Dina said she was feeling better and wanted to take us to a few more places of pilgrimage. We all met early at the MVT gates, and got into our rikshas, ready for anything. I always loved that feeling of getting into the riksha first thing in the morning, knowing that we are going to have an extraodinary experience, but having no idea about what it might be. It was the most exciting thing! Our little group was just Dina, Neem, Kar, and me. We first stopped at Govindaji temple, Dina wasn't feeling that great so just us three went inside. About 20 steps into the temple Neem's glasses were snatched off his face by a big ruly monkey. Right in front of us the monkey just demolished the glasses in about 20 seconds! It looked like it was made of play-doh, the way the monkey just bent it, and twisted it, and chewed it. It was actually really funny. Finally some young boy came and threw some candy at the monkey and got the glasses back, although they weren't really useful anymore.
After we saw the inside of the Govinda temple, we went over the the little temple of Yoga Maya in Rupa Goswami's cave. That place is so powerful! We chanted a little japa and sang a little kirtan in there. It was such an amazing experience, to be doing the same thing that Rupa Goswami did 500 years ago in that very same place. When we got out, we walked around the whole temple and took some pictures. It is definitely one of the most amazing architectually built temples that I have ever seen.
We jumped back into the rikshas and went to see Bramha Kunda, and then to Dhira Samira. That whole area is in the back of Vrindavan, or more towards the Yamuna River, and it is a completely differant atmosphere. It was so much more quiet, no monkeys, and completely peaceful and serene. It was hard to imagine that just a 20 minute or less walk away was the super busy Loi Bazaar! We went to pay our respects to the samadhis of Srinivasa Acharya, Himlata Thakurani, and Ramachandra Kaviraja. It was such a peaceful and quiet place. The riksha drivers didn't even know where it was and when we got there, there was just one lady with her child who was watching over the whole temple area. It was really a beautiful place, quiet courtyard, with a couple of huge trees, and the samadhis on the side, with a platform to sit on in front of them. We sang " Ye Anilo" there, such a wonderful place. After that we found the samadhi of Gauri Das Pandit, and saw the beautiful deity of Shyam Ray. Finally we went to the samadhi and temple of Gopal Guru Goswami. Another incredible place, they gave us really good sweet rice and invited us to stay for lunch, but we decided it would be better not to. We ate the sweet rice though, they always have the best sweet rices at the temples!
Finally we went back for lunch. Dina was pretty exhausted and not feeling that well again, so we decided not to do the kirtans in the evening again. After lunch we just had a relaxing day of walking around the temple, chanting, and looking at the little shops around. I loved those exciting transcendental exploration days, I loved the bhajan days, and I even loved (well didn't mind) the sick days. Vrindavan is just the best place.
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