Radha Raman Temple

Radha Raman Temple was founded by Gopala Bhatta Goswami, one of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, and completed around 1542 CE. Its central deity has an origin story distinct among the Goswami temples: while worshipping a set of twelve Shaligrama shilas (sacred ammonite stones) at the Kali Gandaki river in Nepal, Gopala Bhatta Goswami found one shila repeatedly appearing in his water pot; left covered overnight after evening prayers, it was found to have self-manifested (swayambhu) into a three-fold-bending form of Krishna playing the flute. That deity, worshipped as Radha Raman alongside Radha, remains the temple’s presiding image, with the other eleven shilas kept alongside it. Because the deity is considered self-manifested rather than consecrated by human hands, it has never been bathed in water in the traditional abhisheka manner; instead it is cleaned and polished with cloths and sandalwood or saffron paste, a practice unique among Vrindavan’s major deities.

Counted among the historic “Seven Goswami Temples” of Vrindavan, Radha Raman Temple houses Gopala Bhatta Goswami’s own samadhi within its complex. The temple’s kitchen fire is said to have burned continuously since its early days, and male members of the Goswami family maintain hereditary rotating seva (service), including preparation of prasad, to the present day.