be with Lord Caitanya but it was the Lord’s order that he stay in Vrindavan. On the physical level he never saw Lord Caitanya again for the rest of his life.
Near the Khadirvan forest there is a village Umraon. Lokanath Goswami would perform his bhajan in that village near the Kishori Kund. In his heart grew an intense desire to have a deity to worship. When a great soul has a desire to serve, we can understand that it is Krishna within the heart of that devotee who wants to receive service from that devotee. Thus the desire of such a great devotee is actually Krishna’s desire. One day while he was sitting with this thought, an extraordinary personality came up to him, handed him a deity and immediately disappeared. Lokanath Goswami was bewildered and the deity spoke, “My name is Radha Vinod. I have been living in this forest
for a long time just waiting for you. I have come by Myself without the help of anyone else to give Myself to you.” Hearing this Lokanath Goswami began to tremble. Radha Vinod smiled and said, “I am hungry, cook for Me.”
Lokanath Goswami cooked nice bhoga and offered to the Lord. He hung Them around his neck and that was the temple. He would travel around like this for many years. When Rupa and Sanatana Goswami came to Vrindavan, they invited Lokanath Goswami to come and live with them.
– Radhanath Swami
