The appearanceday of Sri Krishna, followed by the appearanceday of His pure devotee Srila A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, is one of the most enlivening festivals in our temple. Especially also because we are residing in Vraja and lakhs and lakhs of devotees are visiting our temple.

This year the weather has been very nice.

There was enough rain and therefore the surroundings here are green, wherever there are no new buildingsiiiand it is not too hot, although a little humid. The arrangements for controlling the crowd were nicely made by the templemanagement and therefore everything went very smoothly. There were four new outfits offered this year; one for mangalaratrika, one for the main darshna at 7:30am, one for the afternoon darshan and the last for the midnight darshan. There was simultaneous abhisheka for Sri Sri Krishna-Balarama and Sri Sri Radha-Shyamasundar. By the arrangement of the Lord there was a lot of milk for the abhisheka and after the abhisheka there was a huge amount of bhoga offered to the Deities, cooked by the many sincere devotees of the Lord, coming from all over the world, and offering so many varieties of sweets, cakes, cookies, samosas, kacoris, parathas, fancy rice, pulao rice, plain rice, so many types of vegetables prepared in various ways, chutneys etc. all for the pleasure of Sri Krishna. And as for every festival different devotees spoke nicely about the appearance of Sri Krishna and His pastimes. Also as usual Aindra Prabhu and his devotees and other devotees were chanting the Holy Names of the Lord very melodiously, giving pleasure to all. The prasadam too was very good. Also worth mentioning are the wonderful flowerdecorations on the altar and in the temple and in front of the temple too.

Since we are aspiring to join the pastimes of Brajendranandan Sri Krishna and Sri Balarama in Vrindavan we may point out that both Sri Balarama and Sri Krishna appeared in Sri Vrindavan Dhama and that simualtaneously Sri Krishna appeared also in Mathura as the son of Vasudeva. Vasudeva brought his son to Gokula and put Him there and Vasudeva took His younger sister, who is yogamaya, the internal potency of Sri Krishna back to Mathura. Vasudeva Krishna merged then in the form of Brajendranandan Krishna. In order to join the eternal pastimes in Goloka Vrindavan we must become aware of the proper conclusions of the scriptures, following the mood of Srila Prabhupada and the previous acaryas.

Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasapuja started with Srila Prabhupada’s tape of his chanting the mangalaratrika song. After the darshan of the Deities Srila Prabhupada’s gurupuja was performed, followed by enthusiastic kirtan and then bhajans, followed by a recorded class given by Srila Prabhupada. Then the devotees presented their heartfelt offerings and also offerings by Srila Prabhupada’s seniormost disciples were read out by their disciples. At noon a nice bhoga offering was given to Srila Prabhupada, followed by puspanjali and then aratrika was offered and finally as sumptuous feast was served to all the devotees.

In the evening some local, respectable saintly devotees were invited to our temple on the occasion of the traditional breaking of claypots, containing milk, rabri(cooked down milk with sugar), honey etc. In this way the festival ended in a very auspicious and jolly mood.

And now the devotees are eagerly waiting for the next festivals, especially the most sweet and wonderful appearance day of Srimati Radharani.

By Krishna Balaram Mandir Deity Dept.