Shri Radha Shyamsundar Temple

On a quiet lane in old Vrindavan, a short walk from the Radha Damodar temple and the Seva Kunj gardens, stands Shri Radha Shyamsundar, one of the seven principal Gaudiya-Vaishnav temples that anchor the town's sacred map.

• Its story turns on a single, tender legend.
• The founder, Shyamananda Prabhu, was a devoted disciple who lovingly swept the forest groves of Vrindavan in humble service.
• Tradition holds that while sweeping he found a jewelled anklet dropped by Srimati Radharani herself; when her sakhi Lalita came seeking it, Radharani appeared, blessed him, and with her own anklet marked a distinctive tilaka on his forehead, a mark his spiritual line still wears to this day.
• By that grace the disciple once called Krishnadas received the name Shyamananda.
• The temple's presiding deity, Sri Shyamsundar, the beautiful dark-hued form of Krishna, is cherished in tradition as having manifested from the heart of Radharani and been given directly to Shyamananda, so that here Krishna is worshipped as Radha's own most intimate treasure.
• The dark deity stands beside the golden form of Radharani, and devotees come for the sweetness, or madhurya, of this darshan rather than for any grandeur.
• In keeping with the site's founding, Shyamananda Prabhu's memory is honoured within the temple's devotional circle, and tradition preserves his samadhi association close by.
• Physically the temple is intimate rather than monumental, a walled shrine of old Vrindavan stone and painted altars reached through the town's narrow bazaar lanes.
• Like its sibling Goswami temples it keeps unhurried darshan hours and a hushed, worshipful air; the treasure here is the atmosphere and the lineage, not scale or ornament.
• For the vegetarian traveller, old Vrindavan is wholly pure-veg and sattvic.
• No meat, egg, fish or alcohol is sold in these lanes, and the treats to seek are Vrindavan's famous milk-khoya peda and simple temple prasad.
• One firm caution: Braj is one of India's heaviest bhang (cannabis) regions, and thandai or lassi from unverified roadside stalls can be laced with bhang, which looks and is named almost exactly like the ordinary drink.
• Buy sweets only from trusted pure-veg halwais, and never accept an unlabelled thandai from a stranger.
• Come at the first morning darshan or in the cool early evening, remove your footwear, keep your voice low, and let the quiet devotion of this small temple, and its gentle story of an anklet, a name and a deity born of love, settle over you.