Being Shrivatsa

This chapter shows how innovation emerges in one of Vrindavan’s most influential religious lineages, the Chaitanya or Gaudiya community that traces its origins back to the sixteenth century when Vrindavan emerged as a built presence on the banks of the Yamuna. In the West the best-known figure in the Gaudiya community is undoubtedly the founder of ISKCON, but in India Shrivatsa Goswami is almost equally renowned. Shrivatsa’s father was a major innovator in the generation just past; we watch Shrivatsa perform his funeral rites. How does Shrivatsa, a person with global connections, represent the old and the new Vrindavan at once?

The Sign of Our Times

This final chapter asks the question, “What now?” Looking back over all that has been said and turning to the urgency of the moment, I propose that Vrindavan be designated a World Heritage Site and suggest a “theology of world heritage” to match. What does it mean when the realities we take for granted—land, water, air, nation, gender, social structures—crumble before our very eyes? Vrindavan, a haven of exalted virtuality yet pitched in one of the world’s most precarious environments, feels each of these tremors and is a powerful sign of our times.

A Different Refuge for Women

For centuries Vrindavan has been famous as a refuge for widows. Some have come to live here of their own accord; others are ejected from their families as burdensome and inauspicious presences after their husbands die. But this pattern is gradually changing, and in unexpected ways. Two notable women who have played major roles in India’s leading political parties—Congress and the BJP, sworn enemies—have recently established new sorts of women’s institutions in Vrindavan. Even Oprah Winfrey has come to visit.

The Skyscraper Temple

This chapter describes the design, architecture, and marketing of the Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir (Vrindavan Moonrise Temple) on the part of its creators, the indigenously Indian break-off branch of ISKCON headquartered in Bangalore. Bangalore is more than a thousand miles south of Vrindavan and is India’s premier IT hub. Some seventy stories high, the Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir will be India’s tallest building by far, and an important entry in the race for global religious visibility. It is intended to be the world’s tallest religious structure.

Paradise—Lost?

The book begins with an introduction to the idea and reality of Vrindavan against the background of the forty-five years in which I have been a regular visitor. There have been drastic changes in the last two decades, but the idea of “the new Vrindavan” is old: New Vrindavans are spread around India and the world. I conclude this introduction by explaining the logic of the book as a whole.

Mall of Vrindavan

A new temple axis in Vrindavan—temples, hotels, and theme parks—has emerged along the Chatikara Road in the last fifteen years, tying the old Vrindavan to the Delhi–Agra highway like a vast religious strip-mall. There’s an equally new array of gurus to match, some Indian and some from abroad, but precious few from Vrindavan’s old Brahmin elites. The new temples and ashrams reveal that Vrindavan is no longer just the land of Krishna. Instead they reflect the new India as a whole, especially as branded in Delhi and Gurgaon.

The Battle of Keshi Ghat

This chapter chronicles recent struggles between two groups—Futurists and Protectors—for the development and preservation of Vrindavan as a major pilgrimage and tourist destination. I focus especially on the Yamuna and its waterfront—prominent symbols of Vrindavan as a whole. Here we begin to see the major impact that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), earlier known as the Hare Krishna movement, has had on the town. ISKCON’s globalizing presence, India’s liberalized economy, and the politics of governance in an age of Hindu nationalism are major vectors in the story.