Vrindavan - Varanasi Yatra (Part 1)

On 25^th January 2022, three of us (my son, wife & me) left for a small yatra. We were already in Delhi for some other work, and we thought we will use the opportunity to visit couple of places in North India. Our first destination was Vrindavan, the place where Lord Krishna spent 9+ years of His life and left behind many memories for us to revisit and relish.

We had hired a taxi to go from Delhi. Due to last minute refusal by our driver, stating government restrictions, we had to change the vehicle from a Sedan to a SUV. The SUV picked us up from our hotel at Delhi at approx. 1.30 p.m. and we were on our way. Vrindavan is only about 3 hours away from Delhi. The first leg of the journey took us through Gurgaon, Haryana. The road was in poor condition and there was a lot of traffic / dust / smoke which was bothersome.

After about an hour or so, we came to clear roads, and we could progress rapidly. We halted at a roadside hotel for lunch / snacks. There were hardly any patrons there. We had parathas, dal, raita followed by hot tea. The service and  quality of food were very good. We reached Vrindavan by about 4.30 p.m. and had to travel through narrow lanes to reach our destination as some roads were having restricted entry. Our hotel MVT Guest House is just behind the ISKCON temple, and we were delighted to find a spacious room with triple bed, heater etc.

After resting awhile and freshening up, we went to 2 temples. First Sri Krishna Balaram temple run by ISKCON. It was crowded and the vibration from the chanting & singing of Mahamantra were very good. We had a leisurely darshan of the deities and spent some time absorbing the positive vibes of the temple. There were three main sanctum in the temple. One which has Lord Krishna & Lord Balaram, one which has Lord Shyamsundar and Radha, and one which has Sri Gaura Nitai Prabhu. There is also an altar for Sri Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON movement, who was instrumental in creating this temple. The temple also has a Goshala. we had their hot Kichadi prasadam which is distributed throughout the time the temple is open. There are some shops in the complex selling different articles including food, but we did not do any shopping.

After this, we went to a nearby Prem Mandir, which is a new temple built & maintained by Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, a not-for-profit charitable Trust. They are in a 55-acre campus about a kilometer away from the ISKCON temple. Here, the main deities are Radha Krishna and Sita Ram. Radha Krishna are located on the ground level and Sita Ram on the first level directly above Radha Krishna. The temple is built by using a lot of marble and the architecture, murals, idols etc. are well made. It looks more like a museum than a temple but worth a visit. There are plenty of photo opportunities here.

After this, as it was getting very cold, we returned to our hotel and had early dinner and retired early. As the room had a heater, it was comfortable, and we had a good sleep. Thus ended the first day of our yatra.