This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
|
|
Today is the full moon night on which Lord Krishna holds His rasa dance with His dearest devotees, the gopis of Vrindavan.
Rasa-purnima is a big festival in Bengal. At Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir we get at least 100,000 visitors throughout the day. They come to see Sri Sri Radha Madhava and the asta–sakhis,
chant in the packed temple rooms,
and participate in the season’s first parade of chota Radha Madhava around the temple compound.
Greeted first by the gurukula boys,
the Deities were brought out on Their palanquin
and put on Their bullock cart for Their tour of the compound.
This evening’s parade was the first public outing for our new elephant Laksmi-priya.
She’s been training for the last few months, carrying several of the gurukula boys on her back.
She did well tonight, but she’s not ready yet to carry the Deities.
The parade went well, with many thousands of pilgrims participating, as the kirtan party and palanquin made its way around Srila Prabhupada’s samadhi mandir,
and lining up for free kitcheri prasadam. Indians are notorious for squeezing into any little space available with little regard for others, but they can queue when they want to, all it takes is a little organization
Whatever India may be, its people are certainly pious, turning out in their tens of thousands for religious festivals. They are incredibly patient and forebearing
and often camp out just for the privilege of participating in a festival
And when there’s no room anywhere else, they sleep under the trees
Its a wonderful place, Mayapur.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
