Baroda Temple Inauguration Festival Report

July 11, 2003

Dear Devotees, Hare Krishna! On Janmastami we dedicated a grand new temple in Baroda, (Gujarat) to Their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara, and Sri Sri Sri Jagannatha-Baladeva-Subhadra, and Srila Prabhupada. We thought we would share a few drops from this nectarean festival to let the devotees know how Their mercy continues to expand throughout the world, despite so many impediments.

The temple, which is located just 3 kilometers from the Baroda railway station (an important station in Western India - the famous "Rajdhani [Capitol] Express" makes one of it's few stops here) is located in one of the prefered and developing areas of the city.

The Mandir has 3 "Shikars" (pointed domes) and a large round "ghummat" (round dome) with a beautiful larger than life relief artwork of Lord Krishna's "Ras-lila" within (done by artists from Krishnanagar near Mayapur). There is also attractive Rajasthani hand carved ceiling design work on the lines of similar work at the Radha Govinda temple at Jaipur.

The same color scheme of Jaipur has also been maintained here. Also a large Rajasthani/Rajputana style entrance gate measuring 35 feet high and 53 feet wide has been constructed. Between the gate & the temple, which is a distance of approximately 100 feet, there has been constructed a large fountain, 30 feet in circumfrence, with attractive colored lights and a center spray that rises to 50 feet in the air. On the sides of the walkway between the gate & the temple, gardens have been installed.

The opening festival began on the evening of Wednesday, 1-9-99 (September 1, 1999) with a fire sacrifice (homa) in an elaborate Yagnashala (sacrificial arena) prepared by the students of the "Rupanuga Paramathika Vidyapith" at Mayapura under the direction of Gaur-narayana Prabhu and Subheksana Prabhu.

The homa program continued on the morning and evening of Thursday, 2-9-99.

That evening the Deities were moved into the new temple and laid on a bed of rice. This is known as "shayan adhivas".

On Janmastami morning the devotees from the Rupanuga Paramathika Vidyapith at Mayapura headed by Gaur-narayana Prabhu and Subheksana Prabhu performed the prana-pratishtha of Their Lordships. Before the actual pran-pratishtha there was mangalcharana homa where ISKCON leaders & guests offered oblations into the fire. HH Gopala Krishna Goswami, HH Lokanatha Swami, HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami, H.H. Mahavishnu Goswami, Sriman Dina Bandhu Prabhu, Sriman Hari Sauri Prabhu and Sriman Basu Ghosh Prabhu all participated in the rituals. Also Sriman Mahamani Krishnadas and his wife from Madras and Sriman Lilanath Das from Bangalore also participated.

After this the Deities were invoked by mantra and a kusha pavitra was touched to the various parts of Their transcendental forms. Then was an elaborate panchamrita abhiseka ceremony amidst kirtana, accompanied by nadisvarams and tavils (common in South India. The nadisvaram is a long wing instrument and tavils are short but large drums). More than 100 life members and well wishers donated kalashas for this ceremony and they qued up to bath Their Lordships.

Following the abhiseka which lasted for about 2 hours, the temple was filled to capacity to hear the speeches of Srila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Gosvami Maharaja, who inaugurated the temple, Chief Guest Padmasri Prof. V.

Venkatachalam, the Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and retired Vice Chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University at Benaras, Honorable Mayor of Baroda, Sri Umakant Joshi, Dr. H.P. Pande, Principal of the Sanskrit College at M.S. University of Baroda, Sriman Srinathji Das (Dr.

Narendra D. Desai), H.H. Mahavishnu Goswami, H.H. Lokanath Swami, Sriman Jasomatinandan Prabhu, the Regional Secretary of ISKCON for Gujarat, Sriman Deena Bandhu Prabhu (who spoke in Hindi), Acharya Sanskritananda Hari (who spoke in Sanskrit), and Sriman Hari Sauri Prabhu.

They went on far longer than was expected, glorifying the new temple. At last at 2:00 PM the doors opened for the Deities' first darshan, in Their beautiful maroon velvet dress with gold lining. While Lokanatha Maharaja offered Them an ecstatic arati kirtana, Sripad Puri Maharaj offered the first arati to Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, thus blissfully inaugurating the Mandir.

Then an incredible number of local people began to stream through the temple from 4:00 PM continuously until 1:30 AM in the morning. It was estimated that about 2-3 lakhs (200,000-300,000) people came to take darshan of Their Lordships.

When the time of Lord Krishna's appearance at midnight arrived, Dina Bandhu Prabhu took over the kirtana, and led the public in chanting the famous Brijabasi song with the refrain, "Jaya Kanaya Lala ki, Jaya Kanaya Lala ki - Nanda Ke ananda bhayo Jaya Kanaya Lala kiI" This song describes Nanda Maharaja's ecstacy on the appearance of Lord Krishna, which he celebrates by giving charity with reckless abandon. In the midst of the kirtana we left our bodily consciousness behind (due to the immense rush of people all trying to reach the altar area for midnight darshan of the abhishek & arati), and even forgot that it was time to break the fast, until well after 1 AM that is!

Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja ceremony was also well attended by the public, and we were fortunate to get to hear glorification of Srila Prabhupada from Srila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Gosvami, HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami, Sriman Hari Sauri Prabhu, Sriman Dina Bandhu Prabhu, Sriman Basu Ghosh Prabhu, Sriman Radha Raman Prabhu, as well as others. After a grand pushpanjali (flower offering to Srila Prabhupada), and the noon arati, a prasada feast was distributed to the public. Again in the evening prasad distribution began and that continued until well into the night. We estimate that more than 10, 000 persons took prasad.

On the Vyas Puja evening, there was a bhajan concert by Sri Hemantbhai Chauhan, contemporarily one of the most famous singers in Gujarat. This program was held in the open air (which is a rarity during the annual monsoon season in India - but Janmastami here was preceded by almost a month of rainless days) on a 40, 000 sq. ft. lawn cum garden at the back of Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar's Mandir.

Before the bhajan program commenced there was a speech by one of the heads of the Vallabh Sampradaya (also known as the "Pusti Marg"), Gosvami Sri Mathuresvarji, as well as short speeches by Sriman Deena Bandhu Prabhu and Sriman Radha Raman Prabhu.

The festival continued on Sunday evening with speeches by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami and by HH Mahavisnu Gosvami and by a bhajan program by local singers.

All in all, it looks the center is set to become the most popular temple in the city. We are therefore humbly requesting the blessings of all the Vaisnavas to bless our humble efforts to make this a reality. We also hereby cordially invite all the readers of this article to come and visit ISKCON Baroda at their earliest convenience and have darshan of Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, Sri Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadradevi and Sri Sri Gaur Nitai.

Your servants at ISKCON Baroda

(Written by Jagat Purush Das (BCS) and edited by Basu Ghosh Das, TP, ISKCON Baroda)