Vrindavan -- The Forest Where Krishna Grew Up

Krishna was born in Mathura and carried across the Yamuna as a newborn to Gokula, where Nanda and Yashoda raised him. But Gokula soon became dangerous: one demon after another, sent by Kamsa, came for the child. The elders of the cowherds held a council, and the wise Upananda proposed that they leave for a forest he knew, rich in grass for the cattle, with sacred hills and fresh woods -- Vrindavan. They loaded their carts and moved, settling in a half-moon camp of wagons, and there Krishna and Balarama grew up herding calves.

The Bhagavata says that when the two boys saw Vrindavan, Govardhan and the sandy banks of the Yamuna, their joy was boundless. Much of what Hindus remember of Krishna's childhood -- the stealing of butter, the subduing of Kaliya, the lifting of Govardhan, the Rasa dance, the flute calling the gopis -- happens here, in the forest and pastures of Vraja.

The name means "the forest of Vrinda", and Vrinda is another name of tulsi, the holy basil sacred to Vishnu: Vrindavan is the tulsi forest. Around it lies Braj or Vraja, the wider land of Krishna's youth, covering Mathura, Gokula, Govardhan, Barsana -- Radha's village -- Nandgaon and many smaller sites, each linked to an episode of his childhood.

The Vrindavan pilgrims see today is, in its present form, largely the work of the sixteenth century. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Bengal visited around 1515, and sent his followers to recover the sacred places of Krishna's life, many of them forgotten. Six of them, the Goswamis of Vrindavan -- among them the brothers Rupa and Sanatana -- settled there, identified the sites, wrote the theology of the Gaudiya tradition, and founded temples. Other traditions came too: Swami Haridas, the musician-saint, and the Vallabha and Nimbarka schools all made Vrindavan their centre.

For devotees, Vrindavan is more than a place on a map. In the theology of the Gaudiya and other Krishna traditions, the earthly Vrindavan is the reflection of an eternal Vrindavan, the realm where Krishna's play with his devotees never ends. That is why people go there not only to see where things happened but to feel that they are still happening -- in the kirtan that fills the temples, the cry of "Radhe Radhe" with which residents greet one another, and the festivals, above all Holi and Janmashtami, that draw enormous crowds. As the Bhagavata's two boys found on their first day, the joy of the place is the point.