It is customary for devotees to walk around the town of Vrindavana.
There is a parikrama path that goes around the town. This path is one
street over from the ISKCON temple. It usually takes two to three hours
to go around Vrindavana. The parikrama path is 10 km (6 miles). Some
of the places passed on the way are: Mohana Ter, Kaliya Ghata, Madana
Mohana Temple, Imli Tala, Sringara Vat, and Keshi Ghata.
The main day that people do parikrama of Vrindavana is on Ekadasi (the
eleventh day of the waxing and waning moon). It is customary to do this
walk with bare feet, which is fairly painless, even for one who never
walks in bare feet.
If you start parikrama on the main road in front of the ISKCON temple
and the parikrama path near the Krishna Balarama Temple, you will walk
about six minutes (440m) and you then reach the Krishna-Balarama tree.
Most devotees circle this tree and then continue on the path. You then
proceed straight on the path for another minute and a half (120m), and
you make a left and an immediate right. You then walk another three
minutes and on your left is Gautam Rishi's Ashrama and on the right
is Varaha Ghata. You walk another 50m and you reach a T intersection
(the road ends). You make a right here and follow the dirt path. After
about five minutes you can see the beautiful garden on the ISKCON Goshala
(cow barn) land on the right. After another minute you pass the cows
protected by ISKCON on your right. You then walk another 400m (5 minutes)
and you can see the large red sandstone temple tower of the Mandana
Mohana Temple.
After you see this temple, Kaliya Ghata is another minute and a half
(180m) away, on your right. After another two or three minutes (200m),
you are next to the Madana Mohana temple. You then walk another km (6/10
of a mile, 15 minutes), and you then go over a small wooden bridge.
You then keep following the path for another 800m (half a mile, 12 minutes)
and on your right is Imli Tala. There is a yellow wall around Imli Tala
and you can see the Imli Tala tree through the gate of this wall. You
then continue on the path for another three minutes (240m), and Sringara
Vata is on your right. To get to Sringara Vata you go up some steps
on your right, between a small ghata tower and a small concrete temple.
If you reach the place with the path becomes thin, you just passed Sringara
Vata. You then continue for another six minutes (400m) and you come
to the build-up red sandstone ghata area. This is the Keshi Ghata area.
After about five minutes (330m) the path makes a right and a quick left.
The road then comes to another path in about 100m and you make a left
and a quick right. After about a half km (1/3 mile) the path becomes
a bit tricky. Some people go to the left and do not go through the town
at all. Others go right and then left and pass some interesting temples
including the Tekari Rani temple. There is a Jagannatha temple in this
area, with beautiful Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra Deities.
You then walk along the path with some temples and ashrams on your right
and wilderness on your left. You follow the path for over a km and a
half (over a mile). The road turns from hard sand to a smooth brick
road. The road then turns to the right. You just follow the brick road
around. When the road turns, there is also a dirt road that goes straight.
About three minutes (220m) after the road turns, there is a small temple
(4 by 4 feet), just off the path on the right, with a Deity of Lord
Caitanya in it. This temple is said to mark the place where Lord Caitanya
sat when He came to Vrindavana.
You then continue on the path for another km (6/10 mile, 15 minutes).
At this point the path becomes a little tricky. You reach a fork in
the path, where one path goes straight towards Mathura and the other
turns right. You take the right path. At this place there is a water
pump on the left and a lamp post on the right. After another eight minutes
(half a km) you come to a paved road which you follow to the left. You
then follow this road for another 2 km (1.2 miles) going over some railway
tracks until you reach the Mathura-Vrindavana road. You cross this road
and then go another km until you reach the end of the parikrama.
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