Mathura and Vrindavan

Not much to say here really, except that it was a good feeling to have arrived full circle again inVrindavan. Arriving in Mathura at 8.30am, and (Vrindavan at 9.30am) I  had less than  five hours  there before catching a bus at 2pm to Delhi.

So all I did was pay my respects to the deities, shower, change, wash and dry all clothes, have breakfast and leave. It is still very hot in Vrindavan.

I had hoped to do a few things in Delhi…bookshops etc.. as the journey was supposed to take 3 and a half hours. It took almost seven, due to Delhi traffic, so I just went straight to Old Delhi Train Station and caught the over-night sleeper Mussorie Express to Haridwar at the delayed hour of midnight.

 

Festival Time

On my last night in Vrindavan (Fri 24th) I was lucky enough to catch the start of the festival of Jhulan Yatra, the Radha Krishna swing festival at the famous Banke Bihari Temple, the most popular temple in Vrindavan.

Every year at this time the deities are put on a swing and bedecked with flowers. Some temples allow worshippers to participate in this festival by pulling the swing with a rope. Unfortunately no photos were allowed, but you can see the throne without the deities on their webpage photo gallery here

The temple was a forest of flowers and greenery and packed with pilgrims.The ornate golden throne on which the deity was swung was strewn with hundreds of garlands and everybody seemed intoxicated with the sheer delight of being there. Contagious stuff and a really uplifting send off from Vrindavan.

Next morning took the 6 hour bus journey to Jaipur. As we set off the whole bus sang songs to Banke bihari. That was the only word I understood. Seems they were a whole community or village who had travelled from Jaipur for the festival.I like travelling on buses as it offers more insight into life here than a taxi. And even though I unfortunately speak no Hindi, the language of travellers is universal. The sharing of food, water and space along with the non-verbal language of gesture and expression forge a comfortable camaraderie that doesn’t need words. I like this.

I arrived in Jaipur at midday was met by a friend who lives there and off we went zipping through city traffic on her moped. After a wash and change we were lucky enough to catch the annual festival of Teej, the festival for married ladies.

The deity of Parvati (wife of Shiva) is taken out on the streets preceded by a fabulous procession of Rajasthani colour, splendour and pomp.On this day married women pray for the well-being of their husbands and their marriage.We had a birds eye view from the roof-top of a temple.

Rajasthani dancers - the birds eye view

Elephants Everywhere

Festive Bulls

Parvati in procession

Parvati up close, although not so close that you can really see her

In the evening we zipped around the city on the scooter to catch the Julan Yatra celebrations at three temples whose original deities were transferred to Jaipur from Vrindavan for safe-keeping from Aurangazeb in the 17^th century . He’s the Mughal Emperor most famous among Hindus for smashing temples and desecrating deities.

Scooting in Jaipur

These temples are those established by the celebrated Goswamis of Vrindvan, the Govindaji Temple, Radha Damodar Temple and the Radha Gopinatha Temple. We also visited another small temple, Radha Vinod temple with beautiful flower mandala decorations on the floor.

Flower Mandala

Jaipur is beautiful. It seemed yesterday too to be filled with festivities….the festival of Teej on the streets and Jhulan Yatra in all the Krishna Temples. It was a tsunami of colourful celebration and I couldn’t have wished for a better introduction to the city.

Below is a youtube clip of evening worship at the Govindaji temple.  The enthusiasm of the crowds, the simplicity and sweetness of their chanting, and the welcoming informality of it all made for perfect endings to humid, bustling days in Jaipur

 

Bananas and a baby

I went to a cow Hospital here in Vrindavan yesterday and sponsored a banana- fest on behalf of the OCHS for about a hundred variously disabled cows. Such charitable acts  are mean to be of great benefit to the sponsors and I reckon the OCHS needs all the help it can get. In any case the cows loved them even if the benefit remains invisible!

They’ve even got a few Nilagais (antelopes) there, some hit by cars or attacked and maimed by dogs as fawns. The dedication of the people who run this place  is amazing. All the animals have names and are treated with great kindness. It’s like something out of a child’s story book….except, unfortunately  those tales are usually  made up.

Where's the milk?

The most amazing thing was that just as I arrived at the hospital, a blind cow delivered a female calf. There were no other visitors there apart from me and a friend and since she practically dropped out at my feet, I decided to become her sponsor. I’ve named her Anjali and hope she gets to have a long and happy life. She can be the new mascot for the OCHS.

