Vrindavan Yatra - Part II

During the yatra, our day always began with the "Mangal Aarti" at 5.00am in the Radha Vrindavan-Chandra Temple at Akshaya Patra. And after a sumptuous breakfast prasadam, we would proceed in three buses for the days' itenarary.

Day 3 – Tue, Nov 13

Our first visit was the Radharani Temple in Barsana. We had to climb slightly steep steps (we were told that there are about 300 steps) to reach the entrance of the temple. “Dolis” (a small palanquin) are available for a price (about Rs.300/- per person – you need to bargain) for those who are unable to make the climb. This is a very popular temple and hence highly crowded. After having “darshan" of the deity, we all sat at the open place in the temple and did “Kirtan” for about thirty minutes or so.

Entrance to the Radharani Temple

 

Radharani Temple, Barsana

Kirtan in progress at the temple premises

Next was the Nanda Maharaj Temple. This temple too, is situated at a height and the climb too was quite steep through a narrow lane. This is the only temple in Vrindavan that has the deities of Nanda Maharaj’s whole family – Yashoda Maiya, Nanda Maharaj, Krishna and Balaram and their friends. Here, Krishna and  Balaram both are shown black in colour and they look identical.

Nanda Bhavan Mandir, Nandgaon

Beautiful paintings inside the temple

Our next visit was the “Ter” Kadamba –  “Ter” meaning “to call” in Brij language and Kadamba is the name of a particular tree. Legend has it that, Krishna during his childhood days, used to call his friends under this tree and the branches of this tree was used for hanging food “potli” (snack/lunch wrapped in cloth given by their respective mothers) on the tree. It is said that Rupa Goswami sat under this tree to write his books and to meditate and sing bhajans.

"Ter" Kadamba

A typical Kadamba Tree, Nandgaon

Our next temple visit was Vrindadevi (Tulsidevi) Mandir where lunch prasadam was served. Adjacent to this is the Vrinda Kund.  This place is very picturesque and peaceful with lots of greenery around. We spotted a few butterflies, parrots and lapwings.

 

Vrindadevi Mandir and Vrinda Kund

Next visit was the “Paawan Sarowar”. It is called so because it purifies anybody who takes a dip in it. Legend has it that Lord Krishna used to bathe here daily. Since we reached a little late in the evening, we did not take a dip instead took a few photos of sunset here.

Paawan Sarowar

Thus ended our third day of the yatra.

For more info visit :  http://wikitravel.org/en/Nandgaon

The last and the final part to follow.......