Shree Dwarkadhish Prabhu (Kankroli)

The description of shree dwarkadhish prabhu is found in Second skandh of Shreemad Bhagwat mahapuran. This swaroop self appeared from the Bindu sarovar of siddhpur. Sage Kardam, Sage Vashistha, King Ambarish, King Dasharatha and dharmaraj shree yudhishthira did the seva of this swaroop.

During the initial stage of the formation of the universe, shree brahmaji (the Rajoguni dev) became curious to find the origin of him. He heard the word “TAP” from the ocean and thus he got the order to do severe penance by the same swaroop of shree dwarkadhish. Brahmaji did severe penance for one thousand celestial years and as the outcome of it he got the glance of shree dwarkadhish prabhu, who is the Brahm (controller of entire universe).

The swaroop, which appeared before shree brahmaji was dark four armed. His was adorned with kirit (in the head), kundal and pitambar. Shree brahmaji paid obeisance to this swaroop. This swaroop is of shree dwarkadhish at kankroli. Thus, first seva of this swaroop was done by shree brahmaji. Afterwards, shree brahmaji ordered his son sage kardam to expand the universe. Sage kardam did severe penance at the banks of river saraswati for ten thousand years. After then he did manasi seva and seva of swaroop of shree dwarkadhishji.

Gracing sage kardam, shree dwarkadhish prabhu appeared before him. This swaroop was dark four-armed holding conch, discus, mace and lotus in each hand. He was wearing kirit (at head), kundal (at ears) and adorned with garland of white lotus. This swaroop was wearing “Mallakacch” at the hip.

After the appearance of this swaroop, sage kardam married with the daughter of swayambhuv manu. As a result of it, both had a son named shree kapildevji, who is the incarnation of shree dwarkadhishji.

This swaroop of shree prabhu was residing at the house of sage kardam. This image disappeared in bindu sarovar after the moksha (liberation) of sage kardam and devhuti.

One of the disciples of shree kapildevji, was shree vishnusharma. His father was Dev Sharma. Both of them were ordered by shree dwarkadhisji in their dream to take him out of bindu sarovar and resume his seva (service). Both did in the same way and began to perform the seva of shree prabhu.

At the end, in this lineage, one old women, named parvati did the seva of shree prabhu. Meanwhile, the king Ambarish, did severe penance for ten thousand years. As a reward of it, lord shree dwrkadhisji gave him glance of him. Lord shree dwarkadhishji asked him to seek a boon for himself. In response to this, King Ambarish asked for his seva. Shree Dwarkadhish revealed him about the presence of his swaroop at the house of parvati. Further, he ordered the king to get the same swaroop from parvati and start the seva. King Ambarish built a new palatial mansion in his capital Mt. Abu. After taking the consent from Sage Vasisitha, he performed the installation ceremony of Lord Shree Dwarkakdhish on chaitra sud 1 in Abhujeet Muhurt. With this, the tradition of idol worship started on the earth.

Due to the incapability of parvati to do seva, she requested king ambarish to completely handle the seva of the lord. To this lord ordered king ambarish not to worry about the protection and management of the kingdom and ordered shree sudarshan chakraraj to invigilate the management of the kingdom and protect the kingdom.

Appearance of Shree Dwarkadhish Prabhu (kankroli)

As time passed on, king Ambarish achieved moksha. After him, his descendents continued to perform the seva of the lord. After this, sage vasistha for the seva of lord shree dwarkadhisha and began to perform the seva at his hermitage.

Incidently, after a long time, the king of Raghuvansh king dasaratha came to the hermitage of sage vasisitha. During the discussion of Bhakti, sage vasisitha told him about lord shree dwarkadhish and king ambarish. Due to the order of shree dwarkadhish, king dasaratha took the swaroop of the lord with him at his palace. King dasaratha and queen kaushalya began to perform seva of the lord happily. They had the desire to have a child. Lord ordered them to perform the Kamesthi Yagya. As a reward of this, lord himself took the incarnation as shree Rama and as a son of king dasarath. After Shree Rama, his descendents Lov and kush ruled Ayodhya. After that, again sage vasistha got the seva of shree dwarkadhish. Once, sage bharadwaj expressed his desire to serve lord shree dwarkadhish. Due to this, sage bharadwaj took the swaroop with him. As the time passed, sage krishnadwaipayana vyas, came at the place of sage kashyap. Sage vyas revealed that lord is desirous to take birth in Vraj. After that. Sage Vyas took the swaroop of the lord and started performing the seva according the vaishnav sampraday (sect).

