unofficial report of Goverdhan Puja 2001

[Guest guest]

unofficial report of Goverdhan Puja 2001

This is an unofficial report about the activities of Goverdhan Puja in

Houston, Texas. This is the festival so nice we do it twice, Once on the

actual Wednesday November 22 and again on Saturday night November 24, so

the public could attend.

Both days were a grand festival attnded by hundreds of people. I don't know

which day had more preparations being offered to the Lord, my guess was on

Wednesday 22 there were roughly 800 varied delicious preparations. And on

Saturday maybe 600 big big elaborate preparations. It is was exciting to

the the big triple alter filled to the brim with offering to our beloved

Lordships.In Houston we have been blessed by Giri Goverdhan himself, a

small piece of the actual Goverdhan Hill that is elaborately worshipped on

our alter. There was ecstatic kirtan with a big hill made of all kinds of

sweet balls and as the devotees chanting and danced around the hill, just

like the actual hill it kept getting smaller and smaller as we all would

grab a sweet and stick in our mouths or a pocket. As the kirtan went on the

crowd grew more and more intoxicated and the kirtan grew and grew and hill

we getting smaller and smaller and still the kirtan went on and one and the

hill grew smaller and smaller. Many devotees left as prasadam was being

served on out 4 acre lawn but I kept circling the goverdhan hill and the

kirtan was growing but the hill was dwindling. Finally I left the kirtan to

see what was happening outside and carry some of the offering from the

alter to the prasadam tables. I went to the back where the pujari a nice

chap gave me a few offerings, I signaled him to pile more offering one and

he mercifuly did. There must have been 10 people there carrying offerings

to the table. I stopped at the long long prasadam lines and devotees

grabbed cookies, samosas, pakoras to hold them over during their wait in

line. Finally I made it to the 10 long tables filled with the various

offerings. The tables were all filled already not any available space so I

just put my offering on top of others. It was a joyous conglomerate of

mercy of the lord. I could still hear the kirtan going on in the temple and

could see the hundreds of devotees in line for prasadam. The line was too

long for me so I just grabbed a really big plate and started piling tons

of sweets and savories on my plate. So were roughly 50 other devotees. We

were all laughing and intoxicated with love of Goverdhan. In this festival

on both days there was the usual inspired lecture about Goverdhan and

bathing of Giri Goverdhan etc.My refrigerator is stuffed because my wife

and daughter also brought prasadam home. As I left the dham I peeked in the

temple and the hill was radically reduced but still beckoning the fallen to

come and grab a sweet ball.

 

A servant of Giri Goverdhan,

Pandava vijaya dasa