The Mayapura Festival
Dear Prabhu's,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Quite a bit is happening this year in Sri Dhama Mayapura. Most notably of course is the instillation of the Panca Tattva. Thousands of devotees are here. Naru Gopal Prabhu one of the main managers told me 7,500 devotees registered for the festival and many more expected. The instillation ceremony last three days, part of it is when Their Lordships give everyone darsan two days before the end of the ceremony. The scene: The curtains are supposed to be opened at 6:00 PM, the temple room is packed, Bhakti Brnga Govinda Maharaja is leading a bhajan with some of the best mrdanga players in the movement, to find a better bhajan than this would be hard to find. The devotees are waiting and waiting and chanting and chanting, the temple room is getting more and more full the kirtan is reaching a crescendo. Then for the first time all the devotees have the darsan of the Panca-Tattva, at 7:15 the curtains open, everyone is amazed at Their beauty and size, Aindra Prabhu (the famous kirtania) leans over to me and says, "Their much more beautiful than I expected". I agreed. Many devotees are holding up mrdangas, others are holding up Srimad Bhagavatams. I was wondering why they were doing this, then some devotees told me that these two transendental items are very auspicious and give great pleasure to Their Lordships. Yesterday was the end of the instilation ceremony, at 2:00 PM the curtains were opened and for the first time the deities were seen with Their oppulent dresses. Everyone was very happy to see these beautiful forms of the Lord.
Sridhara Swami who was one of the best book distributors in the early 70's is here with cancer and hepatitis C. One of his doctors said he could leave at any time. Despite all this he still looks strong and hasn't lost his sense of humor (he's known as the jolly Swami). Amarendra Prabhu our ISKCON lawyer mentioned to me before he left to the states, "I wouldn't be surprised if Maharaja pulled through all this because he's a very strong person with great faith in Krsna". Every night Hari Sauri Prabhu is reading to Maharaja from the transcripts from his next book about Prabhupada. Due to Maharaja's being such a popular swami his room is full every night. After the reading there's a kirtan led by the leading Maharaja's at the festival, last night Siva Rama Swami started it off, then Niranjana Swami and others. At 8:30 PM Siva Rama Maharaja asked him if he would like to take rest, Sridhara S. asked what time it was, when he heard it was 8:30 he said, "The night is young, let's party, after all it is Friday night". When Niranjana Swami first entered the room Sridhara Swami was so happy to see him that he gave him a strong embrace, then to everyone's amazement he started massaging the head of Niranjana S. he did this for about five minutes, here is a person that is on his deathbed (apparently) and he's giving a massage to his dear friend. Yesterday Maharaja offered the first aroti to Lord Caitanya.
There's also some good news from the GBC meeting, one of the resolutions is that from now on every year the first day of the meetings (unless there's an emergency then it would be the second day) will be discussion of book distribution and the BBT.
At this festival so far we have such stalwart book distributors as Manidhara Prabhu, Brghupati Prabhu, soon to be Vaisesika Prabhu, and others so I'm sure we'll be having some wonderful discussions about book distribution. I'll keep you informed.
Hoping this meets you well,
I remain Your servant,
Vijaya dasa
