Brahma Van in Chaumuha town (Mathura) is famous for the popular pastime of child Krishna known as ‘Brahma Vimohan Leela’ (bewilderness of Lord Brahma). Bewildered by the simplicity of child Krishna, Brahma the creator of the universe, stole the calves and cowherd boys of Krishna. Realizing this, child Krishna expanded Himself into the same number of calves and cowherd boys and the life remained undisturbed in Braj. Brahma realized his mistake and did penance at the Brahma Van and apologized to Krishna at this place. Brahma took a holy dip in a nearby Chandra Sarovar, which was created by Chandrama (moon) before he started his penance at the Brahma Van.
This sacred forest is on National Highway 44, 20 km short of Mathura from Delhi. There exists a small temple of Lord Brahma. Unfortunately, in 2015 the so-called forest was a barren land with not even a blade of grass. The upper soil layer was Usara (saline) in nature which contains large amounts of water soluble salts which inhibits seed germination and plant growth.
Our engineering and architectural wing prepared a DPR and presented that to the Chairman NTPC. He liked the idea of reviving the green cover of a historic sacred forest. With the small amount of money sanctioned by the NTPC we decided to first treat the soil. The entire Brahma Van area was dug one meter deep by our earth movers. Then the organic manure was mixed in it to make soil fertile. An exhaustive network of underground pipelines was laid for irrigation. Besides the borewell several hydrants were constructed to ensure proper watering of plants. To protect this area from stray animals a barbed wire fencing was installed around the entire area.
Our horticulture incharge Amit Nehulkar, along with our team of gardeners went all the way to south Andhra Pradesh (Rajahmundry) which is known for its huge nurseries and brought 20 feet tall grownup trees of different fruits or flowers and transported them in trucks to Chaumuha. This exercise was undertaken during the peak monsoon period. We planted these trees in Brahma Van. By God’s grace the survival rate of these trees was much higher than our expectations because our gardeners took good care of them. Villagers and pilgrims were pleasantly surprised to notice that within one year fruits like fig, guava, mangos, pomegranate etc. started appearing in good numbers. Now, every season, the village children enjoy these fruits.
A sufficiently large patch of green grass has also been developed and maintained within the Brahma Van which attracts old and young people and a large number of children from Chaumuha, both morning and evening.
With the second grant received from NTPC we also restored puranic Brahma Kund within Brahma Van. Since the soil here is very loose, it starts caving in the first monsoon, so we had to do stone cladding of its ghats. We constructed one bathing ghat for pilgrims and villagers. Several beautiful chatris with raised platforms were constructed to provide shelter to visitors within the forest. Concrete garden furniture was constructed to facilitate tourists enjoying their packed meal. Several lily ponds were constructed with pakka water channels to divert extra rain water. A small camp office and tourist information center was constructed for the maintenance of the site. Stone plaques depicting the puranic history of Brahma Van, inscribed in Hindi and English, were installed for the convenience of pilgrims. With the private donation we also installed stone dioramas depicting Brahma Vimohan leela. Today this heritage site has become a selfie point.
Brahma Van boundary wall with chain link fencing is yet to be constructed because barbed wire fencing is not a permanent solution. We hope some donor will be generous enough to support this in near future. Today, it's a well maintained forest under the supervision of our expert team. We need your generous support in the maintenance of this puranic Krishna leela sthali.
We are a non-profit organization, established in December 2005 to restore and revitalize the environmental and cultural heritage of Braj Bhoomi (land of Braj)
