The Indian Wanderer: Naam Yog Sadhna Mandir

Alias: Jai Guru Dev Mandir

Location: Madhavpuri, NH-2 (Mathura Road), Vrindavan, UP

Lat-Long: 27.47586 77.65729

Mandir from the highway

Naam Yog Sadhna Mandir is the mammoth marble marvel amidst NH-2 joining Delhi-Mathura-Bharatpur being dotted by religious spots on both sides. The edifice is built by followers of Tulsidas Maharaj (alias Baba Jai Gurudev), who was a famous North Indian religious figure of Radhasoami & Naam Yog sect. The mandir or meditation hall is built to commemorate teacher (guru) of Baba Jai Gurudev -Pandit Ghurelal Sharma.

For most of the people like me, who don't have a clue about Baba Jai Gurudev, the Mandir seems like an architectural treatise, which may easily be equated to contemporary mini-Tajmahal. Built up whole in white marble, the Persian onion domes oven minarets can't miss the eye of even the least observant highway dwellers, going either for the Mathura-Vrindavan temples or for business.

Marble-clad doorway with beautiful wooden gate

The mandir, which attracts thousands during its Bhandaraas, is mostly tranquil and soothing. Contrived partially in Charbagh pattern (in terms of symmetrical arrangement and four doorways on all four sides), the structure is both inviting and enchanting to all. After getting your shoes off at the entrance, the Mandir hosts its visitors though a non-celebrating entrance, which unlike other big mandirs is not larger-than-life. The entry gate to the premise is rather intelligently carved, amalgamating the Quilla darwaza style` and the north Indian mandir entry style. Few green patches, mostly of grass, are carefully placed surrounded by balustrades of marble-pieces and zig-zag corridors. White minarets with the bulging dome mark the front boundary of the complex.

The entry to the prayer hall is raised and of a monumental scale, which also work as platform to observe the surrounding white-green scenery. Get inside the wooden doors and you find yourself at the inertia of a series of columns and beams running & dissolving, forming pattern of buttresses. The prayer hall is quiet and huge, echoing even the least of sound. The outer Charbagh pattern is also replicated here, coupled with the first floor gallery and Clerestory windows. The focal point is a raised room having photos of Gurus and their Gurus. The builders give a surprise when one find a sub-basement hall beneath the prayer hall, illuminated in colored lights.

However, the beauty also exposes its weakness as the marble floor of the prayer hall is all peripherally cracked due to either soil settlement or minor quakes. The intricate carvings are also damaged at some railings. The largest dome is also under repair to solve the problem of falling marble tiles. Such grave problems, when the structure is less than 10 years old, makes one wonder about the technology and insight builders of Tajmahal must have had. However, the mandir is sure a shining jewel added to the already long list of religious building continuously being added in the Braj pradesh.