In S¢rasvata Kalpa, the people of Vraja used to worship Indra. They thought that by worshipping him, he would be pleased and shower rain in the regoin resulting in good harvest. ¹r¤ K¨¾´a cleared the misconceptions from the minds of the innocent vrajav¢s¤'s and stopped them from worshipping Indra. He made them worship Girir¢ja instead of Indra saying that He Himself is Girir¢ja (aha¼ ºailo 'smi). ¹ri K¨¾´a Himself did the first Govardhana P¦j¢ and made the vrajav¢s¤'s do the same. Since then, this proceduere is till date followed and practised by millions of devotees who come to Jat¤pur¢ every year for the darºana and p¦j¢ of Govardhana.
The Govardhana P¦j¢ is done here. This is called as the Mukh¢ravinda (face) or Sundara ¹il¢ of ¹r¤ Girir¢jaj¤. All vai¾´av¢'s do Pa¬c¢m¨ta of ¹r¤ Girir¢jaj¤. Unlike normal pa¬c¢m¨ta i.e. milk, curd, ghee, crushed sugar and honey, ¹r¤ Girir¢jaj¤'s pa¬c¢m¨ta is done with milk curd, kumakuma, turmeric powder and water. ¹r¤ K¨¾´a was very fond of milk and curd. He even stole from the vrajav¢s¤'s to have it. Kumakuma and turmeric powder is a symbol of welfare. Since ¹r¤ Girir¢jaj¤ is a devotee himself (Harid¢savarya), therefore, the water of M¢nas¤ Ga¬g¢ is poured on him and not Yamun¢ Jala. ¹r¤ Girir¢jaj¤ is always eager to serve ¹r¤ ¯h¢kuraj¤ while He goes to graze cows in the forest. All the tribal ladies, Pulandin¤'s became dear to ¹r¤ ¯h¢kuraj¤ due to his blessings. He fulfils all the desires of his devotees.
The Mukh¢ravinda of ¹r¤ Girir¢jaj¤ is in Jatipur¢. Earlier this place was called as Gop¢lapura. It is said that ¹r¤ Giridharaj¤, the eldest son of ¹r¤ Gus¢¤¬j¤, was very pious and saintly. All the vrajav¢s¤'s used to call him as "Yati'. So this village is named after him as Jatipur¢.
There is another belief that this village is named after M¢dhavendra Sarasvat¤, ¹r¤ Mah¢prabhuj¤'s guru. He was also called as "Yati B¢b¢'. |
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