Srila Prabhupada Appearance Day

The next day of the most awaited day of the year is a very special day for all the ISKCON Devotees. It is the appearance day of Srila Prabhupada to whom we are forever indebted to give the sublime process of Krishna Consciousness to the whole world and building ISKCON to give shelter to misdirected conditioned souls. This year was the 113th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s divine appearance in this material world.

I could not attend Mangala Arotik owing to my conditioned body. But I managed to reach Guru Puja. His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja offered the worship to Srila Prabhupada’s deity and HG Sridham Prabhu sang the Guru Vandana Prayers.

Then there was a lecture by Srila Prabhupada recorded on his Vyas Puja. Srila Prabhupada explained the significance of Vyas Puja and position of Spiritual Master.

What followed were Vaishnava Bhajans for pleasure of Prabhupada and assembled devotees.

The Vyas Puja offerings started at 9:30 AM by Sridham Prabhu, a very senior devotee in ISKCON Delhi temple.Followed by HG Vrajendra Nandan Prabhu, Communication Director, HG Krishna Priya Prabhu, HG Jita Mitra Prabhu and HG Radha Damodar Prabhu.

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja then entered the temple hall and glorified Srila Prabhupada. He told that Every act small or big of Srila Prabhupada was wonderful and he could not forget even a moment’s association with Srila Prabhupada he had. By this tme he choked up with rememberance of his divine spiritual master, and could not speak anymore.

His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja also read his offering from the Vyas Puja book, expressing his gratitude to Srila Prabhupada. This was to be followed by Abhisheka, Bhoga Offering and Pushpanjali. Then a great feast awaited all the devotees. It included Prabhupada’s favourite Kachori and Gulab Jamun.

The celebrations continued in evening with HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaja and HH Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja gave a combined lecture and continued their glorification of their revered Spiritual Master. Then a play was acted by the Vaikuntha Group on Srila Prabhupada Pastimes. Thus the day came to a close with a little prasadam.

All Glories to this auspicious day when the divine grace of the Lord descended on the earth for the sole reason of benefit for the fallen conditioned soul. Srila Prabhupada’s life is an example of dedication to his Spiritual master’s order, his faith in Holy name, dependence on Krishna and immense compassion. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada, the warrior-leader of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan army.

Janmashtmi Celebrations @ ISKCON New Delhi

Lord Krishna appeard on the eighth day of bright fortnight of Month Magha. So we celebrate the anniversary of this day every year with great festive spirit. We were very fortunate to have Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appears only once in a day of Brahma so kindly appeared in Dwapar Yuga that passed by, followed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Prabhupada carries on the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and it is because of his devotion, that this day is now celebrated across the globe.

I would share some of the activities that went on in ISKCON New Delhi, Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Temple on August 14, Friday.

Amidst strong security measures owing to the proximity of Independence day on Aug 15 to Janmashtmi, ISKCON temple was fortified with police security. Even at 4 AM in the morning there was frisking. Somehow we managed to get inside, but could not take our mobiles and cameras inside. It was disappointing to be not able to click photos. The temple hall was filled with devotees awaiting the opening of the gates of the altar. When they opened, their lordships were greated with great roars and Kirtan. Their Lordships were marvellously dressed in a green outfit. HG Mohan Rupa Prabhu, the Temple President of ISKCON New Delhi led the Mangala Arati Kirtan.

After that some announcements were made regarding the services and Kirtan schedule followed by Japa. Then it started raining heavily, turning the weather pleasant with cool breezes throughout the day.At 7:30, there was Guru Puja and 8:30 AM, the Lord appeared in his festival dress. There was loud Kirtan and devotees sung and danced in ecstasy.

It was really good to have association of all the devotees viz Chakravarti pr, Saurabh Pr, Prateek pr and Sagar pr. Avyanga Pr also later joined us after he finished services at home. But during the day he fell very ill. Now he is ok!!

After that the devotees got engaged in their respective services. About 1.75 lakh people visited to have the blessed darshans of the Supreme Lord. Also parallely Abhiseka of the lord by the donors was going on in Auditorium lobby and Front of IYF Seminar Hall.

The stalls that were earlier decided to be closed due to security concerns were opened and the whole pandal came into life. The main attraction was the Japa Pandal and the IYF stall replete with scientific representation of the Vedas and Relevance of Krishna Consciousness in Today’s Youth’s life.

