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Who are Radha & Krishna’s Pet Animals, Cows and Birds?

Welcome to the spiritual world, where every inhabitant is filled with the nectar of love for Krishna! Where Sri Krishna spends time with every living individual and all are filled with the bliss of love.

Krishna and Balarama Milking the Cows

“Mother Yasoda would then address Nanda Maharaja, “See my dear son, whose eyes are white, who has a turban on His head, a wrapper on His body and leg bells which tinkle very sweetly on His feet. He is coming near, along with His surabhi calves, and just see how He is wandering upon the sacred land of Vrindavana!” Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 43
Murali hugging cow sweet Krishna doll with a forest and sky backdrop

Kṛṣṇa had many thousands of cows, and they were divided into groups according to their colors. They were also differently named according to color. When He would prepare to return from the pasturing ground, He would gather all the cows. As Vaiṣṇavas count 108 beads, which represent the 108 individual gopīs, so Kṛṣṇa would also count on 108 beads to count the different groups of cows. (Krishna book CH 35)

The cows taken care of by Kṛṣṇa had different names, and Kṛṣṇa would call them with love. After hearing Kṛṣṇa calling, the cows would immediately respond by mooing, and the boys would enjoy this exchange to their hearts’ content. They would all imitate the sound vibrations made by the different kinds of birds, especially the cakoras, peacocks, cuckoos and bhāradvājas.
(Krishna book, CH 15)
These cows are the Lord’s pet animals. Of the surabhi cows, all of whom are very dear to Lord Krishna, seven are said to be the most important. They are: Mangala, Pingala, Ganga, Pisangi, Manikastani, Hamsi and Vamsipriya. 

Oxen are very beautiful and mingle freely with the cows in India. It is a little hard to tell the difference between oxen and cows actually, as photographed at a wonderful Goshala.

Padmagandha and Pisangaksa are Krishna’s pet oxen. In addition to these pet surabhi cows, many other types of pets belong to Krishna and Radharani. 


Kalasvana is His pet swanTandavika His pet peacock and Daksa and Vicaksana His pet parrots.
Krishna with puppy friends and nanda maharaj shoes
Krishna carries Nanda’s golden sandals with his two puppies

Vyaghra and Bhramaraka are Krishna’s pet dogs. 

Krishna doll walks in with poseable body cow and peacock
Tandavika is His pet Peacock

Suranga is Krishna’s pet deer and Dadhilobha is His pet monkey. 

Poseable Krishna pictured with monkeys and arch
poseable krishna doll with frut and monkey
“Krishna always tends the cows. His name is Govinda, cowherd boy. To become animal of Krisna is a great, great fortune. It is not ordinary thing. Any associate of Krishna, either His cowherd boyfriends or calf or cows, or the Vrindavana trees, plants, flowers or water, they are all devotees of Krishna. They like to serve Krishna in different capacities. Somebody is serving Krishna as animal. Somebody is serving Krishna as fruits and flowers, as tree, as Yamuna water, or the beautiful cowherds men and damsels or Krishna’s father and mother, so many with Krishna. Krishna is not impersonal. So He has got so many lovers. Krishna also loves them. So Krishna’s another name is pasu-pala, pasu-pala-pankaja. He is, mean, tender of the animals. Surabhir abhipalayantam. He takes pleasure in tending the cows, surabhi. These are surabhi cows, not these ordinary cows, surabhi cows. Surabhi cows means you can milk the cow as many times as you like and as much milk as you like. That is surabhi.” SP. Lecture on SB. 06-26-74, Melbourne

     Radharani’s pet Animals 

Srimati Radharani also has pet surabhi cows, among whom Sunada, Yamuna and Bahula are the most important, along with Tungi, Her chubby pet calf.

