When I first heard of my nephew's wedding in Faridabad. my only thought was about Krishna. Since Srinidhi's priority was Taj Mahal, we visited Agra first. I shall start with Krishna's Trail and then write about Monument to Love. My excitement and real wait was while stepping into the ‘Punidha Bhoomi’ sacred land of Mathura, Vrindavan and Govardhan where Krishna was born, lived, played, ruled and much more. Every piece of sand here might have changed in the thousands of years. Yet the place carries the vibration and the scared love of Krishna and His Love for Radha. In fact I told the guide at Taj Mahal earlier, with all respect to the uniqueness of the place, beauty of the place and their love, that ‘whatever love we are seeing here in this form is only a trickle from that of Krishna’s love for Radha and for Humanity and Universe, its all a manifestation at different times'. As the guide was a Radha Krishna Devotee himself, he could appreciate this.
Ever since I came to know of the possibility of visiting even to have a glimpse of the places where Krishna had lived his life, my heart jumped with joy. But Srinidhi wanted to stay only at Agra (ITC Mughal is a great place to stay). So we spent less time in Mathura than I'd have liked. It did not matter how much time I could spend in these Punya sthalam and how long I can have darshan or how many temples I could visit. Statistics did not matter to me. What mattered was the unexpected chance to start my ‘Krishna ‘s Trail’ that too with Srinidhi. It was not at all in her agenda of things.
The minute the board said “MATHURA” I requested the driver to stop the car and got down from the car and walked barefoot for some distance. I was truly overwhelmed with joy. Since it turned out to be the time that most temples would have started closing, I chose to first go to ‘Vishram Ghat’ where I took a 45 minutes ride by boat and saw all the important temples before I could visit a few of them. It was memorable. The path was a bit slippery and the general condition of the place was not very good. I felt so much more could be done and ought to be done. The boy who drove the boat was very courteous and well informed about the place. As I have already prayed, Krishna saw to that I visited many places and help was available.
When the boat was sailing peacefully in Yamuna River, we saw Kuns place, Brihu Muni’s Temple, Krishna Mandir, where He was born and many other places. 
I was thrilled to see a spectacular saree being laid to Yamuna Maa, after the devotee’s prayers were answered and their desires fulfilled by Ma, I later learnt that it is called Chunri Manorath ritual. A group of persons had come back to offer Vasthram from this end of the River to the other bank. I was told by the boatman that families bring rolls of many Saris stitched together, usually 101 Saris but sometimes as many as 400 saris stitched together. This long roll of clothing is then taken on multiple boats to the other end of the holy river. The long cloth is held in a way that it looks like the Yamuna is wearing a sari.I was seeing that for the first time and so I had a child-like enthusiasm. I thought all these were only for pictures and TV shows and never thought real people do such prayers and offerings.
After this we went straight to Gowardhan and E rickshaws were a boon. The ride was pretty long. Despite the heat my desire to see and be a part of the Krishna and Radha’s place where they lived, and be part of that even for a minute cooled me and steered me. The temples were filled with devotees but the prayer songs and their chantings and the places themselves were so divine. Divinity written all over the place. Radha and Krishna statues were white and beautiful. Its was wonderful experience. I didn’t have the heart to even waste a minute. So photo clicking was rare.
Some places in Mathura had troublesome pandits chasing you to do this pooja or that and grabbing money. Monkeys roaming outside were a big problem, trying to grab eatables or spectacles. So we had to be careful, but I thought and told a monkey 'even I was you long long ago, and I know how to circumvent/dodge you and escape. We have our own methods'!!
After Gowardhan Malai Darshan, went to Vrindavan. Just had a glimpse of Dawoji Mandir and then to Radha Krishna temple, the main temple. This was a dream come true for me. Never did I think I would visit this place so soon after my retirement in June 2022. I had not planned this trip at all. The music, the melody, the air filled with devotees chanting Radha Krishna Mantra, songs, slokas, talks of elderly, dance in the courtyard, Thulasi garden .....i was jubilant to see all that. Thulasi plants have grown very tall without any organized watering. There was a man sitting and playing flute melodiously, that was quite unexpected and beautiful. There are a lot of stories of miracles and moments happening but Thatha always used to say and I believe, ‘God doesn’t do miracles, it is lesser men who do' Srinidhi accompanied and was full of concern, and thoroughly enjoyed my entire trip, unknown people helping when I needed it - were all miraculous. I could feel and realise God’s presence every moment.
