Vṛndāvana Nagara
When Kṛshṇa lived in Gokula, asuras attacked again and again. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells how Nanda Mahārāja then decided to move the whole cowherd community to the forest of Vṛndāvana. Before the move, Kṛshṇa ended three more asuras: Baka, Pralamba and Keśī. At Kṛshṇa’s silent wish, Viśvakarma came at midnight and built a shining city in a single night.
The same account tells of Kalāvatī and Sucandra, the parents of Rādhādevī, and gives three reasons why the forest is named Vṛndāvana. It also lists the sixteen names of Śrī Rādhā.
The three asuras of Gokula
Baka, Pralamba and Keśī were not born from ordinary hatred. They were sons of Gandhavāha, a Gandharva king. In an earlier life they went into Pārvatī’s divine lake at Kailāsa and took lotuses. They wanted to offer the lotuses to Kṛshṇa out of love. Pārvatī’s attendants caught them and brought them before Bhagavān Śiva.
Bhagavān Śiva was moved by their love for his dear Kṛshṇa, even in their wrong act. He gave them a vara (a boon). They would be born as asuras in Bhārata, and they would reach moksha (liberation) by dying at Kṛshṇa’s hands. He also promised that they would see Kṛshṇa before the end. So what looked like an attack by asuras was really the working out of Bhagavān Śiva’s own grace.
The ending of Baka
Suhotra was born again as the asura Baka. He took a huge, fearful form and met Kṛshṇa while Kṛshṇa was grazing the calves near Gokula. Baka swallowed Kṛshṇa whole. But inside Baka’s belly, Kṛshṇa’s divine body blazed with brahma-tejas (the glow of Brahman), like molten iron in a furnace. The heat became too much for Baka, and he had to spit Kṛshṇa out. Kṛshṇa came out shining and unhurt. Baka was burned by that same divine fire and died. His jīva (living being) rose to the higher world that Bhagavān Śiva had promised.
The ending of Pralamba
Sudarśana was born again as Pralamba. This is the Gandharva of that name, not the cakra. Pralamba took the form of a huge bull and charged at Kṛshṇa with the force of a thunderbolt. Kṛshṇa caught him by the horns and lifted the huge body without effort. He swung it overhead and threw it to the ground so hard that the bull-asura died at once. The earth shook. Pralamba reached moksha at once.
The ending of Keśī
Supārśvaka was born again as Keśī. He took the form of a great horse. His body was like a dark mountain, his mane whipped like storm clouds, and his hooves struck sparks from the earth. He ran at Kṛshṇa with open jaws to bite him. But when his teeth closed on Kṛshṇa’s arm, they broke like clay pots against iron. Then Kṛshṇa’s divine heat burned Keśī’s whole body from inside, as it had burned Baka. Keśī too reached the moksha that Bhagavān Śiva had promised.
Pārvatī’s Rādhā-Kṛshṇa vrata
This chapter also tells of a vrata (a vow of observance) kept by Pārvatī in honour of Rādhādevī and Kṛshṇa. It began in the month of Vaiśākha and went on until the turn of Dakshiṇāyana. For three months Pārvatī gave herself fully to it. Each day she worshipped the divine pair Rādhā and Kṛshṇa with flowers, incense and the chanting of stotras (hymns of praise). The account says it covers the rules of the vrata, the names to be called, the offerings and the puṇya it gives, as part of its teaching on bhakti (devotion). Even Pārvatī, the consort of Bhagavān Śiva, holds Rādhā and Kṛshṇa as the highest object of worship.
The procession to Vṛndāvana
Gokula was visited again and again by asuras. So Nanda Mahārāja decided to move everyone to the forest land of Vṛndāvana.
The procession was huge. Crores of gopas and gopikās gathered with all their households. Hundreds of thousands of cows, calves and cattle were brought together. Rādhādevī herself rode in a golden chariot set with gems, with her companions around her. The sound of cartwheels, the lowing of cattle, conches and dundubhis (drums), and the gopikās singing the glories of Kṛshṇa filled the air on every side.