After a long period, on shravan sub 3 (shri Thkurani teej) Sunday night, after making the lord asleep, sage vyas sat on meditation and during the meditation, he experienced that shree yamunaji's water have surrounded him. Due to this, his meditation was broken and quickly rushed towards the nij mandir (where shree prabhu was lying asleep). He was so much worried about the lord that he opened the doors of Nij mandir and surprisingly found that shree prabhu was residing happily with shree yamunaji and both as Yugal (couple) swaroop gave him the darshan. Sage Vyas begged pardon for interrupting them. But shree prabhu replied that this whole incident was a part of the divine sport which was meant for you.

Shree Dwarkadhish prabhu once ordered sage vyas that he has taken birth at king sursen's kingdom Mathura in the family of Shree vasudev and devki and at shrimad gokul in the family of Shree Nandbaba and Yashoda. Further he ordered sage vyas that he would perform various divine sports (leela) at vraj and dwarka to attract his intimate beings (jeevas). At that time king Yudhisthira and other pandavas would become my devotee and I would help them.

According to the orders of the lord, krishnaavtaar took place and sage vyas gave the image of the lord to pandavas. During the stay of pandavas at forest, yudhisthira and other pandavas happily performed the seva of the lord. According to the tradition, shree Dwarkadhish seva came on to the king parikshit (descendent of pandavas). King parikshit did the seva of the lord for many years. After him, his son king janmejay, due to his unreligious attitude, gave the swaroop of shree prabhu to one tailor. During the period of king parikshit, the seva of shree prabhu was performed by Sour Sharma, who was a Brahmin. This Brahmin was residing on Arbudachal Abu. There many sages were doing penance. These sages had a great attraction and faith towards the swaroop. Due to this after Sour Sharma, these sages performed the seva of the lord.

During this period, the disciple of Vishnuswami sect, named Narayan darji, was residing at kannauj. In dream, shree dwarkadhish prabhu ordered him to get his swaroop from the sages at Mt. Abu. Narayan did the same thing and started doing seva of the lord.

During this period, Shri Damodardas Sambharwala was the minister of Chandravansh king of karoli. He was also residing at kannauj. During his journey from hastinapur to kannauj, he found one manuscript. The writing in this manuscript was unintelligible. But this was made intelligible by shree mahaprabhuji and shree mahaprabhuji also explained the meaning of the writing. Due to this legend, damodardas came to the refuge of shree mahaprabhuji and got initiated in pushti smapraday. He was awarded the swaroop of Shree dwarkadhish prabhu from narayan darji and he started the seva of shree prabhu. He started the Royal seva of Shree Dwarkadhish prabhu with the aagya of Shree Mahaprabhuji. Thus, Shree Dwarkadhish Prabhu is the first nidhi swaroop in pushtimarg, whose royal seva was started.

History:

Brahmaji (The God of Creation) was the first person to have the Deity (Swaroop) of Shri Dwarikadhishji (also known as Shri DwarikaNathaji or Shri Dwarikeshji) with Him. Kardam Rushi was the next person to receive this Swaroop. The Swaroop was handed over and worshipped by Devsharma and his son Vishnu Sharma. Then it went in the hands of an Old lady.

The Dwarikadhishji Swaroop reappeared at Siddhapur (Gujarat) in the times of King Ambrish. He established this Swaroop as his prime God in his kingdom. The Swaroop was worshipped with royal dignity here. Lord Dwarkadhishji was successively worshipped by famous personality like Vasishtha Mooni, King Dasharath (father of Lord Rama), Bharadwaja Mooni, Kashyap Mooni, Maharshi Vyas, King Yudhishtir, and King Parikshit and by a Brahmin named Shaur Sharma.

One night Lord appeared in the dreams of Saur Sharma. Lord told him His desire to migrate to Mount Arbuda (Mount Abu). A temple of Lord Dwarikashishji was established here and Rushi-Moonis worshipped Him dearly.

Shri Narayandasaji had dreams about Lord Dwarikanathaji. He was a tailor in the town of Kanoj (famous for perfumes). During one of the dreams, Lord instructed him to retrieve the image, which was lying in an old broken shrine at Mount Abu, and to establish His temple at Kanoj. He made the temple for the Lord in Kanoj.

