Vrindavan - the name is derived from Vrinda (meaning basil) and van (meaning grove)
Vrindavan is considered as the holiest place of India where the celestial abode of Lord Krishna and goddess Radha resides. It's a 4 hour drive by car from Delhi and we started finishing our breakfast from New Delhi ( Continuation from this post) and directly checked into the Hotel Royal Sarovar, as all the temples are closed during lunch time. As we entered the city, these gates reflected the religious culture that the city follows - a full vegan city where no one eats non-veg and even non-veg is not served anywhere, even in star hotels.
Royal Sarovar was a much better hotel compared to our previous one and boasts religious ambience with a nice vegan restaurant Tripti ( meaning pleasure).
Bhagavad Gita, the most epic Hindu scriptures near the entry showcases the hotel's commitment to the cultural heritage of the place.
And then this little visual guide inside the lift gives clue to all the religious places that one can explore. Taking an hour of rest, we started our tour at 3 p.m., heading directly to the Keshi ghat, the most worshiping place built in 17th century where traditional rituals are performed. The vehicle is not allowed inside and we had to leave it at the parking place and go by an battery operated auto, unfortunately, there is no standard rate or governance, so you will have to bargain. On our way, we saw some people doing the Parikrama of all the temples, some even doing "Dandavat Parikrama" (prostrations on the ground - fall like a stick , pranam or Dandavat and get up and repeat). This is the first time I saw "Dandavat Parikrama" and the young auto driver explained like a guide. The entire Parikrama of all the temples is 21 kms long and most complete it walking barefoot (and even fasting), but those who cannot, can do it by rickshaw’s as well. What I did not like is the very bad condition of roads, on which people were doing "Dandavat Parikrama".
Keshi ghat on the banks of river Yamuna seems to had many ancient temples which are mostly broken now. One can take the boat ride and go to the centre of the river to witness the sunset and evening Aarti, but we didn't have plan for that.
You have to go through this very narrow road on the bank to reach Nidhivan, if you are coming from this way.
Beware of monkeys, they are waiting to snatch from you, so do hold your bags carefully.
His Mobile mania caught my attention.
Many foreigners come and stay in Vrindavan adopting to our culture abandoning their worldly life - realizing the eternal pleasure from the holy abode.
Walking through these narrow (and bad) roads we finally reached the Radha Ramanji temple.
Nidhivan, is close to this temple, where the idol of Shri Banke Bihariji (commonly called as Bihariji ) appeared.
The one way entry to Nidhivan and you have to take off your shoes and keep them at stands operated by local vendors and they protect them only from monkeys.
Even though there are barricades, it does not stop monkeys and they are in constant search of snatching your belongings, so don't hold your phone, or even wear spectacles.
Nidhivan is a mysterious place with these short heightened bending hollow Tulasi plants ( a different kind) standing in pairs, twisted downwards and it is believed they become alive at night, turning into Gopis and doing Raas Leela with Lord Krishna - something charmingly unbelievable for some, but true for the believers. That's is the reason its shut after 7 PM. And this is the place where Shri Banke Bihariji idol appeared. Swami Haridas continuously meditated at this place and pleased with his sheer devotion, one day Lord Krishna and Radha appeared in front of him. Swamiji wanted to have these heavenly beauty forever, and requested both of them to to take a single form and that is how they formed an idol known as Banke Bihari, a perfect metaphor to the combined beauty of dark Lord Krishna and the fair Radhaji. You can read more about this in this official site from the temple administration. The story definitely brings goosebumps, if you feel it by heart. The deity was initially being worshiped in a temple close to Nidhivan, but later was moved to the current temple constructed in 1862 AD.And it's believed that if you stare into the eyes of Shri Banke Bihariji idol for long, then you will lose self consciousness, hence the darshan is broken by drawing a curtain in front of him regularly.
This is the place where idol of Banke Bihariji appeared for Swami Haridas inside Nidhivan.
Getting out of Nidhivan, we took a rickshaw to go to the Banke Bihari temple. There are battery autos, but they were asking for unreasonable amount of fair and there is no administration at all. The roads are pretty narrow to accommodate the heavy crowd and you have to arrange everything on your own and be cautious at the same time. I hired a local guide who promised us to take inside easily, charging 500 rupees. This was very helpful for Mom as he protected and took us straight to the front of the deity with much difficulty. But if you are strong then you can go on your own.
The narrow roads to the temple is occupied by sweet shops and could have been managed much better.
The rush inside is very severe, and it's pretty difficult to reach the front. And you can go with your mobile, no checking of anything on your way.
I saw the priest taking the photo of Banke Bihariji in one mobile, may be for someone, but there are volunteers who shout at you if they see you taking photos. This is not good administration, if you have to ban, you have to ban even the priest.
Mom was initially not happy with me taking the guide, but after the visit, she realized, it was worth. Even though Vrindavan is not any of the Char Dhams, it's one of the holiest temple of Lord Krishna in the World, and she felt her religious journey to be complete after this - I have already taken her to all the Char Dhams. In the mean time enjoy this video of Banke Bihariji temple - you will be mesmerized with the devotion of people - the black lord has the magic to take all your pain and sufferings.