Kakkhati is Her old pet monkey, Rangini is Her pet doe and Carucnadrika is Her pet cakori bird.Tundikeri is the name of Radharani’s pet swan, who is fond of swimming in Radha-kunda. Madhuri is Radharani’s pet elephant and Suksmadhi and Subha are Her two pet parrots.The two parrots perfectly imitate Lalita-devi’s playful jokes spoken to her master and mistress (Sri Sri Radha-Krishna). By this wonderful repetition the parrots astonish the gopis. (SSRKGD)
“I think the drones that are buzzing all around You must have been Your devotees in their past lives. They cannot leave Your company because no one can be a better, more affectionate master than You. You are the supreme and original Personality of Godhead, and the drones are just trying to spread Your glories by chanting every moment. I think some of them must be great sages, devotees of Your Lordship, and they are disguising themselves in the form of drones because they are unable to give up Your company even for a moment. My dear brother, You are the supreme worshipable Godhead. Just see how the peacocks in great ecstasy are dancing before You. The deer, whose behavior is just like the gopis, are welcoming You with the same affection. And the cuckoos who are residing in this forest are receiving You with great joy, because they consider that Your appearance is so auspicious in their home. Even though they are trees and animals, these residents of Vrndavana are glorifying You. They are prepared to welcome You to their best capacity, as is the practice of great souls in receiving another great soul at home. As for the land, it is so pious and fortunate that the footprints of Your lotus feet are marking its body.” Krishna Book, Chapter 15

Names of Krishna’s Pets

Daksa

A pet parrot of Lord Krishna.

Vamsipriya

Vamsipriya is a pet surabhi cow of Krishna.

Pisangi

Pisangi is a pet surabhi cow of Krishna.

Vicaksana

Vicaksana is Krishna’s pet parrot. Vicaksana appeared as the elder brother of Kavi Karmapura, namely Ramadasa.

Padmagandha

He is Krishna’s pet ox.

Hamsi

Hamsi is one of Krishna’s pet surabhi cows.

Pingala

Pingala is one of Krishna’s pet surabhi cows.

Manikastani

Manikastani is one of Krishna’s pet surabhi cows.

Dadhilobha

Dadhilobha is Krishna’s pet monkey.

Suranga

Suranga is Krishna’s pet deer.

Tandavika

Tandavika is the pet peacock of Lord Krishna.

Bhramaraka

Bhramaraka is Lord Krishna’s pet dog.

Vyaghra

Vyaghra is Lord Krishna’s pet dog.

Kalasvana

Kalasvana is Lord Krishna’s pet swan.

Mangala

It means “auspicious”. It is a name of one of Krishna‘s pet surabhi cows. She is a sakhi in the group of Indulekha devi. She is one of the leaders of those gopis who act as well-wishers of Srimati Radharani.

Ganga

It is a river flowing through Mayapur(the place where Lord Chaitanya was born). River Ganga was brought to Earth by Bhagirath. Ganga is also a pet Surabhi cow of Krishna in Vraja.

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Home Deity Worship- Made Easy

Sri Vanvihari in peacock blue peach and ginger flower lotus bud garland reflected in a silver ornate mirror

Spring has Sprung! Have some patience and I’m going to tell you how we can easily start worshipping a gorgeous Krishna deity at home… it’s a winding tale, with lots of beautiful Krishna photos, so read on!

With a bit of a stagger and a wobble, our Ozzie weather has swung into Spring!

I am thrilled with our warmer weather, as over the 40 final days of winter, my Lord Vanvihari has worn nearly all of His long sleeved outfits! 

Spring gives us exciting new chances for dressing – because Spring here in Australia really means summer type weather for the rest of the world!

Remixing dhoti’s with a variety of shawls, sashes, and turbans, is a beautiful opportunity to really play with color and texture, and show off My Lord’s broad chest decorated with Tilak and the mark of Srivatsa, of course! I just love to see his strong arms and belly button! 

Sri Vanvihari in peacock blue peach and lotus bud garland reflected in a silver ornate mirror
Sri Vanvihari Krishna wearing silk devore chiffon dhoti and lotus bud garland

On Janmastami this year I finally welcomed Him into regular worship on my home altar.

The Lords Gaura Nitai have been doing a slow dance around the altar as we work out the best arrangement for everyone’s comfort. Here’s some of our crazy configurations!

One of the things which has come as a slight surprise to me is raising up my Lord Vanvihari Krishna! I didn’t intend to, but as at 18inches tall, his flute is a little in the way of Lord Nityananda, unless I raise Sri Vanvihari up a few inches. Currently He has stood on a beautiful enamelled jewelery box, an inlaid wooden box and a wooden domed suitcase! The suitcase it’s funny, but it’s kind of hatbox shaped, with a flat back so it can butt against the backdrop of the altar, anyway it seems to be the best height and I am working on painting it. It’s had a navy base coat, and then I am going to paint on lotus flowers, to match the lotus flower bases I painted on Sri Gaura Nityananda.

Altar improvements have been going on for the past eternity, and it’s not likely to change! 

