by H.H. Keshava Bharati Goswami

Surprisingly, Govardhana puja is not the best attended celebration in Govardhana. The crowds are bigger on guru-purnima day, the day everyone worships his guru.

Painting by H.G. Daivi Shakti Devi Dasi

And the senior villagers of this area will tell you that it’s because of Baba, a generic term meaning an elderly saintly person and given with special affection to Srila Sanatana Gosvami by the Vraja-basis. Srila Sanatana disappeared in 1558 on guru-purnima, after living for forty years in Vraja, and ever since then more people come to circumambulate Govardhana Hill on that day than on any other. Such was the wonderful influence of the six Gosvamis of Vrindavana. They were dear to everyone because they saw everyone as dear to Radha and Krishna. Sanatana especially would show honest concern for all the villagers, settling family disputes and asking them whom their sons and daughters were going to marry, how much milk their cows were giving, and so on. The Vraja-basis loved him like their own father.

By excavating the lost places of Krishna’s pastimes and writing hundreds of books authenticating the teachings of Srila Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Gosvamis and their followers literally put Vrindavana back on the map. The importance of the present city of Vrindavana and Vrajabhumi was disclosed to India by the will of Lord Caitanya through the efforts of the six Gosvamis -Rüpa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami, Jiva Gosvami, Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami and Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, headed by Srila Rupa and Sanatana.

Much later, in 1975, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the powerful modern representative of the Gosvamis, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, established the Krishna Balarama Mandir in Raman Reti and put Vrindavana on the world map. By treating the whole world the way Srila Sanatana did the Vraja-basis, Srila Prabhupada was able to bring the whole world to Vrindavana.