By Damodarlila dasa, Maharashtra Padayatra leader
This year the Maharashtra Padayatra observed Gaura-purnima on March 17 at a Krishna temple at Ambajogai. Initially we thought only a few people would join our celebrations, but there are many congregation devotees in the city and they all joined us. Rishikrishna dasa, a devotee at Ambajogai, had informed the devotees that the padayatris would be in their area and would celebrate Gaura-purnima with them. We were asked to stay at the temple and Rishikrishna had already installed a large pandal.
Two days earlier we had done evening nagar sankirtan and during announcements invited people to the festival which was to run from 4pm to 8pm. Early on Gaura-purnima morning some congregation members came to help us clean the temple and also assist in buying what we needed for an abhisheka. We were still wondering how many would come to the programme but as we started sankirtan people began arriving and within half an hour a crowd of 300 had filled the pandal. On their way in everyone had the opportunity to see our chariot which was beautifully decorated with flowers
The padayatris performed abhisheka of our utsava deties of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, first with pancha gauvya and then pushpa abhisheka. Almost all those who joined us did pushpa abhisheka and everyone had darshan of Their Lordships. The congregation was happy, for they had never witnessed such a programme. I felt that Nityananda Prabhu, the most merciful personality who delivered Jagai and Madhai and is always ready to deliver the fallen souls, had allowed everyone to perform abhisheka.
We had three new sets for Their Lordships and were confused as to which one we should offer, so the pujari selected one and the deities then appeared in Their new outfit, to the delight of all. We then offered more than 100 bhogas nicely arranged on a big table to Their Lordships, followed by maha arati of Their Lordships. There was also katha describing the glories of Lord Chaitanya by Matsyavatar dasa, one of our padayatris. The evening concluded with prasadam, the most important part of the programme, and we had prepared ekadasi prasadam especially for the occasion. Everyone assembled then honoured Mahaprabhu’s maha prasadam.
We had displayed all of Srila Prabhupada’s books in the pandal and many people took a Bhagavad-gita or a Sri Caitanya-caritamrta as well as chanting beads.
Gaura-purnima maha mohotsava, ki jai.
