Sri Krishna Janmastami Festival, ISKCON Baroda

BY: BASU GHOSH DAS

Aug 24, 2011 — BARODA, INDIA (SUN) — Thousands of faithful devotees thronged ISKCON Baroda for Sri Krishna Janmastami on Monday, August 22, 2011, and again for Nandotsava and Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja on Tuesday, August 23, 2011.

Lines for darshan of the Deities at ISKCON Baroda, Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, Sri Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadradevi and Sri Sri Gaur Nitai stretched far down the "ISKCON Mandir Road", as the divided road that runs in front of the six acre ISKCON Baroda temple complex is now popularly known.

The Deities and temple room were elaborately decorated with flowers and leaves.

IYF and Bhakti Vriksha devotees manned book stalls, a slide show stall and gift stall. There were other volunteers at Life Membership and donation stalls.

Hari nam kirtan and bhajans were performed by local devotees in the temple room continuously.

The rush of devotees for darshan became greater in the evening after five P.M. Those who came for darshan on Janmastami day were all given a banana, a peda and panjiri prasad.

Several important Government and Police officials and elected representatives visited the temple on Janmastami, including the Municipal Commissioner, Sri Ashwani Kumar, District Collector Sri Vinod Rao, Police Commissioner Satish Sharma, Additonal Police Commissioner Patel, DCP Bhatt, and DCP Yadav.

Local MLA and Minister of State in the Gujarat State Government, Sri Jitubhai Sukhadia, Member of Parliament Sri Balkrishna Shukla, Vadodara Urban Development Corporation Chairman Naranbhai Patel and and number of other Municipal Councilors, and political leaders from the various parties visited Hare Krishna Land.

Police officials told me that there was maximum rush of devotees at ISKCON Baroda, amongst the many temples here.

At midnight, there was a tremendous rush of devotees to have darshan of the abhishek ceremony. ISKCON Baroda senior devotees and pujaris performed the abhishek, chappan bhog naivedya and arati, at that late hour, much to the delight of the huge crowd of visitors.

The 115th Vyasa Puja of Srila Prabhupada was performed by temple devotees, who made offerings of appreciation for Srila Prabhupada and his mission. Prabhupada disciples Purnaprajna Prabhu and Basu Ghosh das spoke.

Offerings from Srila Prabhupada's official Vyasa Puja book were read to the assembled devotees as well. Thereafter the pushpanjali ceremony was observed, followed by bhog and arati offered to Srila Prabhupada's murti.

While the Vyasa Puja ceremony was in progress in the temple room, lunch prasad was being served to five thousand ISKCON Baroda Life Patron Members and their families. In the evening there was an 'open bhandara' (prasad/bhojan/meals for all) behind the temple on the one acre lawn.

Countless thousands were served full plates of prasad, consisting of seven items, consisting of puris, two subjis (vegetable and bean preparations), phulwadi (a savory/salty preparation), kadi (yogurt soup), rice and shiro/halava (roasted semolina sweet preparation).

For more pictures, please visit our gallery site.