The restaurant’s owner, besides the main\u00a0hospitality business, also was an entrepreneur, “recycling” used glass bottles into beautiful mugs and wine glasses. Impressed by the uniqueness of the product, we placed a few orders with his company – Reciclar.<\/p>\n December 23.<\/p>\n At 8 am, a car with a driver was waiting outside to take us to Mathura, Vrindavan and eventually to Agra. I hired Four Wheel Drive India Pvt<\/a>, based on the reviews I read on tripadvisor<\/a>. For two days of unlimited mileage and destination, all tolls and taxes included – Rs.10,000. Our driver was careful and very attentive; surprisingly, he neither spoke English nor knew the way to and around Mathura or Vrindavan, as he kept stoping and asking for directions every so often.<\/p>\n Due to thick fog, descending on Delhi in winer months, we left on a journey much later than we planned, and by the time we reached Vrindavan, it was already noon.<\/p>\n Both, Mathura<\/a> and Vrindavan<\/a> are intimately connected to one of the three main gods of Hinduism –\u00a0Lord Krishna<\/a>. Mathura, is a place where Krishna was born, and Vrindavan is where he spent his childhood. They say that Krishna never leaves Vrindavan, thus it is a transcendental place and everybody who goes there become transcendentally purified.\u00a0\u00a0 Vrindavan is an ancient place and an important pilgrimage site.\u00a0 It has over 5,000 temples but more importantly, it hosts the world’s largest Hare Krishna<\/a> community with many millions of\u00a0devotees of Radha Krishna <\/a>visiting this place\u00a0 every year. Instead of usual “Nameste”, you hear “Hare Krishna” as a greeting and farewell.<\/p>\n Because all temples in both Vrindavan and Mathura are closed between noon and 4 pm, we arrived in time to check out only Maa Vaishno Devi Ashram<\/a>, more religious Disney Park than a temple, with a huge God sitting on the top of the mountain. Inside, after completing a long walk around the artificially created underground caves, we were given the tikas and lucky coins to take with us.<\/p>\n Further into the town, we stopped by the famous ISKCON temple (Krishna Balaram Temple<\/a>), which is accessed by the beautiful marble gate, serving as a tomb of Swami Pradhupada<\/a> (1896-1977), the founder of the Hare Krishna Organization. The Temple also serves as\u00a0 the International Society for Krishna Consciousness which explains large number of Western people, including Russians, wandering around the premises.\u00a0 After paying our respect to the deity of the temple (and being asked for Rs.1000 donation) we were ushered out, because the temple was closing for a break.<\/p>\n Outside, by the book stalls, a Russian vendor struck up a conversation with me. She was an interesting lady from St. Petersburg who moved to Vrindavan over 15 years ago. I must admit that I learned more about Krishna and Hinduism in 20 minutes conversation with her than from a few books I read prior to my visit to India. I guess, Hinduism requires a personal touch.<\/p>\n Vrindavan had so many more temples to see (Banke Bihari Temple<\/a>, Sri Radha Raman Mandir<\/a>, Rangji Temple<\/a> and of course, the famous Govind Dev Temple <\/a>built in 1590), but because we were time constrained, we optioned to drive to Mathura instead of waiting for 4 hours for all other temples to open.<\/p>\n Mathura is a birth place of Lord Krishna (who is the 9th re-incarnation of god Vishnu) and one of the Hinduism’s seven holy cities. The city is ancient and it was mentioned in the oldest India epic, the Ramayana<\/a>, dating back to 1,600 BC. Just like in Varanasi, where everything is centered around Lord Shiva, in Mathura, everything is about Krishna. Even though there is a large temple (Shri Krishna Jamna-Bhoomi<\/a>) built in order to commemorate the place of Krishna’s birth (a prison cell, to be exact), there are, in fact, a few places that have a claim for his birth – Dwarkadheesh Temple<\/a> near the Ghats is one of them.<\/p>\n At first, we wanted to check out the local Archeological Museum<\/a>, however, it was closed (Monday); then, we drove to the entrance to the old city and Ghats, where we left the car and walked into the ancient streets of Mathura.<\/p>\n As Dimi pointed a few hours later, it felt as if we were walking through a medieval town – the ambience, setting, architecture, people, clothes, merchandise they were selling, curious smiles.\u00a0 We walked to the Vishram Ghat<\/a> and I performed my first puja<\/a>. I was taken by the puja master to the bank of Yamuna River<\/a>, carrying with me a little pot with flowers, rice, candle and color paste. The master asked me to repeat the words after him, and\u00a0I did, however, the meaning of the recitation remains a secret to me. At some point, along with chanting, I was ordered to throw the rose petals into the river and set the candle afloat. After marking another tikka<\/a> on my forehead, the Master rushed to Dimi to demand his Rs.100 for the ceremony.<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/image23-1024x768.jpg\")
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