When Shri Vallabhacharyaji Mahaprabhuji visited Kanoj, he told his disciple Shri Damodardas Sambharwala to bring the deity of Shri Dwarikadhishji from Narayandasji to him. Shri Mahaprabhuji gave the swaroop to Shri Damodardasji. After his death the swaroop was brought back to Shri Mahaprabhuji. His son Shri Vitthalnathaji (Shri Gusainji) inherited Lord Dwarikadhishji's swaroop from his father. Lord Dwarikadhishji was then given to his third son Shri Balkrushnaji.as a prime deity. From that time onwards Lord Dwarikanathaji's swaroop has been worshipped by his offsprings in the Third seat (Trutiya Peetha). The present location of Lord Dwarikanataji is Kankaroli, near Shri Nathaji in Rajasthan.

Description Of Lord Dwarkadhishji :

The swaroop (deity) is made out of black stone with square stele ( Pithika ). Lord has four arms with ayudhas , weapons. Lower right arm has a lotus. Upper right arm has a Mace ( Gada ). Upper left arm contains Disc ( Chakra ) and lower left arm has conch ( Shankh ). The two four armed images on each upper corner of the stele are other forms of Shri Dwarikadhishji, while the two figures on either side of his feet are Krishna's four sakhis , consorts.

Location:

During the time of Shri Mahaprabhuji (1479 to 1531) the swaroop was established at Gokul in North India. During the time of King Aurangzeb it was brought to Ahmedabad (Gujarat) due to unsafe political conditions in North India in the year 1670. Then the swaroop was enshrined in Asotia, a small village near Udaipur (Rajasthan), where it remained until 1719. Finally the swarup was installed in the palatial haveli at Kankaroli near Nathadwara in 1720, where it has remained ever since. Maharana Raysingh, built this magnificent Temple of Lord Dwarkadhishji at Kankaroli on the banks of lake RaySagar. The current head of this temple is Trutiya Pithadhish Goswami Shri Vrajesh Kumar Maharajshri. He is also known as Kankaroli Naresh.

The swaroop inception date is Fifth day of first half of the month Ashadha.

Swaroop (Leela) Bhavana:

The image represents Krishna playing ankh-michoni , hide-and-seek, with Radha and other gopis . Once Shri Radhikaji was playing in the park on Yamuna River, with her friends. Lord Krishna appeared here. He appeared from behind Shri Radhikaji, indicating to the other gopis with significant gesture of His eyebrows not to let her know. He then closed her eyes with his palms, intending to ask her who it was. He wanted to remain anonymous and wanted to see if Radhikaji could recognize Him. Thinking that his voice would betray him, he produced another pair of hands with the help of His divine powers and holding his flute with these extra hands. Thinking that Radhikaji has always thought of Him with two arms, she would not recognize Him, asked Radha who he was. Radha immediately recognized the divine melody and identified Him as Chaturbhuja ( Four armed).

Significance Of The Ayudhas:

The various ayudhas in the four hands of this image have interpretations related to this story. The lower right hand of the image holds a lotus, which is compared to Radha's palm trying to push Krishna's hand away from her eyes. The upper right hand holds Gada , mace, said to be Radha's hand moving up to embrace Krishna when she saw his four armed divine form. The upper left hand holds a Chakra , disc, representing the impressions left by Radha's Kangans , bracelets, during her embrace. The lower left hand holds a Shankha , conch, identified as Radha's neck as it was when the Lord closed her eyes with his palms.

3rd Peeth:

The Trutiya (third) Peeth is associated with Pushtimarg, the path of Divine Grace, established by Jagadguru Shri Vallabhacharyaji Mahaprabhuji. He was the fifth and last prime Acharyas of Hinduism. (The other four being: Shri Shankaracharya, Shri Nimbakacharya, Shri Ramanujacharya and Shri Madhvachrya. He propagated the philosophy of pure non-dualism known as Shuddhadvaita.

Shri Vallabhacharyaji had two sons: Shri Gopinathaji and Shri Vitthalnathaji-also known as Shri Gusainji. Shri Gusainji initiated seven Peeths (Houses, Seats) for each of his seven sons. Each son was given a Nidhi (means Wealth/Ocean) swaroop (central deity) for performing Sewa. Shri Balkrushnaji was the third son of Shri Gusainji. When the seven images were distributed to Shri Gusainji's seven sons, this swaroop was passed on to Balkrishnaji.

TrutiyaPeeth is situated in Kankaroli in Rajasthan near the prime Temple of Pushtimarg-Shri Nathaji.

Prime Point Of 3rd Peeth:

Currently Pujyapad Goswami 108 Shri Vagishkumarji Maharajshri is the head of the peeth. He is the 18th descendant of Shri Vallabhacharyaji Mahaprabhuji. He is also known as Kankroli Naresh. His older son Vedantkumarji and younger son Siddhantkumarji, who are also known as Kankroli Yuvraj.