Outside the main temple at Srivasa Angana you can see two small temples about 30 meters away, both within the same compound. The one on your left is Sri Advaita Bhavan.

The small temple marks the place where Sri Advaita lived, and houses the deity of Advaita Acarya sitting at the feet of Lord Caitanya. At this place he offered prayers imploring the Lord to descend. He would sit on the bank of the Ganga, worship salagrama-silas and beg Krishna to appear.

Sri Advaita Acarya taught his students Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam at this place. Visvarupa, the elder brother of Visvambhara, was one of his pupils. At this time great Vaishnavas such as Srivasa Pandita, Haridasa Thakura, Candrasekhara, and Murari Gupta would come and hear Sri Advaita speak about Krishna. After Lord Caitanya accepted sannyasa, Advaita Acarya moved back to Santipura, where he was originally from.

Darsana times: 8.30-11.00 a.m. and 3.30-8.30 p.m.

Directions: You can see this temple from the courtyard of Srivasa Angana, thirty meters to the north.

Presiding deities: Lord Caitanya (standing) and Advaita Acarya (sitting and offering).

This place is also known as Kholabhanga-danga, the place where Chand Kazi’s men broke a mridanga. At Srivasa Angana, Gauranga and His associates started the sankirtana movement. Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu would dance in ecstasy here. Every night for one year Lord Caitanya and His associates would perform ecstatic sankirtana behind closed doors.When you enter the compound, walk to the right to enter the temple marking the location where Srivasa Thakura’s house once stood. On the altar there are deities of Radha-Krishna on the left, and Gaura-Nitai on the right. In the center there is a deity of Mahaprabhu in His maha-prakasa form. Srivasa Thakura is holding an umbrella over Him and Gadadhara Pandita is waving a camara fan. Mahaprabhu is in themood of the Supreme Lord of the universe. This deity commemorates the pastime when Lord Caitanya showed His maha-prakasa form by exhibiting His different incarnations and fulfilling His devotees’ desires. While doing so He accepted worship for twenty-one hours, displaying His divine form to all His devotees in a manner just suitable for each of them. There is also a teninch Lord Nrisimha deity on the central altar.

At Srivasa Angana, Lord Caitanya showed Nityananda Prabhu His sixarmed form holding a bow and arrow, a flute, a water pot, and a danda.

Darsana times: 8.30-11.00 a.m. and 3.30-8.30 p.m.

Directions: It is 250 meters north fromYoga-pitha, or one and a half kilometers from ISKCON, going up Bhaktisiddhanta Road. It is on the right side of the road and has an ornate main gate.

Presiding deities: The main temple is on the right as you enter the main gate. It stands where Srivasa Pandita’s house was located.

1. On the left altar are Sri Sri Radha-Krishna and Lord Caitanya.

2. The center altar depicts the mahaprakasa pastime of Caitanya Mahaprabhu where He revealed Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Caitanya is sitting on the throne, Gadadhara Pandita is fanning Him with a camara, and Lord Nityananda is holding a numbrella over His head.

3. On the right altar, Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya are leading all the devotees in the kirtana that went to Chand Kazi’s palace to protest his ban on sankirtana.

This place is also known as “Khola-bhangadanga”,the place where the mridanga was broken and you can sometimes see a broken mridanga on the right altar. Srivasa Angana was the center of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana pastimes, just as Yoga-pitha was the center of Lord Caitanya’s childhood and boybood pastimes.

The appearance place of the Lord is known as Yoga-pitha, and is situated at the verycenter of Mayapur. “Yoga” means connection; “Yogapitha” means the place where the Lord connects Himself to this earth ,or descends to this earth. This is the home of Jagannatha Misra. Another meaning of Yoga-pitha is “a meeting place.” At this place all the associates of the Lord meet with Him to participate in His pastimes.

There are two reasons why Lord Gauranga was given the name Nimai by the neighborhood ladies: firstly, because He took birth under a neem tree. The second reason was that prior to the birth of Mahaprabhu, many children of Saci-mata were taken away by Yamaraja (in other words, they had died). Neem tastes bitter; thus the ladies concluded that if they named this boy Nimai, which is the same as neem, then Yamaraja would not take the boy away as He would taste bitter to him.

Darsana times: 8.30-11.00 a.m.and 3.30-8.00 p.m.

Directions: Turn right outside the main gate of ISKCON andproceed down Bhaktisiddhanta Road for one kilometer. Yogapitha is on the right side of the road and has an ornate main gate.

Presiding deities: When you enter the Yoga-pitha compound via the main gate from the road, you will see a shrine dedicated to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura on your right side. On the left there is a shrine dedicated to Sakhi Carana dasa Babaji Maharaja, who had helped financially with the construction of the main temple at Yogapitha.

