33 / Vidyadhara Liberated
and the Demon Sankhasura Killed

Once upon a time, the cowherd men of Vrndavana, headed by Nanda
Maharaja, desired to go to Ambikavana to perform the Sivaratri per-
formance. The rasa-lila was performed during the autumn, and after that
the next big ceremony is Holi or the Dolaydtra ceremony. Between the
Dolayatra ceremony and the rasa-lila ceremony there is one important
ceremony which is called Sivaratri, which is especially observed by the
Saivites, or devotees of Lord Siva. But sometimes the Vaisnavas also ob-
serve this ceremony because they accept Lord Siva as the foremost
Vaisnava. But the function of Sivaratri is not observed very regularly by
the bhaktas, or devotees of Krsna. Under the circumstances, it is stated in
Srimad-Bhagavatam that the cowherd men headed by Nanda Maharaja
“once upon a time desired.” That means that they were not regularly
observing the Sivaratri function, but that once upon a time they wanted to
go to Ambikavana out of curiosity. Ambikavana is situated somewhere
in the Gujarat province. Ambikavana is said to be situated on the river
Sarasvati, yet we do not find any Sarasvati River in the Gujarat province;
the only river there is Savarmati. In India, all-the big places of pilgrimage
are situated on nice rivers like the Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Narmada,
Godavari, Kaveri, etc. Ambikavana was situated on the bank of Sarasvatt,
and all the cowherd men and Nanda Maharaja went there.

They very devotedly began to worship the deity of Lord Siva and
Ambika. It is the general practice that wherever there is a temple of Lord
Siva, there must be another temple of Ambika (or Durga) because Ambika
is the wife of Lord Siva and is the most exalted of chaste women. She
doesn’t live outside the association of her husband. After reaching Ambika-
vana, the cowherd men of Vrndavana first bathed themselves in the River
Sarasvati. If one goes to any place of pilgrimage, his first duty is to take a
bath and sometimes to shave his head. That is the first business. After

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