Kusum Sarovar – Goverdan
This is a beautiful lake that is well maintained even till date. Sri Krishna used to pluck the flowers from plants here and place it on Gopikas’ hairs. This was the starting point for our Goverdan giri parikrama walk. There is a small temple for Uddhavar here. When Uddhavar saw the experience that Sri Krishna was giving to all the gopikas, Uddhavar wished and longed for a birth as a plant in Goverdan (as per Bhagavatham)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyxkyE3H8uM
Annakuta Utsav in Goverdan Giri:
This was an attempt towards the recreation of the Anna kuta utsav that preceded the lifting of Goverdan mountain by Sri Krishna to teach Indra deva a lesson. The main feature is to offer variety of food to the Goverdan giridari who was told by Sri Krishna as the one worthy enough to receive all the food items offered by the yadavas rather than Indra deva. The utsav in 2009 was held in the same place in Goverdan called Aniyora where the utsav was held during Sri Krishna’s time. At the spot where Sri Krishna lifted the mountain, there is a black sila that is currently available and can also be seen in the video.
For us to understand what ‘true belief’ the local population has on the sanctity of the place and how much they have internalized the thought of Sri Krishna coming there and lifting the mountain in Dwapara Yuga, we will have to look closely at some of their following actions:
a) The foot of any person cannot touch any part of Goverdan mountain
b) The locals do a ’21 kilometer’ parikrama (walk) in a unique way. They prostrate on the ground, lift their hands above their head, place a stone at the position where their hands reach, get up and go to the place where they have kept the stone and do the same sequence of steps. In this way, they do not ‘walk’ but ‘prostrate’ for the entire ’21 kms’ distance around the circumference of the goverdan giri.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKB2DHu5amM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adX1d40T3hU
Jyotisar – Kurukshetra
This is the beautiful place where the nectar of all our Vedas – The Bhagavad Gita – was recited by our Sri Krishna for the benefit of all of us to tread the path of dharma. While the superficial meaning of the Gita verses might seem to be just pointed towards Arjuna, it does not need too much of brains to realize how each of those words in the Gita is applicable to all of us even in the present Kali Yuga – This has been more than beautifully interpreted and documented in extensive detail by all our poorvacharyas
There is a huge banyan tree and a beautiful chariot monument with Krishna and Arjuna on that in the spot where Sri Krishna decided through his sankalpa to recite the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. It is in this specific Jyotisar location where approximately 3000 yatrikas (including myself) did the parayana of all the 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gita and followed it up with the complete recitation of Vishnu Sahasranamam. It was a thrilling experience with a lot of internal satisfaction of having been given a divine opportunity to participate in this kind of an event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NKS2UhNBLY
Bheesma Ghat – Kurukshetra:
This is the holy place where Vishnu Sahasranamam was told by Bheeshma to Pandavas in the presence of Sri Krishna for the benefit of mortal souls like us which was finally given a seal of approval by Sri Krishna himself. This was done by Bheeshma on a bed of arrows. There is a beautiful monument that has been made in this specific location in Kurukshetra to symbolize this moment that gives us a good picture in our mind and takes it to that time in Dwapara Yuga at the end of Kurukshetra War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4PlNMFE8k
Brindavan – Imli Tala:
The place which has a 5500 years old Tamarind tree – This tree used to be frequented by Sri Krishna along with Gopikas. When sometimes Sri Krishna is grieving not being with Gopikas (grieving – not in a real sense but as one of his leelas to depict his grief in being separated from Jivatmas like us), his body it seems used to get very white. Under that circumstance, if he comes and sits under this tree, immediately he will be flooded with the happy memories in this place with Gopikas, and his body also will subsequently turn back into his normal color – again another of his ‘lilas’ to show how much he longs for all Jivatmas to come, surrender and unite with him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VHgnAoq89M
Brindavan – Kesi Ghat
This is the place where Sri Krishna killed the last of the demons sent by Kamsa. This demon was named Kesi. He came in the form of a horse and was so ferocious in nature that it is mentioned in Bagavatham on seeing him Sage Naradar got so afraid thinking that the entire jagat is going to come down now. But Sri Krishna effortlessly caught hold of this demon in the form of horse and killed him by tearing its mouth apart. Since Sri Krishna had killed the demon Kesi in this place, this is called Kesi Ghat. This is also the reason behind one of the more popular names that we call Sri Hari with – Kesavan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm73ymI1sew
Brindavan – Krishna Balaram Mandir
This is close to the Imli tala place and has very colorful panels highlighting the various rasa leelas of Sri Krishna in his lifetime at Brindavan. It has also a temple with the deities of Sri Krishna, Sri Balaram, Nandagopar and Yashoda (which you can see at the end of the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsFHw1OCm8U
Brindavan – Seva Kunj
