More Janmastami Nectar

BY: SUN STAFF

Crying for Yashoda? A kindergarten student in Vijayawada dressed as Krishna
breaks into tears on stage at the Janmashtami celebrations on Tuesday.
[Photo by Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar]

Sep 8, INDIA (SUN) — More Janmastami news from around the world.

Little Krishnas and gopikas steal hearts - Janmastami celebrated with fervour at Radha Shyam Sundar Mandir of ISKCON in Vijayawada, AP. A report from P. Sujatha Varma of The Hindu:

"It was a visual feast for the vast crowd at the sprawling grounds of Nalanda Vidya Niketan, which became a hub of ‘Krishnaleela’ on Tuesday. Since it was Krishnashtami, Lord Krishna became omnipresent, walking gracefully all across the ground. Little ones from lower kindergarten donned a Krishna avatar and stole every single heart at the venue by not doing much action but simply throwing careless glances at their awe-struck admirers.

Overcome by a blend of emotions, the little participants, over a dozen in number, descended on the dais but avoided an eye-to-eye contact with the huge audience in front of them. Mother of a little child pulled him back to warn him against crying on the stage, lest his make-up would get washed off. One of the children wept incessantly and looked eagerly for his lost pair of chappals, while his friends queued up, marching towards the dais. A worried teacher virtually pushed him ahead, goading him to join others. Another thirsty tiny-tot got a last-minute helping from his mother who quickly thrust a water bottle in his mouth overlooking the team of teachers struggling to bring order among the participants.

Delightful confusion

Giving company to the tiny Lord Krishnas were cherubic and bubbly Gopikas, flaunting their shimmering ghagra-cholis and ornaments, some of which became a cause of confusion by dropping from their heads and hands. The elated audience could not take their eyes off the smiling, the glum-faced, the wailing and the squirmy Lord Krishna, all at once, standing in the limelight and facing them bashfully.

What followed was even more invigorating. Children of upper kindergarten again dressed as Krishna and Gopikas, swarmed the dais to hop and sway in sync to the tune of ‘Gokula Krishna Gopala Krishna….’

The Krishnashtami celebration coincided with the Sangeetha Nrutya Varotsav in the school. An enthralling Kuchipudi dance by Venkata Naga Saumya drew a huge round of applause, while group dance, recitation of slokas and tabla jugalbandi were other items. Students of Bloomingdale Play School, a unit of the Nalanda Vidya Niketan, also celebrated Sri Krishna Janmashtami by singing happy birthday song to the Krishna. They tried bravely to reach the Vutti, the pot with delicacies hung at a height.

Janmashtami celebrations were also held with a lot of religiosity and in a grand manner at the Radha Shyamsundar Mandir of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) at Undavalli near here. ISKCON branch president Murali Mohan Das said the arrival of the Krishna into the world would be celebrated at the midnight with Abhishekam, Harinama Samkeethana and distribution of Mahaprasadam."

The Hindu reports that there's something to cheer about for all as Krishna Janmasthami was celebrated at ISKCON in Mysore, Karnataka on Tuesday

"The festival season in Mysore that commences with Krishna Janmasthami celebrations has a special significance for a different category of people in Mysore. For the connoisseurs of classical arts, the festivities herald the beginning of a new music season as this is soon followed by Ganesha Chaturthi, following which comes the Dasara music festival.

Cultural programmes for Krishna Janmasthami are being held in Udupi at Sri Krishna Mandira, at Nruthyalaya Trust, where a flute recital is scheduled for Wednesday. Another programme was scheduled on the banks of the river Cauvery at Doddagosai Ghat in Srirangapatana which was the setting for a flute recital by renowned musician Ravishankar Mishra.

While the connoisseurs of music had their hands full, the devout made a rush to the innumerable temples that dot the city and the cynosure of all eyes was the new temple of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) coming up at Jayanagar. Cultural and religious events marked the day as a large number of people made a beeline to the temple which was crowded since the crack of dawn and the pilgrims progress continued till mid-night for the special prayers. Incidentally, school children were part of the large gathering, as ISKCON Mysore has launched the Akshaya Patra in the region to supplement the Government’s mid-day meal programmes. It serves over 7,200 pupils drawn from 25 schools.

There is another category of people who await the festival season. They are the road-side artisans who eke out a living by making idols. This is that time of the year when idols of Lord Krishna made of plaster of Paris or clay, are sold in large numbers. But in a matter of days there will be a switch to Ganesha-Gowri idols which will be in demand. If the artisans are kept busy so are the flower and fruit vendors, for whom the festival and cultural season is a harbinger of prosperity.

Little ’Krishnas’ getting ready for the fancy dress competition at Sri Krishna Vidya Mandir as part of the Sri Krishna Janmashtami celebrations in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. .
[Photo by K.R. Deepak]

And in Vishakhapatnam, AP, The Hindu reports that fervour marks Janmastami as little Krishnas and Gopikas hog the limelight.

