Visit to Krishna-Janam-Bhoomi

It was my first visit to Mathura-Vrindavan, the place where Lord Krishna was supposed to have been born and brought up. While heading towards the pilgrimage, there was an excitement that I was feeling. Many times while passing through Mathura either by road or by train, I have seen the twin place of worship, the temple and the mosque standing beautifully alongside and have felt curious about it.

As we approached the gate of the Krishna-Janam-Bhoomi, we were greeted by men from the security forces. Entering through the gate and passing through the metal detector, I felt an uncomfortable ness settling inside me. The place looked more like an armed fortress than a place of worship.

Since we have got late in reaching the temple and it was already past noontime, the doors of the main temple were closed. But the ‘garbh-grah’ or the cell were the Lord was actually born was still open. However, at this time the uniformed men outnumbered the visitors.

My niece, who is ten years old, asked why the place was full of so many security men. Unwilling to explain the controversy surrounding the place, I told her that it was because some miscreant wants to vandalize the temple. It became increasingly awkward to further explain to her that why it was so only in this temple and not in the other temples that we visited in Vrindanvan earlier. All I could tell her was that it was because this was suppose to be the birth place of Lord Krishna and hence more important.

She did not argue further and we moved on. As we turned towards the “garbh-grah”, we saw the cell where Krishna was born and the mosque just back to back with each other. We were a group of around twelve people and looking at the mosque and the cell some members of our group started discussing about the on going controversy, passing remarks on the invaders who came and built the mosque on the “Janam-Bhoomi”.

My niece came again to me and quietly asked why was the mosque built the way it is. I went quiet for a while, not sure as to what explanation should I give her. I then took her hand and guided her towards a parapet. I asked whether she believed that God actually was one but all of us see him in many and different ways. On getting a positive answer from her, I went on to tell her that Hindus consider Krishna to be one of the incarnation of God and believe this place to be the place of his birth. When Islam came to India, Muslims too saw this place. They to believing that God is one considered this place to be holy. So they built a mosque beside it to offer prayer in the way their religion has taught to them.

We proceeded inside the cell, which now is well lighted. I felt very strange. Much as I tried, I was finding it very difficult to get spiritually connected with the God. Instead, I found myself visualizing the birth of Krishna in the small cell and wondering why, if Kans (Krishna’s maternal uncle) knew that the child of his sister would ultimately kill him, did he kept the husband and wife in the same cell. Wouldn’t it have been simpler if he had just put them both in separate cells? Then he wouldn’t have had to kill so many of his nephews and nor would Lord Krishna have been born. Though we would have been at loss where preaching of Gita is concerned, we wouldn’t have been fighting over this place of worship now.

When we finally settled back in our cars to go back home, I started feeling very empty, somewhat disappointed at what I have seen there. I looked at my niece, who has been unusually quiet for some time now. I wondered whether she bought the explanation that I earlier gave to her. She had given me a strange look at that time. Maybe she is too perceptive and gathered more than I was willing to believe from the conversation of the other members of our group. But I hope that rather than believing them, she would believe what I said because I do not want her to grow up being a communally skewed person.

More than this, I wondered whether there actually was any truth in what I have told her. True, that in many parts of India we find broken statues and temples. But if one is to be believed then why were mosques built in some of the places where once the temples stood. Was it because the invader/ ruler got some pervert satisfaction out of it? Or was it his way of recognizing the holiness of the place, while building a mosque there and offering prayers to the God in the way he was used to? We might never be sure because history only gives us an account of the rulers and invaders and tells us nothing about what went through the hearts and mind of the people of the bygone era.