Subject: Pandharpur Dhama Floods, ISKCON Temple Under Water

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Pandharpur Dhama Floods, ISKCON Temple Under Water

 

August 3, 2005

 

A tremendous flood has ravaged Maharashtra. The

disaster has caused

damage

amounting to Rupees 1,500,000,000 /-. Newspapers

report 1000 people

dead

including 429 people in Mumbai. 3500 buffaloes and

23,000 goats are

dead and

250,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed.

 

Pandharpur Dhama is the beautiful holy abode of Lord

Vithala, Sri

Krishna

Himself. Located in Southeastern Maharashtra,

Pandharpur Dhama is the

spiritual headquarters of Maharashtrian bhaktas. Sri

Chandrabhaga

River

usually gently curves around the town of Pandharpur in

a crescent half

moon

shape, thus her name Chandrabhaga which means "half

moon".

 

Located in a beautiful scenic location on the bank of

Chandrabhaga,

overlooking the town of Pandharpur, ISKCON Pandharpur

has a perfect

location

for peaceful meditations as well as an occasional dip

in the holy

river.

This morning, due to record breaking heavy rains in

the mountains near

Pune

where river originates, Chandrabhaga rose to such a

height, our ISKCON

Sri

Sri Radha Pandharinath Temple had a visit from

Chandrabhaga herself.

During

Mangal Arotika, at 4:30 in the morning devotees were

hiking up their

dhotis

and dancing and splashing in the temple to the beat of

the mrdunga

drums and

kartalas.

 

After mangal arotika, devotees busied themselves doing

their best to

move

Sri Sri Radha Pandharinath's properties and valuables

to higher and

higher

ground. Racing against time, the devotees were

transferring all the

Deity

dresses, Srila Prabhupada's books, office, kitchen

equipment and Srila

Prabhupada's Murti was hard work.

 

Chandrabhaga's waters were rising higher and higher.

Palm trees were

almost

completely submerged. A variety of animals, insects,

and even reptiles

were

seen seeking the shelter of higher ground. The temple

had become a

half

submerged island on the bank of the river. In the

past, we used to

hear of

the Mayapur floods. Now we are experiencing a

sampling of that here.

 

At 7:15 am, when the conch blew for the darshan of the

Deities, the

devotees

gathered in an excited mood. When the curtains

opened, devotees were

delighted to see Lord Pandharinath (Krishna) also

dressed in shorts, as

if

preparing for a dip in Chandrabhaga Himself.

 

Taking the small Deities (Utsava Murti) to a safer

location on higher

ground, we decided to utilize the situation for a

spontaneous boat

festival.

With spontaneous enthusiasm, the head pujari arranged

to convert a

large

inflated circular rubber tube into a beautiful

decorated platform on

which

Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Pandharinath were to

enact Their

pastimes.

The calamity of flood transformed into joy as the

devotees of ISKCON

Pandharpur, led by His Holiness Lokanath Swami

Maharaja, engaged in

beautiful kirtan, bajans and dancing as they escorted

the boat around

Pandharpur Dhama.

 

After more than one hour, the festival concluded with

an offering of

breakfast to the Deities, and then the devotees also

took their

breakfast.

Chandrabhaga continued to rise, and the devotees

stayed busy by moving

the

cows and bulls from the goshalla to higher ground and

continuing to

secure

the properties and valuables of the temple.

Visvambhara Prabhu

suggested

that a special lila darshan be prepared for the next

morning, by

dressing

the Lord with two additional arms, creating a four

armed Garbodaksai

Vishnu

form and resting on a giant snake (Ananta Sesa), in

turn floating on

the

Garbodaka Ocean (Chandrabhaga). At that moment, a

small serpent

appeared in

the temple room.

 

By lunch time, the waters had entered the kitchen and

cooking had to be

done

upstairs in the ashram. After lunch, we were excited

to look down and

see a

giant cobra snake more than six feet long trying to

enter the temple

complex. The experience of flood is incomplete unless

the snakes

appear.

 

By the middle of the afternoon, Chandrabhaga rose to

wash the lotus

feet of

Sri Sri Radha Pandharinath. During the night, we

expect the height of

the

water to reach Their knees. As we are writing this

now, at 8:30 p.m.,

Chandrabhaga is still rising and the ashram is like a

lone island in

the

river. In a few hours, we expect the waters will

enter the guest rooms

and

offices on the ground floor. Jaya Vijaya, the

guardians of the temple

are

now up to their necks in water.

 

August 4, 2005

 

Today the waters continued to rise up to the level of

Sri Sri Radha

Pandharinath's necks. The temple is now submerged up

to the roof.

 

We are surrounded by water. Heavy currents are

sweeping right in front

of

the temple. 30 devotees are staying in 2 rooms along

with all the

Deities.

Everyone else is running for shelter. The neibours

are wondering why

we are

not leaving. The reason is that here we have the

Lords of our heart,

Sri

Sri Radha Pandharinath.

 

Electricity and telephone lines are down. It should

take at least two

weeks

to repair them, even after the flood water goes down.

Drinking water

along

with other essential supplies have to be brought in by

flood relief.

 

H.G. Ishtadeva Prabhu and the devotees of ISKCON

Solapur, which is a

Preaching Center located one hour from here, have

promised to bring

flood

relief of drinking water, vegetables and flowers for

the Deities. We

are

calling for boats to come in the morning to help us

bring the supplies

from

the road. We are grateful to Ishtadeva Prabhu and all

the devotees for

their kind concern and help for us here at ISKCON

Pandharpur. We

humbly

request the devotee community to pray for us and our

service to Sri Sri

Radha Pandharinath and Pandharpur Dhama.

 

Unfortunately, The damage to ISKCON property has been

tremendous. Our

crops

of sugar cane, pumpkin field, and other agricultural

crops have all

been

destroyed. We have sustained damages amounting to

more than Rs.

300,000.

This is a significant amount of damage to our small

temple, not

centrally

located in one of the cities. Furniture have been

destroyed. Rooms

have

cracking and will require repainting. Our Tractor and

Auto Rickshaw

are

submerged. On the top of that we are worrying about

how we will raise

the

funds for Krishna Janmastami as the devotees are

stranded. We are in

crisis.

 

The Central Government is giving a grant of 10,000

crores to the

Maharastra

Government. Many families are approaching the

government to help. We

are

naturally approaching our spiritual family, the

devotees of ISKCON, our

friends and families to help.

 

If you would like to help, please take your best pen

right now and

kindly

write a cheque payable to "ISKCON" and post it to:

 

International Society For Krishna Consciousness

Shree Shree Radha Pandharinathji Mandir

Across Chandrabhaga river, Pandharpur - 413304

 

For international donations for the flood relief,

please contact me at

ekalavya.lok (AT) pamho (DOT) net

 

Thank you very much.

 

Hare Krishna.

 

Servant of your servants,

 

Ekalavya Das

 

P

 

 

 

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