Kartika Festival in Vrindavan

[Guest guest]

My dear Maharaja and Prabhujis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Only a couple more weeks until that most auspicious time in Vrindavan. October

28th is the Sarada Purnima and marks the Saradiya Rasayatra of Lord Krishna and

the beginning of Kartika. Everywhere in India the devotees celebrate Rasa

Purnima by puting sweetrice on the roof of their temples and houses all night

for the Lord and His gopis to taste and to let the nectarean moon beams enter

the sweetrice. Last year in Krishna Balaram Temple, one devotee donated for

sweetrice to be made from 150 liters of milk. This year we'll try for 200!

 

Lokanatha Swami will also be starting his yearly Braja Mandal Parikrama on this

day. Hundreds of devotees will walk barefoot from forest to forest in Braja and

see the places of Lord's pastimes. They will camp at each place and have

kirtans and Krishna Katha in the evenings. A shuttle service is also available

taking devotees to the parikrama and returning in the evening.

 

Throughout this month, devotees take special vows of doing some extra spiritual

activity or performing some special austerity for one month. In fact CC Madhya

22.127 mentions among the 64 items of devotional service that 35 is to observe

particular vows like kartika-vrata. Some perform the very difficult Niyam Seva

of chanting 64 rounds and eating only once a day!

 

Of course, everyone vows to offer a lamp to Lord Damodara every evening. This

is the most enchanting time, with all the lights turned down, expert singers

intoning the sacred Damodarastam, hundreds of voices joining in response,

hundreds of devotees moving from altar to altar offering their little lamps to

Their Lordships, culminating with the charming diorama of Mother Yashoda trying

to tie Lord Damodara's waist. Some devotees prefer to offer their lamps from

the courtyard to avoid the rush. Then follows kirtans that one will remember

for the rest of one's life.

 

November 5th is Bahulastami, the day that Radha Kunda appeared. Bhaktiratnakara

remarks that even now devotees celebrate the appearance of Radha Kunda by

bathing in the sacred kunda at midnight. Tens of Thousands of people will come

and many groups will be doing kirtan around the two holy kundas. Then at the

stroke of midnight, all take an exhilarating bath in the supremely purifying

water of Radha Kunda.

 

In Padma Purana, Kartika Mahatmya, it is stated: “Radha-kunda is very dear to

Sri Hari and is situated near Govardhana Hill. By taking bath in Radha-kunda on

the eighth day of the waning moon in the month of Kartika [bahulastami], one

can greatly please Lord Hari, who enjoys His pastimes there. This kunda is as

dear to Krishna as Radha Herself. Amongst all the gopis, She is the most dear

to Krishna. It is the duty of the devotees to bathe in the Radha-kunda during

the month of Kartika and thereafter worship Lord Janardana. This simple worship

pleases Kishna as much as one does by worshiping Janardana on the day of

Uthana-ekadasi.”

 

>From the 12th to the 16th Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir will be having 5 days

of festivities honoring the Sacred Disappearance Day of His Divine Grace Srila

Prabhupada. There is free prasadam for all visiting devotees for these entire 5

days and no festival fee.

 

The 12th is Diwali and in the evening Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir will be

decorated with hundreds of dipas to mark Lord Ramachandra's auspicious return

to Ayodhya.

 

Govardhan Puja will be celebrated on the 13th. In the morning there will be Go

Puja at the ISKCON Goshala with breakfast sitting in the peaceful atmosphere of

the Goshala, punctuated by the anxious mooing of Krishna and Balaram's cows.

Then the devotees will return to the temple to perform Govardhan Puja with a

huge prasadam hill made by the devotees in the courtyard of the temple. A

wonderful feast will be served to all.

 

Since we are busy on the 13th with the festival in our temple, we will perform

parikrama of Govardhan Hill on the 14th morning. Free buses will be leaving

just after Mangala Artika taking hundreds of devotees to do Giriraja Parikrama

along with Srila Prabhupada, who's last desire was to do Govardhan Parikrama.

Breakfast will be served at Govinda Kunda and there will be a wonderful feast

in the afternoon on completion of the Parikrama.

 

On the 15th morning we will take Srila Prabhupada's murti in the very same

palaquin beautifully decorated with flowers that took him on his last darshan

of the Seven Major Temples of Vrindavan. A huge sankirtan procession will

accompany Srila Prabhupada with the Goshala bullock cart following behind

distributing prasadam to one and all.

 

Then the 16th is that Sacred Day when Srila Prabhupada entered the Eternal

Divine Pastimes of Radha Krishna. After an ecstatic Guru Puja, devotees will be

making their offerings and giving their memories of Srila Prabhupada till

around noon. In the Samadhi Mandir there will be a wonderful Maha Abhisheka.

Arrangements will be made for two murtis of Srila Prabhupada to be bathed so

that everyone has a chance to bathe his divine form. Following Puspanjali and

artika in the Samadhi Mandir, a wonderful feast will be lovingly served by the

devotees visiting from ISKCON Chowpatty Radha Gopinatha Mandir. In the evening

there will be simultaneous artikas in Srila Prabhupada's house and the Samadhi

at the very time that Srila Prabhupada entered the Divine Lila and 7:20 PM.

Then there will be more memories and glorifications of His Divine Grace.

 

Every evening during the festival, there will be some special programs,

sometimes dramas and sometimes Prabhupada memories by senior disciples.

 

On the day following Prabhupada's festival, free buses will be provided for

those who want to participate in the yearly Jagannatha Rathayatra in Delhi. The

Rathayatra will start at noon from the prestigious Red Fort and proceed through

some of the major thoroufares and main markets of Delhi. Ending in the famous

bazaar Chandi Chowk, there will be tasty prasadam for everyone and ecstatic

kirtans on stage. Buses will return in the evening.

 

Gopastami comes on the 19th. There is a grand festival at Nandagram on this

day.

 

The annual festival at Vrinda Kunda will be on the 22nd and 23rd. On 22nd,

which is Ekadasi and the disappearance of Gaura Kishore das Babaji Maharaja,

there will be all night kirtan at Vrinda Kunda. Free transportation will be

available for those who want to sit under the stars at Vrinda Devi's new temple

and chant the glories of the Lord all night. The next morning there will also

be free buses to Vrinda Kunda for kirtan, Krishna Katha and a wonderful

Brijbasi feast.

 

All the vratas will end on the Kartika Purnima on the 26th with a grand feast.

 

For other questions and for booking taxis one can contact

<iskcon.vrindavan (AT) pamho (DOT) net>. All our drivers are non-smokers and since

Vrindavan taxis are mostly diesel, they are much cheaper than Delhi Airport

taxis.

 

In service of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram,

Deena Bandhu dasa