Sunday, 26th February 2012.
Today was the first day of the Navadwip mandal parikrama. The number of
devotee’s every year is steadily increasing. This year we have 4 Parikrama
parties, i.e, International, Russian, Bengali and Hindi and close to 8,000
devotees registered for the parikrama.
Like the last year, GM would be visiting all the 4 parties every single day!
Guru Maharaj started from the temple at 7.30 Am and first headed towards
the Bengali party who were stationed at the Yogapith. The Bengali party
this year has 3000 registered participants and is being headed by H.H.
Bhakti Purusottama Swami and H.H Gauranga Prema Swami.
GM was given a warm reception and headed to the hall, opposite to the
Deities, where lectures were on. GM spoke about the formation and structure
of the Navawdip dham and described the pastimes of how Lord Chaitanya would
cry until the ladies began chanting Krishna’s name and scenario after Lord
Chaitanya had received initiation.
Before ending his class, like the last year, GM had a competition for all
the Parikrama parties. The rules are pretty simple:
1. Mataji’s chant the Ulu Dvani to their best.
2. Similarly, Prabhu’s chant the Hari Dvani.
3. Both together chant Hare Krishna Mahamantra together.
So, the party which chants the best would be credited as the winner and the
judge would be H.G. Jagajivan Prabhu a.k.a ‘Judgeajivan’.
Want to know which party won? Read ahead.
After the Darshan, we set of to our next destination- Panca Veni, base for
the Hindi group. The road was a bit bumppy and had to stop twice to let the
trains cross.
Reached there around 10:30 Am and the devotees, headed by H.H Radha Raman
Maharaj, were also just making their way in after having visited
Kurukshetra. Panca Veni is a very beautiful place where the five rivers –
Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Mandakini and Alkananda meet. It is the border of
Madyama Dvip and on the other side is the Kauladvip. The vast expanse of
the river with clear water and shining sand. Amazing sight.
As it was the breakfast time, the devotees honored the prasad (Kichidi,
Pakora, Fruits, Kaja) hearing GM katha!
GM described how this place is non different from Deva Prayg and spending 1
day hear equals spending 100 years in prayag. And those to bath hear in
Panca Veni never take birth again.
Devatas performed sacrifice for millions of years here and come to worship
Lord Chaitanya here. So the local residents sometimes in the night hear
music and wonder where is it coming from, its actually the Devatas.
But, unfortunately no competition for the Hindi party. Prasadam time! Maybe
tomorrow.
After GM’s lecture, we were back on the road to Narasimhapalli to meet the
International group.
Narasimhapalli is in the Gordruma Dvipa. It is the place where Narasimha
came after killing Hiranyakasipu and blessing Prahlada Maharaja. At
Ahobilam, He just washed His hands in Rakta kunda, which is still there.
But in Narasimha palli Nrsimhadeva took full bath and rested for a long
time. Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that the demigods even build residence
there which are now the hills surrounding the main lake which used to be a
river in Satya-yuga.
Surprisingly, as soon as we entered the temple premises, we could hear a
Hare Krishna kirtan, but nothing like those in our temple. It was by the
local’s and was being streched so much that it took almost a minute to sing
the Maha mantra one time!
The International party was already settled and several senior devotees
were present. To name few, H.H Bhakti Charu Maharaj, H.H Lokanath Maharaj,
H.H Kavi Chandra Maharaj, H.H Bhakti Dhira Damodar maharaj, H.H Bhakti
Vinoda Maharaj. It was a like a moving festival. Coconut sellers, Juices,
few devotees taking bath in the Kund. Super charged.
GM first spoke on the geographic location of the place as being the
South-East side of Navadwip Mandal. He said the Deity of Lord Narasimha is
very old and from the time of Satya Yuga and we should pray to Lord
Narasimha to remove our obstacles on the path of pure devotional service
and obtain the loving service of Radha and Krishna in Vraja.
He also narrated a past time of how while in Montreal, a college of GM had
a out of body experience and was brought back to life by hearing Hare
Krishna mantra chanted by GM.
Commenting on the kirtan we heard while entering, GM said for some strange
reason every year on the first day of parikrama they have this kirtan here.
While he was here with Srila Prabhupad, he was told by Srila Prabhupad that
Kirtan should not have too many ragas or so that makes singing difficult
and obfuscates the maha Mantra.
Then the competition!
After the darshan, while leaving H.H. Kavichandra Maharaj joined us to our
trip to the Russian group of 1500 devotees, located at Surabhi Kunj.
Surabhi Gunj is on the other side of the holur ghat and gives a magnificent
view of our temple and the upcoming Adbhuta mandir, ‘Temple of Vedic
Planetarium’ which was envisioned by Lord Nityananda and Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakur.
It is the place where Surabhi cow eternally resides and where Lord
Nityananda established the headquarters of Nama Hatta.
We arrived there at 1.30 Pm and were greeted by the ever enthusiastic
Russian devotees and a tremendous kirtan by Aditi Dukha Das singing the
Koda Nitai song by Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakur, whose house is quite near to
this place.
Surprisingly as we came in the local pujari was distributing the Rajbhog
Maha Prasad of the Deities.
A new temple is being constructed by one Sanayasi devotee in the Saraswat
Parampara, GM knew his Guru very well and was good friend. Guru Maharaja
spoke in the to-be hall of the temple. Also present were His Holiness
Bhakti Caitanya Swami and other senior devotees.
The devotees here were enjoying the spiritual atmosphere. Ganga behind us
and the fantastic view of the ToVP, devotees could be seen chanting under a
tree next to Ganga overseeing the Srila Prabhupada samadhi on the other
side, some playing with the cows there. Spiritual world!
GM spoke here on the story of how Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur discovered the
birth place of Lord Chaitanya and when it came to build the temple there
Bhakti Vinoda Thakur went door to door to collect the money. He would take
only 1 rupee from every person, not more. So he meet 30,000 people to
generate the money for construction!
Srila Prabhupada said previous Acharya have done something for Dham and
continued saying and I’m humbly trying to do something small and am
grateful to all followers who are helping me to develop the Dham and then
Srila Prabhupada choked and couldn’t speak. Tears were flowing from his
eyes and then he said chant Hare Krishna.
GM stressed in every party we should chant Hare Krishna more and with more
attention giving up all material thoughts. We should focus and absorb
ourselves in hearing and chanting in Dham as the Acharyas say doing this in
Navadwip purifies the whole universe and also anything done here has 1000
times more benefit than outside the Dham.
One of the central messages of Guru Maharaja’s visit to all 4 parties was
to secure and protect the Lila places of the lord. He stressed on this a
lot and gave examples of how several lila sthali’s have disappeared. He
wanted the devotees to come forward and secure this places and offered help
to those who wish to get any place in Navadwip
Overall, the arrangements were pretty good. The prasadam, drinking water,
medical facilities were well organized.
End of JPS Navadwip Mandal parikrama diary for the first day.
Oh, who won?
As per our judge, the Russian Prabhu’s were the best in Hari Dhavni and
Russian group was number one as a whole. The Russian mataji, hmm, they need
to practice little more as the Bengali mataji’s are little more experianced.
Hindi group hasn’t stepped in. Will they be a game changer? Find out in
tomorrow’s dairy.
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