ShreeNathji’s most favourite place, His Personal gaushala at Nathuwas, Nathdwara, is situated about 3 km from His Haveli. When Vrajraj ShreeNathji reached Nathdwara Gaushalas were made all over. Surrounded by hills it is a very picturesque place; with a lot of open grounds. It was planned and built with the Haveli. It houses about 2000 cows with a staff of 50 gwals to take care of them.
Any visit to ShreeNathji is incomplete without a visit here. It is as important as the Mandir.
Shreeji likes staying here, in the midst of His beloved ‘Gaumata’, as He calls them. Shreeji’s Personal cow is Lalitha today; her mother was Rukmani who died about 5-6 years back.
This personal cow is in direct lineage of the original herd of the Nand-vansh.
She had appeared in Jatipura when the Ardh-Bhuja of Shreeji first appeared from the Giriraj Govardhan.
The cow who appeared to feed milk to ShreeNathji on His Urdhv Bhuja is known as Dhumer. She belonged to Saddu Pande and Naro (who played with Shreeji daily).This cow also recognised her ShreeKrishn and would go on top of the Giriraj Govardhan daily and feed her milk to Shreeji.
(Cows can feel the vibrational levels and the fragrance of their loving Krishn Bhagvan more than any of us humans).
Since then the hierarchy has been maintained very strictly, and the Vansh of Dhumar cow came to Nathdwara with Shreeji from Shri Govardhan.
At this present time, Lalitha is called the wish fulfilling cow, the Kamdhenu Gai; any wish whispered in her ear after doing the athada in full faith will give guaranteed results. The whispered words are received directly by Shreeji Himself in the presence of His devoted bhakt - gurushree; provided the shraddha is there!!
I was here first time with Gurushree in February-2005, did the athada under his guidance and supervision. The athada done in the presence of a Sadhya is totally clearing of all negativity of the past, our spine crosses totally through the surya bindu of this sacred cow.
At the same time Gurushree stands there with his mantra shakti and blessings, he granted me total mukti on this day from all the past births and the movement towards merging with the Divine Thakurjee. When I asked him why, "it is in your naseeb (destiny), you deserve it; that’s why"; is the answer I received.
Since then I have been lucky to visit Nathdwara several times with my Gurushree; each yatra has opened me, taking me closer and deeper to Divine ShreeNathji and my own true reality and identity.
Gurushree likes to spend the maximum time here. Hours are spent in just being there. Gurushree has told me of many divine anubhuties of Thakurji’s leelas he has had here. I too at various times have had the krupa of being the witness to the Divine Presence here.
Many times I feel Shreeji likes to be away from His mandir, and He spends time with us at the gaushala. This I can feel at times when His sweet voice tells us about some incident at His gaushala, and how much He loves being here with His beloved Gaumata, as He calls them.
Daily thuli is offered here from the mandir to the gaushala. This can be sponsored if one is lucky enough to get the required date; as only two people get the opportunity daily. This as I witnessed is cooked in the most ancient manner at the gaushala itself. Apart from this if any Vaishnav wishes to offer food they can do so directly here by buying grains from the shops. But this is also monitored as extra feeding would have a bad effect on the health of the cows.
My Gurushree – Shri Sudhir bhai and Mahagurushree - ShreeNathji, both take delight in watching the gaumata feed in perfect discipline. Without any fight the Gaumata come and stand in the designated spot and finish their food totally. No grain is wasted. "Perfect discipline is to be learnt from these gaumata"; both tell me every time I am there. "Humans should learn the value of sharing and not wasting precious grains”.
"They should also take a lesson of not pushing around when doing My Darshans and take care to follow a proper queue; then all will get a chance to do proper Darshans"; Shreeji’s voice echoed.
Another thing which Gurushree made me aware of is that whatever offering made to Shreeji Himself in whatever form, He returns back savaya (25% more) to the donor. Finally nothing is actually kept by Shreeji. Shreeji Himself says that it is a miracle that in spite of returning 25% more than is received; His treasury never runs empty. So in the ultimate He does not keep anything from any vaishnav.
It is only at the gaushala bhent that He accepts all totally and nothing is returned to the donor. Gurushree tells me that Shreeji does the karm of taking His cows to graze; if anyone helps Him in this karm of His, He is the happiest and only blessings are returned. Not that we do this offering for return of blessings, it is with the bhao of doing some work for Shreeji; as ultimately in devotion to Thakurji it is only the purity of bhao that matters. Nothing else will help you get closer to Him.
Thakurjee ShreeNathji, ki Jai Ho!
Gau seva is the highest form of seva with regard to ShreeNathji
All of ShreeNathji’s Gaushala house different breeds of cows. Several gaumata have been named and respond to their names when called out.
Health of all Gaumata is given priority and mage sure medical care is available promptly.
All milk from the Gaushalas is used in seva, nothing is sold outside.
There have been times when the gwals hear the rambhana of Gaumata late nights in the Gaushala. The cows begin to run around if looking for some one. The Gwals believe that at such moments it is the Presence of ShreeNathji at this Golok; so to receive love from Shree Krishn swarup ShreeNathji they run around looking for Him.
In the ancient times few lucky Gwals have had darshans of ShreeNathji playing with His Gaumatas.
This Golok swarup Gaushala is maintained totally by the Mandir Mandal with pure nishtha.
Apart from this main gaushala at Nathuwas, there are nearly 11 other gaushalas spread around.
Of these 3 are the important ones while the rest are for interchange of place for the gaumata.
The Gaushala at Baagol houses about 50/60 cows. All milk is churned to butter and offered at the Haveli.
Gaushala at Upari, Odan is about 4 km from the Haveli. This is for cows whose milking has reduced.
The Salor Gaushala is about 10 km away from the Haveli. All the old, sick, cows are housed here and looked after as per requirement. The cows from here often go to Ghasiyar to feed on the freas grass as Ghasiyar has a huge of 175 beegha forest land.
The smaller ones are as follows;
One gaushala is at Taantol village at Khamnor which has a huge parisar.
Another one is located at Mogana village, on Maavli marg.
A two storey huge gaushala is located at Khatukada village which is in a rural area.
At a place called Byal, (Ubheshwar),located on the hills of Uttang parvat.
Jai ShreeNathji Prabhu
Jai Shree Gopal