Anjali, the OCHS mascot

Fifteen minutes after she was born she could stand up and start looking for milk. The day before yesterday, Wednesday night, the old cow of earlier notes passed on.  Anjali with all her vital ‘newness’ dropped into the world the following day.

That merry go-round of samsara, or birth, death and rebirth is a central underpinning tenet of Hindu thinking. It may be impossible to trace the progressive journey of  the old cow, or any other living creature, but it’s certainly easy to recognise that we’re all on a conveyor belt here.

At least yesterday that seemed very clear to me.

 

Solar Eclipse

The BBC ran an article on the solar eclipse that happened yesterday here. Seems everybody was out gazing at it.

Here’s the link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8161578.stm

Here in Vrindavan it was different. Such an event is considered inauspicious and auspicious at the same time. Certainly it is not recommended to stare at it.

The bad bit is that people here believe that it is so powerful  it can contaminate food and so no one cooks  during the time of the eclipse and for a period before and afterwards. Temples close for the duration as it  is thought the food offerings normally made would be  polluted. Restaurants close and if you eat at this time it is thought you will become ill.

The good side is that it is meant to be a very good time to practice religious ritual or perform devotional acts as their potency or benefit is magnified.  The whole town of Vrindavan took to the parikrama path, with husbands wives, children, sadhus, and just about everybody and their granny seemed to pass by the gate of my ashram, (which is on the parikrama path) all day long.

Rooftop view at 6am morning of eclipse

 

Govardhana Hill

Govardhana Hill

I went on a carikrama ( that is parikrama by car and not on foot) to Govardhana last Monday. A parikrama is about 23 kilometres and takes about 5 to 6 hours to complete at a brisk pace. I preferred the travel-stop-and-linger mood the car enabled this time.

Govardhana Hill features most famously in the 10th book of the Bhagavata Purana where he (everything is personified in these stories) stars in the story of Krishna lifting him as an umbrella to protect the citizens of Vraja from torrential rain sent by an envious Indra.

The Bhagavat Purana writes:

Of all the devotees, this Govardhana Hill is the best! Of my friends, this hill supplies Krishna and Balaram, along with their calves,cows and cowherd friends, with all kinds of necessities-water for drinking,very soft grass,caves,fruits,flowers and vegetables.In this way the hill offers respects to thee Lord.Being touched by the lotus feet of Krishna and Balaram, Govardhana Hill appears very jubilant.‘ B.P 10.21.18

Theology aside, the recognition of the dependence we all have on nature with its bountiful and life sustaining offerings is appealing in todays climate of ecological catastrophe. The idea of reciprocal respect and co-existence reverberates throughout the Hindu scriptures and our Govardhan visit offered a refreshing alternative to more impersonal and exploitative considerations of the natural world.

Govardhan is about an hours drive fromVrindavan and before setting out on our walk we bathed in two beautiful lakes or kunds, Radha- Kund and Shyama -Kund considered sacred lakes to devotees of Krishna.

Radha Kund

Reverential Geese

Seems like we got some blessings since what might have been a walk in the searing sand and heat, turned out to be the coolest day so far. Dark clouds, rolling thunder and cooling breezes framed our pilgimage and we saw peacocks, Nilagais (meaning ‘blue cow’) a type of antelope, electric green parrots, monkeys galore, cows and buffalos.

Nilagai, the 'blue cows' of Govardhana

Pilgrims construct little houses all along the flank of the hill to house prayers, to have ones home blessed, or in some sense to reside here long after leaving. I built a little OCHS, very similar to the one in Oxford and impressed at least one resident with my architectural flair.

The Govardhan branch of the OCHS

Some pilgrims circumnambulate Govardhan over several weeks by daily performing prostrations all around the hill. They mark with a stone each arm extension and proceed with the next prostration from there. It is called dandavat parikrama. I thought a pilgrimage in Ireland up a mountain(Croach Patrick) in bare feet was something but so far this takes the biscuit. Sorry, the digital camera just missed the ‘down’ moment.

Dandavat Parikrama

 

Arts and Crafts

Still in Vrindavan and plan to leave now on Saturday 25th. My back has seized up a bit from sleeping directly under a full-power fan…so ironically in this heat I’m treating it with Tiger balm, a fiery emollient to treat stiffened muscles.

In any case, now I walk with a little less Celtic bouncy pace and with the heat to also slow me down I am shocked to recognise that even I have gained some  semblance of the grace and elegance with which everyone walks over here. That lovely languid gait and the whole rhythm of life here is so intimately linked to the weather.

