```json
{
    "title": "Thoughts On Entering Vrindavana",
    "url": "https://wavesofdevotion.com/2010/10/26/thoughts-on-entering-vrindavana/",
    "datePublished": "2010-10-26",
    "dateModified": "2010-10-26",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "October 14, 2010 Sri Vrindavana Thoughts on entering Vrindavana: As a man dying of thirst in the desert finds an oasis, as a man with an apparently incurable disease finds…",
    "author": "Dhanurdhara Swami",
    "publisher": "Waves of Devotion"
}
```

# Thoughts On Entering Vrindavana

**October 14, 2010**

Sri Vrindavana

Thoughts on entering Vrindavana:

As a man dying of thirst in the desert finds an oasis, as a man with an apparently incurable disease finds the cure… Viswanath Cakravarti describes the feelings of a conditioned soul awakening in Goloka Vrindavana after achieving perfection. Maybe not like that, but I certainly feel relief – great relief – to be in the land of Vraja.

Vrindavana is my home. On entering the cul-de-sac to my Vrindavana place, I see Balaram Baba. He greets me affectionately and insists I immediately take *prasadam*. I have lived here more than half of my life – that's more than any other place. So many friends, so many affectionate greetings, and so many people who love Krishna are here.

I expected to find Vrindavana covered by urban sprawl and all else that Kali offers. Today I don't see it. I see loving souls and the spirit of devotion. I roll in the dust. I bathe in the Yamuna.

I honor Aindra Prabhu. Twice a day I attend the 24 hour *kirtan*. I miss him, but his spirit is there in those determined to take up his mission. Some beautiful *kirtans* continue by his grace.

I vow that while in Vrindavana I will just take food when it comes by Krishna's mercy. Today I am invited for the incomparable *maha prasadam* from the *raja bhoga* cooked by Bhuvanesvara. Heavenly figs unexpectedly arrive sent from my friends in Croatia. And then there is a late afternoon invitation to join Indradyumna Swami for his Radha Govinda *maha prasadam* when he returns from Govardhana *parikrama*. Wow! Homemade ice cream. Milk sent from the *goshalla*. So much *prasadam*. I am forced to honor, not gorge. “No one starves in my village,” Gopal tells Madhavendra Puri at Govinda Kunda. I believe it.

A good welcome this time. I call it happy mercy, but all mercy, whether happy or not, is mercy; it pulls us back to the lotus feet of Krishna. Late morning I walked the *parikrama* path to the Radha Damodar Temple to pray and chant at Their renowned courtyard of sacred tombs (*samadhis*). At Sri Jiva's, a *sadhu* points with a wagging finger of warning at my glasses. My heart drops. I grab them in relief and tuck them away, admonishing myself, “How could I forget to put my glasses away in the very place where monkeys prey on foolish pilgrims in their bananas for glasses scam?” I reflect on my fortune, “How was it possible that I walked the most notorious section of monkey land in Vrindavana with my glasses still intact. Unprecedented!” An unusually good welcome. Happy mercy!