After years of wandering, Madhavendra Puri arrived at Govardhana Hill in Vrindavana, and it was here, according to Chaitanya-charitamrita, that Krishna Himself began arranging one of the tradition's most beloved Deity stories. Madhavendra Puri circled the hill in near-constant ecstasy, "almost mad in his ecstasy of love of Godhead," unable to tell whether it was day or night, sometimes standing, sometimes collapsing to the ground. After bathing at Govinda-kunda he sat beneath a tree to rest for the evening.
Milk From an Unknown Boy #
An unfamiliar cowherd boy approached him with a pot of milk and asked, smiling, why Madhavendra Puri had not eaten and what kind of meditation he was doing. When Madhavendra Puri asked who he was, the boy answered simply that he was a village cowherd, and that in his village nobody went hungry: the women who had seen Madhavendra Puri at the water had sent him with milk. After drinking it, Madhavendra Puri found the boy had vanished without returning for the pot as promised. He sat awake most of the night chanting, and only near dawn did he doze off, at which point the same boy returned, this time in a dream.
Gopala's Own Request #
In the dream, the boy led Madhavendra Puri to a bush deep in the jungle and identified Himself: "My name is Gopala. I am the lifter of Govardhana Hill. I was installed by Vajra, and here I am the authority" (Madhya 4.41). He explained that His priest had hidden Him in the thicket during an attack and then fled. So He had been left exposed to cold, rain and heat for years. He had been waiting for Madhavendra Puri in particular to come and serve Him. Madhavendra Puri woke up in tears. He lamented that he had seen Krishna face to face without recognizing Him. At dawn he gathered the villagers and had them cut a path into the dense jungle with choppers and spades. There he found the Deity exactly as described, covered in dirt and undergrowth.
An Installation Vrindavana Still Remembers #
What followed was not a quiet re-installation. It was a full public festival. Villagers carried the heavy Deity to the hilltop, where He was seated on a stone throne. Nine hundred pots of water were brought from Govinda-kunda for the bathing ceremony. The Deity was massaged with oil, bathed in stages with panca-gavya and panchamrita, dressed in new garments, and garlanded with tulasi and flowers. Every family in the surrounding villages brought food. The entire hilltop was reportedly covered with stacks of rice, dal, chapatis, and sweets. The offering was so large that Chaitanya-charitamrita records a small miracle in passing: "Although Sri Gopala ate everything offered, still, by the touch of His transcendental hand, everything remained as before" (Madhya 4.77). This became the first annakuta, or Govardhana Puja, festival at the site. The festival is still celebrated by Vaishnavas worldwide. News of Gopala's appearance drew crowds from village after village for days afterward. Madhavendra Puri initiated many of the local brahmanas into Vaishnava worship on the spot. Later he gave the Deity's daily service to two renounced brahmanas who had arrived from Bengal. In this way he set up organized temple worship at Govardhana. Not long afterward, Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami settled in Vrindavana themselves and began restoring it. They would build greatly on this arrangement.
Sandalwood, and a Second Journey #
After two years of worship, Gopala appeared to Madhavendra Puri in another dream. His body, buried so long in the earth, was still overheated. He asked for sandalwood pulp from the Malaya hills, which could be obtained through Jagannatha Puri, to cool Him (Madhya 4.106). Despite his age, Madhavendra Puri set out east on foot at once to carry out the order. The journey took him first to Advaita Acharya's home in Shantipura, discussed on Life in the Madhva Sampradaya. From there it led him into one of the most famous pastimes connected with his name, told on The Kshira Chora Gopinatha of Remuna.
A Deity, and a Disputed History #
Two living Vaishnava traditions really disagree about what eventually happened to this same Gopala Deity. The disagreement should be told honestly, not smoothed over. The Gaudiya account draws on Chaitanya-charitamrita and on Srila Prabhupada's purports to it, and he repeated it in many lectures and conversations. It holds that Gopala continued to be worshiped at Govardhana in the Gaudiya line Madhavendra Puri founded. It says that He was later moved for safety during renewed unrest, and that today He is worshiped as Srinathji at Nathadvara in Rajasthan. Prabhupada said on more than one occasion that an Indian court had formally ruled that the Deity's origin belongs to Gaudiya Vaishnavism. The Pushtimarga tradition founded by Vallabhacharya tells a very different story. In that story, Vallabhacharya himself, or his son Vitthalanatha, personally discovered Srinathji and began worshiping Him, with no role for Madhavendra Puri at all. Some Pushtimarga texts instead describe Madhavendra Puri as a later teacher of Vallabha. Modern historians such as Alan Entwistle consider this claim unlikely, given the years in which the two men probably lived. We do not try to settle here which account is historically correct. Both are given because both are genuinely and sincerely held.
