One of the seven Goswami temples

The Radha Gokulananda temple is among the most spiritually concentrated shrines in all of Vrindavan - and one of the Sapt Devalaya, the seven Goswami temples that are the founding shrines of the holy city.  It stands quietly on the Parikrama Marg, between Keshi Ghat and the Radha-Raman temple, near the Yamuna - easily missed by the hurried, treasured by those who know.

Where the grander Sapt Devalaya temples each centre on a single deity, Gokulananda is different: it is a gathering of the personal deities and the very resting-places of several of the greatest saints of the Gaudiya tradition. To step inside is to stand at the heart of the lineage itself. 

Lokanatha Goswami & the deity round his neck

The temple's founding saint is Lokanatha Goswami, often called "the seventh Goswami" alongside the famous Six.  A contemporary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he came to Vrindavan when the Lord took sannyasa and lived the life of a hidden, austere bhajan-saint. While wandering the places of Krishna's leela, in the village of Umaraa in the forest called Chatravana, he discovered the small deity of Radha-Vinoda, revealed to him from the Kishori Kunda.

So beloved was this little deity that - the tradition tells with great tenderness - Lokanatha carried Radha-Vinoda in a small bag hung around his own neck, serving him wherever he went.  It is one of the sweetest images of devotion in all of Vrindavan: the great hidden saint, his Lord always at his heart. 

Narottama Das - the only disciple

Lokanatha had vowed to take no disciples at all.  But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had foretold that He would send him one - and that one was Narottama Das Thakur, who came to Vrindavan longing to be initiated by Lokanatha. When Lokanatha refused, again and again, Narottama did not argue. Instead, every night, in secret, he cleaned and swept the place where Lokanatha performed his bhajan - until at last the saint, moved by such humble service, accepted Narottama as his one and only disciple.

Narottama Das would become one of the great preachers of the tradition - with Shyamananda and Srinivasa Acharya, he carried the Goswamis' manuscripts to Bengal and spread Mahaprabhu's teaching far and wide. His own Chaitanya deity is worshipped here and his samadhi is in the courtyard. 

The temple of many deities

Here is what makes Gokulananda singular among the seven.  Formerly, each of several acharyas worshipped his own deity in his own separate temple. It was the vision of the great scholar-saint Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakura to bring them together under one roof - and so this temple holds:

• Radha-Vinoda - the small deities worshipped by Lokanatha Goswami.

• Radha-Vijaya Govinda - the larger deities worshipped by Baladeva Vidyabhushana (the acharya who defended the Gaudiyas' right to worship Govindaji at Jaipur).

• Radha Gokulananda - the central deities worshipped by Vishwanath Chakravarti himself (which he first served at Radha Kunda before bringing them here) and from whom the temple takes its name.

• Chaitanya Mahaprabhu - the deity, with a small Krishna, worshipped by Narottama Das Thakur. 

To take darshan here is to behold the cherished Lords of four great saints together - a fellowship of deities found nowhere else.

Chaitanya's Govardhan-shila

Among the temple's most precious treasures is a Govardhana-shila that belonged to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself.  By the tradition, this stone of Govardhan bore the thumbprint of Mahaprabhu and was "always moist with His tears" - for the Lord would chant while holding it, pressing it to His heart, His eyes, even His head, in the ecstasy of love. After keeping it for three years, He gave it to Raghunath Das Goswami and it is now worshipped here at Gokulananda.

It is a relic of the most intimate kind - a stone touched and wept upon by Chaitanya. Pilgrims may behold it; a small donation is customary for its darshan.

The samadhis - a parampara in stone

In a small courtyard beside the temple rest the samadhis of a whole disciplic succession - which is why devotees revere this place so deeply.  Here are the samadhis of: 

• Lokanatha Goswami, who did his bhajan in this very courtyard;

• Narottama Das Thakur, his only disciple - a puspa (flower) samadhi holding his garland, cloth and mala;

• Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakura, who entered samadhi in 1674 - the great commentator who wrote the Sri Gurvashtakam, sung every morning in temples worldwide;

• and the puspa samadhis of Ganga Narayan Chakravarti and Krishnadeva Sarvabhauma, saints of the same line.

From Lokanatha to Narottama to their successors, the parampara itself lies here - a rare place where the lineage of a tradition rests together in one quiet courtyard. (See our Braj saints & samadhis guide.)

An honest note: some accounts also place Lokanatha's samadhi north of Umaraa, on the bank of Kishori Kunda, where he discovered Radha-Vinoda - confirm the details locally; both the temple courtyard and the Umaraa connection belong to his story. 

The original & the pratibhu - told straight

As with three of the other Sapt Devalaya temples, an honest word is owed.  The original Radha-Vinoda deity was carried to Jaipur for safety during the Mughal assaults on Vrindavan and is worshipped there to this day. The temple here serves pratibhu-murtis - representative deities - of which the tradition holds there is no difference in potency from the originals.

So your darshan at Gokulananda is no lesser for it: the soil is the soil Lokanatha trod, the samadhis are the true resting-places of the saints and the pratibhu is the Lord's continued presence in his own beloved land. A born-Brajwasi tells you this plainly, as is right. 

What you'll see today

Today the Radha Gokulananda temple is a calm, ancient shrine - modest beside the grander temples, but profound.  You will find the gathered deities on the altar; the cherished Govardhan-shila of Chaitanya (for darshan with a small donation); and, in the courtyard, the samadhis of Lokanatha, Narottama, Vishwanath Chakravarti and their line. It sits on the Parikrama Marg near Keshi Ghat, an easy step from Radha Raman and Radha Damodar - so a pilgrim of the seven takes them together.