Ujjain update 1st March 2010
The celebrations for Gaur Purnima went of perfectly right from mangal arati when we had our temple room nearly full with many students, congregational members and people in the neighborhood attending.
Darshan arati was at 8.30 am and everyone was enchanted to see the deities in their new dress with befitting garlands and jewelery.
The whole day devotees engaged themselves in their assigned services like cutting vegetables, cooking for the deities and devotees while some were engaged in making the cakes and others received theguests who came to the temple while the visiting students guided by theircoordinators engaged in serious japa.
Just as the full moon appeared on the horizon the abishek ceremony started and amidst the loud chanting and kirtan the auspicious ceremony was performed. Later we had a lively kirtan with blissfuldancing by the devotees which culminated in breaking of the fast in way of anekadasi feast.
For the first time the prasad was served on the roof of the temple and devotees very much appreciated the open air atmosphere with the full moon as witness.
During swayan arati a large number of visitors took darshan of the deities in their night dress. We also watched live streaming of the programs from Mayapur but were interrupted by power cuts.
The only thing we truly missed during all these festivities was the absence of our beloved Guru Maharaj who observed the same in Sri Dham Mayapur and it will be another fortnight of separation beforehe comes back to Ujjain
Today morning we had an inspiring class given by H.G. Vijay Pr who related to how even by distributing even a small pamphlet of Srila Prabhupada many conditioned souls have become devotees. Healso reminded us how material life is so unpredictable and cited that around600 people die every year in the USA just by rolling of their bed while sleeping.He mentioned a wonderful process to improve our attentive chanting that whenever our mind is distracted one cango back a few beads and start again. In this way we will be induced to chantingwith full attention otherwise the rounds will take longer to complete. Hementioned this as a formula given by H.H.Bhakti Tirtha Swami Maharaj. H.G.VijayPr has been inspiring all of us by giving morning class plus classes to thedevotees and visiting students and today there is a special class on bookdistribution.
We will be honoring Sri Jaganath Mishra’s festival with a feast in the temple room at 1pm.
Please look up pictures of Gaur Purnima at the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mukunda.bcs/GaurPurnima2010#slideshow/5443561196139187442
Mukunda das
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