Mathura
Mathura is famously known for being the birthplace of Lord Krishna, and many temples, if not all in the city, are dedicated to that deity. The Main temple is a massive complex in the place where He was supposed to be born. This picture was taken in a nearby temple, when the bus I was travelling back to New Delhi decided to make a stop in Mathura. It turned out that it was the birthday of Lord Krishna and I was lucky enough to be at the right time in the right moment and there was a big festival in the city. After prayers in the main temple we headed down to this little small one in which my fellow bus riders invited me to join them for the religious service. The Brahmin read some verses of the Sutras, while we were sitting down in the floor. After that we were invited to make a donation and I was surprised of the amounts of money that Hindus donate on temples. After that, one by one stood in line to get blessed with incense and to place our forehead in a footprint in a second altar. Then,still in line and in our way out of the temple we got our “tilak” a mark in the forehead in between your eyes symbolizing auspiciousness and the opening of the third eye, since we were at a Krishna Temple.
Daramshalla
This was my favorite temple in all India, I discovered it on one of my frequent walks around Daramshalla in the northern part of India. Actually this Temple on the village of Baghsu and it’s decoration amazed me from far away. It was not allowed to take pictures from Inside the Temple so this is the only one that I got. But once inside there is a one way stair that starts from the mouth of a Lion (you can see part of it) that staircase leads to the first floor in which you walk a narrow hallway for about 20 meters and then you must kneel to proceed further. Once on your knees you reach an altar composed by a pool and carvings of snakes, with the crown being a multi headed cobra as you can see in the picture above from the Krishna temple. There’s no way to return so you must proceed forward still on your knees until you exit on the other side of the building through the mouth of a dragon.
Shimla
This Temple is located in the Himalayan village of Shimla and it’s dedicated to the monkey shaped god Hanuman, as you could expect the temple is inhabited by hordes of monkeys. You have to be really careful all the way with your belongings since they Love to annoy people, taking their cameras, bags and if you have any food, of course.
The temple is located on top of a hill so actually to get there it’s quite a walk but once up the view is rewarding and the place, if you can forget the monkeys for a while, it’s utterly calm and an ideal place for meditation. The compound is conformed of several buildings and this in the picture is the main, doors are locked to prevent the animals from eating the offerings.
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