Shri Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan
Shri Banke Bihari Mandir (Hindu temple) is one of the most famous temples in Vrindavan. Not only is the temple beautiful and enchanting, the story behind it is quite fascinating as well.
According to the legend, the temple was initially founded by Swami Haridas ji, who was born in 1478AD. at Haridaspur, near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. Later he moved to Nidhivan (in Vrindavan), to practice music and meditation.
One day his disciples entered Kunj (where Haridas ji use to meditate), but instead of seeing anything, they were blinded by an intense bright light. When Swami Haridas ji heard about this, he went to the Kunj and prayed to the lord to appear in front of his disciples. Obliging his request, Lord Krishan appeared along with his wife, Radha.
The beauty of the couple was so enchanting that people present there, forgot to even blink their eyes! Upon seeing this, Swami Haridas ji requested the divine couple to take a single form and also requested them that he wanted his beloved lord to be always in front of his eyes. Granting him both his wishes, Lord Krishna and Radha turned themselves into one single black wooden idol, the same one that is present in the temple today.
The charm and beauty of Shri Banke Bihari ji is the only reason why the ‘darshan’ in the temple is never continuous but is broken by curtain drawn on him regularly. It is also believed that if one stares long enough into the eyes of the statue, the person would lose his self consciousness!
Due to this, no one is allowed to take the photographs of the statue and because of this; one can not shoot photographs/videos during darshan time. However in the afternoon the temple and door to the sanctum is closed for 5 hours, at this time, one can take special permission to shoot photographs inside the temple.
Here are few of the photographs I managed to click during my visit:
Getting there: Vrindavan is located 145kms from Delhi and you can take the following route to reach there: Delhi - Faridabad - Palwal - Kosi – Vrindavan. There are plenty of tourist as well as local buses which play on this route. In case you wish to take a train, you would have to take one to Mathura and then take a bus to Vrindavan.
Temple timings during summer (effective, 2 days after holi):
Add one hour to the timing for winter time, which is applicable 2 days after Diwali.
Opening: 7:45AM
Shringar: 8:00AM
Rajbhog: 11:00-11:30AM
Rajbhog Aarti and closing: 12:00PM
Subtract one hour from the timing for winter time, which is applicable 2 days after Diwali.
Opening: 5:30PM
Shayan Bhog: 8:30-9:00PM
Shayan Aarti and closing: 9:30PM
Ps. No one is allowed to enter during any of the bhogs.
Thank you so much for the pictures and the information. I visited this temple in September and had never heard the origins and explanations. Wish you had
more pictures. I loved the energy inside the temple and wished I could have
stayed there for hours. The people were so enraptured.
Thanks M Perdue, I have a few more photographs, will upload them in a day for two. Couldn’t click a lot of them since I didn’t wanted to use flash in the temple and we hadn’t taken a “official permission”, so we could only take photographs for a short while.
you dont have any official permission to click pictures in the temple even no religious channels are allowed to click pictures so next time dont click any………
Why is that?
It’s not like we tried to capture photographs of Shri Banke Bihari ji, which is prohibited. This is the reason why we had gone there again in the afternoon, because at that time the doors to the sanctum are closed.
Photographing of other parts of the temple isn’t prohibited, though due to all the bureaucratic shackles are country is under, one needs to take “official permission” from people who don’t even sit in the temple! Of course had we known it in the first place, we would have gotten the official permission as well (doesn’t take much to do that), which I will do the next time I go there.
Hi,
First really nice photographs there. Just wanted to tell you. Rukmani was Lord Krishna’s wife and not Radha.
Radha and Krishna were lovers but they didn’t marry. Though Krishna gave a vardan to Radha that her name will be taken with Krishna’s name.
Also yes photography is not allowed in the temples out there. There are many other temples and places you can explore like Angrezon ka Mandir, Nearby Jamuna River and also Govardhan Parvat.
My grandmother & grandfather and dad’s family belongs to Mathura/Vrindavan and my grandfather’s house is still there in Vrindavan so i visit the place really very often…
Regards
Priyam
it is written and said also they were secrately married in bhandir van in brij that place is still present
shri radhe
RADHE RADHE,
JAI SRI RADHE.
JAI SRI BANKE BIHARI LAL KI.
I AM FROM DELHI. ON 9-JULY 2008, I VISITED SRI BANKE BIHARI MANDIR, VRINDAVAN WITH MY FAMILY. I WAS MUCH DISTURBED TO SEE THAT IN SUCH A HIGHLY SACRED PLACE LIKE VRINDAVAN, TODAY’s KALYUGI PEOPLE USE THE WORD ‘CHUTIYA’ SO OFTEN IN THEIR USUAL LANGUAGE. IF PEOPLE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE OF NOBLE DEVOTEES, AT LEAST THEY SHOULD NOT USE THE ABUSIVE WORDS ‘CHUTIYA’ AGAINST THEM ON THEIR BACK.
I WOULD VERY HUMBLY REQUEST YOU TO PLEASE TAKE STRICT ACTIONS AGAINST SUCH DIRTY-MINDED PEOPLE SO AS TO CREATE A HIGHLY KRISHNA-CONSCIOUS ATMOSPHERE IN VRINDAVAN.
THANKING YOU,
RADHE RADHE,
JAI SRI RADHE,
BOLO SRI VRINDAVAN BIHARI LAL KI JAI
JAI JAI SRI RADHE………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
JAI SRI RADHE
Banke Bihari Temple website has quite an elaborate collection of photographs. Of course the charming Lord Shri Banke Bihariji remains elusive on their photogallery, apparently its said that Lord himself doesn’t like the flash. Meanwhile don’t forget to check out the Hariyali Teej photographs, they remain my personal favorite.
And of course you guys can read through history and other relevant literature available thereon. Check it out:
http://www.bihariji.org
We live overseas and on our trip we took our 3 yo son for darshan, first visit to this temple for us too.The pundit in Temple was really foul mouthed and ill tempered person. My son accidentally went on the stage like area and just wanted to see Bihari ji as he could not understand where is Bihariji’s face in all the glitter and decoration. I was trying to tell him where to look and this pundit came and shoved both of us really hard with such rude commentsthat we were startled. He should have some courtesy toward an innocent child.Our relatives in Delhi visit temple often and I hear that pundit is still there. No wonder there is a decline of temple visit among educated youth.
And I think all this hoopla about not allowing pictures is just to encourage visitors to come for darshan to help maintain temple and religion. In some temples, the pundit wont even let you stand for 2 minutes in front of murti-personal experience.They just shove you ahead.
That’s really bad, Pundit or not, no one has the right to behave in such manner. However did you lodge an official complaint or any thing of that sort? Because without complaints, I don’t think temple trust can take action against such rude people, even if they know how they behave.