Shri Radha-Raman Temple

ShaligramShri Radha-Raman is the worshipable Lord of Shrila Gopal Bhatt Goswami. As a small boy, Gopal Bhatt Goswami had performed menial personal services for Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during His four months stay at his father, Venkat Bhatt’s house in Shri Rangam. Later on by the order of the Lord he came here to Vrindavan to become one of the great six Goswamis. He was worshipping a Shaligram Shila at this very spot where the temple is now present. At that time in Vrindavan, the beautiful form of Radha Govindaji was being worshipped by Rupa Goswami, of Shri Madanmohan by Sanatana Goswami and that of Shri Radha Gopinath by Madhu Pandit and others.

Shrila Gopal Bhatt Goswami with great devotion was worshipping his Shaligram Shila but he very much longed to serve the beautiful three fold bending form of the Lord by offering nice dresses and other paraphernalia like the other Goswamis. On one Narsimha Chaturdashi he prayed that, “My dear Lord, You manifested Your beautiful but ferocious form from even a stone pillar. So, my Lord, please allow me to serve Your beautiful threefold bending form by revealing it through Your form as Shaligram Shila.” So on the very next morning when he returned from his bath in the River Yamuna, he found that his Shaligram Shila had manifested into the most beautiful form of Lord Shri Krishna standing with three curves in His body, playing upon His flute. The Pujaris of the temple explain that in the back of the deity a part of the original Shila is still present from which the deity grew out by His own sweet will. Rupa Goswami named the deity as “Radha-Raman” because the area of Vraja Bhoomi near Nidhuvan where He appeared is the place where Krishna gives pleasure to Shrimati Radharani. Radha-Raman means Krishna who is the giver of pleasure to Shrimati Radharani.

The Acharyas explain that the feet of the deity of Madanmohan look just like those of Krishna and the hands and the chest of the deity of Govindaji resemble exactly with those of Shri Krishna and the face of the deity of Gopinath especially manifest the beauty of the face of Krishna. But when the Goswamis saw Shri Radha-Raman they all explained that He has the feet of Madanmohan, the hands and the waist and the chest of Shri Govindaji and the face of Shri Radha Gopinathji. So all these three deities are simultaneously manifested in the beautiful form of Shri Radha-Raman.

Radhanath Swami explained that one day while worshipping Radha-Ramanji with great love and devotion, Gopal Bhatta Goswami began to cry, thinking that, “It was Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who bestowed Prema, love of God, upon me. He is the worshipable Lord of my life. How could I worship Krishna without worshipping my eternal saviour, Shri Gauranga.” And in this emotional state of pure Bhava he wept on and on. As he was worshipping Shri Radha-Raman in this mood, before his very eyes Shri Radha-Raman manifested the golden form of Lord Gaurasundar, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Seeing that beautiful graceful golden form bestowing His blessings upon him, he was assured that there is no difference between Lord Gauranga and Shri Radha-Raman and in this way he worshipped the Lord to his heart’s content   and to the Lord’s heart content throughout his whole life here in Shri Vrindavan Dham.

Radhanath Swami revealed to the devotees that how Shrila Gopal Bhatt Goswami had set up a particular system of worship for Shri Radha-Raman by which the original standards of worship are still being preserved. Quoting Shrila Prabhupada he said that of all the temples in Vraja Bhoomi, Radha-Raman temple has the highest standards of deity worship. There is no deity of Shrimati Radharani with Radha-Raman but a Gomati-Chakra is worshipped to His left. Adjacent to the temple, towards the south, one can have the darshan of the Samadhi Mandir of Shrila Gopal Bhatt Goswami.

Shri Gopal Bhatt Goswami Ji Ki Jai !!!

Shri Shri Radha-Raman Ji Ki Jai !!!

Shri Vrindavan Dham !!!