How does God look like? Has anyone seen him or her? These are the common questions for humans across the globe and a 13-year old boy Vajranabh had similar questions as he was growing up. But Vajranabh was no ordinary boy. He was the great grandson of Lord Krishna himself and he had heard many stories about Krishna’s childhood, his role in Mahabharata and his sermon to Arjun in the form of Geeta. Vajranabh wanted to know how Krishna looked like. He was very close to his grandmother, like most kids of that age are and he used to listen to Krishna’s stories from her grandmother. She would sure know how Krishna looked like, thought Vajranabh, because she was the daughter-in-law of Krishna. So, during her lifetime, she would have definitely seen Krishna. In Indian tradition, it is not customary for daughter-in-law to have an eye contact with her father-in-law, as a gesture of respect, explained Vajranabh’s grandmother. But how could I have passed on the opportunity to look at Krishna? Because he is the supreme God himself. So, yes, I have looked at Krishna and I will help you build an idol of him so that many more generations can also have the privilege of looking at the image of the Lord himself.  

Excited to hear this, Vajranabh started to work on the idols. He produced an idol as per his grandmother’s description and he showed it to her. She said that only the idol’s feet look like Krishna’s but rest of the idol does not. Idol was still beautiful and while Vajranabh was a bit disappointed, he kept the idol and called it Madan Mohan Ji. He then started work on another idol and again showed it to her grandmother. This time, she said that only the chest and the arms looked like Lord Krishna’s but the rest of it didn’t look like him. Again, Vajranabh kept the idol and called it Gopi Nath Ji. For the third time, he created another beautiful idol with big eyes and showed it to his grandmother. This time, her grandmother had tears in her eyes and she told his grandson that this is exactly how Krishna looked like. Large forehead, big eyes that reflected a confident calm were magically captured in this idol. Delighted, Vajranabh named this idol Sri Govind Dev Ji and kept all three idols with him. 

Several years later, Vajranabh was named the king of Mathura by Arjun’s grandson Parikshit. Being a fond of Krishna, Vajranabh created several temples in Mathura and Vrindavan, a place where Krishna had spent his childhood. The 3 idols from his childhood – Sri Madan Mohan Ji, Sri Gopi Nath Ji and Sri Govind Dev Ji were enshrined in 3 beautiful temples in Vrindavan for people to have the privilege of looking at the image of God with their own eyes.

With the passage of time, these temples were forgotten. Many were destroyed during numerous attacks by Islamic invaders from the north and people fled the area with no one to take care of the temples. After several hundred years, Vrindavan was an abandoned place and had become a jungle. ‘Van’ in Vrindavan literally means a jungle. But people have always cherished and tried to preserve old treasures. The idols of Lord Krishna were preserved by priests before fleeing the area. Priests protected them by burying them in ground where they will be safe from the invaders and hopefully someone in future generations will find them.

 It took a few hundred years but the idols were eventually discovered because of insights and meditative powers of Sri Chaitanaya Mahaprabhu. Sri Chaitanaya was a spiritual leader and well versed in ancient Indian scriptures. He used to roam all across India to preach ancient wisdom, beliefs and concepts of Hinduism. During one of such travels in 1514 CE, Sri Chaitnaya was in Vrindavan and he noticed striking similarities in this place with what was written in Bhagwat Purana. Bhagwat Purana was written by Sri Ved Vyas Ji, who also wrote Mahabharata and Geeta and lived during the same time as Krishna. Bhagwat Purana also had stories about Vajranabha and his 3 idols and how these idols were placed in temples in and around Mathura and Vrindavan areas. But Sri Chaitanaya found no trace of such temples. He was not able to solve the mystery at that time and moved to Orissa, which is roughly 1500kms away from Vrindavan. But he took vivid memories of Vrindavan with him and kept studying the scriptures for more details while also spending hours in meditation. It was during one of those meditation sessions when he could clearly see in his mind how the temples would have looked and where in Vrindavan they might have been according to the description in Bhagwat Purana. Convinced that temples existed in that place before, Sri Chaitnaya asked two of his disciples Sri Roop Goswami and Sri Sanatan Goswami, both brothers, to travel to Vrindavan and try to find temples and idols in places that he described to them. Goswami brothers indeed found the lost idols and their discovery led to revival of Hinduism in and around Vrindavan area. All 3 idols, Sri Madan Mohan Ji, Sri Gopi Nath Ji and Sri Govind Dev Ji were unearthed from places in Vrindavan. With limited resources, Goswami brothers built temples to enshrine these idols so that mankind can again get the opportunity to look at the image of the Lord which was as close as possible to the real Lord himself.

 But, they say that history repeats itself. Many temples in Vrindavan area were destroyed by Aurangzeb during his reign in early 17th century. Temples of Madan Mohan Ji, Gopi Nath Ji and Govind Dev Ji were no exception. But the idols were preserved again. Priests and caretakers moved these idols to safe places away from Vrindavan and now Sri Madan Mohan Ji idol is enshrined in a temple by the same name in Karauli, Rajasthan and Sri Gopi Nath Ji and Sri Govind Dev Ji idols are enshrined in temples by their respective names in the city of Jaipur.

 These idols are probably the oldest known idols of Lord Krishna and are as close to the real image as one can get and they only exist because of the efforts and care taken by our previous generations in preserving culture.

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