Baelvan Darshan

7 October 2009. Today the parikrama party crossed the Yamuna by boat to go to one of Vraja's main forest called Baelvan. It is a place known to be the bestower of perfection to austerities. And showing how glorious Vraja mandal and the Vrajavasis (especially the Vraja gopis) are, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune Herself left all her fortune to come and perform austerities in this sacred forest. Why? Because she too wants to enter into the Rasa lila of Sri Krishna. Unfortunately, she does not want to accept the position of being a cowherd girl and make cowdung patties and especially to be married to some other gopa so she can be a secret paramour lover of Krishna. Therefore upto now it is said that she is still performing austerities there. And so today we had darshan of her temple, and the remaining trees in what used to be a forest so abundant of Bael trees. It was a bit of a walk from the Yamuna with lots of happy and friendly honeybees buzzing around to welcome us. (Hey, those who came with us, you know what I mean. :)