Monument to Love
On 08/09/2022 from Faridabad, after my Nephew’s wedding, Srinidhi and I proceeded straight to Agra around 10.30 am. Since the car had a very good Air Conditioning, the severity of the heat was not felt at all. But when we had to get down at a Petrol Station, the scorching heat hit us with a jolt. I had seen Taj Mahal when I was very young, when I had been to Parthasarathy Mama’s house at Kota, Srinidhi was very eager and keen to see it for the first time. As we were nearing Agra, I was eager to see how so many years would have transformed the place and how it would look now. After a quick check in to the Hotel, we accompanied the Guide who had come to give a detailed study tour of the Monument.
The way to the place was very crowded and congested, much worse than I had expected. It was a slight disappointment. On the contrary my memory back told it was better those days when there wasn’t so much shops and vendors aclogging the streets. I could not help but think of possible ways of changing the place for better, steps that could be taken up so easily to give a better image of our tourist attractions, that too one of the 7 Wonders of the World! An unintentional, unconditional empathy gushed to the Foreign Tourists, though my heart felt very bad for those vendors who have all along taken care of the place even during the peak of Covid epidemic when the place would have been empty. A few drop of tears rushed to my eyes and all I thought I could do to help them was to buy a few things, be liberal with my spending, which I did.
There was a long queue for entering the Monument, the red coloured fort like structures have been add-ons in the near past. So it took us more than half an hour to see the Taj Mahal. Wow, there stood the white beauty, lovely, quite oblivious of all the happenings of the past, present, has stood the test of time , strong and beautiful, giving a majestic, serene, quiet Monalisa kind of peaceful appeal which none can be insensitive to. Its unique beauty and serenity was quite amazing, specially with a single colour of white marble. The gigantic single piece of white wonder stood there like one thousand white elephants, while lions and tigers, all together. The entire building definitely expressed the unconditional, true love this Man, The King Shajahan must have had for his Queen Mumtaj.
Srinidhi was wonder-struck as I was and the guide kept telling a lot of details. I just moved away to quiet corner to absorb the ambience and muse on those times of kings and queens, the beauty of the place, and the pain and the tough times they all would have faced. Of course I kept away from my mind any kind of biased, divisive data or information that could mar internalizing the beauty of this wonderful monument. Hats off to this king. He has announced his love loudly, clearly and boldly with a piece of land and building which has stood the test of time and ups and downs of life then and now.
We had spent 5 full hours inside going to the nook and corner of the place. The guide was was quite well informed and was effusive with his comments. What fascinated me 40 years ago back and now also, was the Quran written on the walls and the wonderful arrangement of the distance and angles in such a fashion that it looked the same size from anywhere. Indeed a Architectural piece of marvel. I recalled my interesting conversations with my friend Bulbul, 31/2 decades back and all the appreciations , since I have a passion for Architecture. Now they do not let any one go inside the basement to reach the Samadhi of Queen Mumtaj. Around that box like structure, there used to be beautifully carved filigree work like curtains around carved in marble, studded with precious stones. I was sharing these details with my daughter. This place must have become a greater fancy for the youngsters as it gives immense scope for wonderful pictures, videos and in turn their DP, Insta Pics etc., which nowadays define their life, life style and achievements. The next gen seems to feel happier with tons and tons of views, likes and comments from friends, foes, relatives and the unknown, rather than an award or merit certificate from school, college or workplace!!
My prayer to Lord Krishna at Agra and Mathura were the same. May it remain with peace, may the place grow better, cleaner, more tourist-friendly and may the people living there lead a good life and enjoy facilities, may the funds allocated to such places percolate to grass root levels. Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan and other places require a lot of infrastructural uplift. It is not as comfortable as we visit places in big cities. Everything is so organised in Tirupathi. These places should reach the pinnacle of glory and should showcase our culture to pass on this great heritage to generations to come. Youngsters should be attracted and so also much more tourists from world over. There is so much to be done, Krishna.
After all these experiences, it took quite some time to reach back to the car and return to Delhi, Hyatt Aero city where we stayed for 2 nights and 3 days for a tour of Delhi and nearby places.
Radha Seshadri
September 2022
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