| Editors
note: Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu prays in His Siksastaka:
"O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction
to the living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of
names like Krishna and Govinda." When Tamal Krishna
Goswami discovered the deity of Krishna on Juhu Beach, Krishna
appeared to him as the Lord of the Gopis. When Goswami
Maharaja returned to the United States, however, he sensed a
different mood. Being with his disciples and Godbrothers
again after a long absence, Goswami Maharaja felt that the old
mood of the Radha-Damodara Traveling Sankirtan Party was again
alive. The party was there, but the name was not.
Then, after consultation with senior Godbrothers, Goswami
Maharaja had his feelings confirmed. Krishna had now
changed His mood. He was again with Goswami Maharaja in
America, and Goswami Maharaja was preaching vigorously and
enthusiastically as he had done two years before. The
Radha-Damodar Party was indeed reborn. So on the
auspicious day of Gaura-ekadasi in October of 1978 a namabhiseka
was performed in St. Louis and Radha-Gopinath became
Radha-Damodar. The following narration was spoken by Tamal
Krishna Goswami at the installation of Srimati Radharani on
Radhastami in September 1978 at St. Louis.
This little deity of Gopinatha has appeared by the mercy of
Srila Prabhupada. Krishna is so magnanimous and merciful
that He comes in the form of sri-vigraha. This authorized
form of the Lord is prayed for by the devotee of the Lord.
So we have to thank our beloved spiritual master that Krishna
has appeared to us.
We were walking on the morning on the day after
Nrisimha-caturdasi, the appearance day of Lord Nrisimhadeva,
with our Godbrothers and disciples on the beach where Prabhupada
always walked. It was a full moon, and on that morning,
the moon was still full over the Arabian Sea. We came to
the beach: looking west the moon was over the water and on the
eastern side the sun had just risen at 6:00am. The sun was
over the earth, the moon was over the water, and the air over
the sea. All the demigods were present. And while
walking at this auspicious time, we found there at the junction
of the water and the land this little deity of Gopinath.
He was glowing in the sand, just a little bit of His crown
showing.
There were so many people walking on the beach, but none of them
saw this deity. Such a vast beach, unlimited numbers of
grains of sand and millions of tons of water, so how does a
deity of Krishna appear except by the mercy of Krishna?
guru-krsna-prasade bai bhakti lata bija. By the mercy of
the spiritual master and the mercy of Krishna, Krishna can
appear. Everyone was walling, but no one could see what
was there. So I asked, "just see what that is there
in the sane." Only a very little bit was showing;
something glowing in the sand. So they dug Him out and it
was Krishna playing on His flute.
Immediately I chanted the Brahma-samhita and took Him back to my
room at Hare Krishna Land. I placed Him on my desk. He was
all covered at the time, having been under water for perhaps
years. He hands were rough, being under water for so
long. You can see that two little holes were made in His
arm by the sea water. We began to eat our breakfast, but
halfway through we could not eat any more because we saw that
Krishna had appeared and He had not eaten for so long. He
was standing in this condition, so we could not do anything
except take care of Him . He was calling to be taken care
of. He appeared so He could be taken care of.
Immediately I stopped eating and came up th the deity, sat down
and for five hours I polished Him and cleansed His body until He
was shiny. Miraculously, the day before, someone had
brought a simhasana just right for His size. All the
pujaris were called in aand different pujari cooked different
offerings. someone else brought a little silver
calf. In this way, after five hours of cleansing and
preparation, we performed the mahabhisekha ceremony and
installed Sri Gopinatha.
About two or
three days later, the appearance of Sri Gopinath was related to
one of our life members who happens to be the former king of the
state of Udaipura, the same state in which the deity of Sri
Nathji is located. The king is a very good devotee of the
Lord, and when he heard the story of the appearance of Sri
Gopinathji, he immediately requested to be allowed to bring
Radharani to Krishna. So this deity of Radharani has been
given by him. So it is by the grace of guru and grace of
Krishna that Krishna has come and His consort, Radharani, has
come.
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