Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami
From the book “Sri Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā”:
Below the temple of Caurāsī-khambā, near Sāmudrika-kūpa, is Sanātana Gosvāmī’s bhajana-kuṭī situated inside a cave. Sanātana Gosvāmī would come to Gokula occasionally. He would perform bhajana at this place, and daily take darśana of Śrī Madana- Gopāla.
Once, Sanātana Gosvāmī was amazed by an extraordinary child he saw playing in the soft sand on the bank of the Yamunā. When the child had finished his game, Sanātana Gosvāmī followed him into the temple of Śrī Madana-Gopāla. Upon entering the temple, however, Sanātana Gosvāmī could only see the deity. Some time later in Mathurā, Sanātana Gosvāmī saw that same Śrī Madana-Gopāla playing in the house of a Caubāin with her son. Śrī Madana-Gopāla requested Sanātana to take Him with him to Vṛndāvana. Sanātana Gosvāmī brought Him to his bhajana-kuṭī, and later had a magnificent temple constructed for Him, where he arranged for His service and worship.
Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
Just opposite from Nanda Bhavana is an underground cave where Shrila Sanatana Goswami lived and performed bhajana during the time he stayed at Gokula. The cave is said to go underground for about thirty feet. One day Sanatana discovered a small Deity of Yogamaya Devi in her form as Durga, deep within the cave which he named as Patala Devi, another name of the goddess Durga. He then began to worship this Deity and many years later the cave entrance was excavated and made larger with a temple being built on the spot. Now, besides the original Deity found by Sanatana Goswami, there is a much larger Deity of Patala Devi, or Durga, and the part of the cave that went underground has now been sealed.
According to the Bhakti-ratnakara, one day Sanatana Goswami was chanting on his beads at the place where Krishna and Balarama used to play in the sand near the bank of the Yamuna River known as Ramanaka, now called Ramana Reti. As he was chanting Sanatana noticed some children playing nearby. He was particularly attracted by one effulgently beautiful and sweet-looking small cowherd boy. After observing the boy for some time, Sanatana felt convinced that this was not an ordinary boy, but could be Krishna Himself, enjoying childhood pastimes with the local cowherd boys on the banks of the Yamuna. When it was time for the children to stop playing and go to their homes, in order to clear his doubt, Sanatana followed the unusual little boy just 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 inside a temple, with the little boy nowhere in sight, as if he had completely vanished. The only other person inside the temple was a Deity of Madana-Gopala. Sanatana immediately bowed down before the Deity and without uttering a word to anyone, and in a deep mood of contemplation, returned to his cave near Nanda Bhavan. The Bhakti-ratnakara also says that Sanatana Goswami went every day to have darshana of Madana-Gopala, whom he used to call Madana-Mohana, due to the Deities most bewildering (mohana) and inconceivable pastimes.
It is also said that when Lord Chaitanya visited Mahavana on His Vraja Mandala Parikrama, He also went to the temple of Madana-Gopala and felt great ecstasy while looking at the Deity. Lord Nityananda also had darshana of Madana-Gopala some years earlier when He arrived on parikrama to Gokula. The exact location of this temple is not been established. The only known temple of a similar name in the area is the Gopala Mandira at Gopala Ghata on the bank of the River Yamuna, about half a kilometer west of Mahavana. According to the ancient records called Sevya-prakatya, Sanatana Goswami obtained this Deity of Madana-Gopala as a gift from Parashurama Choube, a resident of Mahavana in the year 1534, after which Sanatana took the Deity to Vrindavana where he installed Him on top of the hill called Dwadashditya-tila and later built a temple there called the Madana-Mohana Mandira
