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Devotees who come to Vṛndāvana and Mayapur are quite wealthy and do not care much about money. That’s the stereotype many locals have, at least. In practice, however, most devotees come on a budget and need to stretch the rupee.
These are a few tips for visiting or living in Mayapur and Vṛndāvana on a budget and getting honest prices, according to my experience:
1- One of the greatest difficulties and expenditures, when we visit Mayapur and Vṛndāvana nowadays, is renting an apartment. The biggest problem is that most of the visitors come to Kartika and Gaura Purnima; therefore, the apartments that are available for the season are mostly apartments that stay empty the rest of the year. Understandably, the owners have to charge a lot more for them to compensate for that. One solution is to try to find some like-minded devotee with whom you can share, be it by renting a room or a bed at his or her place or by sharing an apartment. Apart from getting some good association, the price will be much lower.
2- Apart from renting, the second biggest expenditure of devotees in Vrindavana and Mayapur is often prasādam. There are very affordable options for taking prasādam connected with the temple in both Vṛndāvana and Mayapur. In Vṛndāvana, there is free prasādam in the ISKCON Goṣala, which is maintained with donations.
In Mayapur, there are several options, starting from 40 rupees at the Sulab kitchen, apart from the Gada Bhavan and Mahāprasadam from the stalls around the territory that are also quite affordable. There are many restaurants from different devotees around and outside the campus, but these can be expensive. If one is on a budget, the best way to save is to just stick with the prasādam from the campus.
3- When buying things, it helps to treat the vendors respectfully. There are always some black sheep around, but most vendors are just local devotees trying to maintain their families. When they see that you are a Vaiṣnava and respect them, they tend to give honest prices. When you are arrogant, they presume you are some materialist (which may be actually correct; otherwise, why would you act like that?) and charge accordingly.
It’s normal to bargain, but it should be done respectfully. To get a good price, don’t buy on the first encounter with a vendor. Instead, walk around, check prices in other places, and come back later, or the next day. After they see that you are walking around and comparing prices, they tend to give you an honest price.
Dishonest vendors usually try to press you into buying immediately by using different psychological tactics. That’s one of the signals that you are getting a bad bargain. Don’t believe in miraculous discounts: If a vendor confidently starts with a high price and starts to quickly lower it when you don’t show much interest, it’s better to buy from another place; most probably he is trying to cheat you. Honest vendors usually don’t have such large margins.
4- Rickshaws can be quite expensive, especially at festival time. If you want to get rickshaws at the normal price, get a shared rickshaw, mixing with the locals. The system is that the driver picks up and leaves people at different points and collects 10 to 50 rupees from each, according to the distance, putting as many people in the rickshaw as the physical laws allow. He can thus make 1000 rupees or more on a trip to Govardhana by charging 50 rupees from each, for example. If you try to get the same rickshaw on an exclusive basis, you may end up paying 1000 rupees or more. If you don’t mind having other people around you, a shared rickshaw can be a much better bargain.
5- In Mayapur, the electric rickshaws have a fixed price, usually 50 rupees for a trip to a short distance. However, typically only locals can get this price. Drivers usually charge 100 or even 150 rupees for foreigners, and it’s difficult to get them to lower it during festival time, when the demand is higher. 100 rupees may not sound like much, but the expenditure can quickly mount. However, this is the price for the entire rickshaw (not per person), and therefore you can get four devotees and share it among the group. You can also consider buying a used bicycle and getting rid of the rickshaws altogether. This simple change can bring unbelievable peace of mind. The bicycle can then be sold or donated when you are about to leave. It’s usually possible to buy a used bicycle for 3000 rupees, sometimes even less. Check the local devotee lists.
6- Just like in the times of Mahāprabhu, there are a lot of Muslims in West Bengal. They have beards; Hindus do not. They also dress differently. Salute Muslims with “as-salāmu ʿalaykum” and make the pranama sign with the hands, and they become much softer.
7- One interesting concept in India is the MRP. If you look carefully, every product has an MRP stamped somewhere on the package. MRP stands for “maximum retail price”, and works as a limit for how much a product can cost. It is considered unlawful to sell products for more than the MRP (although this can also happen in tourist places). This is a way the government found to avoid people overcharging for products in remote regions.
In some cases, the MRP is the fair price for products, like in the case of water bottles, for example. A half-liter bottle costs 10 rupees, and the guy selling it usually makes two rupees of profit. However, in most cases, products are supposed to be sold for substantially less than the MRP.
If you go to Amazon India, for example, you will see that most products are sold with “discounts” of 20%, 30%, or even 50%. In most cases, these are not really discounts, but just the normal prices. The “discount” is just how much it is being sold under the MRP. In most stores in India, there are prices on the shelves, and you can compare the prices they are asking and the MRP of the products.
One difficulty we have in Mayapur and Vṛndāvana is that the stores usually sell the products at the MRP price, which means quite expensively. One reason for that is that they are remote regions; therefore, the prices of transportation can be higher than in the capitals. Another reason, however, is that the owners think that visiting devotees are rich.
Many sellers work with two prices, one for locals and another for people they perceive as tourists. When we pay the MRP, it usually means we are paying the tourist price. This of course doesn’t interfere with our ability to benefit from the holy dhāma and achieve love for Kṛṣṇa, but it’s just something to keep in mind if you are trying to live in India on a budget.
If you are staying for a long time and living on a budget, you can open an account on Amazon and start getting your bhoga from there. Nowadays, you can pay with an international card; there is no need to have Indian documents.
You can usually save 20 or 30% on most products by doing so, which can make a considerable difference at the end of the month. Check the Amazon Fresh section and compare the prices with the shops; you may be surprised.
8- Apart from everything else, the best way to get lower prices is to just look for local products. Things that are produced locally tend to be quite cheap, while imported products can often be pricier than even in Europe or the United States. During Gaura Purnima, for example, broccoli and coconuts can be extraordinarily cheap, but if one wants to eat apples and avocados, one will have to spend a lot.
One of the problems we often face when visiting India is that we try to emulate our regular lifestyle, finding similar apartments we live in our countries, finding the same products, eating the same things, and so on. We try to keep ourselves safely inside our cultural bubbles instead of exploring the new environment. As a result, not only do we miss most of it, but we also end up expending a lot more.
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