Rice Lady

Next time I buy rice for an OCHS Wednesday lunch I’m going to try this on the Cowley road! Such graceful yet practical skill. The man below was an equally graceful porter who simply moved his banana business to the shade when the heat went up.

The Mobile Banana Company

But the art of walking is not the only skill that impresses. Everywhere I look there’s someone with a talent to  marvel at back home, yet who just blend with the landscape of faces over here.

There are countless bead-makers who provide for a whole range of japa-malas or strings of prayer beads for  different traditions. The favoured Vaishnava bead is made from the sacred Tulasi plant which seems to be the speciality of this craftsman.

Mala Maker

A couple of days ago I met a young man who gave me directions to Imlitala where Pishima lives. He looked like a million other young men here with nothing to distinguish him from every other rick shaw walla around, and yet when I saw him again he was painting a beautiful bas relief of Radha and Krishna beside a newly constucted temple at Imlitala.

There is really no way of telling who I’m dealing with over here. So many amazing people with little to advertise their craft, skill, asceticism or devotion. Mind you that’s the thinking behind the Hindu teaching  of respect for all living beings. On a more theological level, it teaches that we have in fact no idea who we are dealing with, in terms of the real self/soul’s journey, the hidden story of a person’s life what to speak of the hidden journey of many lifetimes that karma and reincarnation dictate.

Respect is a consequence of recognising at least in theory, the spiritual nature of all life and also the safest way to avoid misjudging someone through ignorance of the bigger picture.

Radha and Krishna in bas relief

Speaking of Radha and Krishna, I met another man known to all as Tapan who has a small little workshop here where he designs and sews outfits for Temple deities throughout Vrindavan. He has developed such a reputation for his creative designs and impeccable work that he is in demand internationally with people coming to Vrindavan from far and wide to have a ‘Tapan’ piece of work.

Tapan - haute culture for deities

He has been sewing for 35 years and running his own workshop for 25 years. He hails from a Vaishnava family with his grandfather an artist in Orissa. It was his father who turned from painting to sewing and taught Tapan all he knows. Today the whole family can sew and he hopes to expand his workshop when he has trained his sons to his standard of expertise.

The Sewing Family - a family that sews together grows together - to coin a phrase

His son works with him in his workshop and as is usual everywhere here there is an altar at the centre  of activities as he says himself “to remind him that this is’ seva’ or a devotional service to Krishna, but also to bless him with a profitable business. Not too heavenly minded to be of no earthly use and it seems his puja and prayers have been answered. In his house he has a a temple room in which he offers prayers every morning before the business day starts.

Radha Krishna, Kali, Ganesh and Laksmi

Family work shop

 

Lessons from two old ladies

Have spent the past four days dividing my day between two old ladies close to leaving this world. One is a Bengali lady who is over a hundred years old and the other lives at a Goshalla or cow santuary.

The Bengali lady, Prabhavati, or Pishima as she is affectionately called, has been a widow since she was 24 years of age. She married and lost her husband in the same year. She has no children and came to Vrindavan from Bengal shortly after that to  live  as a renunciant  spending her days visiting temples, in prayer or kirtan, or doing ‘seva’ or service at her temple .

Vrindavan has many widows ashrams, some of which have had bad press for the enforced chanting of prayers before they are fed amongst else. Deepa Mehta’s film “Water’ didn’t do much for the reputation of widows either.

Mother Pishima, Vrindavan Sadhu

However Pishima offers a more positive picture of widowhood. She has led a very happy life as a devout Vaishnava in Vrindavan and in these final stages of her life she has many friends who love and care for her. She’s quite a celebrity figure, with many priests and senior religous figures coming to visit her to receive her blessings. She cannot speak or walk, but she lives right beside a temple at a place called Imlitala and can listen to all the temple kirtans from her bed.

I am very happy she likes a head massage  and so that is where I spend my mornings these days.

Then on my route back to my room, I pass through a Goshalla  and spend some time with a very old cow who has only days to live.By some stroke of good fortune  the drinking water bottle I brought from the U.K.  has a squeezy top on it that allows me, and others to squirt water down her throat. The only other way she can drink is by being hoisted up on a pully-contraption which is very uncomfortable on her skeletal frame.

Old Mother Cow

Anyway I am happy to have two little services to do here. The returns are so much greater. It seems Vrindavan is teaching me lessons  from the later stages of life.

