Sri Vittal Rukmini Temple with huge Cow stable - Govindapuram

The first thing I and my family did when we reached this great temple was go to the goshala. A goshala is a place where cows are kept. A lot of them. But this goshala redefined the meaning of a lot. There were tens and thousands of cows, calves and bulls. First there was a small goshala where a lot of small calves were present. We played with them for 10-15 minutes then they would not leave us! We somehow managed to get those adorable calves to go back where they came from. Then we moved on….

My! My! What a smell! That smelled like fresh henna. (Or maridani as we would call it) But no, that was something better. It was something cows loved and it was delicious. To cows, that is. It was a mixture of freshly cut grass. We were next to the machine they used to cut it. That was the lovely smell. The mixture was in a good green. We call it thoudu in our language.
These two sights thought are nothing compared to the marvellous sight we were going to see now. As we entered the room we were greeted by a beautiful statue of muralidhara gopal. With of hand holding his flute and the other hand around a calf, this idol of Krishna was both enchanting and mesmerizing. We payed our respects and went inside.
Here tens and thousands of calves, cows and bulls were there. Some had horns, some were loud some were quiet. Some had medium length horns, some had long ones and others had short ones. Some were so talkative, mooing every 5 seconds and some did not speak a word.

They were categorized by where they came from. Some from Mathura, some from Dwaraka, Some from Ongule, a place near Thirupati. Ongule is like the birth place of fighting. So here is where the fighting and angry cows come from. They were set free for a month and are tied up for two months. It is surprising how the cows came back after the in month period was done.

There were beautiful carvings on the wall and bright rangoli decorated the floor. The rangoli was very nice it was made with beautiful flower patterns. Then there were two statues of famous musical artists. Then came the time to see the real miraculous beauty of the lord. The lord was none other than Sri Krishna along with his eternal consort Goddess Rukmini. There were two duplicates. One was big and was placed up front and the other was small and was on the back. Lord Krishna was in his form of Panduranga. He had his hands on his hips. This form is not found in any other place. No! No! Not the form of Sri Krishna! That if found in many places. I am taking about the form of Goddess Rukmini, instead of having her hands out freely, she too, just like Sri Krishna, has her hands on her hips.
New Goshala Construction

The temple is currently in the process of constructing one more new ‘state-of-art’ Goshala as the number of Cows increased tremendously and it is hard to keep them all inside those two Goshalas. (The small one and the big one). Also that crating a third Goshala and giving the cows more space might help the temple and the goshala managers serve the cows better. The total cost of this Goshala Construction is 1 Crore. The temple is accepting donations for this construction and request devotees to donate for this cause. 80G is also available for this donation. Most of the work is nearly done. But they still need to make the shelter. The cost for this is full 18 lakh rupees.