Someone somewhere gave me a nice idea to write something about someplace which I visited sometime long ago.
It happens, when you try to remember past gone years while staying indoors in middle of a long pandemic, vocabulary shortens, lot of some things are added in place of actual words.
I was referring to Mathura and Vrindavan, I don't remember now, what all years I visited, but I do remember, I visited these mystic cities many times, every time, I saw something new and mystic.
Two out of many spiritual cities in India, where most people visit as devotees, or as we call them believers, some come to seek for answers. Be it "The Beetles" or Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg or any of those who want to find a key to success. There are always seekers, believers & non-believers. Seekers are the ones who interest me most. Seekers are the ones who are most confused and challenges everything what looks correct.
Interestingly, why seekers come to these cities, which are meant for believers, may be because they think, its most relevant place to find answers from blind believers, if it seems illogical, you are not the only one. May be seekers are just watching patterns behavior in believers with an eagle's eye view.
My early memories of Vrindavan are from teenage, when used to accompany my dad a couple of times. He is moderately religious, politically center left leaning person. I hope this explains a lot, as current time period of 2020s is a world full of right wingers. In India, it is also linked with religion some how. As all rights are becoming saffron lovers & nationalists off course.
My dad's motivation to visit Vrindavan were more of a : get away from daily routine & walk a half-marathon. And offcourse a pilgrimage to mystic god. I think adding all reasons together, makes a good sense to travel on weekends for a day trip. And what was my motivation, it was nothing but to see something new and interesting, which I never saw. After a couple of visits, I stopped accompanying my dad. He thought, I am not a bhakt (devotee) material, which I am not.
It was only after years, when I went there again and recollected my past memories, I realized that, it is an amazing place. It was when, I was not expecting anything new & interesting from my visit.
It was when, I just went to explore & tour. I began to understand and appreciate these cities.
Hinduism itself is a religion of mysticism, a blank canvas where you can paint colors. Many Hindu holy cities are having their own character, generally it is linked with the character of god, the city is associated with, for example, Varanasi belongs to artisans, poets & singers because of Shiva, the god of art & dance.
Mathura & Vridavan - belongs to a god as well, Yes, these cities belong to Krishna. And people living here have accepted this fact. It is about perception, everything starts from it, how you perceive is how you behave. If I live in Delhi or any other city, the city belongs to me and the people, I have a sense of ownership. But not at Vrindavan, here at Vrindavan, you think, you are living on rent. When this perception changes, it changes many things. So, it goes further, that everything in this city belong to Krishna in its entirety, even people, they are just subjects. And Krishna is the master.
So, don't you dare to move something from its place, as it doesn't belong to you or me. It is often seen that, if you are a guest, you behave well and you care more about everything you have gotten from your host. After all, you need to return everything before you leave. So I saw this kind of attitude in people. And yes, its completely different from other cities.
Have you ever, observed, the prasad from temples, it tastes very good, and even if its simple, it tastes well. I always wondered, why, coz its made with love? may be, or may be, its not meant for you to eat actually, its for gods, and when someone makes it with this feeling in mind, there is a sense of love, but also a sense of fear, and a sense of devotion. May be it is due to all these overwhelming emotions, the cook takes extra care and precautions. I never figured it out, probably will never be.
Back to Vrindavan, there is a peda wala (sweet balls, from milk solids), who is famous in Vrindavan, In fact there are many peda walas in Vrindavan, but one is famous, and as you can imagine, no one can take onus of something on himself, the success is wholly by the grace of Krishna, as the story goes, that, one day Krishna actually visited this shop in morning, in an avatar of a child. And asked peda from this shop owner, The shop owner gave his peda, and he was blessed by child Krishna that his poverty will go away. If you look more closer to this story, and more such stories, you will find that, people are actually living together with Krishna, He is eternal and take forms (avatars), make stories and influence people's life everyday. How mystic it sounds, it is more mystic then that. There is a garden in Vrindavan, it is said that, in this garden (Name: Nidhivan), Ras (dance of gods/goddesses) happens every night, that one must not stay here after evening. Else he/she may go out senses, or in other words may go crazy/ psychologically ill. If you dont trust me, watch this video from ABP news :
Apart from that, there are visible differences off course, People are more relaxed, as it is common in most of smaller towns and villages. Lot of temples, Lot of foreigners, many Europeans, mostly due to Iskcon. A small industry to cater needs of all these tourists. but for me, these very visible changes, are alike to most of hill stations in India. What was not visible was that, these tourists are mostly believers and seekers. Lot of curious people trying to find some thing, no one have found yet, A question that is answer to everything, or an answer for all questions.
