10 Reasons to Visit Vrindavan, India

Though I haven't visited Vrindavan yet, I can think of 10 glorious reasons to go, in random order:

1. It's a different world (so I've been told).
2. Wonderful, vegetarian food.
3. Marketplaces filled with goodies that make women giddy (e.g., colorful clothes, jewelry, handmade goods).
4. Nearly two weeks of living in an ashram (temple/church) with daily routines of prayer, worship, and meditation.
5. Riding/surviving rickshaw rides.
6. Temples on every corner (there's nearly 5,000 in Vrindavan) much like the shopping on every corner we have in America.
7. Visiting the nonprofit organization Food for Life and seeing a completely different side of life (extreme poverty, lack of opportunities and education).
8. The monkeys. Need I say more?
9. No cell phone and no computer (save for the brief visits to the Internet cafe).
10. The experience of a lifetime!


Most of all, Vrindavan is a spiritual oasis poised for sharing its warmth with weary pilgrims:

• "O friend, please control your mind and senses and go and live in Vrndavana, which is a mine of nectar, and which is so glorious that even millions of books by the greatest poets and philosophers cannot describe a single ray of light from the host of the jewels of its virtues."
• "May faultless Vrndavana, which transforms sinners into saints, protect me ... and dry up the multitude of my terrible sins.

from Sri Vrndavana Mahimamrta, Sataka One, 35 and 39 

Traveling to India may not be feasible for everyone, so where do you go when you need (mental, physical, and/or spiritual) renewal?

Photo Credit: Kusuma Sarovar Ghat