History, Importance, Timings, Festival Celebration, Architecture, Interesting Facts and Travel Guide of Banke Bihari Mandir, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India
Shri Banke Bihariji temple of Lord Krishna is located in Vrindavan in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. Bankey Bihari Mandir is one of the most holy place of Vrindavan and among the 7 shrine of Thakur of Vrindavan, The temple is located near to the Radha vallabha temple. Interestingly, people considered Banke Bihari temple and Radha Vallabha temple to be the two eyes of Vrindavan. One is incomplete without the other. Bankey Bihari Ji was originally worshipped at Nidhivana by the great saint cum poet cum classical musician Haridas Swami. Bankey means “bent in three places” and Bihari means “supreme enjoyer.” The image of Lord Krishna stands in the Tribhanga posture which means while Lord Krishna playing the flute, his right knee is bent across the left one and the right hand holds the flute. This is how Lord Krishna got the name of Banke Bihariji and sometime called Kunj Vihari also. Bankey bihari ji is worshiped here in entire vrindavan and looked after as small child.
The history of temple and unique idol of Bihariji is closely associated with Swami Haridas the guru of Tansen and was a highly ardent devotee of Lord Krishna and Radharani. He spent most of his hours in divine contemplation of the eternal couple in the grooves of Nidhivan. He saw his cherished deity Shri Banke Bihari as his own child. The lineage of Swami Haridas traces back to Gargacharya who conducted the naming ceremony of the two Lords, Krishna – Balarama. Swami Haridasji was born to Shri Ashudhir and his wife Smt Gangadevi on the day of Radha Ashtami in small village Haridaspur, near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that the Haridasji was the reincarnation of Lalita Sakhi, the principal friend of Shrimati Radharani. From the childhood age Haridas was inclined towards the spirituality. It is believed that the idol of Bihariji installed in the Shri Banke Bihari Mandir was granted to Swami Haridas by the celestial couple Shyama-Shyam themselves.
Haridas had left his village and moved to dense forest of Vrindavan, which is now famous as Nidhivan. Here Haridasji spent his time in meditation, composing and singing the song in praise of Lord Krishna and practicing music. He choose this way of Sadhana and enjoyed the pleasure of closeness of Lord. Once his disciples wanted to visit the place Kunj with permission. Here legendary incident happen, once they enter Kunj, instead of seeing anything they were almost blinded by intense light at whole place. Swamiji reached here once came to know this and he requested lord to appeared in person with his divine consort. With pleasure lord Krishna and Radharani appeared in front of all devotees. It is believed that all of them are so stunned by beauty of the Lord and his consort, that they couldn’t even blink their eyes and turned like stone statues. Everyone wanted to see the lord forever in front of them thus Swami Haridasji requested both of them to take a single form, this is how the beautiful black idol was placed here in Nidhivan.
The charm and beauty of Shri Banke Bihariji is the only reason why the ‘darshan’ in the temple is never continuous but is broken by the curtain drawn on him regularly. It is also said that if one stares long enough into the eyes of Shri Banke Bihariji, the person would lose self-consciousness. Initially the deity was installed in a temple close to the first appearance in Nidhivan. The present temple presenting the glory of Bihariji was constructed in 1862 AD in Rajasthani style of architecture.
The deity of the Banke Bihari has another tales in appearance. On the request of his disciples, Swami Haridas with a heart full of emotion sang the bhajan “Mai ri sahaj jori pragat bhai ''. Pleased by his devotion, Sri Radha Krishna revealed their form to the assembled devotees.
