Radhastami.....

9/1/06

Haribol, here’s my update on Radhastami as of 5:29 PM on Radhastami day….I’ll most likely add a second installment tomorrow (these will probably be posted at the same time so you won’t even notice…)

You could say that Radhastami officially kicked off last night, as the anticipation for the next day was very high. The kirtan was really rocking, and you could really feel the excitement. Then came today….mangal aroti was very nice, and then came 7:30 darshan (it ended up being at 7:43…which some may consider early for IST…). First Gaur Nitai’s altar was opened, then Krishna Balaram, and then Radhe Shyam. I had moved over to Radhe-Shyam’s altar earlier (anticipating a huge rush…Radhe-Shyam are easily the most popular deities here on a day to day basis..what to speak of Radhastami), as soon as I took darshan of Krishna-Balaram. Unfortunately everyone else did not think this way. After the small deity of Prabhupada had moved in front of Radhe-Shyam’s altar, there was a longer wait than usual for the opening of the altar. Then when Aindra Prabhu’s head appeared from behind the curtain (he dressed, and was going to open the curtain), everyone started going crazy, but still they didn’t open it. After about a minute or so of frenzied anticipation, the curtain was opened. At the same moment, I felt the force of hundreds of people just rushing in the direction of the altar, and I was getting tossed about like a buoy in the turbulent ocean. Then after they started kirtan, the pushing and shoving only increased, until it reached a point where this one brahmacari was just pushing and shoving for the sake of pushing and shoving…it was really pretty intense.. After 15 or 20 minutes in the chaos, I decided to get out, and move to another part of the temple room.
The rest of the program was really sweet, and had a nice mood. The morning class given by both Radha Raman Mahraj, and Dhruva Mahraj Prabhu was really good, and lasted almost two hours, going straight into the abhisek kirtan (once again electric), which lasted straight to noon. It was really an extremely nice program, and I will try and post pictures.
The 4:45 darshan was once again really crowded (not nearly as extreme though…), and the deities are now wearing a beautiful new outfit which is purple and has grapes on it..check it out online, it is really beautiful. By the way, the decorations in the temple room surpassed any decorations for any festival here, the front section is covered by nets of flowers, and they spared no expense. This one’s for Damodar…they spent more than 2 lakh’s on flowers….I’ll update you on the night kirtan and the night darshan tomorrow. At 10 PM they have a special darshan of the deities, and you can also take darshan of Srimati Radharani’s lotus feet (the only day of the year where this is possible). Back with more tomorrow….Radhe Radhe….



Second Installment -9/3/06
Night Darshan was really nice. Wasn’t super crowded, and the deities looked really beautiful. About an hour before the darshan, there was really sweet bhajans. Overall, Radhastami was probably the best festival since we’ve been here….That’s all for now…take a look at the pictures…. there is none from the night darshan...these are all from morning darshan....the afternoon dresswas really cool, so I recommend you go to ISKCON Vrindavan's darshan sight to check it out...

Chaitanya