Report on Sri Krishna Janmastami Celebrations at ISKCON Baroda...

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Huge public attendance at ISKCON Baroda on Sri Krishna Janmastami day

(By Basu Ghosh Das, President, ISKCON Baroda)

 

A rough estimate of the crowd that lined up to have the holy darshan of Sri

Sri Radha Shyamsundar, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Sri Sri Sri Jagannath,

Baladeva and Subhadradevi at Hare Krishna Land, Baroda on Sri Krishna

Janmastami day would be well over the 1,00,000 figure.

 

Some persons commented to me that there might even have been an attendance

of between 2-3 hundred thousand! (See picture)

 

The fact was that there was a queue of eager members of the public at least

one kilometer long to enter the temple right from 6:00 PM until midnight,

when the usual pandemonium broke loose in the temple when the abhishek of

Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar began. (See picture)

 

Baroda Police Commissioner J. Mahapatra, who is from a family of priests at

the famous temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri (his brother is presently one of

the priests at Puri), visited Hare Krishna Land and commented that although

he had been "making the rounds" of the major temples of Baroda, "this was

the only one where there was a crowd." (See picture)

 

Besides some 25 policemen assigned to cover the road area in front of the

temple, ISKCON Baroda employed 50 security men especially to help control

the Janmastami crowd. Next year that number will have to be increased!

 

All those who came and had darshan at the temple on Janmastami were given

banana and "panjiri" prasad. (See picture)

 

The next afternoon, just after Srila Prabhupada's Vyas Puja observance in

the temple, a feast was served out to 4,000 life members and their families.

Then in the evening, just after Mayor Bhartiben Vyas inaugurated a "bhajan

sandhya" (evening of music) program, full prasad was distributed to all the

members of the public who wished to partake. A an estimated 10,000 plates

were served. (See picture)

 

ISKCON Baroda can now rightfully claim to be the "most visited" temple in

Baroda - and there are of course literally hundreds of temples in this city

of almost 20 lakhs (2 million). And that too in the short period of two

years since the inauguration of the new Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar on Sri

Krishna Janmastami day, 1999.