Sri Sri Radha Madhava
The History of ISKCON Mayapur Deities
from mayapur.com
Every day we take darshan of our beloved Deities, Sri Sri Radha Madhava. They kindly bestow Their mercy upon us and enable us to serve Them. How did these beautiful Radha Madhava Deities come to Sri Mayapur Dham?
Once when Srila Prabhupada was in Sri Vrindavan Dham, Mr. Palmir, a life-patron member of ISKCON, donated three sets of Radha Krishna Deities. Srila Prabhupada sent one set of Deities went to Berkeley, one to Boston, and kept the other set himself. This set of Deities became our small Radha Madhava, Chota Radha Madhava.
When Srila Prabhupada was in Allahabad, he once chanted a song by Bhaktivinode Thakur to Chota Radha Madhava:
jaya radha-madhava kunja-bihari
gopi-jana-vallabha giri-vara-dhari
yasoda-nandana vraja-jana-ranjana
yamuna-tira-vana-cari
After he sang the first two lines, he fell into a trance. When he came back to external consciousness after some time, he remarked that this song depicted Vrindavan. “Everything is there: Srimati Radharani, Krishna, Govardhana, Yasoda, all the cowherd boys and the gopis.”
One night, Srila Prabhupada arrived late at the temple with Chota Radha Madhava. Disciples travelling with him ate and prepared to rest. Srila Prabhupada, however, was concerned about the Deities being left in a trunk. Tamal Krishna Goswami said that the Deities were sleeping. He could make some arrangement for Them the next day. Srila Prabhupada said, “No. Make an altar for them now.” Immediately, the devotees ran around trying to find first-class materials to make a proper place for Their Lordships. Finally, when they were able to establish an altar, Srila Prabhupada said “Alright, now we can take rest.”
Later devotees moved Chota Radha Madhava to the Hindustan Building for some time. A year later, Srila Prabhupada brought the small Deity of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to be worshipped next to Chota Radha-Madhava. This followed the system introduced by his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, who had arranged for Radha-Krishna and Gauranga to be worshipped together (sri-krsna-caitanya radha-krsna nahe anya). In 1972 the devotees celebrated ISKCON’s first Gaura-purnima festival with Radha Madhava.
In 1974, devotees began to worship Saligram-sila by offering of 16 items chanting the Purusha-sukta. (Now they offer 64 items.)
In 1979, Radhapada das, a congregational devotee from Kolkata, had a dream in which a young sadhu asked him, “Do you recognize me?”
“No, I don’t recognize you,” he answered.
Then the sash said, “Anyway, you gave me some money once. I have come to return it.” He handed Radhapada das some money, but Radhapada protested, “Dear sadhu, if I gave you money, I don’t expect it back from you. I don’t expect any money back from a sadhu.”
The young sadhu said: “You really don’t recognize me?”
“No.”
Then the young sadhu transformed into an older man.
“Oh, Prabhupada! Now I know you! You are Swami Prabhupada!”
“Yes, I have left this planet. Some of my disciples have experienced some difficulty in the beginning, but after a while everything will be alright. Anyway, you should give them some help. Try to help them.”
“But, how can I help them?”
Prabhupada replied, “You can help them construct a big temple and things like that.”
“But, what about my wife and family?”
Srila Prabhupada then said, “Don’t worry about that. I will take care of them.”
When Radhapada awoke, he immediately went to the Kolkata temple. He met Bhavananda Prabhu and Jayapataka Swami there and explained his dream about Srila Prabhupada and his desire to help the devotees.
“I would like to buy you some Deities,” he said.
They told him, “Well, Prabhupada already told us what kind of Deities he wants, along with the dimensions for such Deities. If you like, we can make the Deities now. They can manifest Themselves whenever They wish.” They concluded that they would go ahead and make the big Radha-Madhava Deities.
Omkara Prabhu, a French devotee, supervised a murti-sculptor from Jaipur, Mr. Pandai. When he finished Radha the sculptor asked, “Well, what do you think?” Omkara Prabhu said, “Your design is very good, but maybe the eyes are too big.” However, according to the specifications devotees had given Mr. Pandai, the Deities’ facial features were correct.
