Thakur Shri Shyam Bihari ji seated in Premnidhi temple is Liladhar. There is no fathom of his pastimes. Coming from Govindkund of Braj to Agra, then to Vrindavan and then back to Agra, it seemed as if one had circumambulated Braj. Thakur Shri Shyam Bihari ji appeared in Govind Kund of Goverdhan. The idol of Thakur ji had appeared from the water of Govind Kund in the hands of Premnidhi ji’s father Dheer Gosain ji. They brought him to Agra.
Here, the idol was installed in the temple situated at Rawat Pada and worship started. Premnidhi ji also dedicated himself in this temple in devotion to Thakur ji. Times were constantly changing. During the time of Premnidhi ji, there was the rule of Akbar. The Mughal Sultanate kept changing from generation to generation and here the generations of Premnidhi ji also kept moving forward in the service of God. Goswami Baldev Ji Mishra was born in the fourth generation of Premnidhi Ji. At that time it was the rule of Mughal invader Aurangzeb.
This was the period when Aurangzeb was continuously attacking Sanatan Dharma and its temples. His terror had reached its peak in Agra also. He started targeting the temples here. By his orders, hundreds of temples in Agra started being demolished. At that time there was a place named Thakur Bari near Rawatpada. Where there was a series of 12 temples of Lord Shri Krishna. All those temples were demolished in one night by the orders of Mughal invader.
Frightened by this incident, Baldev Ji Mishra went to Vrindavan overnight with the idol of Thakur Shyam Bihari Ji and started worshiping by placing it in a temple where another idol of Shri Krishna was already present. The fame of two identical looking idols in one temple had spread far and wide.
In the year 1660 (Samvat 1717), Datia King Shatrujit Singh came to Vrindavan. After coming, he came to know that two idols of Lord Shri Krishna are present in the sanctum sanctorum of the same temple.
Then he took one Shri Krishna idol with him to Datia and built a big temple there and installed the idol of Thakur ji.
With time the terror of Mughal invader Aurangzeb ended. Thereafter the Mishra family brought the Shri Shyam Bihari ji to Agra. The idol was enshrined in a house of Katra Hathi Shah in Nai Ki Mandi, Agra. Externally this house looked like any other ordinary house but inside the idol of the Lord of all three worlds was spreading the light of his divinity.
The fear of Mughals was still prevalent in the minds of the Mishra family. Therefore, he built a secret basement in that house. So that if invaders comes and attacks again, they take the idol of Thakur ji and hide in the basement and the service and worship continues without anyone’s knowledge. That crypt beneath the sanctum sanctorum still tells its story.
श्री श्याम बिहारी जी महाराज – भक्त प्रेमनिधि जी के सेवित ठाकुर जी