reflection on Jnanagamya Prabhu and doing Gokula Parikrama with him

[Paramananda das]

dear devotees
Please accept my humble obaisences
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I have been asked by the Lord in the heart to write something about Jnanagamya Prabhu and us doing Parikrama in Vraja
You will find him under ISKCON leaders : http://iskconleaders.com/jnanagamya-prabhu/

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db98kqDSUq4

http://www.mayapur.com/2015/hg-jnanagamya-prabhu-passes-away/ 

What I want to recount from doing parikrama with him in Vrindavana is what not to do on Vrindavana Parikrama. In 2008 or so I took Jnanagamya with me to visit Sri Krsnas Gokula and first I showed him many places in Mathura .Everything went smootly untill we came to Lord Balaramas temple in Mahavana called Dauji mandir :
One beggar who was not an ordinary beggar but well educated and spoke fluent English asked Jnanagamya Prabhu for a donation ,I had already given him 10 rs, that was like 25 cents back then .He refused to give him anything or anything to any of the beggars and finally got furious with him and lost his cool .I gave that fellow an extra 10 Rs and said some sweet words and he finally left us alone .I told him that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada always insisted that on Parikrama donationes be given especially by the grhasthas ,no one should go dissatisfied with you when you are on a parikrama because the persons that live in Vraja are special .Imagine such fortune to have been born in Vraja.Srila Jagannatha das Babaji used to honor even the bhangis, that is a class that live really poorly and they always sweep and sometimes even eat pigs in Vrindavana as they have nothing else.http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bhangi. Anyhow from being angry with the Vrijabasi he got red in his face and looked really sick ,his mood has changed and we still had one stop left which was Nanda Bhavan where Sri Krsna was born to Mother Yasoda and Krsna performed so many child hood pastimes like killing Putana, and Trinivarta, Sakatasura, Krsna being dragged in the mud by calves when He held on to their tails .But now we could not go because Jnanagamya Prabhu did not feel well I was unhappy because that is one of the most important places in Gokula to visit along with Radharanis birth place Raval. Well I thought that is Krsnas mercy somehow we are not going to Gokula today, Yogamaya is not allowing
us to go there due to offences to Vrijabasis . I told him later Prabhu we need to go back to Gokula and finish the parikrama you did not get to visit Nanda Bhavan. But we where never able to go back and when I met in years later in the US I told him again we need to go back to Gokula and finish the parikrama of Nanda Bhavan.Next time I go and visit Vrindavana I am going back to Gokula and Nanda Bhavan because I love Krsnas Bala Gopala pastimes .I went back to Vrindavana several times but I always went to Govardhana and Varsana and Nandagrama and other places but in 10 years I have not been in Mahavana it seem like a crime on
my part so when I visit next time I will go for sure.If you go to Vraja always make sure to visit Mahavana we do not know when our last breath will be .I pray mine may be in Mahavana or somewhere in Vraja
your servant
Paramananda das

Gokula
Mahavana is one of the twelve sacred forests of Vraja and although it was once a large and verdant forest withparikrama of around 12 kilometers, there are hardly any trees remaining there today. Mahavan was the second largest forest after Kamyavana and the name Mahavana means ‘great forest’.Nevertheless, one can still see all the places where krishna enjoyed his trascendental pastimes during His early childhood (Kumar-lila) at Gokula. The ancient village of Gokula, which is presently known as Mahavana, is the original village named Gokula where Nanda Maharaj and mother yasoda Mayi had their residence and where krishna spent the first three and half year of his childhood. The name ‘Gokula’ actually means the residential place of cows. the word ‘go’ means cow and ‘kula’ means residence or living place, or in other words Gokula was a village inhabited by cowherd men and their cows.
Krishna’s childhood pastimes at Gokula are in particular very sweet, and more easily understood by the ordinary people in general.Krishna’s pastimes of stealing butter and yougurt from the houses of the married gopis, and then feeding that same stolen butter and yogurt to his friends and monkeys, or his letting loose the gopis calves so they would drank all the cow’s milk, or his slaying so many demons, are just some of krishna’s many childhood pastimes that can be appritiated by people of all ages. on the other hand, Krishna’s amorous pastimes with the young gopis of vraja are not easily understood, even by greatly learned scholars, philosophers, and pious religionsits.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also visited Mahavan while on his parikrama around the sacred forestd of vraja. It is said that He experienced great trascendental esctasy seeing all the wonderful places in Gokula connected to Krishna’s pastimes.Lord chaitanya visited the chaurasi Khamba, also called Nanda Bhavan, where krishna birth celebration took place. It is said that Lord Chaitanya’s ecstacy increased even more when he saw the twin arjuna trees broken by Krishna, Which was the site of the Damnodara-lila, where mother Yasoda tied her naughty son Krishna to grinding mortar. During His Tour of Gokula, Lord Chaitanya chanted the holy names and danced in ecstacy wherever He went, people gatherd from far and wide to get a glimps of Lord Chaitanya,and all those who saw him also experienced ecstatic and many also fainted on the ground.The local Vrajvasis where saying that Lord Krishna has again appeared in Vrindavan in the form of Sanyasi.