TWO INCIDENTS SHOWING THE MUTUAL LOVE BETWEEN LORD KRISHNA AND LORD SIVA
(1)
Once upon a time, the cowherd men of Vrndavana, headed by Nanda Maharaja, desired to go to Ambikavana to perform the Sivaratri performance. The rasa-lila was performed during the autumn, and after that the next big ceremony is Holi, or the Dolayatra ceremony.
Between the Dolayatra ceremony and the rasa-lila ceremony there is one important ceremony called Sivaratri, which is especially observed by the Saivites, or devotees of Lord Siva. But sometimes the Vaisnavas also observe this ceremony because they accept Lord Siva as the foremost Vaisnava.
But the function of Sivaratri is not observed very regularly by the bhaktas, or devotees of Krsna.
Under the circumstances, it is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam that the cowherd men headed by Nanda Maharaja “once upon a time desired.”
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That means that they were not regularly observing the Sivaratri function, but that once upon a time they wanted to go to Ambikavana out of curiosity.
Ambikavana is situated somewhere in the Gujarat province. Ambikavana is said to be situated on the River Sarasvati, yet we do not find any Sarasvati River in the Gujarat province; the only river there is
Savarmati.
In India, all the big places of pilgrimage are situated on nice rivers like the Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Narmada, Godavari and Kaveri.
Ambikavana was situated on the bank of Sarasvati, and all the cowherd men and Nanda Maharaja went there.
They very devotedly began to worship the deity of Lord Siva and Ambika. It is the general practice that wherever there is a temple of Lord Siva, there must be another temple, of Ambika (or Durga), because
Ambika is the wife of Lord Siva and is the most exalted of chaste women. She doesn’t live outside the association of her husband.
After reaching Ambikavana, the cowherd men of Vrndavana first bathed themselves in the River Sarasvati. If one goes to any place of pilgrimage, his first duty is to take a bath and sometimes to shave his head. That is the first business. After taking bath, they worshiped the deities and then distributed charity in the holy places.
(2) Lord Siva’s pastime in Nandagram:
Actually Lord Siva eternally resides IN NANDAGRAM. Lord Siva himself is manifested as the sacred Nandisvara hill upon which Nanda Maharaja build his palace.
Nandi- isvara means obviously the Lord of Nandi,the bull carrier of Lord Siva.
The Brajabasis and Gaudia vaisnavas sometimes take stones from this hill,and put them on a small asana and put eyes on the stone like other devotees do on a Salagrama Sila.
They paint the Siva tilaka on the stone and worship these stones as non-different from Lord Siva, serving Krsna by being a hill.
Lord Siva one day came to the house of Nanda Maharaja, and knocked on the door.
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He asked Mother Yasoda to be allowed to see Krsna. Actually he was disguised as a beggar.
And he requested to be given some of Krsnas remnants.
And Mother Yasoda said :” Baba you look so scary that my little boy will be afraid of you. So please go away”!
Krsna being the antarayami, the supersoul in everyone’s heart understood what had taken place. He started to cry and would not stop, and He refused to eat whatever Yasoda Mata gave him.
Krsna told His mother he would not eat till she called back the beggar she had rejected that morning.
So she went and looked for Lord Siva,and she found him nearby meditating.
She asked him to please come and take Krsna Prasadam, and always visit every day.
When Siva returned with Mother Yasoda the Bala Gopala stopped crying and smiled beautifully and clapped His hands in joy.
So Lord Siva would come every day to Mother Yasoda’s house to get some of Krsna’s remnants.
At this temple this pastime is remembered by a Siva linga inside the court compound of the temple.
So please visit this place when you go to Vrindavana and pay your respects to Lord Mahadev, Siva.
He will bless us to become free from false ego and develop our real devotion.