The Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and More

Our latest journey has been to the city of Agra. Agra is home to the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and a very interesting group of YSS devotees. This trip was mainly for tourism purposes. We wanted to see the Taj, which was Shah Jahan's gift for his dead wife. We had a new driver for this leg of our journey, his name was Mukesh. He was very nice, a smooth talker, and spoke English very well. Before we visited Agra, we stopped off at Mathura and Brindaban. These cities are suppose to be pretty holy, especially Brindaban. Brindaban is where Krishna was supposedly born. However, all the mythology and religious tradition aside, I found both of these cities kind of nasty. They felt unsafe and cluttered. In Mathura we visited Keshabananda's ashram. It was a very nice place and I enjoyed visiting it. This is the same Keshabananda I wrote about in a previous post. He had a couple ashrams and he also has a small following. We arrived at the ashram after dark so I didn't get a great look at it. All I can tell you it that it has large black pillars (just like the AY shows) and it also has a life-size figure of Keshabananda. The Indian people seem to build a lot of statues of both gods and saints. I actually find it quite nice that they spend so much time caring for their religion. In any case, we spent some time at the ashram, had a short meditation, and then headed out to the hotel we were staying at. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, except for this one strange dish I ordered at a restaurant. I ordered Navratan Korma and it came decorated with a lot of different fruits. I've had the dish before, but this looked suspect and I'm pretty sure it was indeed a little more then my stomach could handle. I had to take a little bit of Imodium the next day. From that day on I have decided to stay away from Navratan Korma. Ok, moving on...

The next day we headed to Krishna's birthplace in Brindaban. This was actually a pretty nice place. It had a beautiful temple that was newly constructed along with this cell-like room where Krishna was "born." The reason I put the word born in quotations is because there is a mosque that is built over the place where Krishna was actually born. So this cell-like room was actually the place near to where Krishna was born. Even though it wasn't the exact location of Krishna's birth the little room was still a nice place and we all sat down for a short meditation. After the meditation we left Brindaban and headed off to Agra where we would spend the next three nights. Agra was a pretty large city and it wasn't as bad as my friends told me it would be. I didn't see any more poverty there than I had seen in the rest of India. Over all, it didn't seem like a bad place and I was looking forward to seeing that Taj.

We were able to see the Taj on the day after we arrived in Agra. A guide took us there and began overloading us about information about the Taj and Shah Jahan. After around five minutes I decided to stop listening and just looked around as he educated everyone else in our party. The Taj Mahal is a very beautiful building and there is a reason why so many people come and visit it. It is amazing that the Taj survived the British. They destroyed pretty much everything else, but couldn't destroy the Taj. Kind of crazy if you ask me. The guide had his explanations for why this occurred (e.g. the glue holding the precious and semi-precious stones in the wall was so strong that you couldn't get the stones out without breaking them), but there had to be other reasons as well. At least, that is what I believe. So I would describe the Taj Mahal to you, but I think everyone knows basically what it looks like and why it was built. Therefore, I will just say one thing, it is a great architectural feat and you should try to go see it if you are ever in India.

Alright, so we saw the Taj and then we moved on to the Red Fort where Shah Jahan was put under house arrest by his son. There is a lot of history at this fort. It housed Babur, Akbar, Shah Jahan, and more. I found the fort to be old. I mean it is an old place, but there was this feeling of fatigue that overwhelmed the place. It was a feeling that was absent from the Taj. Now, mind you, this feeling may have just been me projecting my fatigue onto an old building. I was pretty tired and my assessment may not be the greatest. So if you visit the fort you may not have the same opinion. The highlight of the fort for me was this black stone slab where the Shah sat. It was pretty cool. We also took a meditation in a women's mosque. This was another nice meditation and I enjoyed myself. After the meditation we left the Red Fort and went to a place where they showed us how the gems were shape and the marble was carved for the Taj Mahal. It was a neat demonstration, but it was followed by the shop owners trying to sell us some stuff. I never like how people tend to tell you half-truths in India. Our guide had told us it was a place where we could see a demonstration of how the stones were put in the Taj. He did not tell us that it was also a shop where we would be pestered until we bought something. I think this was one of those places that guides take you in order to get a kick back. There was one more place we visited like this while in Agra. Our driver told us it was a museum. Well this museum turned out to be a larger Kohinoor Jeweler shop. Now don't get me wrong, there were amazing works of art in this shop and some amazing pieces of jewelry. In fact, I don't know how they got a hold of some of this stuff. I mean some of the things there were absolutely exquisite. I will even add to my commentary that this place is another one of the sites you should see in Agra. Just be sure not to buy anything there, it is all overpriced and seems to be only for those with a lot of money. Hmm, well it seems that I have reached a point where I should end this post. I have some more to say about Agra, but I'll leave that for another post. Hope all of you are doing well. Bye.