Giriraj
The heart of our Kunja is, undeniably, Giriraj. The story of His appearance is one that deserves its own special telling.
The heart of our Kunja is, undeniably, Giriraj. The story of His appearance is one that deserves its own special telling.
When we first acquired the land, we longed to begin the construction of the ashram not with fences or transformer boxes, but with something meaningful and inspiring. Yet building a temple on empty land proved quite challenging, as we had no electricity, no water supply, or security. We prayed for a solution, and the Lord responded in the most unexpected way.
One day, a friend living in Govardhan called and said, "We have some guests on our land." What could we think? Nothing good — perhaps some local officials demanding a bribe, or a gang, or anyone else who might come "visiting" an empty plot. But our friend reassured us, saying, "Don't worry, I’ll send a photo."
Yes, it was a gorgeous large Govardhan sila, and not just one, but surrounded by about a hundred smaller silas as well. They were carefully placed along the roadside next to our land. The local villagers immediately began to worship them, adorning them with ribbons and applying tilaks.
We tried to uncover how this Giriraj appeared, but none of the locals could provide any clues. All we heard was "Yesterday there was nothing, and today we came and all of them were here." The most plausible explanation is that those digging a foundation for a building unearthed these shilas. As we know, Govardhan is gradually sinking underground, and the majority of it is already buried, so those who dig around Govardhan discover shilas quite often.
The locals wouldn’t simply discard the Govardhan shilas like ordinary stones, so they have collected them to bring them closer to Govardhan. What happened next remains even a bigger mystery. Perhaps the cart flipped over, or something else happened…
We like to think however that Giriraj simply wanted to come to us and, in keeping with tradition, made his way here "hitchhiking." So, the first thing we did was move Giriraj to the center of our land and perform puja. And a local boy, whom none of us knew, carefully applied tilaka to the largest Giriraj.
As you might have guessed, the first structure on the land became the temple of Giriraj. The initial architecture ended up being quite simple: four metal pillars and a tin roof. Yet, the celebrations held in this temple were truly magnificent.
By the way, our Giriraj weighs about 400 kg, so He can only be moved with a crane or a tractor.
The temple of Giriraj now hosts countless festivals, and the trees growing in our kunja provide enough flowers for His worship throughout the whole year.
