When our friends were here, they of course also visited the sights of Vrindavan. We went down to the Yamuna, as I already told you, they climbed the stairs to the top of the Pagal Baba Temple from where they could get a view over the whole town, they took several trips to the colourful market, they walked through Nidhivan garden and they saw the evening ceremony at Kesi Ghat. They enjoyed their time here and loved visiting all those places. There is however always something that could have made the experience even nicer.
I already told of our short walk down to the Yamuna. We walked down the newly-tarred Parikrama Marg and then turned to a sandy road. I really enjoyed seeing the sand, just as it was everywhere in Vrindavan in my childhood. There were parrots and peacocks and everyone was enchanted by the beauty of nature – until we reached the dirty waters of the Yamuna with dead cows lying in there, everything stinking badly.
Our friends went up the nine floors of the Pagal Baba temple and enjoyed the view from up there, trying to find the Ashram, looking at the Yamuna in the distance and getting a better idea of the geographical situation of Vrindavan. Ramona, who had been with them, told me that on the walls of the complete staircase people had written their names, the dates when they were there, phrases that were supposed to be funny or insults. It is a temple, a holy place, pilgrims are going there – who writes on those walls and why?
When they came home from Nidhivan, the garden in which Krishna is said to dance every night with his loved one, they told of the beautiful trees there. It was nice to walk in their shadow and they marveled at their knotty branches. It is without doubt one of the most pleasant places in Vrindavan. For getting to the peace of the garden however you have to fight off several guides at the entrance who offer to take you through the garden and tell you the story of Krishna there. They insist and can be quite annoying to a first-time visitor. This visitor then walks by the many donation boxes in the garden. My friends commented that a Hindu pilgrim has to really spend a lot of money if he has to donate at each and every of those boxes and temples.
Finally, the best experience: watching the Yamuna Aarti, a fire ceremony, at Kesi Ghat. That is something we recommend to all our visitors and they love sitting there, watching the sun go down and maybe buying a candle and flowers in a little bowl to send it floating down the river. In earlier times everyone came back and told how peaceful the atmosphere there was. They still come back happily and they still enjoy the place there – but the word peaceful is now hardly ever a part of their description. The first people they encounter there are boat drivers who compete with each other to be the first ones to offer a boat ride. Having stopped their advances by simply sitting down and ignoring them, they look out towards the sun – and get irritated by the ugly remains of a bridge that was supposed to be built there but was stopped midway. Luckily now an artificial island in front of that will hide the ugly view. The most disturbing thing at the Ghat however is the sound of several loudspeakers shouting out spiritual songs. If someone was simply singing there, it would be fine but the speaker noise from both sides is too much to feel the peace of that place. People are happiest when there is a power cut – then we hear the word ‘peaceful’ from them again!
All these stories show that people enjoy seeing Vrindavan and going to these places but that they could enjoy it even more were there not those disturbing factors. And those factors are created by human and could be avoided. I know that rivers are dirty in other countries, too, that tourists write on walls of sights all over the world and that there are annoying guides at every tourist attraction, not only here. Why don’t we make our earth a nicer place and stop all this? Imagine you are the one going there, wouldn’t you appreciate more peace and cleanliness? Contribute your part and behave the way you would like others to. I am waiting for the day when our town is a place that I can show to my friends without the feeling that it was so much nicer in former times.
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It is sad that these places where visitors travel to looking for peace are anything but! Pollution has to be one of the worst crimes of humans. We destroy the very same natural beauty that we so value, often, I fear, without even realising it.