In this episode of “5 Minutes”, Dr. Robert Svoboda explores Shrinathji.

One of the only temples that I ever visited in Bombay with Vimalananda was the Lakshmi Narayan Temple at CP Tank. And that was the temple of the Pushti Sampradaya. Vimalananda’s family was a member of the pushti sampradaya and he introduced me to the pushti sampradaya, which was created by mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya – a little over 400 years ago. After he passed on He had indicated to me that he hoped I would go and visit the home of the pushti sampradaya, which is at Shri Nathdwara in Rajasthan, not terribly far from Udaipur.

And over a period of a decade, I went there at least half a dozen times and had darshan of Shrinathji. So, Shrinathji is represented as a 7-year-old boy and his Leela, his divine play is him holding up with his left hand, the Govardhan mountain to protect all of the cow herds, all of the cowgirls and cowboys from Indra who was trying to reign them out. Because Krishna had told them, just worship Govardhan instead of Indra, you don’t need to bother with Indra anymore.

Eventually, Indra had to give up and Govardhan started to be worshiped, and that was of course back at the time of krishnavatara. But when Vallabhacharya was on earth, the image of Shrinathji started to emerge from the Govardhan Hill. And Shrinathji identified it and worship started there and eventually the image was taken and put into a temple and was worshiped in an ongoing way. Eventually, it was threatened by the Muslims and so It was put into an oxcart and slowly moved in the direction of Rajasthan.

And they say that where the Oxcart refused to move anymore is the place where the temple is now established. In any event, the temple there is one of the richest temples in India, one of the most ornate, and certainly the pushti sampradaya is sometimes translated as grace, the sect of grace, but the word pushti literally means nourishment. And the pushti sampradaya worship is all about taking care of Krishna as if he is a 7-year-old boy and a member of the household.

And so there are different sva, different services done. He’s fed quite a bit. In fact, one of the big festivals is called the Chhappan bhog. Chapppan means 56 and bhoga means enjoyments and so 56 different types of sweets and savories and so on are offered to Krishna in Chhappan bhog. And I’ve been at, Shrinathji. One of the images that I have, have particularly retained from there is going into the courtyard where the image of Shrinathji is and having the courtyard be knee deep in sweets and savories and all these kinds of, of these wonderful, Extremely tasty things that are first gonna be offered to Shrinathji and then passed out to everyone.

So the, the pushti sampraaya, in addition to being very fond of food, is very fond of good music. All kinds of things of offering to Krishna. And Maha Buji Vallabhacharya himself wrote a number of beautiful songs in Sanskrit and as did his devotees and his disciples. And, one of the most famous is called the Madhurashtakam, the eight verses and praise of all the different aspects of Krishna and why they’re sweet. His lower lip is sweet and it goes on like that, and the refrain is – the Lord of sweetness is completely and utterly sweet. Jai Krishna.