Vrindavana

“The word vana means ‘forest.’ Vrindavana is the name given to the forest where Shrimati Vrinda Devi (Tulasi Devi) grows profusely.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya 17.193 Purport)

Though golf has the attached stigma of being the sport for lazy, out of shape, old men, the game has many appealing aspects to it, including great competition, attention to detail, and the ability to steadily improve as time goes on. Arguably the nicest part of playing golf is the setting. Golf courses are essentially large parks where players are allowed to walk through and enjoy the scenery while playing a game. In this way, a person is able to both enjoy nature and engage their minds at the same time. In a similar manner, the ideal playing field for devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead also has a beautiful background. This pristine environment is conducive to the cultivation of spiritual knowledge and also acts as a place where loving exchanges between the pure devotees and their beloved take place.

Since golf is a popular recreational activity, it has many stereotypes associated with it. One of the more common jokes made about golf is that it serves as a way for husbands to get away from their wives. Marriage is the backbone of a strong society, and while married life is certainly ideal for the raising of a family, there are bound to be tensions between the husband and wife. The wife will nag the husband about being lazy and not spending any quality time with her and the kids, while the husband will complain about all the nagging. Golf represents a sort of male paradise, a place free of the influences of the wives, a place where men can be men. The quintessential golf outing consists of four players, usually all friends, playing a full round of eighteen holes. While playing the game is certainly fun, the environment really adds to the experience.

A typical golf outing can take upwards of four hours to complete. Though most players ride around in golf carts, thus allowing easier access to their shots, the game still requires a lot of walking. Not all balls land in areas adjacent to cart paths, so walking is a requirement. Yet even driving the golf carts can be a fun activity, a way to play around on what are essentially toy vehicles. As children, we play in sandboxes or run around on fields. As we get older, we are expected to act in a more civilized manner. Golf certainly has many rules of etiquette, including a dress code which requires collared shirts, certain kinds of pants or shorts, and the fixing of divots in the grass. Even with all these regulations, playing a full round with friends can be a lot of fun. You take a shot and then either marvel at how well you hit the ball or get made fun of by your friends for how lousy a golfer you are. When men get together in a friendly environment, they tend to make fun of each other, with each person trying to top the other’s jokes.

For the golfer, the objective on each hole is to be able to get your ball to drop in the cup in as few shots as possible. The cup, which represents the endpoint of the hole, is located on a putting green which is a few hundred yards away from the tee off point, so the last few shots require putting instead of big swings. The putting green is arguably the nicest looking area of each hole, with the grass cut very thin and water and trees in the surroundings. In this way, the golfer is rewarded with beautiful scenery that only improves in appearance as one gets closer to the hole. While golf is certainly a competitive sport requiring great skill and attention to detail, for the average player, simply getting to walk through the park-like environment is enjoyable enough. If we walk through a regular park, there isn’t much there to stimulate the mind. In many ways, that is the whole point to walking through a park; getting peace and quiet. Yet golf adds a new dimension by allowing a person to enjoy the scenery of a park, while playing a game at the same time.

Spiritual life has a similar pristine playing field. Depending on the time and circumstance, a person is bound to become inquisitive about God and spirituality in general. In the neophyte stages, one may look at this Supreme Being with awe and reverence. The human being is mortal, while this divine entity known as God is not. The human being is limited in its capabilities pertaining to wealth, strength, beauty, renunciation, and fame. God, on the other hand, has no limitations in these areas. This difference then leads the neophyte to the mood of devotion known as neutrality, or shanta-rasa. In this relationship, the living entity doesn’t necessarily serve the supreme entity known as God, but they still have profound respect for Him. This respect may then lead to the adoption of certain spiritually related disciplines and exercises. People often attend church and temple services due to the respect they have for the Lord.

According to Vedic information, there are higher levels of devotion, each of which provides more spiritual enjoyment to both the worshiper and the worshiped. Ascension to the higher levels of devotion occurs when one’s association with God in a pure and loving way increases. This association means that there are exchanges: one party takes to certain action and the other party reciprocates. How can these exchanges take place with the Supreme Lord? This is certainly a good question, for most of us are accustomed to worshiping a God who resides in a church or a temple. In many spiritual disciplines, worship of a form of God is forbidden, for it is viewed as idol worship. In the Vedic tradition, the conditioned living entities directly associate with the Supreme Lord in a variety of ways. This association can even take place without ever leaving the home.

