Chir Ghat

(“Clothing Ghat”) A bathing (snana)
place on the Yamuna River in the town
of Brindavan, which is identified as the
site for one of the most famous stories
about Krishna. The story tells how the
gopis, Krishna’s female companions,
have taken a religious vow to bathe each
morning in the Yamuna during the cold
months and dedicate the religious merit
from this vow toward gaining Krishna as
their beloved. Although their austerity is
laudable, they are also bathing naked,
which is taboo in Hindu culture. Krishna
spies them in the water and climbs up in
a tree with their clothes. He then refuses
to return the clothes until the mortified
women come out of the water to ask for
them, symbolically demonstrating the
nakedness of the soul before God and
humans’ inability to control the divine.
A gigantic tree still stands by the Chir
Ghat, which is believed to be the same
tree from which Krishna humbled the
gopis. As pilgrims recall the story, they
tie strips of cloth to the tree to relieve the
gopis’ embarrassment and share in their
feeling of communion.