Hi All,
Radhe Radhe đ
Hope you all are doing great! Todayâs blog is about my recent journey to the holy city of Vrindavan. Itâs going to be a quite lengthy post as the things that I experienced there are vast.
This city holds a great importance in Hindu culture as itâs the birthplace of the Lord Krishna. He spent most of his childhood days here and did a lot of miracles.
The city itself hold a unique vibe unlike anywhere in the world. You might depict that vibe just by looking at the photos. Old buildings, ghats, temples, pilgrims, sadhus, sants and a lot of monkeys.
The most common phrase that everyone use to call someone in the streets is âRadheâ. You will definitely hear this word multiple times every minute when youâre in the streets of Vrindavan. âRadha/ Radheâ was the lover of lord Krishna and is one of the main âDeviâ in Hindu culture.
Lord Krishna also loved her so much that he always gave here more importance. One example is whenever their names are quoted, Devi Radhaâs name is quoted first before Lord Krishnaâs name.
There are more than 5000 temples in this holy city which is an impossible count to visit in a couple dayâs time. Therefore I visited only the main ones naming Krishnaâs Janambhumi, Banke Bihari Temple, ISKON temple, Nidhivan and Prem Mandir. In most places, photography was prohibited so I wasnât able to capture those. But for the rest, I have tried my best to show you guys the real vibe of the place.
One major problem in the city is the problem of monkeys. There are over 1 lakh monkeys in the city itself and their population is increasing tremendously. Not only they scare people but the also take the spectacles of the people from their faces. That is the reason why people are warned not to wear them while walking on the streets.
While walking through the streets, you will come across the vintage architecture that the city has to offer. In the photos below you can see the old buildings of Vrindavan.
For every 10 steps you walk, you will surely come across a temple. Thatâs the density of the temples in the city.
There are many great street paintings of the walls made by great artists. One you can see in the photo below.
The very first we visited was Nidhivan. It is a garden which shuts down during night time and no one is allowed to go or even see that place at the night time. It is believed that Lord Krishna still comes to this place at night to do Rasleela (a form of dance).
I wasnât able to capture the photos inside Nidhivan but outside, I witnessed one case of spectacle snatching. This scary looking monkey took spectacle of a girl and broke it in front of my eyes.
You really need to be careful or otherwise they can also hurt you. They are present everywhere and even dogs are scared of them.
Apart from all that, you will come across a lot of Sadhus/ Sants here in Vrindavan. You can find them asking for Bhiksha (donation), or meditating.
The next place I visited was the ghats of Yamuna river. This river is considered sacred in Hindu culture as a lot of stories about Krishna are linked with this river.
The ghats were a very happening place. There were a lot of street vendors, astrologers, boats and people in general.
There was a facility of boat ride of the ghats at only 20 Rs per person so I did that. It was a short 15 min ride that allowed me to take below photos.
It broke my heart to see how polluted Yamuna river was! In spite of it being a holy river, people still pollute it. The water was black and I couldnât even see an inch inside of it.
One thing that I liked about this place was colours. I loved to see so many colours at the ghats. Iâve tried to capture what I saw to give you guys a vibe of the place.
Everything from boats to the people was colourful. Bright colours made a positive impression on me.
And after that colourful journey, I got off to go to ISKCON temple.
While travelling in a TukTuk, I saw some ancient temples of the city and also the city life in general. As mentioned earlier, I could see Radhe Radhe everywhere.
The below photos are of ISKCON temple. It is a piece of art for sure. Marvellous work done on white marble. I donât have words to describe it.
I wasnât able to capture the photos inside as itâs not allowed but I will try to explain what happens inside. There is a continuous chanting of âHare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hareâ going on. Itâs a spiritual experience just to stand there and be there for a while.
The next temple is the most beautiful temple of the city. The Prem Mandir.
This temple is one of the newly constructed temples in Vrindavan established by Shri Kripalu Ji maharaj to the love of Radha and Krishna.
The campus of this temple is huge. There a lot of room for a lot of people thatâs why its doesnât feel crowded unlike the most temples in Vrindavan.
This place also has a lot of exhibitions depicting the early life of Krishna that he spent in Vrindavan.
I really fell in love with this place. It had a different vibe that I never felt before. Spiritually, love and peace thatâs what I felt at once when I visited this temple.
This temple looks even better during night as there are a lot of lights installed here both inside and outside.
I donât have any words to describe my experience. You might get it just by looking at the photos.
The below photo is of the statue of Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, establisher of this tranquil temple.
I am being very honest with you. The camera was not able to capture the vibe that you feel when you physically visit this place. It has a holy and spiritual kind of experience connected to its roots along with us beautiful temple from which you canât take your eyes off.
You should definitely visit Vrindavan once in your lifetime. Itâs indeed a spiritual journey that you can experience only by visiting there. Some things are to be felt and visiting Vrindavan is one of those things.
Thanks for your time.
Hope you liked this blog.
Radhe Radhe đ