by Vrajasundari Devi Dasi

FLOWER OUTFIT

Before making this flower outfit, Mitravinda Devi Dasi spent the night at the flower market in Delhi choosing the best flowers she could find. She bought gerberas and orchids. She filled the temple bus with flowers, and when she arrived in Vrindavana, she spent the morning unloading, taking the flowers out of their wrappings and sorting them according to colour and size.

About fifteen ladies worked all that night to make the flower outfit. Armed with glue guns, they painstakingly arranged the flowers to make the Deities’ skirts, trousers, and shawls. The outfit was offered at the 7:15 am Deity greeting, and twelve hours later at evening arati it still looked completely fresh.

Mitravinda loves her service and learns something new with each outfit she makes. She hopes to make four flower outfits per year.

She said, “You can only offer flower outfits in the summer because the flowers are cooling. Our plan is to make outfits for Janmasthami, Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day, the Boat Festival, and Ramanavami.”

PEACOCK OUTFIT

This is the first peacock feather outfit ever offered to our Deities. It was designed by Mitravinda devi dasi. She said, “I worked with six ladies in the Deity department basement for two weeks to make this outfit. Ati Sundari, Kishori, and Govinda were my main helpers. We used about eight thousand feathers. It was difficult to trim so many feathers, and of course we couldn’t turn on the fans, but luckily the weather was quite cool. It was one of the most pleasurable services I have ever done. All of us felt ecstatic. All we saw for two weeks was peacock feathers, and we even dreamed of them at night.”

CHANDAN OUTFIT

Chandan Yatra begins at the beginning of May, on the day that is generally the hottest of the year, and on that day the Deities are covered in cooling sandal- wood pulp. Chandan Yatra continues for 21 days during which the small Deities wear sandal wood pulp everyday. Many devotees help with the grinding because it takes time and patience to make just a little sandalwood.