It’s been over two weeks since I arrived in Vrindavan. I’ve mostly spent my time in the same area visiting local temples, doing parikrama and maintaining my daily sadhana routine.
As I wander through Vrindavan, I’ve noticed various people here: sadhus, local shopkeepers and pilgrims. Each person here performs devotional service in their own unique way.
It’s said that saints help us see Vrindavan through their behaviour and speech. I’ve encountered many saints here, each expressing their devotion to Lord Krishna in their own special way.
Some sadhus spend their days chanting holy names, while others focus on deity worship. There are also saints who write a set number of Lord Krishna’s names in a notebook and present it to the deity at the temple, only to receive an empty notebook and start again. Some sadhus daily circumambulate Vrindavan as an offering of devotion.
Shopkeepers have a rule: before opening their shop, they offer a worship to Lord Krishna on a small altar and give the first daily income as seva to a local temple, saint or a cow.
Pilgrims who travel thousands of miles to Vrindavan also offer various devotional services. They give charity, participate in temple activities, perform extra sadhana and prayers and strive to live a pure lifestyle while in the holy place.
Each person’s offering of devotion in Vrindavan is different and unique, depending on their spiritual advancement. Krishna accepts every person’s service, no matter how small it may seem.
What unites all these people in Vrindavan is their devotional service to Lord Krishna.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.42: Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things — these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.
Ananta Gopal Das
16.12.2025
Bhakti Wisdom 