Though God is all-pervading and all-powerful, He has an original form. This isn’t to say that He limits Himself to only one form, but there is still nevertheless an original God from which all non-different expansions emanate. While many refuse to acknowledge that the original Godhead has a form, the true followers of the Vedic tradition do not. The justification comes from the authorized words of Lord Shri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, found in scriptures such as the Bhagavad-gita and Shrimad Bhagavatam. In these books, Krishna uses words like “I” and “My” and also goes into descriptions about which things please Him and which things don’t. Lord Krishna tells us that He is God, as do the Vedas, so this alone is used as justification for His worship. Since He refers to Himself in the first person, we can also conclude that Krishna is a person, someone who has a form. If Krishna has a form, He most certainly takes part in activities. These activities aren’t performed exclusively on earth by His various incarnations and expansions. Lord Krishna personally descended to earth some five thousand years ago, and many of His famous incarnations like Lord Rama, Chaitanya, and Narasimha, have also appeared on earth in the past. Since these forms are non-different from Krishna, one can also worship them and be directing their love at the original form of God.

Even though Krishna and His avataras enact pastimes on earth, there is a spiritual world where the Lord always resides and takes part in activity. The spiritual world can be thought of as Krishna’s playing field. After all, if God has a form and enacts pastimes, then He most certainly must have a field on which to play. As we know from our personal experience, playing with other friends is much more enjoyable than playing on a field alone. Since Krishna is the supreme enjoyer, He must have others with whom He enjoys. From Vedic information, we understand that Krishna has associates in the spiritual world. They are liberated souls who interact with the Lord in different loving moods.

If Krishna enjoys in the spiritual world, how can we interact with Him while we are stuck in the material world? Since Krishna has a transcendental form which is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge, devoted souls on earth can offer Him their worship. Instead of meditating on a void or a formless God, devotees can take material elements like earth and stone and create worshipable forms of the Lord based on the descriptions found in the scriptures. These forms may look like idols, but they are not. Since matter is something created by Krishna, when it is used in His service, it becomes purified. This concept is not so easily understood by the neophytes, but if we apply a little intelligence, we see that it is undoubtedly valid. For example, earth and wood can cause us great harm if we don’t utilize them properly. If we smear clay all over ourselves, we will be considered dirty. If we get a splinter caught in our finger, we have to remove it; otherwise there will be pain later on. But if we use the same clay and wood to construct a house for ourselves, we are greatly benefited. Along the same lines, when we use material elements, things created by Krishna, for His service, then we are purifying the elements.

Since the deity is crafted according to the appearance of the Supreme Lord, it can be considered non-different from Him. In this way, the deity becomes a worshipable object, the archa-vigraha. We may not have the eyes to see the Supreme Lord in His original form, but through the deity, the Lord kindly incarnates in a form that can be worshiped. In this age, a more potent form of the Lord is His name. The names of God found in the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, are non-different from the Lord. Therefore the primary recommendation for the aspiring transcendentalists of today is to chant this mantra as often as possible. Krishna and Rama may seem like ordinary words, but they are the sound representations of the Divine. Letters and words are simply sound representations of things which are spoken, and different symbols such as the heart, butterfly, and smiley face can also serve as the visual representation for different objects, words, and emotions. Krishna is the sound representation of God, so anyone who hears this sound is in direct contact with Him. Man has the great benediction of being able to produce this sound whenever they want to, simply by using their tongue.

Chanting the maha-mantra regularly enables one to shift their consciousness from the material platform to the spiritual platform. From the Bhagavad-gita, we know that anyone who is Krishna conscious at the time of death immediately ascends to Krishna’s realm wherefrom they never have to return. This event represents the end of the cycle of reincarnation and hence is known as liberation. But what happens after liberation? What does the spirit soul do in the spiritual world? As mentioned before, Krishna enacts pastimes in His spiritual land. For the enactment of these pastimes, there is a field. Just as the golf course is pleasurable because of its surroundings, the pleasure one feels while on Krishna’s playing field is augmented by the surroundings. Krishna has several fields in the spiritual world, but His favorite one is known as Vrindavana.

