Harinam Ruchi the next day in Whangamata

"Quite unexpectantly had the good fortune to visit the home of his grace Jayatirtha Caran prabhu and his good wife and took darshan of their beautiful Lords. We could have spent hours hearing his enthralling stories, but the streets were a calling." Dharmatma prabhu ACBSP

Some may have noticed that our Vitthal Giri is no longer on the front row, He has gone to be with Radhacharan prabhu TKG in Beijing, China.
This made a space so temprarily I placed Udupi Krishna that was kindly sent to me by Vaikunthanath prabhu to stand there until my long desired Udupi Krishna carved Shaligram would arrive.
Well by the mercy of the Lord He did arrive, kindly gifted to me by Himanshu Singhal of www.Rudrakshguru.com

upon my first reaction to hearing of carved Shaligrams I was reluctant due to my lack of understanding. I was enlightened by His Holiness Vishva Priya Tirtha Swami of Admaru mutta in Udupi some years ago by his telling me of how the wonderful Deity known as Udupi Krishna came about. The story goes like this: once when all the Vrajbasis and all the Dwarkabasis assembled in Kurukshtra at the time of an eclipse with Lord Sri Krishna personally there. The Dwarkabasis praised the Vrajbasis for their good fortune in being present to see the childhood pastimes of Krishna and Balaram, which they did not personally witness. The Dwarkabasis then asked Krishna to please manifest those pastimes so that they may see His childhood form (given that at that time He may have been 100+ of our years old). He declined in doing so, but instead called for Vishvakarma the silpa (architect of the Devas) to come and procure four large Shaligrams and from them to carve two sets of Krishna Balaram murthys, one set for the Vrajbasis and one set for the Dwarkabasis. Mother Rukmini worshipped her set in Dwarka right up until the mausala-lila and the demise of Dwarka. The set given to the Vrajbasis have been lost due to time, although there are some who claim to have Them in Trivandrum, some say Guruvayur temple, but it is unsubstantiated claims. However, the set that Mother Rulmini worshipped even while Krishna and Balaram were directly present in Her association were eventually placed in the lake at Gopi just outside Dwarka, the lake that the resident of Dwarka also threw themselves into at the thought of hearing that Krishna had left with His worldly pastimes complete. Now jumping forward some 4500 years we come to the time of Madhwacharya, who one day walked tro the sea-beach at Malpe reciting the celebrated Dwadasa stotram prayers glorifying the Supreme Lord, Srii Krishna in His many forms and names. As Madhwa sat on the sea-beach shore he saw a sailing ship caught in a storm. That wonderful incarnation of Vayuhdev took his uttariya and attached it to his danda and with it simultaneously signaled the captain of the ship to come there to safe harbour and controlled the wind to assist that end. Once the ship was safely mored next to the coral reef by the beach, the captain asked the effulgent Madhwacharya how he could repay him for saving his ship, the cargo and their lives. Madhwa simply asked from where they had come, to which the captain replied Dwarka. Madhwa asked if they had any Giopchand aboard. The captain revealed that they were using it as ballast to keep the ship steady in the water, and if Madhwa wanted some he could take as much as he wanted. Madhwa reached into the hold of the ship and lifted a huge clod that 30 abel seamen couldn't even budge, and like Hanuman lifting the sanjivani hill Madhwa carried it down the beach toward Udupi. BUT at the turn in the road, as the road heads in land a large piece broke off revealing the Divine form of Lord Balaram within. At that point there's an ancient temple of Skanda (Murugan - the son of lord Shiva, Kartikeya). Noting the compatibility that Kartikeya is the son of Shankar (Shiva) who is seen chanting the sacred names of Shankarshan, the expandsion of Lord Balaram, so they placed Balaram in that small temple where He remains today. His body is very smooth and due to age missing much of the features but one can see it is Balaram. Anyway Madhwacharya carried the remaining clod of Gopichand and placed it in the temple tank in the small ancient temple town of Udupi. As he placed the tilak into the temple tank another form was revealled, this time Lord Sri Krishna, where He has been worshipped ever since.

Our link to Udupi Krishna on our site

so here's our Udupi Krishna after His first puja

His front side - sorry about the lighting......

His reverse side showing the huge chakra on His back

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