Nidhivan, Vrindavan

One of the most famous spots of the town Vridavan is Nidhivan, a small shrubby place. Legend has it that Lord Krishna performed the Rasleela or the divine dance here with Radha and his gopis over 5000 years ago. The stone path leads to the Samadhi of the mystic musician Swami Haridas whose devotion to Lord Krishna inspired Shri Krishna to materialize here. In the middle of the enclosure lies Lalita Kund, a pond named after a gopi who asked Lord Krishna for water after dancing. He then plucked the earth with his flute and water emerged for them. A small shrine called Rang Mahal is where Lord Krishna is said to have done Sringaar or make-up for Radha. Every night the priests leave tit bits for daily use on a sandalwood bed here; the next morning these appear to have been moved. Another shrine shows Radha, flanked by Lalita and Vishakha who conspired to steal Lord Krishna’s flute, which took away his attention from them.

Nidhivan means "Forest of Tulsi. It is one of the sacred forest sites of Vrindavan. Nidhivan is considered as the most prominent site dedicated to the pastimes of Hindu deities Radha Krishna and their gopies. It is common belief among the devotees that Nidhivan still witnesses the Raslila dance of Radha and Krishna during night time and thus, nobody is allowed to stay inside the premises of Nidhivan at night.

 Besides the Tulsi plants, the premises houses a shrine dedicated to Swami Haridas who with his complete devotion made the idol of Banke Bihari appear, Raas Leela Sthali where Raslila is performed.

About the Tulsi Plants:

Nidhivan is considered as one of the mysterious places of Vrindavan. It is a dense forest with the lush green trees. The interesting thing is that the barks of the trees are hollow and the land is absolutely dry, but the tree remains loaded with green leaves throughout the year. All the trees are in bending position towards the ground. The common belief is that these trees of Tulsi turn into gopies in the night for performing Raslila. Every Tulsi plant in the premises is found in pairs signifying the pair of Gopi and Krishna.

Rang Mahal

Rang Mahal is another temple in Nidhivan, known as the place where Radha Rani is adorned by Krishna with his own hands. It is strongly believed by devotees that every night Radha Krishna themselves come to this palace to take rest. The temple has sandalwood beds for resting. Every evening, before closing the temple gates, the temple priests make the bed, places ornaments like bangles, flowers and clothes for Radha Rani, Sweets, Paan (Betel leaves) and a jar full of water beside the bed of Radha Krishna. After all the arrangements done by the priests, the main door of the Rang Mahal and Nidhivan are locked from outside and unlocked only in the morning. But every morning, they found that the bed looks as if it has been slept in, everything looks used and Sweets and Betel leaves looks partially eaten by someone. Also, the bangles, flowers and clothes placed for Radharani looks disordered and disarranged.

No one is allowed inside the premises of the temple after the sun sets down. It is believed that Radha-Krishna come to the temple every night to rest. Anyone who has tried to see what happens in the night either dies, goes blind or loses their mental balance. Although the houses built in the vicinity of Nidhivan have access to the view of the area but no one dares to attempt to do so. Many people who live in the vicinity have sealed their windows with bricks and those who have an open window, also close them down after the final bell of the evening aarti. Many of them also claimed to hear the sounds of anklet coming from Nidhivan in night. Even the monkeys leave the Nidhivan temple after evening aarti.

Soon after that Haridas left his village for Vrindavan, which was a dense forest at that time and choose a secluded spot, which is now known as Nidhivan, to practice his music and to enjoy eternal bliss of meditation. He constantly and continuously meditated on Nitya Ras and Nitya Bihar of Lord at Nitya Vrindavan. His way of Sadhna was to compose and sing songs in the praise of Lord. While on earth, living in a mortal state, he facilitated his regular unobstructed entry in the Nitya Bihar and always enjoyed the pleasure of closeness of Lord. He chose a secluded and densely forested area, Kunj, in Nidhivan as his gateway to the nirvana and was mostly sitting there, singing, meditating and surfing in the ocean of eternal bliss.

His disciples were curious about this place and one day with permission of Swamiji, they all entered the kunj. But instead of seeing anything they were almost blinded by bright, intense light, which seemed to fill the whole place. On knowing of their plight Swamiji himself went there, and then after his requests, lord appeared in person with his divine consort, pleasantly smiling and in a playful mood and casting a spell of charm on every living being present there. Those who witnessed this, were so spell bounded by the beauty of Shri Krishna and Radhat, that they couldn’t even blink their eyes, it seemed that all of them had turned into stone statues.

Sensing this Swami Haridasji requested both of them to take a single form, as the world won’t be able to bear their image. He requested them to take a single form like Ghan(cloud) and Damini(lightning) thus giving a perfect metaphor to the combined beauty of dark Lord and his fair consort, Radhaji.

Also he wanted his beloved lord to be in front of his eyes always. Granting him his both wishes, the couple turned itself into one single black charming idol, the same one that you see in the the charm and beauty of Shri Banke Bihariji. This is the reason why the ‘darshan’ in the temple is never continuous but is broken by the curtain drawn on him regularly. It is also said that if one stares long enough into the eyes of Shri Banke Bihariji, the person would lose his self consciousness.