Vrindavana is a Sanskrit word which means a forest where Vrinda Devi’s presence is strong. Vrinda Devi is a devotee of Krishna and she arranges for all the wonderful pastimes between Krishna and His most important associates. One of her forms is that of Tulasi Devi, who manifests as the tulasi plant. Plants are also forms of life, for they have spirit souls residing within. The tulasi plant is sacred for followers of the Vedic tradition because it represents Tulasi Devi, the beloved maidservant of Lord Vishnu. Those who worship Tulasi Devi are very quickly granted devotion to Krishna. This devotion then leads to Krishna consciousness, which then leads to liberation. Since only those devotees who possess pure love for Krishna get to associate with Him on His playing field, it shouldn’t surprise us to see that Tulasi Devi is the predominating plant of this forest. Vrindavana is a place full of devotion, and due to the presence of Tulasi Devi and other great devotees, its surroundings are pristine. It is the most beautiful park in the world. It is not a park where one simply sits idly by and falls asleep. Instead, it is a park where one is actively engaged in serving the Supreme Lord. Residents of Vrindavana bask in the sweet transcendental sounds emanating from Krishna’s flute, the beautiful aroma of the flowers, the divine vision of the butterflies flying about, the sight of cows grazing on the pasturing ground, and the frolicking about of the deer and other animals.

Lord Krishna is so kind that He created a replica of Vrindavana in this material world. It was in this Vrindavana, which is located in India, that the Lord enacted His most wonderful pastimes when He appeared on earth. Anyone who sets foot on this holy land is surely benefitted spiritually. Based on the descriptions of life in Vrindavana, we can understand that God is the ultimate object of pleasure. The highest achievement in life is to have Krishna’s association and play with Him in His beautiful park. By regularly chanting Hare Krishna, we can make that dream a reality.

Return On Investment

“…O Nalakuvara and Manigriva, your lives have now become successful because you have developed ecstatic love for Me.” (Lord Krishna, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 10)

For the first ten years of His exile term, Lord Rama, along with His wife Sita Devi and His younger brother Lakshmana, extensively toured the forests of India, visiting the homes of some of the most exalted sages in history. On the surface, it appears that Rama and His family were benefitted by such visits, but in reality, by receiving Rama as a guest in their home, all the past religious deeds performed by the sages finally bore fruit.

Most people believe in God. Whether or not they know how He looks is a different story. Many religious systems describe God as impersonal, being an all pervading energy. Since this material world is a place full of miseries, many frustrated karmis hope to one day see God face to face. In fact, this is the precise goal of many yogis. They spend hours and hours in silent meditation or in deep study of Vedanta. To them, seeing God is considered the ultimate goal of life. Therefore we can conclude that those who do actually meet God face to face must be very pious and fortunate.

The great sages living in the forests of India many thousands of years ago not only met God, but they received Him as a guest in their homes. During the Treta Yuga, the second time period of creation, God advented on earth in the form of a pious prince named Rama. Some people mistakenly believe that it is not possible for God to take birth in this world. “God is the complete energy. This world is a place governed by guna and karma, and it is temporary in nature. God can never associate with such a place.” Logically, this may appear to make sense. However, God is above any logic or stringent rule system. Since He created this world and everything in it, He can most certainly appear here whenever He chooses. In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna fills us in on precisely when and why He comes.

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself.” (Bg. 4.7)

During Lord Rama’s time, there was a powerful Rakshasa demon by the name of Ravana who had steadily gained in power. He performed great austerities for pleasing the demigods. Though he was a demon by nature, the demigods were forced to overlook this fact. This is the difference between Lord Krishna, God Himself, and His chief deputies, the demigods. We may certainly approach God in hopes of procuring material wealth, fame, or fortune, but He is not required to grant anything to us. Krishna is completely pure, suddha-sattva. This means that He wants us, His children, to also rise above the three modes of material nature, and to act on the platform of pure goodness. Therefore, for His humble devotees, He doesn’t necessarily give them what they want, but rather what they need.

