This famous temple was established by Srila Sanatana Goswami and was the first temple to be built in Vrindavana, which at that time was just a forest. The original Deity of Madana-mohana was taken to Karauli in Rajasthan for safety during the attack on Vrindavana by the soldiers of the fanatical Muslim Emperor, Aurangzeb.Lord Chaitanya displayed intense love for Sanatana Goswami. Once, the Lord informed Sanatana that “Your body belongs to Me, it is my principle instrument for executing many important functions. By your body, I shall carry out so many tasks. You will have to ascertain the basic principles for devotees, also Vaisnava duties and Vaisnava characteristics; you will also have to explain about devotional service to Lord Krishna, as well as excavating the lost places of Krishna's pastimes, build temples and teach people how to adopt the renounced order (sannyasa)”.Madana-mohana, also known as Madana-gopala was first discovered by Advaita Acarya, in the place where he was performing his bhajana, now known as Advaita Vata, which is just below the Dvadasaditya hill. When Advaita Prabhu was due to leave for Bengal he left Madana-mohana in the care of a brahmana named Choube, who kept Him just like one of his own children. Many years passed. Both Rupa and Sanatana used to go to Mathura for collecting alms (madhukari), and it so happened that Sanatana Goswami visited the house of that same brahmana. He received a sudden shock when he saw that Choube's children were playing with Madana-mohana. He immediately called Choube and chastised him for not showing proper respect to the Deity, and then explained to him all the rules and regulations of proper Deity worship.That night, on returning to Vrindavana, Sanatana had a dream in which Madana-mohana told him that he had been very happy living in the brahmana's house as one of his children, but now that thebrahmana had introduced so many rules and regulations, He was not happy anymore. The same night, the brahmana also had a dream in which Madana-mohana told him that, “As you have so many children, and Sanatana has none, so please give Me to Sanatana”.The next morning, Sanatana Goswami rushed to the brahmana's house to apologize and ask forgiveness, but to his surprise, thebrahmana requested him to take Madana-mohana. At first Sanatana refused because he was not able to offer nice food to Madana-mohana, as he lived only on dry chapatis. Later the same night in another dream, Madana-mohana told Sanatana that He would accept whatever Sanatana offered Him.Sanatana Goswami then brought Madana-mohana to Vrindavana, to the place where he did his bhajana situated on the top of the hill named Dvadasaditya, and kept the Deity in a nearby tree. Sanatana regularly offered simple dried chapatis, but one day Madana-mohana suddenly asked for some salt. Sanatana then told Madana-mohana, “Just see, now you want salt and tomorrow you will want sweets; I am an old man and have so many books to write so please just accept this dry chapati”.It so happened that same day, that a wealthy merchant from Multan in Punjab, was taking three large boats full of salt and other merchandise down the river to Agra for sale in the local market. When passing Kaliya ghata, the boats got stuck on a sandbank and could not move. In great anxiety, the merchant, who's name was Ramdasa Kapoor, came ashore to find help, when suddenly Madana-mohana in the guise of a beautiful cowherd boy came there and advised Ramdasa to seek the help of Sanatana Goswami, a saint who lived on the Dvadasaditya hill. On climbing the hill, Ramdasa Kapoor saw Sanatana Goswami engaged in his bhajana and asked him if he could help free his boat. Sanatana then advised him that he should pray to Madana-mohana, as only He could help him. Sure enough, when Ramdasa prayed to Madana-mohana, a storm suddenly appeared and it rained heavily, thus swelling the river and miraculously freeing the boats from the sandbank, Ramdasa was overjoyed and promised to return after finishing his business in Agra.Within a short time Ramdasa Kapoor returned, having sold all his merchandise for a handsome profit and wanted to hand the full amount over to Sanatana, in appreciation for the help he had received from Madana-mohana. Sanatana asked him to build a nice temple for Madana-mohana, which he did. He also built a ghatabelow, all out of fine red sandstone, Unfortunately about a hundred years later when Emperor Aurangzeb sent his soldiers to destroy the temples of Vrindavana, the Madana-mohana temple was also desecrated. This tragic episode occurred in 1670.
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