Mystery of Nidhivan temple at Night

Nidhivan is not the kind of forest one can discern.  It is the religious sentiment that relates to Lord Krishna’s life. It is the land of Krishna. 

The beautiful Nidhivan Temple in Vrindavan of Mathura district comes under Uttar Pradesh Government, is the place where Lord Krishna childhood passed, and it is also called Bankey Bihari Temple.  

It is to be believed that when the essence of Vrindavan was lost over time, it was rediscovered by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he visited Vrindavana, with the purpose of locating the lost holy places associated with Krishna's life.  Even today, people believe that Vrindavana is the place where one can solely witness the affection between Krishna and Radha. 

No doubt one can see here some of the most mesmerising Krishna temples, but Nidhivan is popular and known for all different reasons. 

Nidhivan is known as Tulsi [VanaTulsi] or Holy basil forest.  These trees are unique in their way.  Here, trees are completely hollow from inside and have roots 5 mm above the ground. Though no water is given to them ever, yet their leaves remain green throughout the year.  If you can see generally the branches of trees grow upwards but here the branches of trees grow downwards and are tangled.  It is believed that all the creepers of trees are Gopis. People are afraid to take a leaf from here because it is harmful to them.  That is why people refrain from carrying leaves from Nidhivan.

This Holy basil forest is akin to Krishna Rasleela, which happens every night.  It is the joyful dance of young Krishna and gopis [milkmaids] of Vrindavana eternal in legend.  This divine dance is known as Rasleela is born out of pure love and devotion.  According to the locals, this is the place where Lord Krishna still visits and herds Raasleela every single night with gopis and that is why after the evening Aarti at 7.00 pm in the temples, the doors of Nidhivan shut down for the devotees as well as priests. Nidhivan also has the maximum number of monkeys in the entire Vrindavan.  Surprisingly, after Aarti, the birds and animals also leave this place in the evening. 

This place is strictly forbidden to stay at night.  According to the local priest if anyone has tried to stay in the night in Nidhivan has not lived longer than 24 hours. People tend to stay willingly at night to see Lord Krishna but could not endure seeing the immense energy of God, thus his eyesight goes away even occur death also.  

It is believed that Swami Haridas, who drowned in the devotion of Lord Krishna and Radha, was able to see the Rasleela of Lord Krishna.  

Inside Nidhivan there is a palace called Rang Mahal, where Lord Krishna is decorated every night.  People come and worship and a jar filled with water, brush teeth, betel leaf with areca nut are kept near the bed.  In the morning when the doors are opened, it is believed that someone has slept in the bed and water in the jar is also use up and so does the pan and brush teeth! 

Even with the houses built in the vicinity of Nidhivan, one can have an actual view of the area, but no one takes a risk to attempt to do so. It is said, those who attempted to see through the Nidhivan post 8.00 pm also lost their mental balance or sight. Due to this reason, many people have sealed their windows with bricks and those who have an open window, also close them down after the bell of the evening aarti.  Here people do follow the axiom Precaution is better than cure.

No doubt, Nidhivan has its own amazing mystery which is still beyond exposition.  You cannot discredit the religious sentiment of the people.  As it rightly says, “Where the thinking boundary of Science ends the reason of spirituality begins.”