After our visit to Agra we left for Mathura – Vrindavan which is situated in north of Agra at about 50 kilometres away from here.
We reached Mathura within an hour. We stayed in a dharmshala. We took a big room with eight carpets and eight pillows. We took rest after lunch and in the evening we came out of the room. We visited the nearby market and purchased some necessary things.
We had our meal in a vegetarian hotel and came back to our residence. We consulted the manager of the hotel to visit only a few important places in Mathura in four days and some important worth seeing places in Vrindavan also.
In Mathura:
1. Vishram Ghat at the bank of the Yamuna river
2. Dwarkadhish Temple
3. Krishna Janmbhoomi Temple
Once upon a time Mathura was the capital of Sursena kingdom ruled by king Kansa, the maternal uncle of Lord Krishna.
Mathura is a religious city of the Hindu in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (India). It is about 150 kilometres from Delhi, capital of India. As such a large number of tourists/pilgrims from the different parts of the country and from abroad come to Mathura conveniently by road every day.
1. Vishram Ghat: We hired an auto for whole day. First of all we decided to take holy bath in the Yamuna River and came to the most popular Ghat of Yamuna river known as “Vishram Ghat.” It was early in the morning about 5.30. We saw many tourists and pilgrims bathing together in the river. The weather was very fine. Cool breeze was blowing slowly and touching our naked bodies. The children were shivering. My wife covered their naked bodies with towels and asked them to take bath catching their hands together. My eldest son and daughter were warned not to take their younger ones too far in deep water as we had heard that in Yamuna water current flows inside the river and sweep away the people. We (myself and wife) made up our mind to bathe in the last. My sons and daughters bathed and enjoyed. My wife washed their bodies and asked them to sit on the Ghats and await till we came back.
We bathed together – dived into the holy water of Yamuna. The sun rose in the east by that time. We worshipped the Sun and powered handful Argha also. We prayed together for a few minutes for world peace and harmony.
We prayed for good health and physical fitness.
As informed there are more than 25 Ghats at the bank of Yamuna River but the Vishram Ghat is the holiest Ghat of all – the holiest because Lord Krishna washed His feet in Yamuna River and rested at Vishram Ghat here after killing Kansa, the king of Mathura. There are series of various temples in and around this religious place. We made a round of the nearby temples and left for Dwarkadhish Temple.
2. Dwarkadhish Temple: It is situated to the north of the city. It is dedicated to Lord Krishna. It is the most popular shrine of Mathura after Krishna Janm Bhoomi.
We reached here at about 8 AM and crossed the narrow lanes on foot and entered from the main door as advised by the manager of the dharmshala. We did holy darshan of idols of Dwarkadhish (Lord Krishna), the king of Dwarka along with Radha. We looked at the idol very closely and prayed for peace, happiness and prosperity. We saw some sticks lying in one corner of the temple. So far as I remember I came to know the pilgrims who want to go “Char Dham Yatra” start from here with the blessing of Lord Krishna and after the end with ease come here again and keep the stick here in obligation.
We made holy Parikrama of the temple also with folded hands. We bought Prasad too.
The temple is huge and the architecture done is very beautifully carved and nicely painted. The temple was constructed in 1814. Holi, Janmashtami and Diwali are celebrated every year with pump and show. These auspicious occasions attract the tourists and pilgrims from all over the country and also from abroad.
We stayed for an hour and came out. As it is located in the main market, we took our lunch in a vegetarian basa. We came back to our dharmshala by 4 PM after doing some shopping in the market.
We took rest for two/three hours as we were tired of exertion we have had from early morning to evening.
3. Krishna Janm Bhoomi Temple: This was our third day in Mathura. We got up early in the morning and were ready by six.
We hired an auto and reached Krishna Janm Bhoomi. We noticed a large number of tourists and pilgrims in and around the temple. People are of the opinion that if you go to Mathura and do not see this temple means you have not seen anything in Mathura. It is the most worth seeing place of all in the country. It is an icon of Mathura in North India. It is the most religious spot particularly for the pilgrims of Hindu community. Lord Krishna is well known all over the world for the preaching He had given to His intimate Sakha (friend) – Arjuna in the Bhagwat Geeta.
The temple is reckoned as the birth place of Lord Krishna under the prison cell of the temple about 5000 years ago wherein King Kansa imprisoned his sister Devki and his brother-in-law Basudeo to avoid his death by their eighth son as per the “Aakashvani ” (A divine preannouncement by super power of Almighty God). King Kansa didn’t want to take risk as such he used to kill every child one by one that took birth in prison. Lord Krishna when born was taken by his father to Nand – Yashoda’s house and instead brought a female baby so that King Kansa could understand that a female baby was born to them. It is said that Lord Krishna was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and was born to kill Kansa.
The kapat was quite open for darshan and worship for the pilgrims and tourists by eight in the morning. We stood in queue and after an hour or so our turn came. We offered bunch of beautiful flowers and Prasad, made holy darshan and came out the temple.
The remarkable thing with the temple is that there is a common wall with a mosque for a pretty long time.
There is a tight security guard posted by the government to safeguard both the temple and the mosque.
We made a round of the complex of the KJB and rested for an hour to watch and witness the tourists and pilgrims from outsides.
Most of the pilgrims were of Hindu community from all parts of the country – a unity in diversity we saw here – Bengali, Oriya, Bihari, North Indians, Marwari, Guajarati, South Indians, Panjabi, Sindhi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhutani and so on. We saw some foreigners too who were taking photographs of the people in different dresses and aprons and the beautiful sights of the KJB.
We walked on foot a long distance and enjoyed in eating, drinking and being merry all along the ways we crossed through with the children running ahead of us along with and under the guidance of their elder ones.
Mathura is also famous for “Gol Gappa.” Under the cool shadow of a Gulmohar tree laden with bunches of beautiful red flowers we saw some families taking rest and some ladies with their children eating golgappe. Our children rushed to the khomchawala and started taking golgappes.
I recollected my childhood days when at their age I used to take golgappes in front of our school gate from Sarjoo (Now he is no more) for do paise or ek aane – 5 to 10 pieces doubles (1956 to 1958).
I dragged my wife to khomchawala and asked her to share the joy with the kids (Let the children be young but for parents they are kids alike).
When I force my wife, she never turns down. It’s her sheer quality of personality.
We also took more than a dozen golgappes of different flavour and taste- khatte – mithe experience we got while eating them one by one in donas of green leaves nicely made up of carefully for the purpose to serve. I was astonished to see that even a single drop of tasteful water didn’t drop out of the donas. No hole at all in them, so technically netted together.
We took our lunch in a vegetarian basa and came back to our residence seeing some nearby temples.
As we were exhausted, we took rest till evening.
Late in the evening we came out of the residence. We took tea – very tasteful and prepared with pure cow milk. The kids were interested in eating Mathura Pedas and Samosa (In some states it is known as Singhara also). We walked on foot some of the important markets. The children bought some toys too. My wife purchased some maroon colour bangles and sindur of her choice. I bought a photograph of Lord Krishna on the lap of her mother Yashoda – extremely eye catching.
We came back late in the night. For the next day we chalked out a programme to visit Vrindavan.
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Contd. “A Historical Trip To Vrindavan”
Writer: Durga Prasad. Dated 22nd. March 2015, Sunday.
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