Giriraj Trip

Recently I went for Goverdhan parvat(famous with the name of Giriraj) parikrama, thought of sharing my experience with all. For those totally unaware of the same, as per the legend, this is the mountain that was lifted by lord Krisha to save the folks from deadly rains. The mountain lies within Braj region. Braj region is region composing of Mathura, Vrindavan, Gokul, Nandgaon,Barsana,etc. The complete praikrama of Giriraj is 7 Kos(21 Km) long, which consists of actual mountain parikrama of 4 kos(12 Km) and Radha Kund parikrama of 3 kos(9 Km). For folks who want a shorter option of parikrama, they can go ahead with 4 kos parikrama. Our group opted for complete 7 kos parikrama. We started at around 8:45 PM and completed around 5 km by 10 PM. Many folks perform this parikrama during night, to avoid heat from Sun. This is specially true for non-winter season and near to full moon days, so that there is some light. There are certain patches within the parikrama wherein there is no light from lamp posts. The parikrama is supposed to be done barefoot and this typically turns out to be a problem for folks not used to walking barefoot. For those who don't want to go barefoot, shoes is the only right option. Chappals and all create other kind of problem as it triggers skin irration after walking for some time. For those going barefoot, they can try walking on sand rather than tar road as walking on sand is quiet soothing for the foot. Other problem faced by folks, not used to walking long distance, is skin irritation caused because of friction between thighs. This can be avoided by wearing bike shorts. For most folks, there are two major problems to be taken care of. First one is pain in the foot because of being bare foot and the next one is friction between thighs. Shoes and bike shorts can solve these problems. The other stuff to be aware of is that there are lots of temples, food stalls, tea stalls and music stalls on the way. These are open 24 hours, seven days a week. We started our praikrama from a temple which is famous with a name of 'Papu pandit ka mandir'. There is a akhand kirtan going on since past few years. This kirtan just never stops(24 x 365). There is also a platform in the temple where we found folks sleeping/taking rest during the night. This was one of the really good experience wherein I wanted to sleep/rest in a temple area during the night, something quiet different from staying in a hotel. Since I was barefoot, I started experiencing pain in my foot after 5 km and friction between thighs after 10 km. Next 10 km were really painful for me. Something else that I noticed is that one shouldn't take rest for more than 10 min during the parikrama. For me, the friction between thighs problem became a bigger issue after I took a 15 min break by mistake. From then on, my speed came down to around 2-2.5 km/hour because of the pain. It was the challenge that kept me walking. There was an option of man pulled cycle rickshaw available throughout the journey, so that one can opt for this as soon as he/she thinks they can't walk any further. Infact, two folks from our group eventually opted for rickshaw. Somehow the challenge part kept me going and I completed the prakirama by 3:30 AM. It was a really satisfying experience. It took me a day to re-cuperate, but that pain had some kind of good feeling attached with it. I don't think I will forget this trip. Hope my account helps others to be better prepared.