The sacred forest of Vrindavana

Vrindavana is the most famous as well as the most important amongst the twelve sacred forests of Vraja and in the Adi-varaha Purana it says. “O Prthivi, this forest of Vrindavana, is the destroyer of all vices and is protected by Vrindadevi. It is certainly My favorite place. Here I will perform pastimes with the gopis and gopas in all the famous and beautiful places which are beyond the attainment of the demigods.” The Radha-Krishna-Gonaddesha-dipika says. “The best of all places of Krishna’s pastimes is the great garden known as Vrindavana forest.” The Adi-varaha Purana also says. “In all the three planetary systems, this earth is especially fortunate for here stands the town of Vrindavana.”

The forest of Vrindavana is considered to be situated on the northern petal of the lotus of Vraja, The forest has an individual parikrama of six miles (10 km), which takes about two or three hours to complete. This outer parikrama path is generally performed without stopping at any of the holy places along the way. However, when following the inner parikrama path, one can visit many important holy places including the famous ‘Seven Goswami temples’. The tradition of performing parikrama around Vrindavana was first started by Lord Chaitanya and was continued by the various Gaudiya Goswamis and their followers. Today, the parikrama of Vrindavana is now the most popular of all the parikrama’s in India and on ekadashi and other religious festival days, hundreds and thousands can be seen circumambulating the sacred forest. During the leap-month of Purushottama-masa, thousands perform the dandavata-parikrama of Vrindavana which can take as long as fifteen hours to complete.

Vrindavana is known as the forest in which Seva Kunja was located the where the celebrated pastime of rasa-lila took place during the warm moonlit nights. On those occasions, Krishna would dance in great ecstasy with the beautiful gopis of Vraja. Thousands of gopis would assemble in forest of Vrindavana after having been called by the sound of Krishna’s transcendental flute. During the rasa-lila, Krishna would expand himself to dance with each individual gopi, and while embracing them He would exchange sweet tasting betel nuts by kissing them on their lotus-like mouths. After the rasa-dance had ended, Krishna would enjoy swimming together with the gopis and sport in the cooling waters of the Yamuna River. Vrindavana is also the place where Krishna performed intimate service or seva to Shrimati Radharani in a secluded bower at Seva Kunja, where Krishna would personally decorate Radha’s lotus feet with red yavaka (vermillion), comb Her long black hair into braids decorated with forest flowers. He would also apply various cosmetics to Her lotus-like face and decorate Her soft and delicate limbs with golden ornaments and gemstudded jewelry. It was also in the sacred forest of Vrindavana where, after performing the rasa-dance, Radha and Krishna would lie down on a bed of flower petals prepared by the
gopis and spend the rest of the night embraced in each other’s arms.

The sacred forest of Vrindavana is also sacred for Krishna Himself, and in the Gautamiya Tantra, the Lord Himself says that He never ever leaves the forest of Vrindavana. “This is my beautiful Vrindavana, My transcendental abode. It measures five yojanas. This forest is My own form. The Yamuna whose currents are like the flow of nectar, also bears the name Susumna. In this place the demigods and sages always remain here in subtle forms. I, who am the master of the demigods, never leave this forest. Yuga after Yuga, I am sometimes visible and sometimes invisible. My divine transcendental form cannot be seen by material eyes”. The five yojanas mentioned in this verse refers to the area from Seva Kunja to Nandagrama which is the full extent of Vrindavana forest. The Puranas also say that the transcendental forest of Vrindavana encompassed a vast area stretching from Seva Kunja to Nandagrama and included Govardhana, Radha-kunda, Varsana, and the entire region on the western bank of the Yamuna as far north as Kelanvana, that includes Rama Ghata, Akshaya Vata (bhandira Vata), Chira Ghata, Nanda Ghata, Vatsavana and Vatsa-krida. This area is referred to in the Purana’s as Nanda’s Vraja. This same area corresponds exactly to the northern petal of the lotus of Vraja of which Govindaji is the predominating deity, and where Krishna performed the majority of His pastimes.