Gomti Kund, Kokilavan

Gomti Kund is a small, still-water pond set within the Kokilavan forest circuit near Kosi Kalan, roughly 55 kilometres northwest of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh's Braj region.

• It sits close to the well-known Kokilavan Shani Dham, and Chaurasi-Kos parikrama pilgrims pause here for a quiet ritual dip and darshan between the busier shrines.
• Unlike the nearby Surya Kund, Gomti Kund keeps to the shaded, wooded edge of the van, and most travellers reach it as part of the walking parikrama rather than as a standalone destination.
• The kund draws its meaning from the lila that gives this forest its name.
• Tradition holds that Krishna took the form of a kokila — the sweet-voiced Indian cuckoo — and sang from these groves to call Radha deeper into the woodland, and the whole van is remembered as the place of that playful hide-and-seek.
• Devotees treat the still ponds scattered through Kokilavan, Gomti Kund among them, as tirthas where a moment of stillness and a handful of water carry the memory of that lila.
• The legends here are held as devotional tradition rather than documented history, and pilgrims come in that spirit.
• Physically, Gomti Kund is modest and is best pictured that way: a stone-edged tank with simple bathing steps, a small shrine or two, trees, and the birdsong that suits its name — not a grand ghat or monument.
• That plainness is part of its charm.
• On ordinary weekday mornings it is calm and green; on Saturdays (Shanivar) and on amavasya the adjacent Shani Dham fills with enormous crowds, and the whole circuit, including this kund, grows busy and slow.
• For vegetarian travellers, Kokilavan is easy — Braj is pure-vegetarian by long custom — but there is essentially no reliable kitchen at the kund itself, so carry your own prasad, fruit and water.
• One firm caution: Mathura–Braj is one of India's heaviest bhang (cannabis) belts, and thandai or lassi sold at roadside stalls and government theka shops can be laced with bhang while looking and being named exactly like the ordinary drink.
• Do not buy thandai or lassi from unverified stalls; the nearest trustworthy pure-vegetarian, egg-free kitchens are back in Mathura and Vrindavan.
• Come early, dress modestly, walk gently, and keep the water clean — no soap or plastic.
• Half an hour of quiet, a slow parikrama loop, and the cuckoo-shaded calm are what Gomti Kund offers, best paired with a full day across the Kosi–Nandgaon–Barsana stretch of northern Braj.