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This year’s Janmastami festival was the best attended to date. I think the post pandemic mood combined with a weekend day combined to encourage devotees and congregation to celebrate Krishna’s birthday in force. There was a blissful feeling throughout.
Thanking the many, many devotees who made this festival a joy to attend, in person or even online, is the cherry on the cake for me.
While the days of preparing are long, they aren’t arduous. Devotees take so much transcendental enjoyment in their service and it really shows.
When we came up short handed on the festival set up side this year, Karnapura jumped in and put together the parking lot in the front field, a lot of work in the hot sun for a senior citizen but joyfully performed. Hridaya Krishna just returned from two months in Venezuela but came over the next day to help us get all the tables, chairs, tents, etc moved into place. We are so grateful to them coming to the rescue. Bhakta Clay, year after many years, was there, managing the fountain, tent lights, and so much more.
Our pujaris once again created a sublime mood with the darshans of Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundara, Sri Sri Krishna Balarama and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai from mangal arati, to morning greeting, to midnight arati. Rasamanjari planned and designed and produced a unique and opulent outfit and altar design for the past year. She had dozens of eager helpers, each one offering a special service to please the Lord. Jaganath Rico and daughters and friends created the temple room decorations, complementing the altar design and bringing the festive feeling off the altar too.
The Kitchen buzzes all week preparing prasad for thousands. Janmeyjaya gets the ingredients, shopping day after day without complaint, Janaka keeps the shopping organized and all the parts moving so that cleaning and prepping goes on daily. Vishnu Mohan and family and Monish and friends came from out of town to prepare the main dishes. Avatar Krishna came back from India and jumped right in, saving the day by frying anything needed for hours on end. Jaya Nitai made quinoa batch after quinoa batch and never stopped smiling. Unless you cook in a commercial kitchen in Florida in the hottest part of the summer for hours on end, you cannot imagine the austerity they take on – but I hope you appreciate it.
Hanan organized a fantastic crew of helpers to box up over 3000 prasad boxes which kept the feast going out for hours. We don’t know what we would do without him.
Kaveri Dasi once again created a wonderful children’s activities tent with lots of special projects so the children can remember Krishna too and create great memories of Janmastami. She had lots of help from face painter extraordinaire Jayanti Dasi Rico, and from Lila Padma Dasi and Maha Mohini Dasi, from Ankita, and from others. Many thanks to them all.
Thank you to our pandits: Raghunatha, Chaturatma and Krishna Svarupa for another beautiful Krishna Ashtottara Shata Nama Stotram Homa for the spiritual upliftment of the many assembled devotees. You may have noticed we are at a new, and permanent, location now. Thanks to Chaturatma, Raghu and Radhanatha Dasa Jakupko for creating the big, beautiful, new fire pit.
Ramanya Prabhu leads the temple brahmanas in Radha Krishna’s morning abhisheka, and then sets up and organizes the evening abhisheka, where guests line up all night to take on the seva of bathing Radha and Krishna.
Thank you to the Village of Vrindavan crew, I know putting this together takes a lot of hard work and coordination. This is such a special feature of our Janmastami festivals, and this year the village was better than ever. We appreciate your dedication to putting this up for the pleasure of all the devotees, it adds so much to this beautiful day.
Thank you to the Village of Vrindavan crew; I know putting this together takes a lot of hard work and coordination. This is such a special feature of our Janmastami festivals, and this year the village was better than ever. We appreciate your dedication to putting this up for the pleasure of all the devotees, it adds so much to this beautiful day.
Thanks to the kirtaniyas who kept the sweet transcendental tunes in our ears all day and night long. Special thanks to Madhava Prabhu who set up the outside bhajan band, so that at every corner of the festival we were serenaded with Krishna’s names.
Thank you to Sakshigopal Dasa, who works all year cultivating devotees by doing home programs, encouraging our diverse Indian congregation to remember Krishna. He travels from June 1 through August 19, logging thousands of miles, meeting our congregation members and finding donations to put on our festival. He has created hundreds of deep relationships over the years, resulting in many initiations and thousands of friends. This service goes on all year long, and Sakshi lives and breathes it.
Thank you to all of our festival donors; without you we would not have the wonderful festivals (and many other benefits) at New Raman Reti. We are so grateful to all of you.
Thanks to everyone who helped put on the Vyasa Puja festival; it is the summum bonum of all our annual festivals. Hearing the devotees reveal their heart’s deepest gratitude to Srila Prabhupada is always moving and impactful. Thanks to Dhira Krishna Dasa, Premamanjari Dasi, Jaya Nitai Dasa and Jarati Dasi for making a most delicious feast. They took their specific preparations to the max, really working on making them the best they could be. Their love and devotion really showed.
Icchashakti made beautiful vyasasan decorations again this year; she seems to top herself each new festival. She works hard in the pujari room, organizing the offerings the devotees bring for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and making sure those who sponsored items and worked hard for the festivals get recognized.
Govinda’s Gifts is an important part of New Raman Reti. We supply what you want and need for your devotional lifestyle and help support our deity program at the same time. All devotees working there are volunteers. Jahnudvipa and Govinda Mohini have been doing this service expertly for about 15 years now. They are assisted by Jaganath Rico and daughters. We are very indebted to them. The shopping, unboxing, pricing, cleaning and setting up take hours of time every week, and we are all happy to do it.
Thank you to our office staff, Astasakhi Dasi and Ranjit Dasa, who account for every dollar donated to the temple and make sure it goes exactly where you want it to go. Devananda helps with database entry and organization, Manorama oversees online content and website management. All of their service is much more complicated than it sounds here, and they are all very expert in what they do. We are a team and really enjoy working together.
We have moved into the 21st century thanks to many hours of service from Damodara Kovie, who keeps everything that happens at the temple on youtube.com/alachuatemple. We have hundreds of devotees around the world who take part in our morning program thanks to Damodara.
Everything you do for Krishna is recorded in your KC bank account; Krishna sees each and every endeavor you make, and comes ten times closer to you. All your seva is moving you closer to the goal, back to home back to godhead. Thank you to everyone who jumped in to clean, wash pots, pack prasad boxes, sweep floors, clean bathrooms, empty trash bins… you made this all possible!
All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, Radhe Shyama, and Krishna Balarama. All glories to the beautiful New Raman Reti community.

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=101823