This is the place which is frequented by Sri Krishna to be with Gopikas. In the evenings, this is the place where Sri Krishna played around with the Gopikas and danced with them. This place is swarmed with monkeys and we need to be extra careful with their belongings. It is said that after around 5:30PM in the evenings, sound of music is still heard in this place and it is strongly believed that Sri Krishna still comes to this place every night. This is the reason why none of us mortal souls are allowed to be inside this place after around 5:00PM. Curiously, even the monkeys that are lingering around in this place mysteriously disappear only to come back after sun dawns next day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_9FSosn8Os
Brindavan – Dwadasa Aditya Tila
This is the place where Sri Krishna rested after performing Kalinga nardanam. During the lila with the snake Kalinga, Sri Krishna had to be inside the Yamuna river for long times because of the fact that his body became very chill. So, after enacting this lila of controlling the garva of Kalingan snake, he went above a small hill. In order to serve their master, 12 Sooriyas descended to that place and helped Sri Krishna’s body get warm. This is the reason behind this place being called Dwadasa Aditya Tila. Dwadasa = 12 Aditya = Sooriya. It so happened that Sri Krishnas’ body started sweating with the sudden heat and this sweat has become a small “Prascanda Theerta”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW1zqPVElWU
Brindavan – Raman Redy
This is the place where Sri Krishna and Sri Balarama rolled on the floor and played in their childhood. On seeing the locals rolling on the mud floor in this place, we were also pushed to do the same by some strong vibrations in this place and the result of this was an enthralling internal experience thinking that we are performing the act that Sri Krishna had done more than 5000 years back in the same place. This experience cannot be described by words or written down but can only be experienced!! It is also said that on this place is where Sri Krishna did the ‘rasa kreeta’ leela with 16,108 gopikas at the same time – Sri Krishna in this leela gave a picture of he being with all the individual gopikas at the same time…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33USrjOETHE
Nandgaon – Chit ghat
This is the place where Sri Krishna did the gopikas vastra aparan leela – when the gopikas was taking bath in the Yamuna river by keeping their clothes on the river banks, Sri Krishna playfully removed all the clothes and kept it on top of the tree. This led to Gopikas pleading with Sri Krishna to return their clothes to them to protect the modesty. It looks like that lila was enacted by Sri Krishna to enact the mahima of his names as compared to himself – When Sri Krishna was physically near to the gopikas, they had ‘lost’ their clothes to him. But later on in his life, when Draupadi and Sri Krishna was physically separated by a long distance, and when Draupadi called his name sincerely in Dirdhastra’s court, her modesty was saved by Sri Krishna by ‘giving’ clothes to her. That is the mahima of Nama sankirtan and I personally feel that apart from this method in Kali Yuga, there is no better method to catch HIS attention!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW1zqPVElWU
Nandgaon – Ram ghat
This is the place where Sri Balaram with his Kalappai weapon pulled the Yamuna river and changed its course for a very short distance to make it flow closer to the place where he was standing. There is a small temple that is there in this place which is dedicated only to Sri Balaram. Since HE was none other an avatar of Adisesha, the locals here use a lot of non-poisonous snakes to seek alms from the yatris….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Dvsi9K4iE
Nandgaon – Nandabavan
This is the temple that is on top of a small hill where Nandagopar, Yashoda, Sri Krishna, Sri Balaram all are present in a temple. The temple peripherals are gigantic and well kept. If there are any places that have been missed out in the Nandgaon ‘Parikrama’, those places can be seen from this hill temple as a bird’s eye view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4v6j3od984
Nandgaon – Nandakund and Nandabaitak
Nandakund is a small pond where Sri Krishna and Balaram was taught swimming by Nandagopar. Nandabaitak is the place where Nandagopar used to convene all the village elders and consult with them to get ideas on how Sri Krishna can be protected by evil forces dispatched by Kamsa. We also sat down there for a few minutes and thought about how it would have all happened more than 5000 years back in the same place!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsuScBuH2P4
Mathura – Kamsa tila
The remnants of the old palace that was used by Kamsa. On the pretext of welcoming Sri Krishna to Mathura, Kamsa tried to kill him but since the time that has been decided by Sri Krishna had come for Kamsa to leave, Sri Krishna after a battle, killed Kamsa and finished one of his important missions in this avatar. This is the place in which this leela was performed by Sri Krishna.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv2MyGhCK0w
Prabasa Tirtha
This is the place from Sri Krishna after finishing all his leelas on earth left for his Sri Vaikuntam. This event was also a lila enacted by Sri Krishna. Just like there was not a single soul rejoicing at the time of Sri Krishna’s birth in the Mathura jail, there was not a single person who was present at the time by his side when Sri Krishna decided to leave this earth. It was a hunter called Jara who thought of the moving right leg of Sri Krishna to be that of a deer, shot an arrow aiming at that and later realized that he had actually shot an arrow at Sri Krishna and came running down to seek his pardon and accept any punishment that Sri Krishna gave him. On the other hand, since Sri Krishna had already done a sankalpa to leave this place by this kind of an incident, sent the hunter to moksha first and then left for Sri Vaikunta in his physical form from this place. Before this happened, the hunter, Jara, removed the arrow from the right leg and washed it off in the nearby pond called as Prabasa Thirtha. This is the reason that this water is supposed to be so sacred.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k2iV52oa7w
Sarvam Krishnarpanamastu
