This morning Madhava Gosh, Soma and I took a walk behind Rati and Dwija’s at New Vrndavana to the Peter Crow cemetery. Now, while this isn’t a devotee cemetery, it was pretty cool.

Gosh knows I’m a sucker for old cemeteries, so when he asked if I wanted to check it out, I jumped at the chance.

On the walk there, Gosh told me about how they used to plant corn and make hay on surrounding hills. Also, he said that this place was called Mahavana. There are twelve forests in Vrndavana, India and this being New Vrndavana, at one point, the devotees named twelve areas after the forests of Vrndavana.

At New Vrndavana, the best known ones are Bahulavana (where the old temple – but not the old, old temple – is), Talavana, Vrndavana (where the old, old temple is), Madhuvana (where the old Jaganatha temple was – just before you get to the palace). The area where the cemetery lies is Mahavana (meaning “large forest”).

The cemetery was from the early 1800’s and was pretty run down. Neat though. Took a bunch of pics, though my camera was funky. You’ll see.

As we were walking back, I asked Gosh (pronounced “Ghosh,” btw) what the large hill over yonder was. “Govindaji Hill,” he said. There was going to be a temple on the hill, circa 1975. They leveled the ground and even laid a cornerstone with a deity of Ananta-sesa inside of it. But the temple was never built.

I was told to follow the ridge and it would take me there. We counted some cows in a pasture below us and then parted ways. The walk along the ridge was great. Wonderful views. I got a bit winded walking up the hill though it was really worth it. You could see where the ground was level. This would make an amazing place for a temple. Such a shame that they never built it. Of course, by now, it would be abandoned and falling down.

Down from Govindaji Hill was the place where Srila Prabhupada gave his Bhagavat Dharma discourses. I walked down there, passing Sky Bear’s old trailer and outhouse (near the pump house) and walked up a lane to where this white bus that was used for the Rainbow Gatherings. However, it was on this spot where Srila Prabhupada sat. Amazing. Srila Prabhupada was HERE!

There’s a monument to it as well. There are a few monuments around Bahulavana that explain that Srila Prabhupada was here and a bit of what he did.

I then walked down to the Bahulavana, poked my head into the temple and wished that it would somehow all come back. The place is run down and basically beyond repair. Nevertheless, I have an attachment to it that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. This is New Vrndavana to me. The temple now, even though Radha-Vrndavana Chandra are there, is simply not New Vrndavana to me. I don’t know why though.

Well tomorrow I’m back on the road. The rest was much-needed, but it’s time to get down to it. Tomorrow I ride roughly 325 miles. Luckily it won’t be too cold. I’ll hit some rain and it will take a hell of a long time, but by tomorrow night, I’ll be in a motel in Indiana along US Route 6.

Anyway, I took 108 pictures. Some of them are pretty crap, some of them are lovely.
You can check them out here.

Related posts:

1. Day Three – Trip-trapping along the ridge at New Vrndavana
2. New Vrndavana overrun by zombies!
3. New Vrndavana recap-a-thon!
4. New Vrndavana Tshirts that should exist (Random LJ #5)
5. In New Vrndavana for Radhastami