When the great crowd reached the edge of Vṛndāvana, Kṛshṇa gently led the gopas to a great banyan tree. He told them to worship Caṇḍikādevī, who lives there, and then to sleep for the night. He said, “Tomorrow you will see wonderful things.”
Viśvakarma builds the city
At the fifth muhūrta of that night, the deepest and most auspicious hour of darkness, Viśvakarma, the divine builder of the devas, came down from svarga. He came with three crore craftsmen and yakshas. Each of them carried gems, divine metals and divine tools. They worked as fast as thought. Before dawn they built a city of unmatched beauty that spread over five yojanas.
Four crore buildings rose from the ground. They had crystal pillars, walls inlaid with diamonds, and golden kalaśas (pots) shining on top of their towers. The streets were paved with precious stones. The gardens bloomed with flowers that never fade, and the ponds shone with lotuses of every colour.
Vṛshabhānu’s palace
For Vṛshabhānu, the father of Rādhā, Viśvakarma built a palace of special splendour. It has twenty-four halls, each different in design and use. Above them all rises a nine-storey turret made for Kalāvatī, the mother of Rādhā, and Vṛshabhānu to enjoy in private. From its upper floors the whole sacred forest can be seen. Its walls are set with mirrors of polished crystal, so that the forest and sky seem to surround those inside.
Nanda’s mansion
Nanda Mahārāja’s home covers an area of one krośa. A deep moat of scented water, with floating lotuses, surrounds it. The outer walls are white marble inlaid with sapphire. Twenty-four reception halls open from a central courtyard. In the courtyard stands a throne set with gems, for Nanda to use at gatherings of the community.
The rāsa-maṇḍala
Viśvakarma built the rāsa-maṇḍala, the sacred arena where Kṛshṇa’s divine rāsa-līlā would take place. It is perfectly round and one full yojana around. Its encircling walls are made of gems, and every pavilion inside is made of a different precious stone. Within the maṇḍala stand nine crore gem-inlaid pavilions, one for each of the divine gopikās who will take part in the rāsa. Each pavilion has soft seats (divyāsana) and fragrant flower garlands that renew themselves forever.
Rādhā’s private gardens and the Ratna-maṇṭapa
Thirty private gardens were laid out for the quiet play of Rādhā and Mādhava. Each is fenced by flowering vines. They have pools of scented water, golden swings hung from flowering trees, and hidden bowers spread with soft grass and petals.
Near Madhuvana a special Ratna-maṇṭapa (gem pavilion) was built. It is one hundred hands wide and one hundred dhanus high. Its pillars are coral, its roof is sapphire and its floor is moonstone. The whole building glows softly in the dark, like a lamp made of stars.
Kalāvatī and Sucandra, the parents of Rādhā
To explain the divine family of Rādhādevī’s earthly parents, the Purāṇa tells of Kalāvatī and Sucandra in this same chapter.
The Pitṛdevatās had three daughters: Kalāvatī, Ratnamālā and Menakā. Ratnamālā was to become the mother of Sītādevī, the adopted daughter of Janaka. Menakā became the mother of Pārvatī. Kalāvatī, the eldest, married Sucandra, a king of the Manu line, who carried a part of Hari (Hari-aṃśa) within him. They lived in divine happiness for a whole kalpa.
Then Sucandra was seized by a sudden wish to give up the world. He went to the Vindhya forests and did such hard tapas that his body became only bones and was close to dying.
Kalāvatī was in great distress. She found her husband near death in the Vindhyas and wept. Brahmā himself appeared, moved by her love. He was about to give Sucandra moksha. But Kalāvatī at once stepped in. She said she would speak a śāpa (a curse) on Brahmā himself if her husband received moksha without her being freed together with him. Brahmā was moved by this display of pativratā-śakti (the power of a devoted wife) joined with jñāna (knowledge). He gave them both a vara. They would be born in Bhārata-varsha. Rādhādevī herself would come as their daughter. They would know jīvan-mukti (freedom while still in the body). After their lives on earth they would rise together to Goloka.
