What the heck is so special about Bankey Bihari temple?
Once a man asked buddha what is their at the end of suffering? Buddha remained silent.
There are many temples in Vrindavan devoted to Lord Krishna but one temple amongst all those stands different and vibes different and that is the oldest one out there — Bankey Bihari temple. The temple is surrounded by many ashrams (monkeys too) and one can stay in these ashrams. The cost is very less. We were 4 people and we stayed there for 2 days. It costed us 1000 INR per day to stay there. The ashrams also serve food in day and night. I had visited many temples in my life till now and seen many statues of Lord Krishna till date but there was something different about the statue present inside this temple. What was different — I don’t know. This is something which cannot be expressed in words. You have to go there and see out yourself. That’s why buddha remained silent cause it is something which cannot be expressed by mere words. You have to figure out for yourself. 2 more temples which are major destination for devotees are Iskcon and Prem Mandir and both of them are very large, spacious, nicely built and contains many statues but I personally felt more connection towards that old bankey bihari temple. I was gazing all the time to the statue of Krishna when I was in that temple and it felt so nice that I visited it again on the next day early morning.
Temple timings are 7 to 12 in morning and 4:30 to 7 in evening. A lot of devotees can be seen from far off on the weekends so if you are planning to visit try to visit on week days. I went on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and the order of difficult to go near the idol increased for me — highest was on Sunday. Also if you are visiting the temple make sure to visit the Radha Rani temple in Barsana cause it is believed that otherwise your visit to Vrindavan is incomplete. And near Barsana is the Nandgaon where Krishna used to stay ~5000 years ago. There you will find a statue of Lord Krishna with his elder brother Balram alongside their then parents NandLal and Yasomati devi.
When visiting the bankey bihari temple take care of your spects and mobile phone cause otherwise the monkeys around the temple will snatch it in a moments time and till the time you realise what just happened the monkey will be gone far off. I’ve seen this happening on Sunday when there was a lot of devotees. If something like this happens with you and the monkey is not far off purchase a banana/frooti and throw it to that monkey and they might give you your item back if you are lucky enough. But don’t you worry, you are in vicinty of bankey bihari’s temple and thakuriji cares for everybody so if anything happen to you leave it to thakurji.
Govardhan is 50kms from Vrindavan and to go there you first have to reach a place called chatira (e-rickshaw will take you there). From chatira there are many autos available to take you to govardhan hill. The amount of devotion people carry for Krishna can be seen here. I ‘ve seen people covering govardhan (21 kms) barefoot in 39°C and not only Indians but foreigners too doing this. It is advisable to cover (parikarma) govardhan hill in evenings in summers.
Language of people belonging from Mathura is very polite and full of love. They are very helpful in nature. Below are some of the images I captured but no image of bankey bihari temple idol. My pixel can’t capture the idol inside bankey bihari temple. And I bet your camera too can’t. No camera in world can. That image of Lord Krishna can only be captured by a true devotee who is present. Now I suppose it’s time I should put down my pen and leave you with your imagination.