Sri Krishna Janmastami was celebrated across the city with traditional gaiety and religious fervour on Tuesday. People thronged various temples from the morning and offered special pujas. Dressed colourfully in grand attires, little Krishnas and Gopikas participated in various events at Srikrishna Vidya Mandir during the Janmastami celebrations held on the school premises.

The place was teeming with rolly-polly kids painted blue, flute in hand and the unmistakable peacock feather on the head. It was a little horde of naughty Krishnas with only the parents being able to identify their wards. The parents had to keep an eye on the naughty ones who were oblivious to what was happening around and started to pull out the decorations. Tired of the long wait, some of them dozed off in the arms of their parents.

The students of high school gave a fascinating display of different scenes and events from Lord Krishna’s life. With their attires, grand decorations and lucid explanations of the scenes, they displayed an exuberant enactment of the Lord’s childhood endeavours, scenes from the Mahabharata and Lord Krishna’s Rasa Leela in Vrindavan.

Devotees thronged Sri Krishna Mandir in Seethammadhara North Extension Layout where the celebrations started from the early hours of the day. The temple was specially decorated. Enthusiastic children participated in Utti Utsavam with great excitement. Children took part in cultural programmes held on the temple premises in the evening that depicted the life of Lord Krishna. The ISKCON celebrated the day with lot of fervour.

[Photos by Shashi Uttam]

In a report from the Patna Daily, Janmastami was ecstatically celebrated in Patna:

People in Patna on Tuesday celebrated the birth of Lord Krishna with prayers, hymns, and dramas to recreate the life of the 8th reincarnation of Lord Vishnu as devotees made a beeline at a number of Krishna temples and other places celebrating Janmashtmi in the city.

Special events were organized at Dadiji Temple on Bank Road, ISKCON, Mahavir Mandir, Asa Ram Bapu Ashram, and the Radha-Krishna Temple in Sabjibagh.

A host of Bihar leaders including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Sports, Art, and Culture Minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal, former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chowdhary, Road Construction and Tourism Minister Nand Kishore Yadav, and former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra participated in the Sri Krishna Arti organized by the ISKCON at Sri Krishna Memorial Hall.

Children dressed up like baby Krishna stole the show by their costumes and short plays to highlight various events associated with the Lord's innocent childhood days.

And as reported by Earthtimes.org in New York, ISKCON's webcast of Janmastami celebrations were a high point in the U.S.

While ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temples, devoted exclusively to Lord Krishna, afforded arguably the best Janmashtami experience in the US, a novel feature of the festival this time was the webcast of celebrations at select Hare Krishna temples.

Krishna.com, a web portal run by ISKCON youths in Florida, allowed users to view live footage of celebrations at 10 ISKCON temples, listen to discourses on Lord Krishna, download photos and mp3s of devotional songs and even send loved ones Janmashtami e-cards.

While the 40-odd ISKCON temples in the US celebrated Lord Krishna's birthday on Sep 4, some of the scores of other Hindu temples held the festivities on Sep 3, which was the Labour Day holiday in the US.

The number of devotees visiting each of the temples ranged from a few hundred to many thousand. The programme at each temple was a variation on the traditional mix of abhishekam (holy bath and offerings), kirtan, discourses, midnight darshan of the deities followed by feasts. Some organised cultural programmes, even classical music or dance performances.

Janmashtami at Radha Raman Vedic Temple near Los Angeles, celebrated on Sep 4, was typical. They had abhishekam, bhajans and discourses by a swami from India. Over 1,000 people visited the temple throughout the day, according to Tarsem Singhal, president of the temple. The high point came with the high beat 'Radhe! Radhe!' chanting just before midnight.

Ganesh Temple in Flushing, New York, started the programme on the morning of Sep 3 with Krishna Homam and Thiru Aradhana. The fare in the evening till midnight had bhajans, Kalasa Sthapanam, Krishna Abhishekam, Jnana Katha, puja and arati. Many chose to herald Krishna's birth at an ISKCON temple. Rekha Kapadia, a homemaker from New Jersey, said: 'I like that at the ISKCON mandir, Lord Krishna is the centre of attention. At other temples I have been to, it becomes too much of a social occasion. And the deities at ISKCON temples look so beautiful. Even in temples in India, they don't decorate the Lord as nicely as they do here.'

Hare Krishna temples offer discourses and activities in English, which keeps the interest of second-generation Hindu Americans.

'I like Janmashtami at the Hare Krishna temple because everything is explained in a way that makes sense to us,' said Kapadia's teenage daughter Gopi. She also brought non-Indian friends to the celebration.

New Vrindavan, ISKCON's sprawling pilgrimage centre in West Virginia, dedicated five days of festivities to Janmashtami: Aug 25, Sep 1-3 and Sep 8. Thousands of devotees from the US and Canada have been participating in kirtan, enjoying dance and drama presentations and feasting on sumptuous prasad. Their best experience may well be witnessing the deities of Radha and Krishna being taken for a moonlit ride in a specially created swan-shaped boat and being treated to a fireworks spectacle.