There are many beautiful stories and sweet pastimes of Sri Sri Danda bhanga Gopinath described in some of the old palm leaf manuscripts, which are found at the temple.One among them which describes how Lord Gopinath would daily come and play a game called “Guchitandu” (a game similar to that of a rural miniature cricket) with His village kid friends. This was during the early 16th century.

At that time there was a great devotee who used to be the pujari of the temple and who used to daily bring many different kinds of sumptuous preparations for Gopinath to eat. In this way there was a very strong, loving relationship between both of them. However, on one fine day, while opening the temple, this pujari unexpectedly found Gopinath to be missing. He became worried and started searching for Him everywhere.

Finally, in his search, he came across a field where he saw Gopinath playing “Guchitandu” with His friends. Seeing this, he became angry and immediately caught hold of a stick to beat Him. When Gopinath realized this, out of fear He ran with great speed towards the temple and jumped over the altar, turning into the shape of His Deity. In this way, Lord Gopinath used to display many of His mischievous pastimes.

There is also another interesting pastime, which reveals information about the presence of Lord Ananta Dev. This also took place during the same period. At that time many visitors would regularly come to the temple and make many offerings for Lord Gopinath. Once there was a rich merchant among the visitors who donated a golden flute for the Lord. After the flute was donated, its news spread all over the area and in this way it also reached the ears of a thief. When the thief came to know about this flute, he became greedy and decided to steal it. Thus, one night heentered into the temple and successfully stole the flute, but while he was on his way out, he saw a huge dreadful black snake with thousands of heads looking at him.

Out of fear he jumped and climbed a huge banyan tree. The snake also followed him and remained below the tree watching at him. The thief could not come down. A whole night passed and during the morning (mangalaarati) when the pujari came back to open the temple, he saw this huge snake, watching someone from below. When he looked up he saw the thief hanging over the tree. Then when he looked down again, the snake disappeared. In this way the thief was caught. From this we can clearly deduce that Lord Ananta Dev, even now, remains personally present as the caretaker of this great Dham.