Oct 21, 2019 — INDIA (SUN) —
The eighth day of the waning moon in the month of Kartik has been almost universally accepted as the appearance day of Sri Radha-kunda. It is mentioned in the vast majority of Vaisnava calendars printed by many branches of the Gaudiya tradition, including ISKCON. However, despite the extremely popular opinion, there is practically no evidence from sastra or previous acaryas that supports it. Everyone knows that according to our acaryas Sri Radha-kunda appeared on the same day when Krsna killed Aristasura, the bull-demon. Beautiful verses composed by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura that describe this lila are quoted in the BBT edition of Srimad-bhagavatam (in the commentary to verse 10.36.16). However, in his writings Srila Jiva Gosvami specifies that Arista was killed on the full-moon night of the month of Caitra (March-April) and on the same spring night Sri Radha-kunda and Sri Syama-kunda were manifested. Here are some quotes from his Gopala-campu (Purva, chapter 31):
"atha snigdhakanthah prabhata-katham prathayamasa—tad evam pratiksanam
eva parama-prema-laksana-lilam phullad-ullasatah sa gokula-bandhur
dasamam samvatsaram samvalate sma
Then Snigdhakantha began his morning narration. Thus in His tenth year Sri Krsna, the friend of Gokula, who was filled with bliss at every moment, manifested His pastimes, characterized by the highest prema.
atha kadacil lohitayamane sayam martanda-rasmi-mandale namnaristah
sarva-divisa-daristah sarvatra ca ramhasa janghanyamanah sarvams caghna
jeghniyamanah srimantam gostha-dvarantam ajagama |
One evening, when the sun's rays were reddish, the enemy of the demigods by the name Arista, madly rushing about and frightening the cows, came to the entrance into the beautiful Vraja.
yada hi citrayuta-purna-candram purnimam anu turnita-cetah
sva-sukha-vardhana-govardhana-vilokana-kamanaya sri-rama-kanisthah
kimcid duram pravista asit
At that time Balarama's younger brother, Sri Krsna, noticing that the full-moon day conjoined with the Citra-naksatra came and being anxious to behold Govardhana Hill who increases His happiness, went at some distance from Vraja".
On the basis of Varaha Purana and Visnu Purana Jiva Gosvami further describes in great detail how Aristasura was killed, Syama-kunda and Radha-kunda were manifested and Krsna performed His spring Rasa Dance with the gopis on the same night.
And in his "Laghu-vaisnava-tosani" commentary to Srimad-bhagavatam
10.45.3 Srila Jiva Gosvami writes:
ekadasasya caitra-paurnamasyam arista-vadhah
"Aristasura was killed on the full-moon day of the month of Caitra
(March-April) during Krsna's eleventh year."
The month of Caitra comes next after Phalgun, so Caitra-purnima is
exactly one month after Gaura-purnima.
Then the following question arises — why do we hear that Radha-kunda
appeared on the bahulastami day of the Kartika month? There is a very
high probability that the glories of a bath in the Radha-kunda on the
bahulsastami day stated in sastra and quoted by our acaryas led to the
unwarranted assumption that this must be the day of its appearance. Here
are two statements from Padma Purana (quoted by Sanatana Gosvami in
Hari-bhakti-vilasa 10.207, 210, and Rupa Gosvami in Mathura-mahatmya,
420, 422):
govardhana-girau ramye radha-kundam priyam hareh
karttike bahulastamyam tatra snatva hareh priyah
naro bhakto bhaved vipras tad dhi tasya pratosanam
"Near delightful Govardhana Hill there is a pond of Srimati Radharani
which is very dear to Lord Hari. O brahmanas! If a person bathes there
on bahulastami during the month of Kartika he will become very dear to
Lord Hari because such bath gives great happiness to the Lord".
tat-kunde karttikastamyam snatva pujyo janardanah
subodhanyam yatha pritas tatha pritas tato bhavet
"Having taken bath in that pond on the eight lunar day of the month of
Kartika one should worship Lord Janardana. Then the Lord will be pleased
with such person in the same way as He is pleased when one worships Him
on the day of Utthana-ekadasi".
Sastra does not specifically mention the reason why Radha-kunda-snana on
the bahulastami day is so dear to Krsna (although in the popular English
translation of Hari-bhakti-vilasa a line was added to these verses that
reads: "Radha-kunda manifested at midnight on the eighth day of the
waning moon in the month of Karttika". A Bengali version of the same
line also appears in the Bengali translation published from one Gaudiya
Math, but the original Sanskrit text does not say anything to that
effect). So, most likely this led many to believe that it must be
because it is the appearance day of Radha-kunda. However, neither sastra
nor our acaryas say so.
Some say that because the two kundas were discovered by Lord Caitanya on
this day of bahulastami it is considered their "[re]-appearance day".
But unfortunately we don't have any authoritative statement to that
effect either. Moreover, it is generally accepted that He came to Vraja
on Kartika Purnima, which comes in the very end of the month some three
weeks after bahulastami. In fact we read this in one article from The
Harmonist magazine:
"The narrative of the circumambulation performed by Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu is found in the Charitamrita. After His return to Pari from
the South in 1514 A.D. the Supreme Lord wished to visit Sree Brindaban.
He started from Puri in the Autumn of the same year in the beginning of
Aswin (Sept-Oct) with a single attendant Balabhadra Bhattacharyya to
accompany Him during the journey on foot through the forest of
Jharikhanda (Orissa Garhjats and Choto Nagpur). Sree Chaitanya reached
Mathura towards the end of the month of Kartik (early November) via
Benares and Prayag (Allahabad). He set out on the circumambulation of
Sree Brajamandal early in Agrahayana (middle of November). He completed
the tour of the Sphere of Braja before Magh (Jany) was far advanced when
He began the return journey to Puri via Prayag (Allahabad)." (Vol.29,
number 5, p.129, November 1931).
So, according to our acaryas: 1) Sri Sri Radha-kunda and Syama-kunda
were manifested on the Caitra-purnima night in spring, and 2)
Radha-kunda-snana on the bahulastami day in Kartika is especially dear
to the Lord (Thus we have two special days in our calendar that are
directly related to Sri Radha-kunda).
The next appearance day of Sri Radha-kunda (Caitra-purnima) will be on April 19, 2019.