With the introduction of Sri Vanvihari to my worshipable Lords, the currency (and gorgeous) altar backdrop became too short, so I’m looking at making a new backdrop for them. In the event of not finding something I can buy that I just over the top love, I’m creating my own in photoshop and I will be printing it. (let me know if you love it and want one too, I guess I could work out how to print and ship). Far off plans aside (I hope that isn’t another 10 year project!) I have also got plans to install pillars (columns) and a faux arch.

Bet it’s not that exciting to just HEAR about my plans, you would rather SEE something tactile! 

Well, I wanted to talk to you about how incredibly life-enhancing it is to worship a deity of Sri Krishna, and then give you some compelling reasons to consider selecting one of the exquisite Krishna murti’s I have prepared for you! 

By seeing the sweetness of Lord Krishna’s Deity form, and by hearing the descriptions of Lord Krishna’s pastimes, one develops a desire to fall in love with Krishna.

I have been completely blissed out dressing Krishna. Daily darshans on my RememberKrishna instagram account (for now, no promises to keep doing this!). How fun it is to dress the one who looks completely exquisite in every outfit?!

Let me tell you about my good friend…

My good friend has had a deity of Krishna for the past 10 years. She’s been waiting for her sister to paint him, and to create a wardrobe for him. I sew, and paint, myself! Yet it’s taken me a full year just to prepare his wardrobe, and I’m sewing deity clothes professionally (Or semi-professionally if I’m humble) for the past 15 years now! It took 3 years of working with sculpting artists to have him perfectly carved with the sort of particular refinements that were important to me. 

You can avoid all the drama and serious stress by selecting from the beautiful Krishna murti which I have personally prepared for you. I’ve worked with sculptors and done my own carving to ensure each deity is as perfect a representation of Krishna as artistry can get. To suit each specific form of the Lord, I lovingly prepare a wardrobe of outfits – I call them krishna’s Glory Box, as they come with him to his new home with you! 

From deep meditation on Krishna’s transcendental form and names, pastimes, and qualities, with great reverence and love together with a meticulous eye for detail, these forms are carefully and lovingly prepared ready for you to install. 

So easy to choose a Krishna deity to worship!

How easy it is to carefully inspect a form of the lord who is already completely fresh and charmingly presented with jewels, hair, flute, accessories and garments?

As everyones support person for deity ordering, I have heard a lot of stories about the difficulties of working with Indian companies and ordering deities. Sometimes they arrive broken! Recently a friend on instagram ordered large marble deities who arrived with the hands and feet completely snapped off. OH MY GOSH the horrible heartache~ Worse! The seller is refusing to refund this friend.

Other people discuss how difficult it is to deal with the companies. Ordering a large 3ft statue the communications for one friend were almost incomprehensible, and the murti arrived only after much anxious nail-biting and stress. Happily, intact, but the painting requests had not exactly been followed!

Many people won’t have my exacting standards. I admit that I do seek perfection, and have a critical eye for detail that some don’t. But even for those people it is so much less baffling to be able to purchase a deity of Krishna who is ready with OUTFITS! HAIR! JEWELERY! A side benefit is being able to copy the patterns I have already worked out for your specific deity!

Easy to keep building His wardrobe!

When Krishna comes to you from my careful selection of lovingly prepared statues, you’ll be ready to easily order backup outfits in the future! Or reference my YouTube channel full of creative and inspiring outfits, as well as DIY tutorials on how to make your own deity clothes. 

Currently here ready to come to you is beautiful Murli Manohar – 18 inch tall gorgeous form of Krishna with dewy eyes. 

Explore and order here: 

18 inch tall krishna deity murli against a forest backdrop wearing gorgeous robes of burgandy red and zardozi embroidery

Do you have some experiences with ordering from India that have left you a little scarred? I would love to hear about it (and may even have some advice to offer).

My YouTube Channel has a variety of interesting videos to support you in choosing a Krishna deity to worship,

CLICK HERE

along with LOTS of previews of how beautiful this specific currently available Murli Manohar Krishna is!

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Livestream Kirtans & wisdom talks you can join in from home

congregational kirtan at home livestream

Most livestreams are using either YouTube or Facebook.

I’m going to share the YOUTUBE livestream channels that are consistently putting up regular livestreams of both live kirtan, as well as meditation and yoga. 

 

The Australian School of Meditation and Yoga have been livestreaming their weekly kirtans to facebook for a few years now, and yesterday announced that they will continue to livestream kirtan on a regular basis. Around the world others have joined this online kirtan party, making sure that we can continue to associate even if trapped at home by Coronavirus self isolation proceedures. 

