Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
This sandy beach near the bank of the Yamuna is now known as Ramana Reti, but was previously known as Ramanaka, and the place where Krishna and Balarama enjoyed playing childhood games with Their friends. The word ‘ramana’ means ‘pleasure’ and ‘reti’ means ‘sand’. It is said that this transcendental playground where Krishna and Balarama spent many long hours enjoying various children’s games, was rediscovered by Shrila Narayana Bhatta. Ramanaka is said to be situated within the sub-forest of Ramanavana, which is mentioned in the Vraja-bhakti-vilasa as one of the upavanas of Vrindavana. One day Sanatana Goswami was chanting japa near to where Krishna and Balarama used to play on the bank of the Yamuna. Sanatana noticed some cowherd boys playing nearby and became attracted by the unusual beauty and effulgence of one of the boys. The boy’s aura was so brilliant, that Sanatana was convinced that this was not an ordinary boy, but must be Krishna Himself enjoying pastimes with the local cowherd boys. When it was time for the boys to return to their homes, in order to clear his doubt, Sanatana followed the effulgent looking boy to see where he was living. When the boy went inside a nearby temple, Sanatana also went inside, but to his surprise found himself alone, with the boy nowhere in sight as if he had simply vanished into thin air. The only other person inside the temple was a Deity of Madana-Gopala. Sanatana was struck with wonder while realizing his premonition was correct. Sanatana immediately bowed down before the Deity and without uttering a word to a soul returned to his bhajana kutira. The Bhakti-ratnakara also says that after this incident, Sanatana Goswami went every day to have darshana of Madana-Gopala. Sometime later, when Sanatana received this same Deity as a gift, he re-named Him as Madana-Mohana, due to the Deities most inconceivable and bewildering (mohana) pastimes. The Deity of Madana-Mohana can attract us to Krishna so we will completely forget the pleasure derived from mundane sex life. There are a number of famous ashrama in the area including the old Shri Dhama Ramana Reti and the Udasin Karshni Ashram which has a large goshala, forested gardens, a deer park, a large sarovara, and a Radha-Krishna Mandira. Nearby is the samadhi of the famous bhakti-poet Raskhan (1548-1628), who in his former life was known as Sayyad Ibrahim who was born into a wealthy Mohammedan family of jagirdars (Landowners) at Amroha near Moradabad. He was a well-educated and proficient in Persian, Urdu and Hindi, but as a young man he became a great devotee of Lord Krishna and spent almost his entire life living at Ramana Reti near Mahavana under the spiritual guidance of Vithalanatha, the famous son of Vallabhacharya. Raskhan is credited with having translated the Shrimad-Bhagavatam (or some of its cantos) into the Persian language.