Hindu teaching is that time ravages only the outward frame that the self or soul inhabits. That is the explanation given for the tension between how we feel and how we look as time goes by.  Looking into the eyes of  Pishima and the old cow an extraordinary vitality meets me that belies the decrepid condition of both.In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna teaches this immortality of the real self to Arjuna and explains that the wise who know this live lives of devotion to Krishna.

W.B Yeats in his poem, Sailing to Byzantium puts it well:

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress

It seems to me when I look into the eyes of these two old ‘matas’ or mothers as they are called, that Pishima and the old cow are clapping!

 

The Parikrama Path

Everyday people go on Vrindavana parikrama.This means circumambulating the entire town of Vrindavan with its myriad temples, on a barefoot walk of about 6 miles.

Pilgims on parikrama

Early in the morning when people seem to imagine it is cooler, and especially on Ekadasi (the 11th day of the waxing and waning moon) the parikrama path is packed with pilgrims. During the day too groups continue to add their footprints to this devotional circuit.The reasons may be singular or multilayered for performing this feat.

It might be an act of devotion; an act of atonement or purification; desire to have some prayer or need fulfilled or a wish to gain punya or pious merit.Whatever the motivation it draws people from all traditions and all walks of life.

The route is peppered with shrines and temples, some of them as simple as this Shiva Linga under a tree:

The very Shiva linga mentioned above

Shiva is considered the protector of Vrindavan. There are five famous temples of Shiva in Vrindavan and innumerable simple Shiva linga shrines dotted around the periphery of Vrindavan and beyond.

A protective Shiva in Vrindavan

Door Darshan

Sounds of singing and chanting echo throughout the town competing with the ever-increasing volume of car-horns, rick-shaw bells, and megaphone music.

Listening to  singing behind one door, I met someone on the way out from her temple visitation.

Which leads me to one of my favourite pastimes in India……neck-scratching!

The sacred ritual of cow-tickling!

Inner wear

While Vrindavan resounds with reminders to nurture our inner spiritual life,  a more recent  trend – see body care sign –  competes for more material gain just in case it all gets too spiritual!

Ok will sign off now. A major incentive to send these posts is the air-conditioning in the Internet cafe. It’s not working today so I look and feel like melted  strawberry ice-cream. I will  find a fan and meditate under it!

 

The Madana Mohana Temple

Madana Mohana Mandir

Visited the Madana Mohana temple, founded by one of the famous six Goswami disciples (Sanatana Goswami) of the Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition. The original temple was built in the early fifteen hundreds, but was desecrated by the Muslim Emperor, Aurangzeb in 1670. The original murti was taken to Karauli in Rajasthan for safety and a replica, considered non-different in potency from the original deity is worshipped in Vrindavan today.

Here is another picture of the temple I found, from 1789.

Madan Mohan and the river Yamuna 1789

This sadhu, or saintly mendicant, lives at the Madana Mohana temple and very kindly let me take this photo. There are so many simple gentlemen like him around who ask for nothing and seem to subsist on crumbs and mantras. He helps care for the samadhi, or tomb, of Sanantana Goswami which is right next to the Madana Mohana temple.

Simply saintly

 

Rain and Monkeys

Another sleepless night under the fan in stifling humidity.

Since I arrived I have eaten only 6 chapatis, slept for about two hours and drank gallons of water. Reading stories of Indian saints always seem to include their lack of sleeping very much and not eating much either. Well in this weather it seems everyone must live like a saint in summer time in these two regards at least.

This is the month of Shravan (literally meaning ‘listening’) .The word refers to both an auspicious star  or one of the nine means of nurturing bhakti or devotion. This holy month of Shravan has many religious festivals and pilgrims barefooted circumnabulate the entire town or Vrindavan every morning (about a three hour walk).

He likes chapatis

Vrindavan vibrates with wildlife too and is like living in a zoo except here it is the humans who are caged in and the monkeys who roam freely. The stairs, balconies, and washing line areas in this and many other ashrams are all covered in with wire to keep the monkeys out. Temples too cover their central courtyards with wire to keep the wildlife out. I love this about India. It’s impossible to forget we are just one species competing for resources together here. Despite increases in building, road traffic and technology, its good to see the monkeys clinging on to their space here too.

My rooftop roommates

It rained in the bazaar today and sent monkeys, dogs, birds and humans alike running for cover. Being Irish I’m well used to rain, but I have never been so glad to get soaked to the skin and catch a rickshaw home through flooded streets.

Vrindavan Street after a 15 minute downpour