The demigods, on the other hand, are required to bestow boons on anyone who pleases them properly. Ravana propitiated Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva, and they granted him many boons. He was given ten heads and the promise that no demigod, celestial being, or animal could kill him. In his haste, he forgot to ask for immunity from human beings. Since he was so strong, he thought there was no way for an ordinary man to defeat him. The demigods used this loophole to petition Lord Vishnu, Krishna Himself, to come to earth in the guise of a human being. Thus Lord Rama appeared. At the time, Ravana’s band of Rakshasas was wreaking havoc throughout the forests of India. The great sages, the brahmanas, had taken to forest life since it was more conducive to the performance of austerities and sacrifices. Brahmanas perform austerities not simply as a form of self-punishment, but as a way of advancing in spiritual life. The more one is attached to the animal activities of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, the further away they go from spiritual life. The human being is meant to learn about God and to then use that knowledge to break free of the repetitive cycle of birth and death. Tapasya, or religious austerity, is a great tool in the transcendentalist’s arsenal.

Along with tapasya comes yajna, or sacrifice. The Vedas mention many different kinds of sacrifice, each performed for a specific purpose. The best sacrifice is that done for the pleasure of Lord Vishnu. In a sacrifice, there is typically a fire, with oblations of ghee poured into it while Vedic hymns are recited. Forest life is therefore ideal for performing both tapasya and yajna. The Rakshasas knew this, so they specifically targeted the sages that were residing in the forest. Assuming various shapes at will, the demons would disrupt the sacrifices, kill the sages, and then eat them. Lord Rama appeared for many reasons, the primary of which was to give protection to these great sages.

In order to fulfill His mission, Rama needed an excuse to roam the forests. This was facilitated by His step-mother, Kaikeyi. She asked Rama’s father, Dashratha, to install her son Bharata as the new king and also to banish Rama to the forest for fourteen years. Refusing to remain in the kingdom, Sita Devi and Lakshmana accompanied the Lord during His exile term. The trio essentially took to the vanaprastha mode of life.

“According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 4.13)

The Vedas recommend that a person divide the duration of their life into four spiritually related time periods, or ashramas. They are called ashramas because each stage is meant to provide spiritual advancement, ultimately leading to pure Krishna consciousness. The first stage is called brahmacharya, which is celibate student life. Next comes grihastha, which is married householder life. Vanaprastha then follows. The exact definition of vanaprastha has changed over the years, but it can basically be thought of as pseudo-retirement. Householder life is the only time when one is allowed to perform fruitive work. One needs a roof over their head and food on the table. To provide for the basic needs of their family, a person is allowed to work. Yet this type of activity isn’t supposed to continue forever. Once the children are old enough, a person is advised to stop working and to take to retired family life, vanaprastha.

Since they are in a spiritual institution, vanaprasthis are advised to visit sacred pilgrimage sites known as tirthas. These sites benefit mankind because they all relate to specific past activities of Lord Krishna or His expansions. Since tirthas are holy sites, many saintly people reside there. This represents the real benefit of visiting a tirtha. The Vedas state that one of the highest benedictions in life is to have association with a saint, or a pure devotee of God. This is because a pure devotee is the most munificent social worker. Pure devotees don’t engage in mundane charity work. Rather, they disseminate Krishna prema, love for God, to any and all persons, regardless of caste, color, or creed. For this reason, it is considered most beneficial for a person to approach one of these saints and take instruction from them.

“As Rama lived in the asylums of the ascetics and amused Himself through their good graces, ten years smoothly passed.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 11.26-27)

Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana set a great example for future generations by visiting as many great sages as they could. They didn’t let a great opportunity go to waste. Since Rama was God Himself, it may seem puzzling that He would travel to the hermitages of these great sages. Shouldn’t they have been the ones visiting Him? In reality, the answer is yes, but God actually likes to serve His devotees as well. The sages living in the forest had performed many great austerities in the past. All their hard work paid off since they received the benediction of having Rama personally visit their homes.

Lord Rama also liberated many of these sages by visiting them. When Lord Krishna personally advented on earth some five thousand years ago in Vrindavana, He liberated two brothers who had taken birth in the forms of trees. As part of His childhood pastimes, Krishna once broke a pot of yogurt in anger. Mother Yashoda then chased after Him with a stick, finally catching Him and binding Him to a mortar. After she returned to the kitchen, baby Krishna released Himself by pulling on the mortar. By dragging the mortar, the Lord caused two trees to fall down. When the trees collapsed, the spirits of two men appeared and began to offer prayers to the Lord.

