Once upon a time, the cowherd men of Vrindavana, headed by Nanda Maharaja, desired to go to Ambikavana to observe the Siva-ratri ceremony. The rasa-lila was performed during the autumn, and after that the next big ceremony is Holi, or the Dolayatra ceremony. Between the Dolayatra ceremony and the rasa-lila ceremony there is one important ceremony called Siva-ratri, which is especially observed by the Saivites, or devotees of Lord Siva. Sometimes the Vaishnavas also observe this ceremony because they accept Lord Siva as the foremost Vaishnava. But the function of Siva-ratri is not observed very regularly by the bhaktas, or devotees of Krishna. Under the circumstances, it is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam that Nanda Maharaja and the other cowherd men “once upon a time desired.” This means that they were not regularly observing the Siva-ratri function but that once upon a time they wanted to go to Ambikavana out of curiosity. Ambikavana is somewhere in the Gujarat province, and it is said to be situated on the river Sarasvati. Yet we do not find any Sarasvati River in the Gujarat province, although there is a river named Savarmati. In India, all the big places of pilgrimage are situated on nice rivers like the Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Narmada, Godavari and Kaveri. Ambikavana was situated on the bank of Sarasvati, and Nanda Maharaja and all the other cowherd men 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 Ambikavana, the cowherd men of Vrindavana 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 taking a bath, they worshiped the deities and then distributed charity in the holy places.
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