The exit from the temple - a very narrow pass-way through which only one person can go at one time.
And when many try, you can imagine the situation. The guide hold her and made some space to exit, but she was still hurt in the leg as others stepped on her. This was the worst experience - people should exit quickly de-congesting the inside. Coming back on our way, I captured some niche moments.
I requested them to pose for a photo and look at the smile on their face - happiness is from within.
The next best place to visit in Vrindavan is Prem Mandir.
But the security at the gate did not allow us to go inside with the camera. There are road side vendors, where you can keep them, but I did not feel they are safe. So we gave up coming there, and planned to come back next morning. I will keep it for another post, but we were able to go inside with the camera - wait for some interesting twist.
Given the religious importance of Vrindavan and large number of crowd, the Banke Bihari Corridor project will definitely make it a better place, hopefully, we will be able to see it again in few years, with more blissful experience. If you are strong and plan to visit Vrindavan, then plan it during Holi to get an unique experience of lifetime. The Banke Bihari temple celebrates the Holi festival with flowers. There will be crazy crowd, but if you be with them, you will enjoy it to the fullest.
This post will be part of my Google review of all these places - a little hive marketing. It takes immense amount of time to provide all the context and take you through a pictorial journey of these places, so that you get a feel of our places, culture.
#bankebihari #bankebiharivrindavan #vrindavan #krishna #bankebiharikijai #radhekrishna
Pinned on https://pinmapple.com/ - //:# (!pinmapple 27.58023 lat 77.70101 long Shri Banke Bihariji Temple, Vrindavan d3scr)
copyrights @sanjeevm - content created uniquely with passion for #HIVE platform — NOT posted anywhere else! #HIVE is my only social diary - my blog is my life.
These are great pictures to feed the eyes. It's been a while I saw money in reality I hope your journey was fun and splendid?
It did give the finishing touch of our spiritual journey - felt complete.
Wao, that's amazing one to hear.
These are awesome pictures. I really like that you are taking your mother through all these wonderful places. My mother like to travel too, and I hope I can do the same for her in the future.
100%, you will be able to do it.
Wao the temple is looking awesome.
It is good to see you are sharing a spiritual journey.
Prem Mandir is something eye-catching for me.
The little girls pose is quite nice.
Nice sharing.
Keep exploring the beauty of your country.
Travel makes us stress free and keep fit at the same time.
Yes agree dear bro.
Travelling is a stress-free and learning hobby. I think it is also a good tool for self-development.
I learnt so many things about Vrindavan from your post. If I ever visit there, I’d be very scared of monkeys do they wouldn’t snatch from me
I’m sure you enjoyed your visit to Vrindavan
I am happy to see you are giving time to your mother and taking her perform these rituals, it's amazing.
It's because of her, we exist in this world.
Yes, that's true. Moms are blessings.
beautiful pics..
wow, its so different (for me as always have eaten meat) to imagine..
i like that colorful boats!
Great post!
A completely veg city, that sounds really crazy to me!
I definitely like your posts, they give me an insight in India! :D
Even I did not know it, but that is how a holy city should be. They have milk products which are too good and tasty.
You refreshed my all the memories from this feb. Radhey radhey
Many people are crowded here, there is a lot of trouble. This place is very difficult to keep safe
That's true for any place in India, we are now the highest populated country :)
How are you dear friend @sanjeevm good morning
What beautiful places full of stories you are visiting in the company of your mother. What a beautiful experience, these trips will be kept forever in memory.
May you enjoy it a lot
baake Bihari Nand Lal ki jai ho... 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2181.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Thank you so much @ybanezkim26
Congratulations @sanjeevm! You received the biggest smile and some love from TravelFeed! Keep up the amazing blog. 😍 Your post was also chosen as top pick of the day and is now featured on the TravelFeed front page.
Thanks for using TravelFeed!
@invisusmundi (TravelFeed team)
PS: Why not share your blog posts to your family and friends with the convenient sharing buttons on TravelFeed?
Thank you so much, I do share Travelfeed posts.
The hotel looks really cool and chic and the monkeys must be funny 😅
👏 Keep Up the good work on Hive ♦️ 👏
❤️ @bhattg suggested sagarkothari88 to upvote your post ❤️
🙏 Don't forget to Support Back 🙏
This post has been manually curated by @bhattg from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens. HP delegators and IUC token holders also get upto 20% additional vote weight.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @bhattg by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited.
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
What a beautiful Mom you have @sanjeevm I love the places you have visited
Hermosos lugares me gustaría conocer la India hermoso pais con sitios muy bellos
Very true...rule should be the same for all...
I made a virtual tour of Vrindaban.
Baanke Bihari Lal ki Jai....
ପଣା ସଂକ୍ରାନ୍ତିର ଅଭିନନ୍ଦନ
ପଣା ସଂକ୍ରାନ୍ତି ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ନବ ବର୍ଷର ଶୁଭକାମନା
ଜୟ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ
🙏🙏🙏🙏
#hive #posh