Kartik, 2014

Report by Martin Kindt

Kadamba Kanana Swami arrived in Sri Vrindavan Dham on the morning of Govardhan Puja (24 October). Gopal Krishna Goswami offered him a ride by taxi from Delhi, where Maharaj had stayed the night before.

As soon as Maharaj arrived at the Krsna Balarama Mandir, he rushed to his room. The reason for this was that the abhishek ceremony had already started. Maharaj said, “I also need the mercy!” So he got ready to bathe the Lord. He ran to the altar… offered one conchshell… enough… then to the kirtan!

All in all, it took Maharaj maybe twenty minutes from arriving at the guesthouse to sitting at the harmonium. The temple was packed, packed, packed!! Maharaj started playing a newly learned “Aindra tune“ and the devotees started pushing away people sitting in front of Krsna Balaram, because they wanted to dance since Maharaj was leading kirtan.

And they did! The crowd was just in ecstasy… jumping… dancing in circles… throwing each other in the air… stage diving! What a kirtan it was!

After the blazing kirtan, Maharaj circumbulated the wonderfully arranged big Govardhan Hill in the middle of the temple courtyard. Then the devotees started to transfer Govardhan to buckets to distribute the mahaprasad outside of the temple, because they did not want to throw it into the crowd as devotees did traditionally on Govardhan Puja.

Maharaj said, “I threw the maha also when I was temple president here.” In the evening of that day, disciples arranged a small offering to Maharaj‘s Govardhan Sila, Giriraja, in his room. They prepared a hill of fruits, nuts and traditional sweets. We had nice talks, sweet kirtans and did parikrama around Giriraja.

During his stay in Vrindavan, Maharaja showered the daughter of Yudhisthira Prabhu and Sanatani Mataji from Oslo, Norway, with mercy by giving her first grains.

On another day, Maharaj invited us to do a parikrama around Vrindavan. First, we visited Javat, the house of Abhimanyu. Later, we visited Ter Kadamba. Maharaj gave wondeful katha and revealed the dham to us through his words and kirtans. Hrishikesh Maharaj, again played the pastimes at Ter Kadamba and engaged some devotees as usual.

After a short stay in Vrindavan Dham, Maharaj headed to Sridam Mayapur to celebrate the Vyasa Puja of HH Jayadvaita Swami and serve him by arranging the annual raspurnima celebration for all the Prabhupada Disciples.