Sutala-kunda / Sutalavana

Sutala-kunda / Sutalavana
In the forest of Sutalavana there is this small and very isolated kunda known as Sutala-kunda. This kunda is a favorite haunt of peacocks and is a place where they come to drink water and rest beneath the shade of the trees.

Raghava Pandita’s Cave / Mani Kundali Gufa
This is the gufa or cave where Shrila Raghava Pandita Goswami performed his bhajana. He was a pandita or learned scholar but he chose to live the life of a recluse at this deserted spot next to Govardhana Hill. The cave in which he lived is called Mani Kundali Gufa, and Raghava Pandita informed his two companions that is the cave where Radha and Krishna used to sit together and enjoy their pastimes. The cave goes underground for some distance but it has shrunk in size over the years. Some say that Mani Kandali Gufa was another cave further up on Govardhana Hill that has since disappeared. The word ‘gufa’ means ‘cave’ and there used to be many such caves scattered all over Govardhana Hill, where Krishna would enjoy His transcendental pastimes with Radharani and the gopis. Raghava Pandita was the devotee who guided Shrinivasa Acharya and Narottama Dasa on their historic parikrama of Vraja Mandala, following the same route taken by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during His own parikrama of Vraja Mandala in 1515. According to the Gauragonaddesha- dipika, Raghava Pandita was one of the ashta-shakhi gopis known as Campaklata in Krishna’s Vrindavana pastimes.

-Adapted from Vraja Mandala Parikrama by Sri Rajasekhara Dasa Brahmachari.