“O Lord, our father known as Kuvera, the demigod, is Your servant. Similarly, the great sage Narada is also Your servitor, and by their grace only we have been able to see You personally. We therefore pray that we may always be engaged in Your transcendental loving service by speaking only about Your glories and hearing about Your transcendental activities.” (Prayers of Nalakuvara and Manigriva, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 10)

The living entities inside the trees were actually brothers in a previous life. On one particular occasion, they insulted the great sage Narada, who in turn cursed them to take birth as trees. He told them that their liberation would come when Lord Krishna Himself would knock them down. Many similar incidents also occurred during Lord Rama’s time in the forest. The Lord personally liberated all the great souls He encountered. Agastya, Valmiki, Bharadvaja, Anasuya, Shavari…all were delighted to see Lord Rama, along with Sita and Lakshmana, face to face.

The lesson here is that God loves His devotees. Though He is neutral towards all living entities, He makes an exception for those who love Him without any motive. We should never think that God forgets us. By visiting the great sages, Lord Rama also showed that one doesn’t have to work very hard to try to see God. Rather, they simply have to act in a way that God will see them. In this age, the best way to get God’s attention is to constantly chant His names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

Tourism

“The perfection of human life is based on knowledge and renunciation, but it is very difficult to attempt to reach the stage of knowledge and renunciation while in family life. Krishna conscious persons therefore take shelter of the association of devotees or sanctified places of pilgrimage.” (Prayers of the personified Vedas, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 32)

As a vacation idea, travelling to an exotic destination is very popular. Aside from seeing great landmarks and various wonders of the world, people especially enjoy visiting the homes of famous personalities. Seeing the ground that famous people walked on, and touring the homes where people lived, immediately reminds us of that famous person and takes us back into the past. These trips can bring about pleasurable feelings since we can be reminded of the things and people that we love.

The day-to-day grind can get to anyone. Whether we are in the workplace or studying, daily life can quickly become monotonous. Not only do the days repeat themselves, but months and years go by where we end up doing the exact same things all the time. It’s nice to break out of the routine every once in a while and do something different. Travelling is a way to accomplish this. The summer season is a popular time to take family vacations. The kids are off from school for a few months, so families like to go on road trips together, visiting famous sites around the country and the world. Disneyland, Disneyworld, the Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls are some of the popular tourist destinations in North America.

Graceland is another popular tourist site. The home of the King, Elvis Presley, fans flock there in droves to see everything related to him. The homes of America’s Founding Fathers are another popular destination for tourists and those taking school field trips. People visit Monticello and Mount Vernon to see the homes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, two of America’s early presidents. Visitors can see how these great men, and the other people of their time, lived over two hundred years ago. These places are nice to visit because it puts one in a nostalgic mindset, reminding them of the accomplishments of their heroes.

Devotees of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, also enjoy touring, but of a slightly different nature. Instead of visiting famous landmarks and world wonders, devotees flock by the millions each year to tirthas, or holy places of pilgrimage. Lord Krishna is so kind to His devotees that He comes to earth from time to time to enact pastimes for their benefit. Though His actual lila may have occurred thousands or even millions of years ago, the Lord’s activities are all well documented in the voluminous works of Vyasadeva and other great Vedic authors. Not only do we know where Krishna enacted many such glorious pastimes, but we often know the exact day, month, and year in which they took place. The Vedic calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so Vedic authors made it a point to describe the position of the moon on specific days of interest.

Though God has many many incarnations, too many to count actually, major texts such as the Mahabharata and Shrimad Bhagavatam provide us the list of incarnations which are deemed noteworthy. Lord Rama was one such incarnation, famous throughout the world even to this day. Born as the eldest son of Maharaja Dashratha of Ayodhya, Rama enacted many wonderful pastimes during the Treta Yuga. His life story is the subject of what is probably the oldest book in the world, the Valmiki Ramayana.

One major event in Rama’s life was His banishment to the forest for fourteen years by Dashratha. This order greatly saddened all of the citizens of Ayodhya, and even Dashratha, but Rama firmly adhered to His father’s wishes. Taking His wife Sita Devi and His younger brother Lakshmana with Him, Rama embarked for the forest. Rama had two other younger brothers, Bharata and Shatrughna, who were both away when the exile order was given. Upon returning to the kingdom, Bharata was informed of the news that Rama had left the kingdom and that Dashratha had died due to separation from Rama. Bharata immediately set out for the forest to look for Rama and to persuade Him to return to rule the kingdom.

