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It was a long time due on me that my parents wanted me to take them to Shri Krishna Janm Bhoomi. Fortunately after a lot of postponements and a bizarre winter this year, I booked tickets for Mathura on this longer weekend of 26^th June2010. It’s true that wherever I go I found some problems, but this time the problem started before I leave. There was one more resource in our project that came from, nowhere and wanted the leave same time when I had planned and my manager was also very reluctant to let her go. A lot of discussion here and there to cancel my leaves; But once I have decided, No one can stop me. Putting my promotion, my EOB, the spot award and my two years work here on stake I started my journey to land of Shri Radhe Krishna.

 

I am a kind of person who these days is been smitten by some religious bug. Though I am myself a reasonably religious person (except for after 7 on some days, when the “spirits” of United Breweries, Seagram and Johnnie Walkers of the world, keep on hovering around me and I along with some of my friends or office colleagues drag ourselves to the nearby bars), probably to cover my shortcomings. At 3 AM in night in the shivering weather my parents also joined me in Bhopal. Vrindavan-Mathura is around 800+ Kms from Nagpur and it takes around 15 hours to reach there but the weather was almost killing and followed with fog all the way. It took more than 20 hours and finally we landed at of Mathura, standing tall on the banks of river Yamuna.

 

We moved to Shri Krishna Janm Bhoomi and boarded in one of the hotel there. Got fresh and took some lunch and then just moved to explore the Holy land of Shri Krishna. As you draw closer to Mathura -Vrindavan, you can feel some kind of change in the environment (अगर ग़ालिब होते तो कहते की जानिब तेरे आने से फिजा में बहार आ जाती है…J), especially close to the highway where we take a detour for Vrindavan (I read somewhere in one of the novels – “as you cross the Mexican border from Texas, you feel some load off your shoulders”).

 

The hawkers and fruit sellers, the rickshaw pullers, asking for a side were chanting “Jai Shri Radhe” or “Hare Krishna” taking us to a different world – a world where Lord Krishna spent his formative years. Out first target was the Dwarkadheesh temple on the banks of river Yamuna, because it is open till 8 PM only and there is a lot of rush as well. Luckily we got a very good darshan of Shri Dwarkadheesh and then from there we moved back to Janm Bhoomi. The place is so gorgeous and amiable and the chants of “Hare Krishna” are miraculous. You can easily get unconscious from this materialized world and lose control of yourself. Devotees singing and dancing in front of their Krishna is very common sight.

 

Later we moved out of Janm Bhoomi, had our dinner and slept for the night as we were a bit tired. Next morning we had a plan to leave early in the morning for Vrindavan but Nature has its own plans. The temperature was very low and Fog was dense enough to limit visibility to 50 meters. Around 11, we hired on taxi to Vrindavan. The prime attraction in Vrindavan is the ISKON temple. The distance from the National highway to ISKON Temple is around 5 Kms. In the good old days, the entire route used to spread the aroma of sweet smells, with peacocks freely playing across the road. Being close to Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, countless migratory birds could also be seen. These days with rapid growth and commercialization taking a firm grip, the chirping of the birds and the dancing peacocks have become a rarity.

वृन्दावन की एक ख़ास बात है की भले ही सारी दुनिया में श्री कृष्ण की धूम हो पर वृन्दावन में तो राधे रानी का ही राज है !!!

There are about 4000 temples, big and small, in Vrindavan, apart from a few Ghats, used by the Hindus for ritual bathing. Though all the temples have an equal reverence, the ISKON Temple has a special place in my heart. The Shri Krishna Balram Temple was established in the year 1975 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON). The temple is situated in Raman Reti (the enjoyable sands), where Lord Krishna and Balram sported with their cowherd friends. The principal deities are Lord Krishna, his brother Balram (also fondly known as Dau) and Radha ji (Krishna’s consort).

 

The temple has three altars. The first altar houses the deity of Shri Gaura Nitai, the incarnation of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Krishna, his brother Balram (also fondly known as Dau) is worshipped in the central altar and on the third altar Radha ji and her friends Lalita and Vishakha are worshipped. Hare Krishna devotees from around the world are visible here throughout the year. ISKON Samadhi Adjoining the temple is the Samadhi of Shri Prabhupada, built in pure marble. Vrindavan was so dear to Shri Prabhupada that he chose to remain here eternally in Samadhi in front of the holy temple.

 

 

Next was the Banke Bihari Temple Despite the grandeur of ISKON Temple, the Banke Bihari Temple, built in 1864 is still the most revered and vibrant shrine in Vrindavan. The temple was originally established by Swami Haridas, a great Krishna devotee, known for his soulful devotional bhajans (was also the guru of the famous musician Tansen). He discovered the sacred deity of Banke Bihari (also popularly known as Thakur ji) at Nidhivana, where Banke Bihari was originally worshipped. The deity was moved to Vrindavan on completion of the temple in 1864. The most interesting thing about this temple is that, unlike most of the other temples, the curtain is not left open. The curtain is put shut every few seconds and drawn back with a great chanting of Thakur ji. This process is called as JHANKI. People keep their eyes on the curtain as the curtains are open, people raise their hands to offer their Pranam and the entire madir hall is filled with the voice of “Vrindavan Bihari lal ki Jai”. This is probably done with a view to shroud the icon for a moment. It is believed that the brilliance of eyes of Thakur ji can make a person unconscious, if seen for too long a stretch. Another notable feature is that the lotus feet of the deity can be seen only once a year, on Akshaya Tritiya, which falls sometimes in April / May.

 

If you are fond of some good “chaat”, lassi or mouth watering sweets, the market outside the temple is the place.

 

Next we moved to Nidhi Vana. There are so many places in Vrindavan that it can take more than a week to visit them all. Passing through the dingy and narrow streets of Vrindavan, we reached Nidhi Vana. The place was once a forest (size now cut down to meet the local requirements), where Swami Hari Das discovered the deity of Banke Bihari. Nidhi Vana is also believed to be the “kridasthali” (playground) of Radha and other gopis. As per the popular belief, Lord Krishna rested here with Radha. The shrine inside has a bed, which is decorated by the priest every evening. No one is allowed to stay inside the shrine after dusk, because as per the popular belief the Lord visits the spot with Radha.

 

 

On our way back, we saw 2 new temples coming up – The Gita Mandir being built by the country’s leading industrial group, the Birla’s, which houses the Gita Stambh, a pillar with the entire Srimad Bhagwat Gita carved on its surface. The other is called “Prem Mandir”, an astounding complex, which is being constructed under the auspices of Shyama Shyam Dham Samiti.

 

There are many more things that are not mentioned here. The place is full of events and stories. But somewhere we have to end. It was night by then. We headed back to Mathura and the words in our minds and hearts were only “Radhe Krishna.”

 

I started this post in January and really wanted to complete this post from a long time but didn’t get the time. But better late than never.

जय श्री कृष्ण!!! (After a lot of thinking I decided that there can’t be at better way to finish the post with “Jai Shri Krishna” which has started with “Jai Shri Radhe”).

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