At 11:00 PM, the Abhisheka started. Fortunately we had His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja and His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja with us who bathed the lord with milk, honey and various other auspicious items. Then the lord was offered bhoga of 1008 items.

By arrangement of Lord, i was fortunate to get the service of transferring the bhoga from the preparation area to the lift that directly goes to the altar. Consequently I could not attend the Abhiseka.

This was proceeded by Maha Arati of the Lord which ended by 1:00 AM. Guru Maharaja was at Radha parthasarathi altar. At this time, the hall was almost empty with very few devotees. The doors then closed, and devotees returned to their bases, to again come next day for celebrating the appearance day of the person because of whom, we celebrated Janmashtmi with such great fervour. Yes, the next day is Appearance Day of our beloved Srila Prabhupada.

The Lord Appears........

As you all know that preparation for Janmashtmi had begun a few weeks before. Had got jewellery for the lord from Vrindavan on a trip with Avyanga Prabhu. He also gave me the dress material for Lord's apparel amongst many other things like scented oil, beadings, wiping cloth. I had bought flowers a day earlier and refrigerated them.

In order to reach temple for Mangala Arati I had prepared for the morning seva at our altar in the night only.

We got up at 2:30 AM in the morning. Took a bath and after applying tilak and wearing fresh dhoti kurta, I entered the temple room. After opening the latar I greeted the lord on his birthday. Played Janmashtmi Kirtan by HH Loknath Swami Maharaj in the background.

The celebrations started with the abhisheka of

the Lord. Also Mithilesh helped me with decorating the altar with flowers meanwhile. After his bath, The Lord wiped off water and got dressed in his new orange dress and a necklace.

Then offered Lord some sweets which had been prepared the night before. Then we offered incense and lamp to the lord. Immediately after this we paid our obeisances and left for the temple.

There were lot of other people to go to temple with us. Chakravarti Pr and Vinit Pr also stayed the night so that we all could go to temple in morning.

Balarama Purnima

Radha Parthasarathi Mandir, ISKCON New Delhi celebrated Balarama Purnima on Aug 5, 2009.Here are the pics.

This also marked the last day of Jhulan Yatra, the swinging pastimes of the Lord.

Invitation !!!!

THIS FRIDAY, 14th August 2009

BE PREPARED, BE INSPIRED FOR THE
BIGGEST BIRTHDAY BASH OF THE YEAR!

From 4:30am onwards there will be Kicking Music! – Kirtan, DANCE acts!, Special Performance – Drama!, Interactive exhibition and Quiz!, Drinks – Food – Galore and
Midnight Dance Party!!!

All for the price of Rs. 0.00, Yes folks – its completely and utterly FREE

Where you ask?
Hare Krishna Temple
East of Kailash

New Delhi…

:0) see you there…

P.S. Stop By our IYF Counter for the complete experience

Everywhere I Go

I remember the lines of famous song

"I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. Love is all around me, it's everywhere I go."

I happened to go to the wholesale flower market to buy flowers for decorating altar at home for tomorrow! The market is huge and houses about 1000s of vendors selling varities of flowers. I generally buy Orchids, Roses, Carnations and Gerberas and Rose Petals with Jasmine garlands.

Coming back to the point, I saw many devotees who had come there to do some mega shopping for the biggest birthday bash of the year. Here's a list of people I saw:

1. Suta Goswami Prabhu, Head pujari, ISKCON Delhi, East of Kailash

2. Radha Charan Prabhu from Vrindavan, we all know him from his

beautiful and sweet Gaura Nitai deities he carries everywhere he goes. Everywhere means everywhere.

3. Devotees from Chandigarh

4. Devotees from punjabi Bagh temple.

It felt so good to see devotees in the market. With bright tilaks adorning their foreheads. It was an auspicious sight. Last thing i know, Avyanga prabhu and Sanjeev prabhu are also buying flowers as I Blog !!!

Then there are other sightings which are increasing the excitement about tomorrow's great festival. I happened to visit Radha Parthasarathi temple yesterday, pandals are set, loud Hare Krishna Kirtan by Srila Prabhupada is going on, IYF devotees totally engaged in preparing stuff for IYF stalls. I also had darshans of H.H. Jaya Pataka Swami. He gave the evening lecture in temple hall.

