Make a Pilgrimage to the Temple of Shreenathji for Vaishnavs in State of Rajasthan, India

India is full of the places of pilgrimage for all the religions. If you start visiting such pilgrimage places every day, it may take years to cover all such places. People of India have lot of faith in religious aspects. That is the reason why Indians are happily enjoying their life, in spite of the high poverty rate prevailing here. Vaishnav religion is one of the most vital religions, followed in India. The most important pilgrimage place for the Vaishnav religion is Shreenathji, situated in the state of Rajasthan in India. Shreenathji is one of the most visited pilgrimage places of India. I had an opportunity recently to visit Shreenathji during my recent visit to India. I shall cover some of the important aspects of my visit to Shreenathji in this article.

Shreenathji is 24 miles away from Udaipur, one of the most important cities of Rajasthan State in India. You can easily reach Shreenathji from Ahmedabad via Idar, Himantnagar, Khedbrahma, and Ambaji by road. The luxury buses are available for Shreenathji from all big cities of Gujarat state. It would be very convenient to reach Shreenathji by hired car or taxi. The charges for such cars are around Rs.5 per KM, which can accommodate 5 persons in all including driver. Larger cars and vans are also available at slightly higher rates. The statue of Lord Shree Krishna is installed in the famous temple of Shreenathji. This temple is situated in the city of Nathdwara. The city is covered by the fort made of stones and is situated at the bank of river Banas. It is said that this statue of Lord Shree Krishna had appeared on its own from the ground and hence, is called Swayambhoo temple. Originally, this statue was kept at the Govardhan Mountain in Vraj near Mathura in Northern India. However, as Mogul King Aurangzeb was likely to attack this temple, this statue was brought to Rajasthan and installed here at Nathdwara. It is a belief that the hands of Lord came out first in the year 1466 in the holy month of Shravan. Subsequent to this, the full statue came out in the year 1535 in the month of Chaitra on its eleventh day.

This famous temple opens at 6am for the Mangala darshan. The morning arthi at this time is really worth attending. However, there is a big rush at this time in the temple. Hence, it would be advisable to reach at least half an hour early. The temple keeps on opening and closing all through out the day, with various types of darshanas at each time. There is generally very heavy rush at this temple. Hence, be very careful while attending this temple as the pickpocket's threat is sometimes very real. The old, sick and the weak people have to take lot of care during the visit to this temple. There are many other temples also here at Nathdwara like Bal Krishna Banvari temple, Vishnunath temple, Navnitlal temple, and Shivnathji temple. All these temples are also worth visiting for Hindus. There are many hotels starting from as low as Rs.25 (60 cents) to hotels having five star facilities in the range of Rs.3000 ($75) per day for a standard double room. It is advisable to book your hotel in advance as it may be very difficult sometimes to get proper accommodation. It is suggested to stay for around couple of days here to enjoy the company of Lord Shree Krishna at various timings of the day. The beauty of Lord Krishna is changing every couple of hours here and it is a lifetime experience to watch it. All types of Indian food delicacies are available here at very reasonable rates.

Around 10000 pilgrims visit this holy temple every day. This figure goes as high as 100000 to 200000 on some auspicious days like New Year, Lord Krishna's birthday, holi, and diwali. The most beautiful darshnas are arranged in the month of Shravan when, Lord Krishna is decorated very nicely on all 30 days. Visiting Shreenathji during this month shall provide an excellent opportunity to see the most beautiful decoration of the temple. I am quite sure that the information provided in this article shall encourage many pilgrims to visit this holy place.