By Dhirnayak dasa, Utkala-Banga Padayatra leader
At the beginning of March 2023, the Utkala-Banga padayatris celebrated their second Gaura-purnima festival, this time at the Nuapada Nama-hatta preaching centre in Odisha. Padayatra had halted there while we went on the Navadvipa-mandal Parikrama. The centre president, Jayapataka Maharaja disciple Jagamohan dasa, welcomed us and was very enthusiastic to host the padayatris.
The Nuapada devotees greeted us with sankirtan and did arati of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundar, then served Their Lordships with love and care while we were on parikrama. Jagamohan had made all the arrangements for our stay and prasadam, giving us a feeling of being at home.
When we returned to the centre from parikrama we started making preparations for Gaura-purnima. Throughout our stay we went for nagar sankirtan daily and did announcements inviting the public to the celebration. About 250 people attended the event.
Sri Gaura-purnima is the auspicious appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, also known as Gauranga due to His golden complexion. As stated in the scriptures, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna appeared as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and taught the importance of devotion to Lord Krishna through the congregational chanting of the holy names of God, known as the Hare Krishna maha mantra. He appeared on the full moon day in the month of Phalguna in 1486 (1407 Shakabda) at Sridham Mayapur as the son of Jagannath Mishra and Srimati Sachidevi. His parents named Him Nimai because He was born under a nimba (neem) tree in the courtyard of His paternal household.
The festival also marks the beginning of the new year for Gaudiya Vaishnavas. It is a very special day for us padayatris as it is the birthday of our dear Gauranga, the principal padayatra deity. Returning from Mayapur we were all filled with Gaura-prem. It was like we had come back from Lord Gauranga’s house and were ready to serve Him again with all our hearts.
The celebration began with bhajans glorifying Gauranga and was followed by abhisheka of padayatra’s utsava deities. It’s said in the sastras that one who participates in an abhisheka of the Lord does not take birth again, and the Nama-hatta devotees and guests were invited to join us. I then gave katha describing the glories of Lord Gauranga. Everyone had darshan of Their Lordships and as we started a loud sankirtan joined us dancing with all their hearts. A fifty-six bhoga offering was made during the maha arati.
All those assembled then honoured prasadam, bringing to a close a very nice celebration of Gaura-purnima.
