Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami
From the book “Sri Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā”:
Svāmī Haridāsa recovered Śrī Bāṅke-bihārī from Viśākhā-kuṇḍa in Nidhuvana. In this temple there is no deity of Śrī Rādhikā next to Kṛṣṇa. On Akṣaya-tṛtīyā in the month of Vaiśākha, one can have darśana of Śrī Bāṅke-bihārī’s lotus feet. Śrī Bāṅke-bihārī previously resided in Nidhuvana, but then moved to the present temple. During the Muslim oppression, Śrī Bāṅke-bihārījī secretly stayed in Vṛndāvana and did not leave. The darśana of Śrī Bāṅke-bihārī is performed in a very special way. The curtain is drawn every few minutes, thus making the darśana very short. This is known as jhāṅkī-darśana, “a momentary darśana”. The reason for this brief darśana is His bhakta-vātsalya (particular affection for His devotees) and His rasika nature. The following pastime demonstrates this.
Once, an eminent bhakta came for Śrī Bāṅke-bihārī’s darśana. He gazed intently at the deity for a long time. Rasika Bāṅke-bihārījī became so attracted to him that He went with him to his village. Later, when the gosvāmīs of Bihārījī came to know of this, they traced Him and, after much pleading brought the deity back to the temple. After this incident, a momentary darśana was introduced so that no one again can gaze upon Him for a long time.
The unique feature of the Bāṅke-bihārījī Temple is that there is no maṅgala-āratī. The gosvāmīs of this temple say that because Ṭhākurajī performs rāsa every night, He becomes exhausted and goes to sleep in the early morning and it is therefore improper to wake Him at that time.
Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
This is one of Vrindavana’s most famous temples and it was built in 1862. The Deity of Banke-Bihari is said to have been discovered at Nidhuvana by Swami Haridas, a famous singer and musician, who belonged to the Nimbharka sampradaya. Swami Haridas was a well-known court musician at the Gwalior royal palace under the patronage of the Tomar Rajput kings, but he later accepted the path of renunciation and moved to Vrindavana. After being found at Nidhuvana, the Deity of Banke-Bihari was moved Tattia-sthan near Pani Ghata where it was worshiped by Swami Haridas. Sometime later after his death, the Deity was moved to this present site in. The Banke-Bihari temple does not follow traditional Vedic practices of Deity worship and there is no mangala-arati offering. The highlight of this temple is the unusual ‘banke-darsana’, which means that pilgrims only get a ‘fleeting vision of the Deity’ as the pujaris repeatedly open and close the Deity’s curtain, thus hiding the Deity from the vision of the pilgrims for intervals of ten or twenty minutes. The word ‘banke’ is a corruption of the word ‘jhanki’ or ‘jhankiya’ which means a ‘fleeting darshana’.
