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By Premajana Das(Pranjal Joshi) 

Deities of Shri Krishna-Balram at ISKCON Vrindavan

It was while doing the Govardhan parikrama that we halted at the Japnese dharamshala for lunch prasad, I heard His Grace Chaitanya Leela prabhu making an important announcement asking us to submit entries for a ‘write-up on IYS 2014 Vrindavan yatra’.I wanted to write even before this announcement was made but changed my mind for some reasons. Anyways, this ‘writing contest’ was a chance I had to pay my gratitude to all Srila Prabhupada, Shri Radha Krishna and all those devotees who organized this yatra.

It was a few months back that we were given the entire details of this yatra and told to deposit the ‘laxmi’, I was hesitant in the beginning because its hard to get off from my job but I got encouraged when a video show and announcement of IYS yatra was made in one of the Prerna youth festival and also Nilakanth prabhu(my friend and BACE resident) convinced me for the same.

4^th February 2014 was the day for which 750 young devotees of ‘ ISKCON Mumbai Chowpatty mandir’ were waiting for as this was the day we started for this very exciting trip to Shri Vrindavan dham and other places in Braj bhoomi, we boarded the train at Kalyan railway station(we were a group of about 15 BACE devotees who reached there with our luggage in Mumbai local train) at 2 PM and occupied well allocated seats, as the train went through, I saw all the devotees carrying their ‘japa bags’ and chanting, we were given prasad and we did kirtan all the way. A group of devotees got down at Bhusaval railway station  and did kirtan on the platform , everyone on the platform looked at us in amaze and were fascinated by the presence of devotees and the sound of kirtan, we got back in the train as the train was about to move. We then honoured Prasad in the train in coach number S-10; khichdi and pickle on a pattal(a plate made of leaves). We had our breakfast, lunch and dinner prasad in train itself.We went off to sleep, it was an extremely cold night in the train and I shivered, I got a ‘kashmiri jacket’ from a devotee who did not need it but still it was hard for me, we reached Mathura junction at noon on 5^th February, we then moved to Shri Vrindavan dham in groups in sharing tempos, we were given wrist badges and grouped systematically, I was allocated a room on the second floor of Chitrakoot ashram in Raman-reti(this is the place where there are big statues of Lord Ganesh and Lord Hanuman) which I shared with three other devotees.

Kusum Sarovar

We took bath and relaxed ourselves after a long train journey, and moved to ISKCON Vrindavan (the Krishna-Balram mandir) for our lunch Prasad which was being served at prasad hall, I had a wonderful ‘gulab-jamun’ but could not have them more in second serve.We then grouped ourselves for ease and convenience ( I was with group number 3) and moved to the great goswami temples of Shri Vrindavan dham.I group was given a wonderful lecture by His Grace Baldev prabhu at a ‘sanskrit college’ which was on the Vrindavan parikrama marg.Most of the boys saw Vrindavan for the first time in their lives(though it was the 30^th time I was there, I guess).We went to Madan-Mohan temple, Kaliya ghat, Keshi ghat, Radha Damodar temple, Radha Gopinath temple, Radha Gokulananda temple and Radha Govind temple, we then moved in buses to ISKCON temple for ‘shayan-darshan’ of the Lordships.

We attended ‘mangal arti’ on 6^th February at ISKCON temple and moved to other places in Braj bhoomi after our morning sadhana.Raval(birth place of Srimati Radharani), Gokul mahavan(childhood pastimes place of Krishna) and Brahmand ghat(place where Krishna showed the whole universe to Mother Yasoda in his mouth). We then came to ISKCON Vrindavan in buses and had ‘pasta’ in our dinner prasad.

The next day was our trip to Barsana, Ter kadamba, Ladli Lal temple and Maan mandir.That night I got a chance to do ‘prasad serving sewa’ and I realized how wonderful it was to serve others then being served by others and service to devotees gives bliss. I had pakodas, khichdi and pickle at the last(after serving 750 devotees) but the satisfaction and joy was unlimited !

Mansi Ganga

9^th February was the last day of this trip (though nearly all of us wanted it to just go on), we started from Vrindavan at 5:30 AM to move towards ‘Giriraj Govardhan’. We started our parikrama from Kusum sarovar.Some of us placed our luggage at the very beautiful  and old temple of Shri Radha Bana-Bihari(this is the place where Krishna braided and decorated Sri Radharani’s hair with flowers).The pujari of this temple was a brahmachari from Scotland and he made sure that all of get one sticker and a pamphlet(they had it in hindi and English) of the temple which narrated the pastimes and importance of this place.As we did the parikrama we were greeted by brijwasis (Radhey ! Radhey !) and other devotees who were doing the parikrama.We halted at many kundas and sarovars before reaching back to Kusum sarovar).All of us ‘dham cleaning sewa’ at Raval, Radha-kund and some other places in Braj; picking up trash which visitors leave in Braj into dustbins and make the whole area more clean.

A brijwasi friend of mine who heard of this yatra was shocked to hear that 750 young men from Mumbai visited Braj bhoomi and that there were no fights , arguments and mismanagements at any point of time, its not easy these days even to travel with 5 people what to speak of so many.He told about this to everyone he knew and told me that even brijwasis were not so dedicated Krishna as we were.

ISKCON Vrindavan temple

The memories of the trip will fade away with time, as I am writing this article I am recollecting the time I spent with 750 young unmarried men of Mumbai who had spent the best four days of their lives in Shri Vrindavan dham.Those dhotis, garlands, kanthis, kurtas and kartals, devotees wearing tilak and the ones without them, all the images flash in my mind like a film, none of us will be there forever but the service we did in this holy land is eternal. Vrindavan is the greatest place in the whiole universe and most fortunate are those souls who serve in Vrinadavan and hear ‘hari-katha’ . The whole trip was fabulous, very well-planned, well-organized and memorable. I am grateful to IYS authorities who made it so amazing. These days will never come again. These four days will never come again. We visited the great lila-sthalis(places where Krishna performed his great pastimes with his devotees) of Braj in buses which were arranged from Chitrakoot ashram.We all got sumptuous Prasad, space and sewa. We did kirtans and heard ‘hari-katha’ or pastimes of the Supreme Lord at a particular place. This whole trip will go down in our lives as a treasure and moments of love for the Supreme Lord.

Please give me feedback at pranjal280@gmail.com