The most spectacular thing about the temple is the curtains are usually closed. When the devotees come to seek the blessings, the curtains are being opened and within no time they are closed again. It is said that from the last 200 years the Pratha has been followed. It is said that the Queen of Karoli who was a great devotee of Shri Krishna, the Queen would come to Vrindavan from Karoli by walking without chappals. Since they were great devotees of the Lord, they used to visit the temple many times in a year but once when they arrived in the temple, when they were offering the prayers, they told the God to come to Karoli every day so that they can have the blessings of the Lord every day. The Lord was much moved by their devotion and love and so-called prayers. Lord told the Queens if you want so I will come. The queens were very excited by hearing this and they went off to Karoli and Krishna walked them behind the Karoli. When they were telling the whole story to the king. The king did not believe that the deity could come. But Krishna came along with queens just because of their devotion. After all the rituals performed by the queens, Krishna was heading back to the Vrindavan. The devotees denied him to not go back to Vrindavan and started begging. The Lord then decided to stay back at Karoli. But when the Vrindavan Vasi came to know about this they were not happy by listening to this. Searching for the Lord the Vrindavan Vasi reached Karoli and they also started begging to the Lord to return back. So, in one night without informing everyone Krishna left for Vrindavan. So the Seva kartas are anxious that if any devotee makes eye contact with Lord and pleads to come with them and Lord may even leave them and go so they always close the curtains.
Other interesting legend associated with this place with king Akbar and Tansen who had visited here and met the Haridas Swami. Shri Ramkrishna Paramhans had also visited and feel the extreme high spiritual aura here. Also it is believed that he felt like personally meeting with supreme lord Shri Krishna.
The temple Sewa is performed in a unique way. It is performed in three parts every day i.e., Shringar, Rajbhog and Shayan. The temple doesn’t have the tradition of Mangala Arti. The reason for not doing Mangala Arti is as Haridas did not want to disturb his child in the morning. The Janmashtami and Radha Ashtami are very well celebrated every year with thousands of devotees being present in the Utsav.
Entire Vrindavan is full of holy places and temples, thus along with the Prem Mandir, you must place to visit these temples as well. Few well known are Shri Banke Bihari Temple, RangNath Temple, Jaipur Temple, ISCON Krishan-Balram Temple, Dau ji Temple, Ashta Sakhi Temple, Radha Vallabh, Vrindavan Bihari, Sewa Kunj, Nidhi Van etc. Also you can plan to visit Sapt devalayas or Seven holy place which are established by followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, these seven temples are Govind Dev Temple, Radha Gopinath Temple, Madan Mohan Temple, Radha Raman Temple, Radha Damodar Temple, Radha ShyamSundra Temple, Gokulanand Temple.
The best time to visit Banke Bihari Mandir is between October and March when weather is pleasant and during festival like Holi and Janmashtami which are celebrated with great zeal. Vrindaban is the popular place to visit during the Holi and especially Banke Bihari temple is very popular spot for Rangotsav.
Darshan and Aarti timing of Bankey Bihariji Temple is as below.
During Winter season, Darshan starts from 8.45 AM to 1 PM and 4.30 PM to 8.30 PM
During Sumer season, Darshan starts from 7.45 AM to 12 PM and 5.30 PM to 9.30 PM
Mllions of devotee across the world visits Vrindavan across the year, thus to facilitate them lots of Ashram, Dharmshala, Hotels, Guest House, Yatri Bhavan, Restaurants are built. Also you can easily find the public and private transport, auto rickshaw for the local sightseen and visit nearby Yatradham like Mathura, Barsana, Gokul, Jatipura, Govardhan Hill, Nandgaon etc.
How to Reach Banke Bihari Mandir, Vrindavan, The Abode of Lord Krishna, Uttar Pradesh, India
Bankey Bihari Mandir is one the most popular pilgrimage site of Vrindavan where thousands of devotee and tourist reaches here around the year. Vrindavan being one of the major pilgrimage center and tourist destination, of Uttar Pradesh where people across the world visits around the year. It is very well connected with all major cities of India via road, rail and air network. Mathura has major railway junction just at 14 km from Vrindavan from where you can get train to almost all region of India. Agra Airport and Delhi Airport are the nearest airport at distance of 69 and 140 respectively from Vrindavan. From where you can get flight to all major cities of India and across the globe. You can find private taxi and public transport as well from both airport to reach to Vrindavan. Vrindavan is located at just 14 km from Mathura, 26 km from Gokul, 42 km from Barsana, 30 km from Jatipura, 23 km from Govardhanhill, 70 km from Agra, 180 km from Delhi. You can get direct buses from Mathura, Agra, Delhi etc. to reach Vrindavan.
