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.

 

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

 

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