Mahābhāva Dhāma

Mahābhāva Dhāma
Srila Dhanurdhara Swami

Mahābhāva Dhāma may be Govardhan’s best kept secret. It’s simply a room in the house of a humble devotee who lives near me here in the dhāma, a happily married man with three children from somewhere in the former Soviet Union.

dāsa has deep affection for the Vaiṣṇavas. Besides hosting Śrī Śrī Radha Shyamsundara in his temple room, his altar is home to over 150 finely hand-crafted deities of Vaiṣṇavas in the Gauḍīya tradition. They include both contemporary devotees and all the eternal associates of Śrī Caitanya going way back to His līlā. And that ocean is constantly expanding. The last time I visited him nineteen new deities had just arrived. Words just can’t describe their beauty.

Indeed, the deity one chooses to worship first manifests within one’s heart. dāsa’s heart is very big. While the heart of a kaniṣṭha (neophyte) barely has room there for God, and certainly not for His devotees, dāsa’s heart is filled with devotees. Isn’t that the bhakti philosophy?

A devotee is one who takes the mood of his guru. And what is that mood? It is the energy of pure devotion. That sentiment is personified in Śrī Radha and Her expansions, embodied in the heart of Śrī Caitanya and His dear associates and finally carried to the present day by His lineage of pure devotees. Mahābhāva Dhāma materializes that history of gaura-līlā in the exquisite mūrti forms of the devotees who have carried the waves of devotion to this world.

The special treat for me in visiting Mahābhāva Dhāma is association with dāsa. With deep devotion he explains his altar. He traces the bhāva-rūpā(the form of devotion) and how it flows in waves throughout the world from one generation of devotees to the next, culminating in “the final tsunami of prema inundating the world through Śrīla Prabhupāda and his followers.”

His appreciation for Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples is profound. In the modern world, we often get hung up on the failings of those whom we trusted and the hurt they caused. There is certainly a reason for that. dāsa, however, never sees the faults of dedicated devotees as their whole person, and especially not in the case of those who had dedicated their life to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission. A small deity of Harikeśa Mahārāja (now Hari) just arrived. He is sitting before the stacks of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books that he gave his life to publish. Resting on them there is even a facsimile of the microphone he famously would hold to record Śrīla Prabhupāda’s words when he served as his secretary.

I also like the deity of Aindra dasa with his harmonium right behind the deity of Nāmācārya Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura with both seemingly chanting for Śrī Radha and her intimate devotees, the aṣṭaka–sakhīs and their mañjarīs, who are also on the altar in their deity forms. I could go on and on. There are so many beautifully done figures of profound devotion. The deity of Yamuna devi is stunning.

dāsa is quite creative. Another deity that caught my eye is the new deity of Nṛsiṁha Brahmacārī before the beautiful path of jewels and flowers that he manifested in his mind for taking Śrī Caitanya to Vrindavan. I also loved the newly arrived deity of Rāghava Paṇḍita sitting before the bags of prasādam that he would bring to Puri for Śrī Caitanya, expertly cooked by his sister Damayantī, whose deity is also there.

dāsa has deep loyalty to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his lineage. That is reflected in the way his altar flows from Radha-Krishna to gaura-līlā culminating in over fifty deities of Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples, including prominent grand-disciples like Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chaitanya Chandra Prabhu and others. He bursts with devotion as he describes the waves of gaura-līlā flooding the world through the members of ISKCON. But dāsa is nonsectarian. Śrīla Prabhupāda has commented in his books that there are many pure devotees of different lineages wandering in Vrindavan. dāsa has also a small section for those, whom he reveres also as the modern-day protectors of prema-bhakti. He knows several of them.

The deity of the famous Braja saint Vinod Baba is a masterpiece that not only reflects his saintly form but seems to perfectly express his bhāva. “How did you do that!?” Even that great saint of Varsana was amazed when dāsa showed him a picture of his own deity.

Nava Kisor Baba took a type of kṣetra-sannyāsa. It seems he vowed never to leave Radha Kunda or at least was reluctant to do so. Somehow dāsa had befriended this saint, and they seemingly became close. Still, when dāsa would beg him to come see Mahābhāva Dhāma at his residence in Govardhan, he would refuse. Finally, out of frustration dāsa told him that if Baba would not visit his kuṭira, then he would no longer visit his. Out of affection for dāsa, the humble Vaiṣṇava relented and came. When Nava Kisor Baba saw the ocean of devotees all united in the service of gaura-līlā including Śrīla Prabhupāda’s followers and a small group of contemporary saints, including his own form and that of Prana Krishna Baba, his revered guru, he fainted on the spot.

Where to stop? Each deity has a story which dāsa shares. He joyfully describes the qualities of the devotees on his altar and how each is profoundly connected to the waves of Gaura-līlā that flood the world. Each time you visit him he highlights different devotees as he spontaneously moves from one deity to another. What stays the same, however, is his deep regard for all the Lord’s devotees. And isn’t that our philosophy?

“‘The Supreme is present in every living entity.’ We should better take note of this particular verse from the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura instead of following the interpretation of unauthorized persons who deride Kṛṣṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī, commenting on this verse, says that Krishna, in His plenary expansion as Paramātmā, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the arcā-mūrti, the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple. There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected. A devotee should see that because Krishna is present in everyone’s heart as Paramātmā, every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord; so as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in which the Paramātmā dwells. Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected.” (Gītā 9.11, purport)

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