Radha and the Bee

A few nights ago there was a group of people singing and drumming in the ashram where I’m staying to commemorate an episode in the mythology of Krishna and Vrindavan. This episode is said to have happened on that day:

Radha, Krishna’s lover, was sitting at the bank of the Yamuna River, at Brahma Ghat (where the ashram is now). She was with eight of her closest girlfriends, and she was upset because Krishna had not come to see her. Actually, he came in the form of a bee, flying inland from the river, and sat on her toe, though she didn’t recognize him at first.

Robyn (my advisor and host) told me this story, and it has been confirmed by others: In 1992 on that day, the same song was being sung at Brahma Ghat to celebrate this story, and a bee flew in from the Yamuna River to that spot. Robyn saw it – she said people went nuts! They understood the bee to be Krishna. They built a shrine there, and the bee returned and flew inside the shrine, and hung out there for awhile before it left.

To top it off, bees really aren’t common in Vrindavan. People say they usually live further north. There are tons of yellow wasps, but I’ve only seen bumblebees here on one occasion.

Here is a photo of a tapestry illustrating the story and also one of the shrine.