When you proceed further into the property, you turn left and enter the main temple which has a 100 feet-high tower. There are three altars in the temple: on the left altar stand Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu. On the central altar there are deities of Lord Caitanya as Gaura Narayana with His two wives, Vishnupriya and Lakshmipriya, alongwith a small four-armed deity of Adhokshaja Vishnu. This deity was discovered in 1934 by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura during the excavation for the temple. Adhokshaja Vishnu was the worshipable deity of Jagannatha Misra, and He sits in front of the deity of Gaura Narayana. He is blackin color and about eight inches tall with four arms holding the symbols of Lord Vishnu: disc, club, conchshell, and lotus. 

On the sides of this deity are goddesses Lakshmi-devi and Bhu-devi. On the right altar is the Pancatattva, and in front of Them is a deity of Lord Jagannatha.

After walking straight through the darsana area you will see a small houseand a neem tree towards your right. Under this tree Lord Visvambhara took birth on the evening of purnima-tithi during the month of Phalguna (February-March) in 1486. This present tree is said to be a cutting of the original tree. Tomark the birthplace there is a small house next to the tree with deities of Lord Caitanya’s father, Jagannatha Misra, and His mother, Saci-devi, holding baby Nimai on her lap.

Ten meters (30 feet) north from the appearance place (directly behind the small house) is a small temple with two Siva-lingas. The smaller one on the left is Gopisvara Siva who admits one to the Lord’s service. The larger one on the right is Kshetra-pala Siva who is the protector of the dhama. It is recommended that the devotees pray to these deities at the beginning of their parikrama (or of their stay in Mayapur) that the dhama and gaura-prema be revealed within their hearts.

In front of the main temple sanctuary there is a big kirtana hall, and at the rear of that hall is the temple of Lakshmi-Nrisimha and Gaura-Gadadhara deities. 

Next to the temple complex, to the southern side of the main temple, is Gaurakunda.

tvam hi maya harehsakti-durghatana-patiyasicin-mayam
antar-adityamacchadayasi sampratamtato
mayapura-khyatiryoga-pithasya bhu-talepraudha
maya tava khyatihsarvatra vartate priye

Lord Siva said to goddess Parvati, “You are the maya potency of Lord Sri Hari who is expert in making impossible things possible. In the form of the external maya potency of the Lord you hide the sun-like Lord of Antardvipa from the vision of materialistic people.Therefore Yoga-pitha is known as Mayapur (the city of maya) on this earth planet. Mayapur is covered by maya so that nondevotees or materialistic people cannot see the brilliant Lord. Dear goddess, youare therefore famous as Praudha Maya everywhere.”

Sri Mayapur is situated in the center of Antardvipa. The circumference of Sri Mayapur measures three and a halfmiles and the diameter measures just over one mile.In his Navadvipa-bhava-taranga Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura glorifies Mayapur as follows:“To the south-west of Mayapur, the combined Ganga and Yamuna river spraise their own good fortune as they flow in the form of a serpent for rendering service to Lord Gaura, the jewel of the twice-born brahmanas.Upon the banks of the Ganga are many different landing-steps for bathing(ghatas) and also numerous temples,housing many deities such as Praudha Maya and Vriddha Siva, as well as many groves and gardens.

In Mayapur there are countless homes of the brahmanas, wide avenues,courtyards, forests and temples of Lord Siva. Flowing in the south-east are the incessant currents of the Sarasvati River. Upon her bank is the sacred area known as Isodyana, the Lord’s garden.Why should the fallen rascals of Kaliyuga,bound up tightly by material illusion, have the privilege of seeing allthese eternal, fully spiritual, limit less treasures of the divine realm? Maya has therefore hidden the dhama by means of the erosive, ever-changing nature of the three rivers Ganga,Yamuna and Sarasvati. Thus the eyes of a materialist can see only a shadow of the real Mayapur.

By the mercy of Sri Nityananda, the possessor of all spiritual powers, may that Mayapur be revealed unto my eyesimbued with proper reverence. May I, this worthless fool, become truly fortunate to behold a vision of the household pastimes of Sri Gauranga that eternally take place in this land. In the center of the island called Antardvipa is the village of Mayapur,situated as the central whorl of the eight petalled lotus. That transcendental abode glows with a fair yellow aura, it is resplendent with networks of effulgences, and is supremely pure. May this place always shimmer before my eyes.

Wooded groves can be seen here andthere. Among them stands a lake called Prithu-sarovara, and many pastures forgrazing the cows. Oh how beautiful these places are to behold! There are many water canals, partitioned grainfields, and wide main roads lined with bakula, kadamba, and many othertypes of large trees.