vrindavan

i got off the bus when i thought it was good to do so, looking at where the guy at the ‘tourist office’ had marked munger mandir on the map. i asked the guy selling the cold drinks where the mandir was. he pointed across the road. lucky!

i went through the gates and saw the temple grounds. a big open terrace in front of the temple, with steps leading to the garden in front. behind and to the side of the temple, there were the accommodation rooms for guests. the maharaja had his own place in the basement of the temple. i was greeted by a couple of krishna devotees with their tell-tale shaved heads and pony-tails. there was a lot of construction work going on and i got a damp smelly room nearby the noise and chaos of the works. the mandir had been recommended to me by swami from panama, whom i had left in mangalore. ‘you have to meet the sadhu maharaja’ he had told me. well, it is was on my route up north so i thought why not.

i soon got introduced to the sadhu maharaja that evening before ‘aarti’ -  a kindly old soul who had inherited the mandir from his father. he had many devotees from india and abroad who treated him like a king. whether they had felt a strong connection with this man or this place, i was not sure... certainly i did not have any such feeling. i decided to stay some days as it was the sacred day ‘holi’ coming up as well as the 60th anniversary of the mandir. there was also going to be a two-week long seminar going on at the mandir mainly for the foreign devotees... but it was too costly for me and i decided to give it a miss.

after i got my room changed to a smaller but quieter place, i met olga one morning and asked if she wanted to go around the town. this was the day before ‘holi’ and i told her she had to be prepared for some ‘action’!! she had come for  the seminar and it was her first time in india, but she was so open to everything. we took a cycle rickshaw to the main temple in town... an old old place full of people and colour. the guys here were not so aggressive as we got some colour thrown at us and painted on our faces. out on the streets, it was a shower of coloured powder that came from various angles and sometimes found its target.

we wandered over to the bank of the river and walked past some amazing old temples and buildings. vrindavan is a mecca for the krishna devotees. there are so many temples here devoted to krishna worship. at one, there was some beautiful friezes of scenes from hindu mythology, and mainly of krishna. inside, there were some women dancing and singing. with a bit of encouragement from me, olga decided to join them. the women were overjoyed.

as we wandered on, we came across a large ghat from where we could hear music. as we approached, we could see a small performance being staged at the foot of the ghat, with people taking up all the vantage points on the steps and around to watch it. the musicians and singers were on a boat moored alongside, along with the loudspeakers. at one point, the flower petals were launched... the airwas full of the coloured petals being thrown over the two main characters of the ‘play’ – presumably krishna and his consort.

tray after tray of petals were thrown such that the ground was covered and the air became full of colours. everyone was dancing with broad smiles, and we joined in too. there was no aggressive throwing of colours here, just a colourful celebration with flower petals. we were lucky to have found this by chance. coincidentally, at the next ghat, a sadhu was performing the evening aarti with the ‘tower’ of small oil lamps burning brightly. we saw the sun set over the river horizon and walked back to munger mandir in time for dinner. it had been a good day.

another day, i walked to the main ‘hare krishna’ ishkon temple. another beautiful temple full of hare krishna devotees! singing and dancing as usual. from here, i walked the circular route ‘around’ the town, and then back to the mandir. i helped with the food distribution in front of the temple gates one time... free prashad is always appreciated by the people! and all day, there are women singing krishna devotional songs at the temple and during the evening aarti, with the sadhu maharaja presiding over affairs like the king he is.

the last evening, i told one of the girls i was leaving for delhi the next day. by chance, she also had to go to delhi for a meeting with her professor, and she had a car and driver arranged to go there. so next morning at six, we drove to the capital. they dropped me of at haus khas metro station from where i got the train to new delhi railway station. i had to wait a bit to get my reserved ticket for ludhiana as they were only sold an hour before departure, but having successfully negotiated that, i went to take a quick look at pahrganj. for sentimental reasons, and maybe a quick shopping opportunity.

the train to ludhiana was uneventful, and i called ahead to auntie who told me she would meet at the station. she was there with her car and driver to whisk me away back to her place. many memories of this place too. time to really relax and unwind before the inevitable family politics.