Mathura & Vrindavan , U.P.

On 11th Nov 2021 at 12.30 noon we checked out hotel Radisson, Agra and headed towards Mathura.  Agra - Mathura distance is 60 kms.  We had lunch on the way and reached Mathura at 2.30 PM. Checked in hotel Gowardhan Paradise and at 4 PM went to Shrikrishna Janmabhoomi Temple by auto.  You have to keep mobiles, camera, your bags at clock room with a nominal charges. Experienced too much crowd at the temple.  But awesome RadhaaKrishna Idols.  All over monkeys.  Opposite side there is a cave. If  you go through cave, you can revise knowledge about Krishna (zakiya).  Beautiful campus and beautiful Temple. You can find large number of shops outside and inside temple complex.  We drank famous Mathura Lassi.  Good taste. These temples are built at the location where Krishna is believed to be born. There is a prison cell where Lord Krishna was born (Janmashtan). One of the most holiest place. The place has held religious significance since the 6th century BC.[The temples were destroyed multiple times throughout the history, most recently by the emperor Aurangzeb in 1670. He erected the Eidgah mosque there, which still stands. In 20th century, the new temple complex adjacent the mosque was built with the financial help from industrialists containing the Keshavdeva temple, the Garbha Griha temple at the birthplace and the Bhagavata Bhavan.  There is high security at the temple.  A light music of Radhe Radhe is continuously on, throughout the temple premises which feels very peaceful and blissful.  After darshan of Keshavdeva temple and Janmabhoomi Sthan we went to Dwarkadhish temple.
Dwarkadhish temple is one of the oldest temple in Mathura near Yamuna river.  It is about 3.5 km away from railway station.  You can easily get auto or cycle rickshaw.  It is in crowded place of Mathura and when we visited there are lots of people.  In this historic temple, Lord Krishna is worshipped in his Dwarkanath or Dwarkadhish form.  It is said that it is Mathura's most beautiful temple known throughout the country for its ornate construction and murals. Lord Dwarkadheesh sits like a black marble idol in the shrine. The temple has a large premises with the main building enclosed by a magnificently carved rajasthani style entrance with steep steps leading to temple courtyard.  There are a plethora of stunning ceiling paintings depicting various elements of the Lord's life. In addition, the beautiful Rajasthani architectural patterns and craftsmanship make the complex appear even more majestic. Then we went to Vishram Ghat. Vishram Ghat is a main ghat, a bath and worship place, on the banks of river Yamuna in Mathura. Lord Krishna is said to have rested at this place after killing Kansa. Though it is a holy place, it is not clean and people are dumping everything into the river.  Then we returned hotel by cycle rickshaw.

On 12th November 21 we hired a rickshaw at Rs.500/- which took us Mathura to Vrindavan and back to Mathura. (As roads of Mathura are very narrow and car can hardly passes through it, we didn't take risk). As we want to see lighting of Prem Mandir we started late at 4PM. AT 5 PM we reached at ISKCON temple Vrindavan.  The temple is dedicated to Hindu Gods Krishna and Balarama. It is one of the major ISKCON Temples in the world.  At the entrance of the complex  there is samadhi shrine (mausoleum) of Bhaktivedanta  Swami Prabhupada built of pure white marble. Good, clean and neat place to worship.  Rest rooms are available. At the time of Aarti we noticed large number of people, huge crowd dancing, vibing  including foreigners and it's all is just so positive.. The crowd's are roaring. The temple has  divine vibes. If you are spiritual it is a must visit place.   We ate mango rasmalai at Govinda's  inside the temple complex, which was awesome. There are shops of eatables and others inside the temple complex.  At the gate they are distributing holy books for free. After attending aarti at ISKCON temple autowala took us to Prem Mandir.
Prem Mandir (The Temple of Love) is a Hindu temple in Vrindavan, Mathura, U.P. It is maintained by Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, an international non-profit, educational, spiritual, charitable trust. The complex is a 55-acre site on the outskirts of Vrindavan. It is dedicated to Radha Krishna on the first level and Sita Ram on the second level. Surrounded by beautiful gardens and fountains, the temple complex has life-size depictions of four leelas of Shri Krishna – Jhulan leela, Govardhan leela, Raas leela and Kaliya Naag leela. It took around 1000 artists about 12 years to build the complex. The constrution cost of the Prem Mandir was 150 crore rupees ($23 million). Prem Mandir is constructed entirely of  Italian marble. Numerous portraits of Radha Krishna Leela and the miracles of Lord Krishna, can be found inside the temple. Visiting Prem Mandir is totally outstanding and fantastic experience for me. In the night colourful light make it look tremendously beautiful. We specially went to see the night view and the experience of lighting effects make it more beautiful.
It is a beautifully constructed, very pious, neat and clean temple.  If someone go there he/she will fall in love with this temple and for sure would like to visit again. No entry fee and can take photographs, videos outsides.  At 9.30 PM we came back to hotel Gowardhan Paradise.

On 13 November 21 we preferred to stay indoors and in the evening did a big shopping of jackets, woollen sweaters, thermals at nearby shop for we all as now we are planning to head towards Simla, Manali, Khajjiar, Jammu Kashmir etc.