“This is the bed of my brother; on this hard spot did he turn his lovely limbs, and this grass was pressed by them. I think that the graceful Sita adorned with ornaments slept in this bed, for here and there are scattered particles of gold. It is clear that Sita had spread her sheet at this spot, hence it is that fibers of silk are discoverable here.” (Bharata speaking to his mothers, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, Sec 88)

In the above referenced statement, Bharata is describing the sleeping grounds of Rama and His wife, found in the woods inhabited by the Nishadas, headed by their chief, Guha. Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita had stayed with Guha early on in their trip, so Bharata questioned Guha as to their whereabouts. Though a forest dweller considered low-born and uncivilized, Guha was a great devotee who had the honor of personally hosting Lord Rama and His group. Bharata wanted to hear all about the group’s stay, so Guha promptly filled him in on what had transpired. He showed Bharata the area where Rama and Sita had slept during the night. One may wonder as to where Lakshmana slept. The answer is that he didn’t really. Such a kind and loving younger brother, Lakshmana kept vigil during the nighttime while Sita and Rama would sleep. The exile order applied only to Rama, but both Sita and Lakshmana insisted on accompanying Him, so great was their love for Him.

Bharata, along with Shatrughna, also loved Rama greatly, so he took great pleasure and pain in seeing where Rama and Sita slept. The pain arose from the fact that his brother had to sleep in such a place. As the eldest son of the king, both Sita and Rama were accustomed to the royal life.

“…Rama used to be awakened with vocal and instrumental music, the tinkling of elegant ornaments, and the peals of goodly mrdangas…” (Bharata speaking to his mothers, Vm, Ayodhya Kand, Sec 88)

At the same time, Bharata enjoyed visiting this site because he was immediately reminded of Rama. This is the purpose of a tirtha. Many great scholars ponder the meaning of life, wondering why we are here and what our purpose is. Such exercising of the brain isn’t necessary since the Vedas already fill us in on the meaning of life. The material world was created as a place for spirit souls to enjoy sense gratification. This enjoyment is of a temporary nature since one has to eventually give up their body at the time of death. This temporary enjoyment is meant for the animal species, and not for the human beings. The human form of life represents the opportunity to know and understand God. That knowledge allows us to put a permanent end to the repeated cycle of birth and death:

“After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection. From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.15-16)

So the point of life is to think about Krishna, or God, at the time of death. How do we make sure this happens? The easiest way is to start thinking about Him today. The ways of karma remain a mystery to us, thus we never know when death may come. If one practices devotional service today, they are more than likely to think of God at the time of death.

“He who meditates on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Partha [Arjuna], is sure to reach Me.” (Bg. 8.8)

There are many ways to practice thinking of God. Sravanam and kirtanam, hearing and chanting, are the easiest and most effective ways. Remembering is another process of devotional service. This remembering of God is what occurs when we visit pilgrimage sites. Lord Rama Himself visited many places in India which are now considered to be holy such as Chitrakut, Ayodhya, and the forests of Kishkindha and Dandaka. Mathura, Vrindavana, and Dvaraka are some of the holy cities related to Lord Krishna. Even the battlefield of Kurukshetra, the site of the famous Bharata War, is considered a holy pilgrimage site. There are these and many other famous cities and pilgrimage sites in India relating to all the activities of Krishna and His various incarnations.

Visiting a tirtha is a great way to spend a vacation. Many of us like to travel as it is, so why not get a spiritual benefit out of doing something that we already like? That is the secret behind devotional service. One doesn’t have to artificially renounce their current way of life and go live in a secluded place, practicing various breathing exercises and sitting postures. We simply have to take activities that we already perform and find a way to dovetail them with service to Krishna. Many great historical personalities extensively toured India, visiting the major holy sites. Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana bathed in holy rivers and visited famous saints during their fourteen year exile. In the Mahabharata, we see that Vidura and Lord Balarama also took similar trips. This type of devotional service is very authorized. Anything we can do that reminds us of God, His beautiful form, and His kindness to His devotees, will always benefit us in the end.