Rangaji Temple

I spent some time trying to find the Rangaji Temple. The last time I was in Vrndavana, Srimati Radharani gave us the darshan of an elaborate and exquisite bathing ceremony of Her in the outside courtyard temple. (It was an ecstatic event to end our visit.) I wanted to go back.

I looked at the map and had an idea of where to go so I started out. Didn't find it. Tried again the next day, found it, it was closed. Went earlier the next day, found it, it was open. Twenty years ago this temple was closed to Westerners, but now it's open. I went in and was very happy.

It's a South Indian style temple with the big towering gates. The inside has the main temple in the middle, with Deities all along the inside wall with Their own rooms. As I was walking around I found what I was looking for. As a person possessed, I walked toward it and paid my obeisances. After twenty years my memory was fairly accurate, but dimensions and distances were a little off. But, there it was. Took some pictures but the memory is much more rich--with sounds of shennai, smells of incense, and the vision of Srimati Radharani being bathed. So beautiful and opulent . . . and personal.

Here's what I wrote twenty years ago. (The pictures are from this current trip.) The "we" here are my daughter and I. She was in 8th grade at the time.

Our last day in Vrindavana. I really like it here, I don't want to leave. We went this morning to visit our neighbors in back of the guest house. Small compound with cows and an altar with Radha Krishna. Nice, but dusty.

Took a rickshaw to Vamsi Vat, the wish fulfilling tree. Prayed that I would become a good devotee and understand Prabhupada's teachings correctly. Went walking after that to try and find the Jamuna river.

We happened into a really wonderful temple, the Rangaji Mandira. Southern Indian style in architecture and very spacious with large courtyard and bathing ghat. We came in through the main gate and saw a small temple (can't remember if Garuda or Hanuman was there). Just beyond this was a large building with heavy canvas-like material covering all four sides.

As we came up to the building there were a few groups of women sitting on two sides. A man came up to us and said to us in a little English that soon there would be darshan. So we walked around and when we heard the bells ringing we came back.

The guards weren't going to let us back in, saying "Not allowed, not allowed." I said I didn't understand and kept walking. The same man we'd seen before came and told the guards it was okay and took us to a spot and told us to sit down. I could see into the building where the curtain had been drawn and there was Srimati Radharani being attended to by a group of brahmans.

[This is the courtyard temple where the ceremony took place. It had heavy canvas "walls" on all four sides and opened facing the ghat. We sat at the top of the stairs of the ghat. In the picture it's that little roof to the right.]

At the curtains were guards holding silver staffs and yak fans and another guard with a rifle. Inside the brahmans were attending to Radha's morning bath. I couldn't believe it. It was so intimate. They were using silver articles to offer her perfumed cloths, bathed her with milk, yogurt, water, sandalwood paste, washed her hair, put henna in it, and decorated it was a garland of flowers. Women were singing outside. They offered a ghee lamp and there were these magnificent horns and drums that were played.

The curtains closed, but no one moved. Brahmans were singing chants now. Occasionally a woman would come into the compound and offer some food to Her by giving it to the priest. Then the bells again and the curtains opened. Radha was there and they were showing Her how She looked in a mirror. Then they placed a tray over Her head and poured water in it. The tray had holes in it and so the water lightly showered down on Her. I watched and was overwhelmed by the opulence, the grandeur, the devotion, the intimacy, and the privilege that we were able to at the right spot at the right time.

More bells started ringing and the man we had met came back and told us, "Go! Go!" and so our darshan had ended. With that abrupt dismissal we paid our obeisances to the Queen of Vrindavan and left.
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