Vrindavan Diaries

 

As a kid, I hated the idea of travelling. I have talked about it in my previous blogs. As much as I loved exploring new places and sightseeing I hated the actual time spent travelling from one place to other because of my problem with travel sickness. Whenever I travelled I required at least a day to get back to normal health. I always imagined that as an adult I wouldn’t travel unless necessary. And boy was I wrong.

Hence it was an absolute surprise to me when I realized that for the past few years now I have enjoyed travelling to different places. Even if nearby, I loved going to see places. After my trip to Indore with my friend's group I was jokingly telling my father that so far I have had the fortune to pay my respects to rivers Krishna, Narmada, Kshipra, Godavari and so on. Now I need to visit Ganga and Yamuna. I strongly believe that someone somewhere was listening to my conversation that day and smiling at me. Because I soon got the opportunity to visit Vrindavan. A river and flowers crazy friend of mine and me had the good fortune to visit Vrindavan for a conference that took place there.

It still amazes us that we got to go because we weren’t sure that we would have our parents’ permission to go on a trip to Vrindavan with nobody accompanying us. As young girls, it’s difficult to convince parents to let us go on a trip to a faraway state and that too just the two of us. But either due to sheer luck or our parent's belief that we would be safe and capable to make this trip happen, on a fine afternoon we set off for UP. The journey was uneventful except that for a whole day we had the compartment to ourselves and we sat near the widows watching the scenery outside as if watching it live on television. Seeing the Chambal Valley and Yamuna Bridge was the highlight of our train journey. In the late evening, we got down at the Mathura junction and so began our real trip. The auto ride from Mathura to Vrindavan was about half an hour and I remember staring outside at the streets and thinking that this city looks nothing different than my own town. It was only when I saw an Uttar Pradesh Police van pass by that I realized and my heart jumped with joy that I was truly in UP and on my way to Vrindavan. Now many of you may think that what’s so exciting in this but for a person like me who has lived a sheltered kind of life while going to only nearby places this was a huge thing. It was a core memory.

Rangnath Temple

Soon we reached Vrindavan and our venue for the conference. After getting acquainted with the people and going into our room I realized how cold it was and in my initial excitement, I had not noticed it. Here it’s important to note that we visited the place in late November. The next day we visited the Rangnathji temple. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shri Ranagamannar, a south Indian Vaishnava saint and lord Rangnath- an incarnation of lord Vishnu. The highlight of the temple is the idol of Krishna present in the form of the groom with goda (Andal) as his wife, this is one of the largest temples of Vrindavan. The place does have South Indian vibes to it. The vimana and the carvings on the temple are a classic South Indian style while the mandapa is beautiful in front of the main temple. The procession of the lord is taken out from the Garbhagriha (sanctorum) to the mandapa and back into the temple.  We were fortunate to witness the evening sawari (procession) of the main deity and waited there till sunset. While returning from the temple to our premises we ate Pani Puri and chat till we couldn’t eat anything anymore. Truly a delicious meal.

Yamuna Ghat

Govind Dev ji temple

The next day we visited yet another famous temple. Govind dev ji temple is a 16th-century temple dedicated to Krishna. The temple style reminded me of Rajasthani hawelis. The inscriptions provide information that the temple was built by Raja Mansingh of Amer (Jaipur, Rajasthan). It has imposing walls along with a large Ceiling and tall pillars on both sides. It’s an impressive structure with a red sandstone façade. In the evening we finally reached our most awaited destination – Yamuna Ghat. We could attend the evening aarti and it was a surreal experience. Paying our respect to ma Yamuna we sat on the Ghat and experienced peace. The evening aarti was going on but it transported us to a different world, a different plane.

Our third day in Vrindavan was quite eventful as my friend and I went by ourselves to explore the nearby temples. We visited the famous Banke Bihari temple. This temple is dedicated to Banke Bihari who is believed to be the combined form of Radha and Krishna. The crowd at Banke Bihari was never-ending. The narrow lanes that lead to the temple and the huge crowd almost made my mild claustrophobia reach the surface. Though getting the god’s glimpse was an absolute delight I was glad to be back on the main road in the fresh air. We also visited the Sri Radha Madan Mohan temple. It is one of the oldest and most popular temples of Vrindavan. It is built in Nagara style in red sandstone. While returning we enjoyed the fruit chat where I was overjoyed to find star fruit. I love star fruit and it’s a rare find in any other places than coastal areas. We also enjoyed the electric rickshaw rides to and from the temple areas. It was just an ordinary day for the residents there but seeing the lively lanes and colourful shops reminded me of a fair. We even visited the Govind Ghat.

That night when we packed our bags my bag was extra full with all the potlis, dupattas, a flute and loads of happy memories and moments packed in it.

One thing that stands out about Mathura and Vrindavan is the monkey menace. And when I say menace I absolutely mean it. The monkeys are truly a nuisance and extremely annoying. They steal and run away and the people can only look at them helplessly. Even drinking a cup of tea without having to keep an eye on the monkeys is impossible. All the time we were there we carried our bags and things close to us because the monkeys were bold enough to sweep down from the roofs and trees and steal away any bottles or glasses hanging in the outer pockets of bags. I was wondering whether the monkeys from Badami taught the Vrindavan monkeys to steal or it’s vice versa. But I am pretty sure they are closely related.

Well, the monkeys may be a nuisance and steal people's belongings but what they can’t take away is all the happy memories of our travel there.

On our way back to our town we had to board a train at morning 6. We reached the station at 5 in the morning and sat waiting. The train reached 7. During that time I roamed around on the train platform looking at people boarding and getting off the trains, the shopkeepers opening the stalls, and people having breakfast and tea. It was just like any other day but for me it was special. As went returned home I was both sad that the journey came to an end but also proud of us both of how we took that trip to a faraway state and enjoyed our stay there.  

Keep Reading! Will be back with yet another journey story soon!