Visit to Hare Rama Hare Krishna Temple Situated at Vadodara in Gujarat State of India

The city of Vadodara, situated in the State of Gujarat in Western part of India, is one of the most beautiful cities of India. Hence, it is called the Paris of India. As I belong to Vadodara, I am familiar with most of the site seeing places of this city. I am going to cover some of the vital aspects of the Iscon temple of Lord Krishna, situated in Gotri area of Vadodara city, in this article. This temple has been built recently before around eight years and has become one of the most visited spots of the city.

Vadodara is well connected by all the three means of transportation, namely rail, road and air from all the major cities of India. It is very convenient to travel by luxurious air conditioned trains from Mumbai. It takes around six hours to reach Vadodara from Mumbai. This Hare ram Hare Krishna temple, commonly known as Iscon temple, is situated near the water tank in Gotri area, very near to railway station and the central bus depot. The best time to visit this holy temple is in the evening at around 6 pm or so. The temple has very high, artistic entrance gate. There is an ample parking facility outside the temple, just near the temple gate. The most beautiful garden covers the entire temple area. The beautiful water fountains keep the surroundings cool and pleasant, even during peak summer days. You need to climb around thirty steps to enter inside the temple.

As soon as you enter inside the temple, most artistic pictures made on the top dome and the walls of the temple attracts the attention of the tourists. The temple interior is large enough to accommodate around 400 people at a time. There are three statues in front of you inside the temple. The first and the most important of all is the statue of Lord Krishna and Radha. The second icon is of Lord Krishna with his elder brother Balramji. The third icon is of Lord Krishna with Lord Rama. On the back of this icon, there is also statue of Lord Hanuman provided. This is really very rare in the Hindu religion to have statue of Lord Hanuman in the temple of Lord Krishna. All the god icons are made from beautiful white marble and are decorated with most colorful clothes and the ornaments. The bhajans of Lord Krishna are being played continuously inside the temple, thus making the entire atmosphere full of divine spirit. There are mainly two arti rituals arranged in the temple, one in the morning at around 7 am and the other in the evening also at around 7 pm. It is worth visiting this temple during this arti ritual so as to have real spiritual experience of your life. The entire interior of the temple becomes charged due to various musical instruments played along with recital of the arti. The atmosphere inside the temple becomes so spiritual and hypnotizing that many of devotees start dancing and crying. This arti ritual takes around 25 minutes to complete. Once it is completed, the holy Prasad is served to all the devotees who are present in the temple.

As soon as the dark falls, the temple shines out with most beautiful lighting arrangement. It is really worth viewing the temple at this time. There is also one restaurant attached to this temple. This restaurant serves clean, healthy and nutritious food items at very reasonable rates, on no profit no loss basis. The snack items like samosa, vegetable pakodas and other fast food items are served from 5 pm to 9 pm every day at the rates of around Rs.10 per plate. There is one large thali restaurant, named Govinda that serves clean, healthy and pure Gujarati thali lunch and dinner every day. This thali consists of two sweet items, four vegetables, and two types of dal, chapattis, bhakhris, and puris, with papad, chutneys and the prickle, with two types of specially cooked rice items. This lavish Gujarati thali is served at the rate of Rs.120 ($2.50) per person and is really worth enjoying. We enjoyed this Gujarati thali dinner with our friends and family after visiting the temple.

This Iscon temple of Lord Krishna has recently become the must see place in the city of Vadodara. I would request all my AC friends and readers to visit this beautiful temple during their visit to city of Vadodara in Gujarat State in India.