Sri Krishna Balarama Temple (ISKCON) in Vrindavan

      The Sri Krishna Balarama Temple is located at the entrance of the holy city of Vrindavan. It is believed that Krishna and Balarama used to come to this part of Vrindavan with their cowherd friends and cattle for grazing, This is known as Go-charana lila. This temple was built by ISKCON and is one of the biggest, cleanest, and most beautiful temples in Vrindavan, His divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada established this temple in 1976 on Ram Navami.

ISCON Krishna Balarama Temple in Vrindavan

      The temple complex has many buildings, each built with beautiful white marble. As I entered the main gate, I saw two huge stairways on either side of the main building. I took the stairs on the right, which led me to a room at the top. This room had huge black and white photographs depicting different incidents from Srila Prabhupada's life and his teachings.

      The building on the left houses the samadhi of Swami Prabhupada. This is where his body was laid to rest when he passed away in 1977. His house has been turned into a museum. There is a beautiful black statue of Swami Prabhupada at the centre of the samadhi chamber. His body was placed directly below the statue.

      Outside this room, there were stairs that took me to another room at the top. This room had many sculptures made of black stone with framed inscriptions in black on a golden background. All inscriptions were related to the qualities of a spiritual master. The top room and the samadhi room below share a common ceiling so from the top room, when I peered down, I could see the samadhi below.

      As I walked past these two buildings, I came across a huge brown gate with a huge bell hanging at the top. Walking past this huge gate, I found myself inside a big inner courtyard. On the left, there was a food stall that served prasada and to my right, I saw a book stall that sold all the books published by ISKCON and a gift shop that sold articles like T-shirts, pictures, key chains and many gift articles all centred around Lord Krishna.

      In front of these shops is an open courtyard. On the other side, there are three altars. The first altar on the left has white idols of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda, popularly known as Gaura and Nitai. In front of these idols are idols of Srila Prabhupada on the left and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Goswami on the right. The centre altar has a black idol of Krishna and a white idol of Balarama. A small Tulsi plant is kept right at the front. The altar on the right has a white idol of Radha and a black idol of Shyamsundara (Krishna). There are also idols of Radha's sakis, Lalitha and Vishaka, fanning Radha and Krishna.

      To the left of the courtyard, there is a statue of Srila Prabhupada. Along the walls of the courtyard are paintings that reminded me of the murals in Ajanta caves. Srila Prabhupada had encouraged the devotees to sing and dance while chanting the holy names of the Lord and I could see his legacy alive even today. I saw numerous devotees singing and dancing in the courtyard. Chants of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare' filled the air. One striking feature of this temple complex is the high level of cleanliness. It is definitely one of the cleanest temples in Vrindavan.