How Shri Yugal Kishor Juu Appeared

Every old temple of Vrindavan has a story of how its Thakur came to light, because in the sixteenth century Vrindavan itself was being found again. The groves that the scriptures speak of had been forest for a very long time. Saints came from Bengal, from Rajasthan, from Bundelkhand, and one by one the deities appeared to them: Govind Dev to Rup Goswami, Madan Mohan to Sanatan Goswami, Radha Raman to Gopal Bhatt. The rasik poets of Braj counted seven such ancient Thakurs, and an old couplet names the sixth among them: Yugal Kishor, who gave Vyas Ji joy without end.

Swami Shri Hari Ram Ji Vyas had come to Vrindavan from the court of Orchha and settled in a grove beside Sewa Kunj that is still called Kishor Van. One night Thakur Ji appeared to him in a dream and said that he lay in the well of that grove, and that he wished to be lifted out and served.

Vyas Ji asked a question that tells you everything about the man. He did not ask how deep the well was, or who would build the temple. He asked: are you alone, or is Shri Radha Rani with you? And the answer came: she is with me. Only then did he go to the well.

The well, the Kishor Koop, is fourteen feet deep and still stands in Vyas Ghera. From it, on Magh Shukla Ekadashi of Samvat 1620, the year 1563 by the common calendar, the divine pair was drawn out, and Vyas Ji began the sewa with Shri Priya Ji at his left. He named them for what they are: Yugal, the pair, and Kishor, forever young.

That day is still kept as the Prakatya Utsav of the temple, and that question is still the heart of the sewa. Yugal Kishor Juu is never served as Krishn alone. Every shringar, every bhog, every lamp is offered to the two of them together, because that is how he chose to come.