As promised, Sucandra was born again as Vṛshabhānu, the son of Surabhānu and Padmāvatī, in a great cowherd family. Kalāvatī’s birth was more remarkable. She came out of a yajña-kuṇḍa (fire pit for a yajña) in Kānyakubja, as the daughter of a brāhmaṇa named Bhanandana. A voice from the sky, the ākāśavāṇī, said at her birth that her name was Kalāvatī. When she grew up, Nanda Mahārāja arranged her marriage to Vṛshabhānu, and so Brahmā’s promise came true. From their union Rādhā was born. She is truly Brahma-śakti, the first energy of the Supreme.
Three reasons for the name Vṛndāvana
The Purāṇa gives three reasons why this forest is called Vṛndāvana.
The first reason
In very ancient times a princess named Vṛndā, the daughter of King Kedāra, was filled with love for Kṛshṇa and came to this forest. She did tapas here without a break for sixty thousand years, thinking of Kṛshṇa alone. At the end of her tapas, Kṛshṇa appeared. By his full grace she merged into him, and her separate existence dissolved in the Divine. Because Vṛndā did her tapas here and reached union with Kṛshṇa in this forest, it is called Vṛndāvana, the forest of Vṛndā.
The second reason
Tulasī, the sacred plant who is dear to Vishṇu, is also known as Vṛndā. She is the daughter of Kuśadhvaja. In an earlier kalpa she did her tapas in this very forest, fixing her mind on Kṛshṇa without waver. Because Vṛndā, who is Tulasī, did her tapas here, the forest bears her name.
The third reason
Vṛndā is one of the sixteen sacred names of Rādhādevī herself. Kṛshṇa made this forest, with its flowering trees, its divine scent, its hidden bowers and its shining streams, for Rādhā’s joy. The forest was made for Rādhā, who is Vṛndā, so it is called Vṛndāvana, the forest of Vṛndā-Rādhā.
The sixteen names of Rādhādevī
The Purāṇa gives sixteen names of Rādhā with the meaning of each.
- Rādhā — she who is worshipped by all beings; the highest object of devotion.
- Rāsādhyakshā — the one who presides over the rāsa-maṇḍala, the divine dance.
- Kṛshṇapriyā — she who is dearest of all to Kṛshṇa.
- Haripriyā — the beloved of Hari in every form and every world.
- Gopālapatnī — the consort of Gopāla, the keeper of cows.
- Vṛndā — she who is a multitude of all that is auspicious; she who is both the forest and its queen.
- Rāsavāsinī — she who lives forever in the space of the rāsa.
- Padmā — she who is as pure and shining as the lotus.
- Mādhavī — the consort of Mādhava, the spring of creation.
- Mādhurikā — she who is sweetness itself, the form of madhura-rasa (the sweet feeling of love).
- Candramukhī — she whose face shines like the full moon.
- Candramaṇḍalabhūshitā — she who is adorned with the circle of the moon.
- Kṛshṇārthasarvasvasī — she who holds Kṛshṇa as the whole of her being and purpose.
- Bṛhannāmnī — she who carries the great names; she of vast and high identity.
- Rāsacaturā — she who is most skilled in the arts of the rāsa.
- Paramānanda-rūpiṇī — she who is the very form of highest bliss.
The morning in the new city
At dawn the gopas and gopikās woke beside the great banyan tree. They saw what had not been there when they closed their eyes: a shining city of unmatched beauty. Its towers caught the first light of the sun and scattered it in rainbow arcs across the sky. They walked in wonder through streets paved with gems and into halls with crystal pillars.
Nanda Mahārāja understood that this was the work of Kṛshṇa’s will. With joy he gave homes to all the families. Every cowherd family entered its new home with delight. Children ran through the wide streets. Cows were led into stalls with gem floors. The gopikās hung flower garlands at the doors. Kṛshṇa and Balarāma walked through the new city together, the older brother’s arm around the younger one’s shoulder. Both were laughing as their people settled into the loveliest home any of them had known.
Sources
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 16: the three asuras, Pārvatī’s vrata, the procession to Vṛndāvana
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17: Viśvakarma’s city, Kalāvatī and Sucandra, the three reasons for the name, the sixteen names of Rādhā, the morning in the new city