Vrindavan - Varanasi Yatra (Part 2)

On day 2 (26th January, 2022), we woke up by 6 a.m. and after our morning ablutions, left the hotel by 8a.m. for a Brindavan Parikrama (circumambulation). Many devotees do this 10 k.m. parikrama dotted with important temples by foot. Depending on one’s health condition, this parikrama can be completed within a couple of hours without visiting the temples. We decided to take a Tum Tum (an electric rickshaw which can take up to 4 passengers in a slightly tight fashion). He agreed to take us around for Rs. 400 and wait while we visited the main temples and had darshan. The driver warned us to take care of our spectacles and mobile phones which seem to be the favourite of the monkeys in Vrindavan to snatch and scamper away.

We started with visiting a Sri Ram temple at the beginning of the parikrama. The priest blessed us for the parikrama and gave us theerth(holy water) prasad as well as freshly cut fruits that had been offered to the Lord. After a quick darshan, we moved along the route. We could see many devotees walking, some barefoot on the path. It was cold (about 11 degrees centigrade) and the morning breeze was making it even cooler. Our next halt was the Kaliya temple – legend has it that the famous Kaliya dance was performed by Lord Krishna at this spot. There is a small temple to mark this and there were very few visitors here.

Moving on, we visited the beautiful Madan Mohan temple, which is at a height and in a beautiful structure. We had to climb about 60 steps to reach this temple. Besides the beautiful deity, the temple also gives a beautiful view of Vrindavan from that height. There were hardly any devotees at this temple giving us a peaceful darshan of the Lord. After some time, we climbed down and took the Tum Tum for the next temple.

Soon, we came upon the famous Banke Bihari temple of Vrindavan. We had to walk a couple of hundred meters inside from the road to come to the temple. It was very crowded as always and there was a queue of people waiting for darshan. We took the help of a priest to get quick entry (tip to Security Rs. 500) and found a huge crowd inside the temple. The unique feature of this temple is that they keep drawing a curtain to cover the Lord every few minutes and open it after a short lapse of time. Lord Krishna is a black idol here and very charming and pleasing to the eye. We couldn’t go near the Lord and had to be content to view from about 35-40 feet. Devotees frequently shouted "Banke Bihari Lal ki Jai" adding to the festive atmosphere. The temple was decorated with orange, white and green balloons to mark the Republic Day of India.

After this, we went to a nearby shop in one of the small lanes in the market and had our breakfast of tasty hot Bedmi Puri with a hot spicy potato bhaji washed down with Lassi. Puri Bhaji was served in a small leaf container and tasted very good in the morning cold weather. 

Then we walked back to the Tum Tum to resume our Parikrama. This part of the parikrama is along the banks of the Yamuna River. We stopped at a suitable spot to have a symbolic sprinkling of the holy water on ourselves. The river was not appearing very clean here. There were a few boats here colourfully decorated and willing to take yatris into the river for a small fee. It seems that the water is cleaner in the middle of the river and people prefer to do their prayers there.

Further down the route, we visited the beautiful Radha Madan Mohan temple (where the deity is believed to have come from Radha’s feet) and the Shyam Sundar temple before we came to Nidhi Van. This is a mini forest of shrubs covering an area of approx. 3 acres which is full of monkeys. Fortunately, the pathway for human beings is mostly fully covered with a cane fencing which prevents the monkeys from coming close to us. This is the place where Lord Krishna had His famous Rasa Krida with the Gopis and, it is believed that He still comes every night for this even today. There are small temples inside this compound. There are also many Samadhis of devotees in this place. At a particular temple, items like perfume, nail polish, lipsticks, dresses etc. are placed in the evening for the use of the Rasa Krida and in the morning, there are signs of the items having been used.

After this, we visited the Radha Ramana temple and saw the Lord Jagganatha temple built in Puri style from outside. Then, we visited the Uma Shakti Peeth temple before returning to the Sri Rama temple from where we started. This completed the Parikrama. There are several hundreds of temples & ashrams along the way but due to paucity of time, we could only visit a few of them. One needs to plan for a week’s stay in Vrindavan to visit all the temples at leisure.

At our request, the Tum Tum driver, at an extra cost, agreed to take us to Gopeshwar temple (Shiva who came as a Gopi to participate in the Rasa Krida) and stayed back in Vrindavan as Gopeshwar. We also went to the Sri Ranganatha temple built in South Indian style and managed by Tamizh priests. This is one of the largest temples in North India and a visit to Vrindavan is not completed without coming here. This temple is dedicated to Goda Devi (Andal) who was an ardent devotee of the Lord and had composed several songs by immersing Her thoughts & mind as a Gopi Herself.  We were lucky to get Pongal prasadam which had just been offered to the Lord as Bhog – it was very tasty and satvik.

From here, our driver took us to a Kanch (Mirror) temple which is a new temple and is like a museum depicting various Leelas & incidents in the life of Lord Krishna. After this we came back to our hotel for lunch and a short rest.

In the afternoon, we hired a car to go to nearby places of interest. We left at 4 p.m. and our first halt was at Nanda gaon (village). This is place where Lord Krishna spent about 9 years of His life under the care of His foster parents – Nanda and Yashoda. The drive to this place took about an hour from Vrindavan passing through small interior roads with open fields on both sides. After reaching this place, we had to climb a flight of steps (approx. 120 steps) up a small hillock leading to the large house of Nanda Baba. This has now been converted into a temple. The number of visitors were very few and we could have a leisurely darshan of the entire family (Nanda Baba, Yashoda Ma, Krishna & Balaram and Radha). The local priests who manage the temple told us the story of Krishna’s childhood spent in the carefree company of cowherd friends and basking in the love of the entire village. From the terrace of the building which looked like a mini fortress, we could see the entire are surrounding the village as well as the various temples & water bodies in the area.

After this, we came back to the car which was parked on the roadside. Here, we had a cup of tea and left for our next destination. We reached Barsana, the childhood place of Radha Rani the eternal beloved of Lord Krishna. To reach the temple, one can either walk up a flight of steps (approx. 250) or take the help of motorcycle (Rs. 50 per person). We walked up. This temple is also very beautiful and situated on the top of a hillock. There was a lot of people here – all coming to have darshan of Lord Krishna with His favorite Gopi, Radha. After spending some time here, we came back to our car and proceeded to our last stop. 

We were keen to have a darshan of Govardhan, the hill that Lord Krishna lifted in his little finger and held it up for seven days to protect the villagers from the deluge of rain that poured incessantly. Devotees do a parikrama of this holy Hill which is 21 kms long throughout the year and especially in the month of Oct-Nov. We had a darshan of Govardhan and also visited a nearby temple which depicts the Lord with the Hill held up on His little finger.

Bu this time, it was nearly 6. 45 p.m. We started on our journey back to Vrindavan. We reached in time for a light dinner and retired by 9.30 p.m. for an early sleep. Thus ended day 2 of our yatra.