I encourage you to follow them on Facebook and Youtube! 

Wisdom talks you can tune into from home.

I expect a lot of livestreams here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Qk-RUCSN0bTvVgtto02pQ

If you prefer to watch your livestreams of Facebook find The Mantra Room Facebook by clicking this link

my Friends at Kirtan Experience are doing magical kirtan by the beach, while we are still allowed out of doors…

https://www.facebook.com/253631894813893/videos/751990215208418/

They have even set up an audio download you can grab to listen on Soundcloud.

I am also enjoying associating by watching the videos of the very humble servant of Sri Krishna on this channel here:

There are multiple playlists with different themes, but I am loving listening to this yoga wisdom talks while I am sewing for Krsna.

There are multiple locations for The Mantra Room around Australia, and I love the strong kirtan vibe in Brisbane. Follow them on YouTube

All of these channels are so PROLIFIC and generous with their distribution of KIRTAN and Yoga Wisdom that I have just had to pick one or two to represent.

You’ll love it if you enrich your life with these wonderful opportunities to hear and chant from your couch!

Especially in these stressful times with the world pandemic creating mass confusion and anxiety, benefit from the calming wisdom of the ages:

The title says it all. We can buckle down, and stay indoors, and create an internal sanctuary

Have you got some channel you would suggest? Leave a comment and let me know! Maybe I’ll update this list to share it!

This is NOT an exhaustive list! I’m sure my friends around the world would have so much more to add!

I hope it helps you in your daily remembrance of Sri Krishna in these times when we are encouraged to self isolate and may mean separation from other devotees and inability to have congregational kirtan together.

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10 Christmas Carols You’ll Love to Sing

krishna marble statue on red background with mango leaf garland candles and white lotus lamps playing flute at krishna christmas celebration the mantra room gold coast
Krishna blesses our Christmas Celebrations

Joyous Noel!

There’s so many beautiful Christmas Carols you can learn and sing with family that I wanted to share some of our favorites with you.

What we do in our family is usually a nice big Christmas lunch with all our family and then we go and join our friends for a Christmas evening kirtan celebration. I love this, so special! We always have Jesus on the altar with Krishna.

1. Bless The Lord

Let us offer our respectful obeisances to Lord Jesus Christos who dedicates his life to the Supreme Person.

Jesus made it very clear that the Supreme Lord is his heart, and that he is the heart of the Supreme Lord.

Krishna says:

The saints are my heart and I am their heart. They are always thinking of me and embracing me, and I am always thinking of them and embracing them.

Jesus Christ stands as our inspiration. He is the embodiment of love for God and all living beings, and such love should be celebration with the congregational glorification of God and His Holy Names on the appearance day of Lord Jesus Christ, and on every other day of the year!

With the most beautiful lyrics, and combined with that soul-stirring Hare Krishna Maha Mantra! Gotta watch this beautiful sound clip of the Choir of Angels with the beautiful frangipani flower wristlets and candles (battery operated thank you) Honestly this one might be my absolute favorite!

2. Prayer of St. Francis

The first and foremost commandment of Jesus is to love the Supreme Father with all our heart.

When we look at Jesus Christ we see in him what we aspire for, and what we hope and pray to acheive.

There is a saying that when you ask God for something, you will receive it.

Jesus Christ is showing us what we should ask for, what we should pray for and that is unconditional love for God and for all living beings.

Such pure spiritual love will make it so that we are happy, free and peaceful, and that the world is happy free and peaceful.

3.When Love Was Born

Christmas is a celebration of Gods love for us. From time to time, the Supreme Person, Sri Krishna, sends an empowered representative to this world to invite us back to Him.

Such was the case when the pure love, son, and servant of God, Lord Jesus Christ appeared in this world, bringing with him the greatest gift, the gift of pure spiritiual love.

He embodied a love that embraced all living beings. This song celebrates the night that such selfless spiritual love in the person of Jesus Christ was born.

4.Blessed Be Your Name

Introducing this beautiful powerful hymn, and I wanted to include it here, because it really encapsulates the very meaning of this beautiful prayer.

Pure love for God is already residing dormant in our hearts, but it is covered over by so much material contamination. By coming into contact with God I become purified of all that is keeping me from experiencing pure spiritual love. In this age the Supreme Lord, out of His Causeless mercy descends as His Holy Name, transcendental sound, and it is a very simple way to come into contact with Him through that sound.

Jaya Jesus means All Glories to Jesus.