Near my house is a temple called Sri Krishna Ashram that also celebrates Janmashtmi with great pomp and fervor, so the streets are bedecked with flags and lights. Yes all these things remind me that soon the Moon of Vrindavan will appear to banish the darkness of materialism and spread the cooling moonlight of love in our hearts.

Sri Krishna Avirbhava Mahamahotsava Ki Jaya!

Approaching Janmashtmi

Yes! the day the day we celebrate as the anniversary of the Appearance day of the Supreme Lord is almost here. Known as Janmashtmi, Krishna Jayanti and Gokulashtmi in various parts of India. If only one can fathom the heights of emotions rollercoating though a devotee's mind during the days. The temple is bustling with activity. Everyone is so busy, there is not even a single crack of time through which maya can creak in. The service becomes so important that there's no time even for offencive mentality. Wow! Indeed these auspicious days are surcharged with spitiual potency that can bestow the sincere servant all the desired boons.

Sunday was pretty hectic and that's good. Morning we went to the engagement of a very dear devotee friend. By "we", I mean Avyanga Prabhu and me.

After feasting there, I went to Amit Ghosh Prabhu's house. They have a very big altar which houses all the dities one can percieve to be present in an ISKCON altar. Palika Candrika Mataji - mother of Amit Ghosh Prabhu treated us with nice poori aloo lunch prasadam. There we sat for around 2 hours and shared various aspects of Krishna Consciousness in householder life and in general laughed about foolish philosophies propagated outside. Probably a devotee can understand this better.

After this we left for temple, where some service regarding IYF stall in Pandal awaited both of us. After spending some 1-2 hous there I was to visit Avyanga Prabhu's house to collect outfit for my deities. I parked my car at the Metro station and took the Metro train to Adarsh Nagar. I reached his house by 7:30 pm. This marked the onset of excruciating pain in my molars. Reminded me how bad is this bargain of having to carry this body which is capable of inflicting unmeasurable sufferings.

Avyanga prabhu has this most awesome altar presided by Lord Jagannath, baladeva and Subhadra and Damodar Gopal ji. And they are dressed in most exquisite of dresses and jewellery. He practices the highest possible standard of deity worship and service that is possible for a householder. He has this treasure of deity parphernalia which always levaes me wide eyed and agape.

Prabhuji then as usual being the perfect host treated us (Mohit Pr was also there) He then gave me dress material, beadings and a fragrant oil for the Lord's service. After having dinner prasadam I left in time to catch Metro back.

Visiting houses of three great devotees was a wonderful experience. Seeing the love and honor with which they accept a guest is very inspiring. May be some day I will be qualified to do the same.

What's going on ?

I thought that I will also post whats generally going on in my life. So to start with Delhi temple is bustling with activity for preparation for the upcoming Maha-Festival - Jamnashtmi, the appearance day of the Supreme Lord. So many departments, so many volunteers. It's being managed very nicely. My parents got the same seva they got last time - thats Japa Plaza.

IYF devotees were informed about their seva. They play a very important role in fecilitating the humongous task of managing the festival. Along with congregation, IYF forms the workforce, with senior devotees managing them with their expert guidance.

IYF has big plans this time. Some major innovations for preaching this time around.

On another note, I visited Sridhama Vrindavan yesterday. On reaching I realized that what an auspicious day it was apart from me being there in Sri dhama. It was Ekadasi, during the month of Savan, 2nd day of Jhulan Yatra and Disappearance Day of Sri Rupa Goswami Prabhupada.

After taking darshans of Krishna Balarama, Gaura Nitai and Radha Shyamsundar, we could only take darshans at Radha Damodar Mandir. Sunday being holiday, Vrindavan was thronged by lakhs of devotees and thousands of vehicles. It was chaos on roads. But Vrindavan always mantains its place in the heart of the devotee.

After doing whole lot of shopping for deities by Avyanga Prabhu, we ended up in the evening Kirtan at Krishna Balarama Mandir. That time, the supremely beautiful all attractive lord Sri Krishna was enjoying swinging pastimes with his most beloved Srimati Radharani. The whole arrangement was decorated heavily with flowers.

We left around 8:30 pm and reached home by 11:30 pm.