By Devaki Prana dasa
Dear Respected Vaisnavas,
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga All Glories to Sri Radha Kunda and Sri Syama Kunda
Well it is finally happening… for the last three days water has been pumped out of Radha Kunda and just below the surface is Kancana Kunda (where Sri Radha first placed Her bangle to initiate Her Kunda’) which should be visible tomorrow (the latest news as of 600pm is that the brajavasi boys have gone to the middle of Radha Kunda and are able to stand on the Kancana Kunda wall and after there is a drop off of 15 feet to the inner part). More than ever the locals are uniting to assist in the sevas, more so than Syama Kunda. After bathing first in Radha Kunda, Sri Krsna said ‘this Kunda will be more famous than My Kunda’ and Sri Radha replied that ‘anyone who takes bath in Syama Kunda will be come very dear to Me and achieve the same ecstatic love Krsna has for Her’. Generally the pilgrims place their attention on Radha Kunda not knowing the open secret with regard to Syama Kunda.
Local devotees from Iskcon, the Gaudiya matha, and the babas are lining together as a tag team, bringing up the buckets of butter mud up the stairs to an awaiting tractor and trailer to be taken away. Others are taking large quanities into their khuti for a lifetime tilak suppy. At Syama kunda much of the mud was placed in the above temple grounds.
Unfortunately, the spectators outnumber the cleaning crew 10 to 1. Working outside the various lines are matajis collecting the larger objects, bricks and other materials and then bringing them over by plate or bucket, to an allocated pile. There is a tribe of small brajavasi boys and girls, sifting through the areas with magnets tied to strings, looking for the priceless rupee coins or even gold fragements. Long brushes and squeegies are going over the flat sandstone slabs… revealing small broken deities, Siva Lingums and of course an occasional coin which is pounced on by the tiny Kunda police. The highlight of the ‘real finds’ are a few special Govardhana Silas that have been placed in the Kunda as an offering to Sri Radha. They are generally relocated the side in one of the Kunda altars.
The bottom stairs are made of sandstone originally established by Ragunatha das Goswami and the top 12 stairs of stone slabs are a more recent addition. By veiwing these structures one can appreciate a ‘heritage of seva’ to the Kunda. By looking at the pics you can clearly see the seperate layers. Even they say that when the last Kunda cleaning took place in ’87’ the supporting sand bags around Kancana Kund were mistakingly left in place(because the water began to fill in so quickly) which are beleived to affect the natural springs below. In this locality, if one drills for water just inches away from one spot, salty water can change to sweet, a completely different scenario can manifest. These sand bags have created a pressure that has encouraged an imbalance, forcing salty water to come up from other areas of the Kunda. Previously the Kunda was known to have had only sweet water.
During the cleaning yesterday there was break in the action when one large monkey chased another, which jumped off ten levels of stairs to the usual sanctity of the Kunda waters below but only to find… 2 feet of black watery tilak. Kind of reminded you of when Hanuman, in chastity to Lord Rama was inspired by Sita’s sindhu marking, covered himself head to toe. After paddling about, there was a loud up roar from the brajavasi on lookers, watching this surprised and embarrassed monkey wearing an unexpected mud suit costume, scampering and slipping about, bringing another big cricket match roar from the crowd. Anyone knows in these parts monkeys love chewing clothing and valuables… it was like a ‘collective’ life time release of ‘monkey frustration’. This time the humans were the ones with the ear to ear smiles.
So time is short if you are interested in some sevas. The plan is that work should be completed for Guru Purnima, their desire is to allow Radha Kunda to begin refilling by the 25th of this month. Actually this is quite sad that they are not properly dealing with the septic system horror(which could take up a year) where, sadly from all corners of the Kundas, gallons of wash water leak daily into ‘the most sacred place in the universe’. This has been brought to the attention of the press and tv… but the issue has been swept under the rug… alas… present day India…
If anyone needs accomodation you can contact me(Devaki Prana) at 9359329301.
Jai Sri Radhe! your servant, Devaki Prana dasa