5. Day By Day

Jesus first commandment is to love God. His second commandment is like unto it: Love our neighbour as our selves. Love for others, for our neighbours, for our enemies, cannot be separated from love for God because love for God is the unifiying factor. We pray that our love for God will grow day by day.

This beautiful Christmas carol starts beautifully solemn, and then has such a fun, swinging, getting into it upbeat sound! We love it 🙂

6. The Message

Resonating with Vaishnava’s, this beautiful song praising Lord Jesus Christ, a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord. You might never have heard this one before! It’s one I grew up with! I could sing it if I lost every other memory, I know it so well! SUPER BEAUTIFUL!

7.What Child Is This?

A beautiful soaring soprano version of this beautiful song about baby Jesus, kids love this one… I love how they have incorporated the Om Hari Om – I didn’t grow up “Christian” so I have no idea if these tunes are fresh or new or old, and pretty much every traditional carol is a revelation to me 🙂 LOVING it!

8.Happy Birthday Jesus

We only just started singing this one and I LOVE it!

I’m sure you have heard a version or two of this beautiful Happy Birthday Jesus Christmas song – it was the star of 2018 for us! Here’s my daughter with her friends signing it at a nursing home. Can you see how they are doing their earnest best? After 3 months of carol practices, they’ll never forget the lyrics or tunes of these songs!

9.Jesus Loves the Little Ones

Definitely get to throw yourself into this Christmas song! It’s so fun, we usually love to point and poke and giggle with the hand gestures!

10.O Holy Night

A classic for a reason!

This beautiful soul stirring song of praise never gets old! You know it I’m sure, but I really had to include it in this list of loveliness!

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Bedtime story magic

I am so happy that my 8yr old has begun requesting them again – for awhile there, it was no mum, not a Krishna story (break my heart!).
Now tho, we do everything and the final request of the night is a Krishna story, or JUST ONE MORE!

So, as the Krishna story request is usually accompanied by a demand for a NEW story mum, I have been delightfully pushed into reading and hearing more, to keep up with this insatiable thirst for the treasure house of Krsna story nectar (that we both love).

One source of joy has been the new treasure trove of Krishna lore from instagram account @KrishnaEveryday (Oh Hari! What a perfect name!)

Pictures from vrindavan
Krishna instagram account with nice stories of Krsna everyday and beautiful images of Vrindavan and the cowherd boys and other inhabitants. Lots of quotes from various bonafide scriptural sources.

 

As a sidenote, somebody please name their child Hara! I heard a beautiful lecture from the wonderful speaker Acharaya das where he talks about the potency of Hara, as a name for Radharani. Hari and Hara? Oh the beauty. Check out more wonderful lectures from Acharya das, an authority on Vedic wisdom, on The Journey of Life.

Ok back to original thread here, one joy was re-reading the Krishna stories as an adult. Yes I was very fortunate to be born into a nice Vaishnava family (my parents are disciples of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad), and my dad was keen on reading us the Ramayan nightly. I’m pretty sure I learnt to read at 5 just to start reading those stories myself! Anyway it’s amazing how much more you can note and soak up as an adult re-reading Krishna’s pastimes from the Krishna book.

Mostly we switch out the light and cozy up on my daughters bed and I tell her the story as I remember it. I don’t have the worlds greatest memory (it’s wretched), so sometimes I say we are going to have to fact check that in the morning!

I love simple stories, and I love complicated stories! Sometimes you hear snippets studded with wonder from venerable Vaishnava devotees that you haven’t heard elsewhere and we hoard those up like jewels and take them out and marvel at them in story time.

My favorite part of our Krishna playdays is the story telling section. I just love it, and all the kids do too.

Because really, Krishna is for every day! Yay!
Visit @doddyart on instagram for a beautiful stream of Krishna art and all things Krishna related!

What pastime of Krishna do you remember back to front and can tell as you are falling asleep? Me, I like to tell these faves right now: Lord Chaitanya discovers Toto Gopinath in the garden of Gadadhar, and also Mother Yasoda & Rohini call Krishna & Balaram home. My daughter loves to hear how Krishna and Balaram are naughty, and their friends threatening them not to play next time!

As it has just been the appearance day of Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya we have been talking all the stories I can remember of little Gaura – again so much appreciated!

So if you want to enjoy beautiful pastimes of Krishna then I urge you to start reading and hearing, and you will have so many just ready to flow from your lips when your little ones request Just One More at bedtime.