Part 3: In and around Mathura-Vrindavan

The next day was spent traveling in and around Mathura-Vrindavan. After 2 days on rail and road, we needed some rest. In the morning, we took an auto rickshaw and went to Shri Krishna Janambhumi Mandir at Mathura.

Mathura is one of the oldest city of India and the name appears in many historical and mythological scripts. The present city is a mix of old temples and structures and modern buildings. The city is very congested, having lot of business centers, big houses and Govt offices.

Shri Krishna Janambhumi

Krishna Janambhumi temple was built around the cell where Lord was born when his parents, Devaki and Vasudeva were held imprisoned by Kansa.

Ancient temple was constructed in the 1^st Century which was later demolished by Mamud of Ghazni. As per ancient script it was a huge work of art and had gold and siver idols. Later a new temple was constructed by the royal family of Orchha. The same was demolished by Aurangzeb.

The current temple was built post-independence by various Indian industrialists forming a trust – the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan and was opened for public in 1982.

We were not allowed to take camera inside. It was a complex of number of temples and bhog or prasadam counters. If you go on a regular day (not on any special occasion), you can even sit inside the main temple for some time and feel the ambience. It attracts photographers and devotee but fortunately or unfortunately no camera or mobiles are allowed inside the temple complex. But you may find some official photos in the internet.

Every year on Janmasthami, there is huge celebration which is being telecasted live by Doordarshan.

Rangji Temple Vrindavan

There are some other temples in Mathura, but as we planned to visit few temples of Vrindavan, so we came back. Our next stop was Rangji temple. It was built in 1851 by Seth Govind Das ji and Seth RadhaKrishna ji. The temple houses Lord Vishnu, Lord Ram, Goddess Sita, Lord Venugopala and Lord Ramanujacharya.

The architecture of the temple resembles the Dravidian architecture mixed with Rajasthani style. The temple has number of pillars bearing beautiful sculptures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

In the courtyard of the temple, there is a 60 ft tall gold-plated pillar called Dhwaja Stambha or Garuda Stambha. Some people call it Golden palm tree. The flag of the temple is hoisted on this pillar during Brahmostava.

Nidhivan Vrindavan

From Rangji temple, we went to Nidhivan. This place is full of Tulsi tree. It is believed that every night, Lord Shri Krishna appears here and dances with gopis to recreate Raas yatra. The trees are considered to be gopis of the Lord. No one is allowed inside the temple complex after evening. There are couple of small temples and samadhi of few saints.

Banke Bihari Temple Vrindavan

From Nidhivan, we went to Shri Banke Bihari temple. Devotees from all over India comes to this temple. It is believed that the idol of Shri Banke Bihari is an impression left by celestial couple Shyama-Shyam (Radha Krishna) on request by Swami Haridasji. The idol was initially kept at Nidhivan but later as the new temple was built in 1864, the idol was moved to the new temple.

The word “Banke” means bent and “Bihari” means enjoyer. The idol is in tribhanga posture which means bent in three parts of the body. An hour spent there seemed to have passed in minutes. We were feeling like staying there indefinitely. It seemed that Bihari ji has wiped away all our sorrow and filled our life with immense happiness.

On our way back, the auto driver has shown up a place where it is believed that Kaliya Naag leela took place.

There were too many monkeys and one of them took the opportunity to take away my sleepers. Fortunately, the monkey dropped the slippers after taking for a short distance else I would have to walk back barefoot.    We returned to our hotel for lunch. Our mind was filled with peace and tranquillity. In the evening, we went to ISKCON temple to experience Sandhya aarti and also to book cab for our visit to Nandgaon-Barsana and Govardhan planned on the next day. We will cover it in the next part.