[Nectar] Inauguration of ISKCON - Tirupati

[Guest guest]

By Jayapataka Swami

 

30th, Jan, 2007 - Inauguration of ISKCON - Tirupati, Second Day:

 

Inviting the Lord to His Temple:

 

Today is the day that the Lord is formally invited to come and live in

His temple. The marble Deities of Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Asta-sakhi

are already on the closed altar with Their eyes covered. Their otsab

murtis (Festival Deities) of Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Sri Tirupati

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Sri Laksmi Narasimhadeva are being

brought from the elaborate Puja Mandapam next to the temple to Their

permanent home.

 

Different Senior vaisnavas were carrying the metal Deities and were

greeted by the Doorway. The small Srila Prabhupada Deity was being

carried by another devotee while the Head Priest touched Srila

Prabhupada's hand and then offering the flowers to the Lotus Feet of

the Deities. Many mantras were chanted. Then I was asked to repeat the

"Swagatam" mantra or welcome mantra. I don't remember all the Sanskrit

but it was Something to the effect: "My Dear Supreme Lord, Lord of the

Universes, Possessor of Divine qualities, for the mercy of the

conditioned souls we welcome to Your Temple!" The final words still

ring in my mind: "Svagatam tava mandiram!" Welcome to Your Temple. I

was so moved by this I couldn't help but get very emotional. The Lord

was coming to His new home. His temple was being offered to Their

Lordships.

 

It is a beautiful Temple. Colored with intricate golden filigree,

marble floors, carvings and painting everywhere. They have raised the

"bar" in Tirupati with this beautiful offering to the Lord. There may

be bigger temples in ISKCON, but this one is very beautiful. One

important thing is the temple was primarily built from book

distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books! It is a temple produced by

Srila Prabhupada's book distribution! The book distribution Minister

HG Vijay Prabhu was here to celebrate it as well as Jayadvaita Swami

the BBT Trustee. They commented to me the temple had a book

distribution vibration!

 

Today a proksana abhisheka (bathing) was offered to purify the murti's

from any contamination during Their moving and making. It is called

"silpa dosa snana". A special worship was offered by one of the famous

priests of Sri Balaji temple who is well versed in elaborate worship.

This is also to have local acceptance. He did "Raja-upasana" worship

or royal worship. One example is he held a camara fan over incense and

filled it with incense smoke and then fanned the Deities with the

scented air. Like that there were many offering all really special and

majestic.

 

Then the abhisheka was performed by all the senior devotees present.

Some of the senior devotees that I can remember were:

 

Sannyasis Present:

 

HH Jayadvaita Swami, HH Prabhavishnu Swami, HH Bir Krishna Swami, HH

Radhanath Swami, HH Lokanath Swami, HH Bhanu swami, HH Bhakti

Vrajendranandan Swami, HH Bhakti Vijnana Swami, HH Bhakti Vijna Vinasa

Nrsimha Swami, HH Bhakti Purushottam Swami Maharaj, HH Amiya Vilas

Swami and HH Radha Ramana Swami.

 

Special Guests: HG Ambarish Prabhu, HG Yasomatinandana das, HG Bhima

das, HG Dinabandhu das, HG Sarvaisvarya Das, HG Vedanta Caitanya das

and many others.

 

So far 3750 devotee guests have been registered! Everyone is praising

HG Revati Ramana das, the Tirupati Temple President, and his crew of

devotees. They say their service attitude is exceptional.

 

Evening session

 

The evening installation program included "netra-unmilinam" or opening

the eyes, nyasa-homa or touching and awakening the different parts of

the Deities form, fire yajnas, pujas, swing festival and "sayan

adhivasa" or putting the Deity to rest. These programs took place in

the temple. Apart from the temple program there are cultural programs

with dance drama's from Srimad Bhagavatam.

 

HH Gopal Krishna Goswami, HH Guruprasad Swami and HH Bhakti Madhurya

Madhava Swami and some other senior devotees like HG Devamrta Swami

and HG Srestha das from Vrindavan also arrived.

 

Opening the eyes ceremony was very beautiful. After touching the eyes

with honey and ghee with a gold and silver rod to awaken them, 32

senior devotees were carrying auspicious articles. The curtan was

raised and everyone could see the Deities being shown the auspicious

articles and worshipped. This whole ceremony took about 1.5 hours.

Devotees were ecstatically chanting during the whole ceremony.

 

Then the priests, ISKCON devotees, went to the fire yajna mandapam and

performed the nyasa homa for fire sacrifices to the Deities. While

this was going on devotees went to see the dance drama performed on

Lord Sri Krishna's pastimes from Srimad Bhagavatam. After the fire

sacrifice was performed some "sampat" or ghee remnants from the

oblations was brought up and each Deity had a devotee assigned to

touch and enliven the different parts of the Deity's form with a kusa

grass stick dipped into the ghee remnants. The devotees softly chanted

while this was going on.

 

Then the Radha Govinda otsab murti's (festival Deities) were placed on

a carved swing and all the senior devotees took turns in swinging the

Deities. Then lights were dimmed and everyone offered lamps. After

that HH Radhanath Swami led a beautiful kirtan very softly as the

Deities were put to rest in "sayan adivasa". Then vina and traditional

music was played for the Deities. I had the mercy to fan the Deities

with a chammar fan along with other devotees.

 

The program was going on until 1145PM and then I decided to leave as

tomorrow I have to give a lecture on Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Only

thing I missed was a bharat natyam dance for the pleasure of the

Deities performed by a young devotee.

 

It was an ecstatic evening filled with Krishna conscious activities.

Tomorrow is the maha-abhishekha program on the holy day of Lord

Nityananda Prabhu.

 

Yours in service,

 

Jayapataka Swami

 

For More information on Mayapur: www.mayapur.com For General

information & on my preaching: www.jpsoffice.com For Lectures and

Recordings: www.hearjps.com For Congregational Preaching info:

www.namahatta.org

 

some pictures are here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=2796

 

 

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