OUR HISTORY

The ancient Sanket Bihari Temple is situated at the first meeting place of Shree Radha Krishna ji. At this ancient place there used to be a Banyan tree below which Shree Radha used to play with her beloved friends known as ‘Sakhis’.Shree Krishna, in order to make his calves graze grass, used to go to Goverdhan from Nandgaon alongwith his friends through this path passing through village Sanket. This village falls under Barsana ‘panchayat’ and is situated exactly midway on Barsana Nandgaon road. This place has been flourishing and prospering since ancient dynasties. Out of the four main areas associated with the ‘playful activities (leela)’ of Lord Krishna which are situated in the ‘Brij’ (Mathura-Vrindavan) area, one of such places is this village Sanket. About 5500 years ago (near end of ‘Dwaparyuga’) the king of Mathura was Vajranaabh who was grandson of Lord Krishna, and he got constructed swings (known as jhoola in hindi) at five such ‘play areas’ (places of conducting ‘leela’) of Lord Krishna. One of these five ‘jhoolas’ is located at village Sanket. Alongwith this, the king also got constructed one enclosed open area like an auditorium for conducting ‘leelas’ and a temple known as Shri Sanket Devi temple. In the 15 th century, the main preacher of Vaishnava religion, the head of ‘devotion period’, the foundation laying person of the Gaudiya sect, the great lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revived this place i.e. village Sanket. One of the six main disciples of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu known as Shri Gopal Bhatt Goswami ji did prayer, chanting and meditation under a sacred tree at village Sanket for a long time and created idols of Lord Krishna known as Shri Radha Sanket Bihari ji here, which are still present inside the temple sactum sanctorium in a well decorated form, for worship by devotees. All the temple rituals are conducted as per the practices of the Gaudiya Sect. The caretaking and management of the temple and its daily activities is being done by Shri Shyam Das Maharaj who does it under the able guidance of Shri Shri 1008 Kripa Sindhu Das Maharaj, who in turn is disciple of Shri Gaudiya Bhakti Vedant Saraswati and his student Shri Ramakrishna Pandit Baba.

At this place, when Shree Krishna used to arrive, one of the friends of Shree Radha, known as Vrinda Devi (Yog Maya), used to make Shree Radha and Krishna meet by calling Shree Krishna through an indication (known as Sanket in hindi). Hence this place used to be known as village Sanket and Shree Krishna thereafter was named as ‘Sanket Bihari’. According to ancient scripture ‘Garg Sanhita’, Shree Brahma had conducted ‘Lagan Sagai’ (known as Engagement in today’s world) of Shree Radha and Krishna at this place. Shri Gopala Bhatta Goswami, one of the foremost disciples of the Vaishnava saint Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, had performed worship and prayer at this place for a very long time and many devotees of Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from West Bengal have been performing worship and prayer at this very place even till date. Since 1995, seer Shri Shyam Das Baba and his disciples Shri Advait Das Baba, Shri Ujjval Krishna Das have been doing selfless devotional service for this place. Shri Shyam Das Baba is also looking after and taking best care of the cow shed located inside the temple premises. The milk and other dairy products obtained from the cows of the cowshed is used in the daily devotional service of the Lord Shree Sanket Bihari ji.Apart from Shri Radha Sanket Bihari temple, the other places of interest located nearby are Shri Sanketmata (Yogmaya mata) mandir, the chanting place of Shri Gopal Bhatt Goswami ji, the ‘play’ area pf Lord Krishna, Shri Krishna Kunda , Shri Vihaval Kunda ( bathing pond). People from far flung area come and visit these places.

All devotees are informed that they can get to see and feel ultimate joy of the temple ‘Shringar Darshan’ of the Lord , the temple festivals being held from time to time, and also this holy place where Shree Radha Krishna had first met and their engagement was performed. There is free of cost facility of stay and meals for the visiting devotees. Kindly do take out some time from your busy schedule to come and stay.