Tota Gopinatha

Gadadhara Pandita would read Bhagavatam every day to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Once Mahaprabhu came here after taking darshana of Lord Jagannatha, where He saw Lord in his Syamasundara form by seeing he experienced the mood of separation from Krishna; He experienced the same feelings as he would in Vrindavana. He saw Cataka parvata as Govardhana, the ocean as Yamuna, and VataVrksha as Vamshi vata where Krishna played his flute to attract Gopi’s.

One day in same separation mood Mahaprabhu was digging the soil; He suddenly saw the top portion of a deity. He said to Gadadhara, “I have found a most precious thing here. Would you like to accept it?” And then together they removed from the sand a very beautiful deity of Lord Sri Krishna.


Mahaprabhu named the deity Gopinatha. As deity found in garden, which is called Tota in Oriya language, devotee started to address this deity as Tota Gopinatha. Mahaprabhu gave the responsibility of Tota Gopinatha’s service to His most dear Gadadhara Pandita.


Gaudiya Vaisnavas accept that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ended His manifested pastimes in Jagannatha Puri by entering into the knee of the Tota Gopinatha Deity. If you come in the morning around seven, you can give a donation to see the crack in His knee where Lord Chaitanya entered the Deity and left this world.