May 2nd, Today was the appearance day of the Deity of Radha Ramana. Aproximately 500 years ago Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami, a close associate of Lord Caitanya and one of the famous Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, travelled to the Kali Gandaki River. In those days, making a religious pilgrimage was a trying experience as all travel was done by foot. A poor pilgrim (or a religious renunciate) often travelled with very few (or no) supplies, begging or receiving charity from the villages he passed through on the way. To travel from Vrindavan to Kali Gandaki River these days is still a long trip. From Delhi you can catch a 15 hour train to Gorakhpur in Northern India. From Gorakhpur you take a 3 hour bus ride to the Nepali border. From there it's a 10-14 hour bus ride to Katmandu. From Katmandu you take another 8 hour bus ride to the town of Pokhara, which is located at the foot (or is it feet?) of the Anapurna mountain range of the Himalayas. From Pokhara you have to arrange a "trecking permit" these days, and then you have two main options of how you can proceed: you can start walking; or you can take a 1/2 hour harrowing flight up the mountains to reach the high village of Jomsom. 
When we went, around 8 years ago, we only had enough money to fly one way...so we flew up, walked up to the famous pilgrimage place of Muktinatha (one day walk), and then turned around and walked almost all the way back down, which took us around 6 days. The Kali Gandaki River is a very famous pilgrimage place. The main reason is that in the River there are very special stones, known as Salagram Silas. A Salagram Sila is a black stone that, according to the religious texts of India, is considered non-different that Lord Vishnu. There is a story how Lord Vishnu was cursed once to take the form of these stones in the Gandaki River. The stones are all kinds of different shapes and sizes and they have natural markings, which indicate
which incarnation of Vishnu this stone is. When a deity is carved, there must be a special "Pran Pratista", or installation ceremony that invites the Lord to come and reside within the deity. Salagram Silas however need no special ceremonies. The Lord is already present there, and can be immediately worshiped. So, back to the story.... Gopal Bhatta Goswami walked to the Kali Gandaki River from Vrindavan. It must have taken him months and months to get there. On top of that he visited a place called Damodara Kunda (a small lake), which is a few days hike beyond that of the Muktinatha temple where we visited. When Gopal Bhatta wanted to perform his afternoon prayers he dipped his water pot into the River to retrieve some water for his ablutions 12 of these sacred Salagram Silas jumped into his pot. Gopal Bhatta, in a fit of extreme humility, returned the Silas to the water (thinking himself unfit to worship them), and made a second attempt to retrieve water. Much to his surprise, the same 12 Silas jumped into his pot again. Figuring this as the divine will of the Lord he accepted these 12 Silas and eventually returned to Vrindavan. Every day he would worship his Silas according to the rules and regulations laid down by the scriptures, and he was quite happy to do so. One day a wealthy merchant donated some clothing and ornaments to each of the Six Goswamis to be used in worshiping their deities of Radha Krishna. Gopal Bhatta Goswami accepted the charity and then was lamenting that he would be unable to utilize it in the service of his Salagram Silas. He then began to cry that although Vishnu had appeared to him in the form of the Salagram Silas, He did not appear to Gopal Bhatta in his most personal form of Krishna. Gopal Bhatta longed to worship the form of Lord Krishna and lamented all night long. The next morning when he went to perform the worship of his Salagram Silas he discovered that his Damodar Sila (Damodar is a name of Krishna) had turned into a full form of Krishna. This is the deity of Radharamana.Once Padmanabh Goswami the head priest of the Radha Ramana temple told me that Radha Ramana just popped like a piece of popcorn. He also mentioned that there are chakras, or natural markings, to prove that he was once a Salagram Sila on Radha Ramana's back.
Every day on the anniversary of this day, the deity is bathed in full view of the public with many auspicious substances. Water from the Yamuna River, milk, yogurt, ghee, honey, and green coconut water are just a few of the substances. It was incredibly crowded in the temple, but I managed to squeeze in the front for a pretty good view. After the Abhiseka, or bathing ceremony, was complete, they began to pass out cups of the sweet milky drink, known as caranamrta...literally means "Nectar from the Lotus feet", to all of the devotees who were watching. It was like nectar! We filled a liter bottle and took it back to our friend Nanda, who is house ridden due to advanced stages of MS. She was elated at the surprise treat! All glories to Sri Radha Ramana!
P.S. For an amazing panoramic photo of the Muktinatha area check out: http://www.pbase.com/svami/image/59318797/original
