Lord Shri Krishna has many names, Shyam, Mohan, Bansidhar, Kanha and many more, but one of the famous names is Laddu Gopal.

Do you know why Lord Krishna was named Laddu Gopal??

A long time ago, a great devotee of Shri Krishna lived in the land of Braj.. Kumbhandas ji. He had a son, Raghunandan. Kumbhandas ji had a statue of Shri Krishna playing the flute. He would serve them. He would not leave them and go anywhere, so that there would be no hindrance in their service.

One day an invitation came from Vrindavan to recite Bhagwat Katha for him. At first he refused, but on people’s insistence he agreed to go, saying that after preparing for God’s service, he would return every day after narrating and he would not miss the rule of serving God. He explained to his son that I have prepared the bhog, you should offer it to Thakur ji on time and he left.

Raghunandan placed the plate of food in front of Thakur ji and requested with a simple heart that Thakur ji come and offer the food. Raghunandan placed the plate of food in front of Thakur ji and requested with a simple heart that Thakur ji come and offer the food. He had this image in his childhood mind that they would come and eat food with their hands just like we eat. He requested again and again, but the food was kept as it was.. Now he became sad and cryingly called Thakurji, come and offer the food. Thakurji assumed the form of a child and sat down to eat and Raghunandan also became happy.

At night, Kumbhandas ji returned and asked whether he had offered bhog to his son, to which Raghunandan said yes. When he asked for Prasad, the son said that Thakurji ate all the food. They thought that if the child was hungry then he would have eaten it himself. Now it became a daily routine that Kumbhandas ji would go with a plate of food and offer it to Raghunandan Thakurji. Whenever he asked for Prasad, he would get only one answer that he had eaten the entire food.

Kumbhandas ji now started feeling that his son has started lying.

But why.. ?? That day he prepared laddus, arranged them on a plate and started secretly watching what the child did.

When Raghunandan called Thakurji like every day, Thakurji appeared in the form of a child and started eating laddus. Seeing this, Kumbhandas ji came running and fell at the feet of the Lord and started pleading. At that time, Thakurji had the laddu in one hand and was about to put the laddu in his mouth when he stopped moving.

Since then he is worshiped in this form and he started being called ‘Laddu Gopal’..!!