The Real Vrindavan

7/4/06 - happy fourth everyone...the posts as I promised, the older ones are farther down, make sure you blow up your fireworks (nimai....) ...keep in touch by email, its my gmail (same as my optonline, but with @gmai.com at the end instead)

After being sequestered in and around the ISKCON temple complex the first two days, today was the first day that I actually saw Vrindavan, in all of its glory. After doing darshan at mangala aroti, we immediately left to go on Vrindavan parikrama (to beat the heat). I immediately saw the Vrindavan I had heard about from so many people, read in so many places, and have wanted to see for a long time. What strikes you at first is how happy everyone is (there is no “drama for your mama” here). In Vrindavan, nobody says hello, how are you, or any of those useless phrases that we have become accustomed to. In Vrindavan, the phrase, I mean THE phrase is Radhe Radhe. Radhe Radhe can mean hello, watch out, or get out of the way (in the USA we generally use expletives for this). While walking through Vrindavan, besides the sounds of the horns, and Radhe Radhe, you hear bells and bhajans emanating from the many temples along the parikrama route. A prime case for this is the Jagannath temple in Vrindavan. Damodar told me that the deities were from Jagannath Puri, brought there after the deities were changed in Jagannath Puri (the deities are changed there every 12 years). Approaching this temple, from more than 500 feet away, one can hear constant bells ringing, and quite frankly, I thought it was an obnoxious recording. As we entered the Jagannath temple to take darshan, we saw that there was 7-8 people there ringing gongs with all their might on regular intervals…it was quite a sight. That is the real Vrindavan.

Chaitanya