The Legend of Sapta Debaloy- Part III - Radha Madan Mohan Jew

Madan Mohan temple located close to the Kaliya Daman Ghat & is the oldest of all Goswami temples in Vrindavan. ‘Madan’ means Kamadeva (God of desire and Love) and Mohan means one who charms thus the god who can even charm Kamadeva is named as Lord Madan Mohan. The Original & Old Radha Madan Mohan temple is built 50 feet high on the Dwadashaditya hill (Tila) which has the legend behind it that, when Lord Krishna after subduing Kaliya Nag for 03 days of continuous fight, came out of the waters of Yamuna, he rested on this hill. Completely drenched with water, Krishna was feeling cold, so in order to provide warmth to their lord 12 suns (Dwadash Aditya) appeared on this hill and thus it got the name Dwadashaditya Tila (hill). With the scorching heat of those 12 suns, Krishna’s body began to perspire and thus a small lake was formed as a result of water collected due to perspiration. Thus the Ghat near this place was known to be as Prashkandana Ghat.

The original temple tower is flanked by two buildings by it’s both sides, all three built of red sandstone thus, exhibiting a magnificent work of architecture as the reminiscent of Mughal era. The left one has a huge gate which remains closed and the right one has the Bhajan Kutir (cottage) and Samadhi (cenotaph) of Sri Sanatan Goswami.

The history of Madan Mohan temple actually traces back to 5000 years ago during the time of King Vajranabh (Great Grandson of Krishna) who firstly establish this temple along with few other temples in Vrindavan. But during the course of time the temple was disappeared. As per the historical records, it was built in 1580 by Kapur Ram das, a trader of Multan under the guidance of Sri Sanatana Goswami. Later in 1669 during the invasion of Mughal Ruler Aurangzeb the original deity of Madan Mohan was secretly moved to Jaipur for safekeeping where it was worshipped for many years. Later when the princess of royal family of Jaipur was married to the prince of Karauli, she took the deity along with her to Karauli and since then it’s established and worshipped in Karauli.

During the attack of Aurangzeb (1669) on Vrindavan the spire (Shikhara) of the original temple was dismantled. The Deity of Madanmohan (formerly Madan-Gopal) for many years it was lost. It is believed that Saint Advaita Acharya found the original idol of Sri Madan Mohan under the old Banyan Tree (Advaita Vat), when he visited Vrindavan. He gave the idol to his disciple Purushottam Choubey (Mathura Brahman) for worship, who in turn gave the idol to his follower Sanatana Goswami who installed the idol on Dwadashaditya hill under a tree and worshipped the idol for many years.

The story of how Sanatan Goswami acquired Madan Mohan Jew is quite interesting, he used to beg in nearby Mathura and one day came to doors of the brahman Chaube. He saw brahmana’s children playing with the Deity as if Madanmohan was one of them. Horrified Sanatan chastised Chaubha and taught him proper ways of Deity worship. Both Sanatan and brahman had a dream that night. Madanmohan appeared to Sanatan and told him, that he liked to be treated as one of the brahmana’s children and since Sanatan introduced so many rules, He don’t like it any more.

To Chaube, Madanmohan said that he is like one of his children. He told him that he had many children and he should give Him to Sanatan. Next morning both devotees wanted to apologize, but at the end Madanmohan went with Sanatan. But not before, the deity promised to Sanatan that He would be satisfied with whatever he will be able to offer. Sanatan, being traveling mendicant could not give much luxury to his Deity. Sanatana was practicing madhukari (begging from doors to doors) and he could offer to the Deity just dry bread balls. Madan-Mohan asked him, if he could give Him at least little salt. Sanatan replied he would like to but being dedicated to his bhajan couldn’t afford such a “luxury”. Shortly afterwards down the Dvadasaditya Hill, the merchant’s boat went aground in the Yamuna river. The owner Krisnadas Kapoor was worried about his goods and didn’t know what to do. Madan-Mohan took the form of small cowherd boy and led him upwards to Sanatana. Merchant described what happened, but Sanatan replied he couldn’t do anything about it, being just a sannyasi. But he told him to pray to Madan-Mohan Deity he had kept just humbly roofed nearby. The merchant did what Sanatan advised and few moments later his boat was released by rising of Yamuna’s waters. Sailing down to Agra and making big profit, he later under Sanatana’s direction began to construct temple for Madan-Mohan which became one of the symbols and dominant features of Vrindavan.