Jagat

Binode Baba with Pandit.  Well I am back, folks. Radhe Radhe. Barsana is really my best place right now. I feel so natural there. I love the narrow lanes and streets. I love the sandstone stairways that go up to the temple. The upward climb is invigorating and I try to do it without stopping or slowing my gait. As I write I can feel the effects in my upper calves. I also love going on the Parikrama around the hill with Vinode Baba and his entourage. Brahmachala is amazing. The view from Ladili Lal's wide deck is like a glow of orange brown effulgence in the orange setting sun sky. When you walk along the ridge from Maan Mandir towards the Jaipur temple, with all these shriveled trees and the skinny monkeys it seems to shimmer with a divine luster. The monkeys run like mad when Vinode Baba comes disttributing his goodies -- sweets and chapatis. I don't think there is that much food on the mountain. The monkeys in Barsana are much smaller than their cousins in Vrinda...

It rained during the night quite heavily. I had been sleeping on the roof in the open, so I had to escape downstairs where most of the other guests and some ashram devotees sleep. The air was cool and the fans running so I did not sleep very well. This was the first time that I slept there. An alarm went off, a rather gentle one, at about 4.30. I groggily struggled to stand up and gather my things, thinking I would go somewhere back to sleep as soon as I could. Suddenly I saw Binode Baba standing at the edge of the veranda with a couple of disciples, putting a plastic shower cap on over his dreadlocks. Then the entire group walked out the front gate to take bath in Priyaji Kund. Last time I was here, nobody took bath in Priyaji Kund. Even thought the Braj Vikas Trust had done a nice, tasteful renovation of the kund a few years ago, it face all the typical problems of Braja waterbodies. The water level was low, the water was stagnant and full of algae, and people and the wind h...