When Mr. Pandai finally completed the Deities, some devotees went to Jaipur to inspect Them. Everything was fine, but Bhavananda Prabhu said, “Anyway, give them a final polishing so They have a very fine finish.” To their great surprise, that final polish manifested a fine, white thread-like line all around the body of Sri Madhava (like a brahmana thread), and on His forehead a faint tilak appeared.
Big Radha-Madhava came to Mayapur in 1980. They manifested Themselves before the appointed time — the altar wasn’t even ready. Devotees installed Them in the same year.
Six years later, in 1986, devotees completed a new temple with four of the eight sakhis. Devotees installed them a few days before Gaura-Purnima of that year.
Giriraj arrived on Gaura Purnima that year.
Lord Nrisimhadeva and Prahlad Maharaja arrived in July of same year. (For a complete history of the appearance of Lord Nrisimhadeva at ISKCON Mayapur, please see www.narasimhalila.com/history.html)
Several years later, in 1992, the other four sakhis arrived, and devotees held a three day festival installation festival.
tara madhye hema-pitha, asta-dale vestita
asta dale pradhana nayika
tara madhye ratnasane, basi achen dui-jane
syama sange sundari radhika
“In the midst of the golden lotus of one hundred petals, there is a golden platform surrounded by eight petals. Situated upon those eight petals are the eight principal sakhis, headed by Lalita and Visakha. On that golden platform, the Divine Couple sit upon a jewelled throne. In the company of Lord Shyama sits the beautiful Radhika.” (Srila Narottama Dasa Thakur’s Prarthana)
The Panca-Tattva Deities
panca-tattvatmakam krsnam bhakta-rupa-svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam namami bhakta-saktikam
“I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Krishna, who is non-different from His features as a devotee (Caitanya Mahaprabhu), devotional manifestation (Nityananda Prabhu), devotional incarnation (Advaita Acarya), devotional energy (Gadadhara Pandita) and pure devotee (Srivasa Pandita).” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta)
In the Pancaratra scriptures there is a saying that in the ultimate analysis devotion is the only element which might cause the Lord to appear. The small Panca-tattva Deities appeared due to the great desire and devotion of His devotees. Then the Lord reciprocates with the devotees’ desires to serve Him..
Devotees wrote a book on the making of the big Panca-tattva Deities. First They manifested themselves in South India. Then devotees installed them in Sri Mayapur dham.
From the beginning the Lord had granted the desires of His devotees, giving them the opportunity to engage in His service. Bharat Maharaj Prabhu wanted to help make the Deities. ISKCON hired a very good artist from Krishnanagar, who had a lot of talent but no devotion. He started to make the Deities, but soon he stopped. In the end, Bharata Maharaja Prabhu had to finish the work himself. Finally, only because of the intense desire of the devotees, the Deities were ready on time. They finished Panca-tattva at the very last minute.
At Mayapur devotees performed several Vedic procedures. Initially, they purified matter and space, through appropriate ceremonies. Then they gave the Deities preliminary cleansing and Their “protection” is accomplished by worship of the Sudarshan chakra through a Sudarshan homa. Then they awakened Deity’s senses using ghee and honey in a special ceremony know as netronmilanam. The next step is when they take the Deities to sleep in a grain bed, and then to the place of the fire ceremony. During the ceremony, many spiritual masters touched different parts of the Lord’s body with kusa grass to bring life to the senses. A grand abhisekha of Their Lordships followed the installation, with many different auspicious elements. Then, the devotees returned them to the altar, where they dressed them prepared them to accept worship. At that moment, the Lord begins to reciprocate with His devotees and pilgrims who come to offer their prayers.
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Devotees performed roaring kirtana while the abhisekha was going on. There had been a non-stop kirtan to invite Their Lordships to this world for the last three days. Now while the abhisekha was going on, their Lordships’ devotes felt their presence through their feelings of ecstasy.
Jananivasa Prabhu remarked, “We had fulfilled a desire of Srila Prabhupada by bringing these Deities to ISKCON Mayapur. The overwhelming feeling that everyone experienced was that Sri Panca-tattva had manifested Their presence.”
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