Calcutta to Navadwip

Howra by the Hooghly

The Hooghly river (its behind the tree)

Arrived in Calcutta 5am on Sunday 23rd morning, checked my bag into a cloakroom, booked a ticket for Navadwip (130 km north of Calcutta) and set off around the city to check out the book shops and any AC cafe I could find. Very hot and humid in Calcutta and mercifully I found an Art Deco Palace cafe called ‘Flurrys’ on Park Street which opened at 7.30 am. I was their first customer, clawing at the door. I sat in those blissful AC surrounding dragging out breakfast as long as I could.

I should have gone to see the Kali Temple  in the south of the city but the lure of a peaceful AC reprieve won over religious and cultural concerns. They felt distinctly over-heated and thus over-rated pursuits today.

So instead I browsed in the  The Oxford Bookshop for ages  and resisted buying more weight.

Back at Howra train station, things were amiss with the Navadwip train-line and I would have to wait until late in the evening to catch a train. I decided instead to stay in Calcutta for the night and try again the following day.

On  Monday 24th, I arrived in Navadwip at 5.30pm and crossed the Ganges by boat to Mayapur, the birthplace of the Bengali Vaishnava Saint Chaitanya.

Crossing the Ganges from Navadwip

There is a festival here on the 27th, Radhastami, which celebrates the appearance of Radharani, the apple of Krishna’s eye, so I shall stay here to partake of the festivities.

Radha-Krishna

Next stops I hope will be Varanasi, Prayag, Mathura, Vrindavan, to drop luggage and get warm clothes for the north, Haridwara, Badrinatha, Kedarnatha and Gomukh (the source of the Ganges) if possible.

Anyway that’s the plan. Let’s see what really happens.

 

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