Ethnography
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When I was a kid my parents always took me to Nathdwara to take the blessings of Lord Krishna every now and then because my parents are so religious. So by going there several times I am also attached to that place. Actually Nathdwara is situated in Rajasthan state and I live in the state called Gujarat and in the city called as Ahmedabad. It takes six hours drive from my city to Nathdwara and this is the only nearest place where I could get mental peace. This is very important place for me and my family because it is a tradition of our family that whoever goes there gives free food to the hungry and poor people. We do so because we think that if we do good work in our life we will be allowed by god to go to the heaven. [The two states on the left are Gujarat and Rajasthan. One in light blue color is Gujarat with the arrows and on the top of it with cream color is Rajasthan. I live in the middle of the state and Nathdwara is at the border of the Rajasthan]
Nathdwara is a small town in Rajasthan, a western state in the Indian subcontinent. The Rajasthan state houses one of the ancient most mountain ranges called the Aravali range. Nathdwara is a part of the Aravali range situated on the banks of the Banas River. Nathdwara means (nath- Lord Krishna, dwara — gate or door) the gate of lord. Nathdwara has a famous temple of Lord Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, as depicted in one of the longest Sanskrit epics the Mahabharata.
The idol of Lord Krishna is always being seen in well dressed every time. Exquisitely worked jewels, some dating back to pre-Mogul India, are worn by Shrinathji every day. Everything in the inner temple, from china to silver/gold-ware, paintings, wall hangings, clothes and furniture, are the finest quality. The temple itself employs some 1000 people, whilst the rest of the town is depended on the business generated directly or indirectly by the temple and the pilgrims. The temple is the only attraction of Nathdwara, as it is one of the biggest temples in India, so people from all over the country visit this temple at least once. As Indian people believe in the Vastu shastra so the construction of the building of the temple is also based on the vastu shastra which means that the entrance must be facing north side and the idol of the Lord must be located in the middle of the temple. So the management is changing the entrance to the northern side because it wasn’t appropriate before. The entrance used to look like which is been shown in the picture. [Vastu Shastra — it is a study of things that how it should be situated and how should we put the things in the way that it will be beneficial to us]
The idol in the temple represents the form of Lord Krishna in which Lord Krishna lifts the Govardhan Mountain when he was only seven, Lord Krishna lifts this mountain because there was a heavy rain in his village and the houses of the villagers were no longer there so to protect the people he lifts Govardhan Mountain as shown in the picture. As a human being pass through different kind of stages in one day, so god also gives us a glimpse of the different kind of the stages in one day and that is called as �Darshan’. One can take a glimpse of god 8 times a day. And the 8 Darshans are called �Mangala’ (when god wakes up early in the morning), �Shrungar’ (a Darshan of the Lord when Lord came out after taking a bath), �Gwal’ (the breakfast), �Rajbhog’ (lunch), �Utthapan’ (when the Lord opened his eyes after a long nap in the noon), �Bhog’ (dinner), �Sandhya Aarti’ (a part of Indian rituals) and �Shayan’ (when the Lord went to bed in the night). In each of the �leelas’ (divine manifestations) of the lord are described and harmonized with his daily routine.
Millions of devotees come here every year to make their wish and pray to the almighty Lord Krishna. The temple assumes special significance at the time of Janamashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna. The best Darshan according to me is the �Kesar-Snan’. In that Lord Krishna wears white cloths and the people take out the juice of more than 150 thousand mangoes and Lord Krishna takes a bath with the juice of the same mangoes which makes his clothes yellowish or orangish. It is a very wonderful scene to be seen and I have seen this sight two times and my experience