Govardhana Puja

I know!  I should have posted this last week!  Sorry!  Better late than never though, right?
Govardhana Puja here was a lot of fun.  There was a special event just for kids 12 and under.  They were invited to make sweets and bring them to decorate their own hill.  A space was roped off for them in the temple room, in the back of Pancha Tattva's altar space.
Nitai and his friends (Vana and Deva) made some sweet balls over here in the community kitchen where we are staying.  All the children got to decorate their hill, then a beautiful Govardana Sila was placed on top, then the kids circumabulated it while chanting.  Then the hill FULL of sweets was distributed to KIDS ONLY, though I saw many adults try to get their own plate...Nitai shared some with us and my was the halava tasty!

All this was taking place while Govardhana (from Radha Madhava's altar) was having abhishek.  In the morning, there was a nice class on Govardhana Lila and an amazing darshan afterwards.
After abhishek, the annakut (sp?) offering was made, directly on the altar in view of everyone.  Then there was an delicious feast served out to everyone.  Check out the pics...

I wish you could see the hand-painted backdrops in this picture.  Devotees worked on them upstairs here where we are staying and they are really beautiful!  I have an in-progress picture of the paintings, I'll include that @ the end.

Happy GiriGovardhana

There was lights flashing behind the "clouds"...

Kids beginning the hill deco.

Bathing of Sri Govardhana

Kids hill complete with Sila on top.

Kids honoring their well-earned maha sweets.

Nitai, Vana & Deva 

The Annakut offering--yes, that is a mountain of chapatis!!  They tasted so fresh too!!  The whole feast was maha!

Here's the backdrops being worked on...

Happy Gopastami!

I know, we haven't posted any pictures yet of Govardhana Puja or SP Disp. Day...but we will (just out of order, sorry).
Anyways, Gopastami--the day to honor mother cow (like Mother's Day for our dear mother cow) is quite the festival here in Mayapura.  Most of the events take place in the Goshala (which we visited before the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other folks did--there are more people here today than on Govardhana Puja...anyways, here are some pictures...

Bala Nitai helped make all those little marigold flower balls you see decorating Sri Sri Radha Madhava's altar

Jaya Sri Radha Madhava!!

all Their outfits were hand-painted by the devotees here

yajna kunda @ goshala

happy gopastami!

Monkey Play Time!

So after lunch today, Nitai went off to the playground with some friends and Bala Nitai (Brad) and I went to run some errands.
When we returned to the playground about 40 min. later, all the kids and adults were packed around one little stone bench, intently and excitedly watching something...
We walked up and Nitai and several of the kids ran up to us screaming.  After a minute of confusion, we realized that 3 big Mayapur monkeys had indeed taken over the playground, chasing everyone else off.
Turns out, Nitai was on the slide when one of the monkeys jumped down from the tree above, landed right next to Nitai, barred his teeth and growled!  Nitai screamed and slid down the slide SO FAST!
Some of the other monkeys were running up to people and playfully launching themselves off of their backs until everyone got off the playground.  Then they proceeded to jump all over the equipment, slide down the slides, summersault on the lawn and jump from tree top to tree top.  They totally took over the playground!

Thankfully, the monkeys here aren't aggressive and are more playful than anything.  The monkeys in Vrindavan however...those are a different story!

And of course, I didn't have my camera with me, the pictures would have been so cute!  Here's some though--we woke up to 2 monkeys in the tree right outside our balcony the first morning in our new room.

they have really long tails

there's 2 monkeys in this picture...can you find them?

 
I'll get some better pictures another time.  Love to you all!

oh my goodness...Kali Puja tonight--in FULL swing by the sound of it...we passed by an effigy of the goddess in the village today, with "hey macarena! (sp?)" blasting out of the speakers next to her...
it's "quiet" in the ISKCON campus, but the surrounding villagers are rock'in out...fireworks, LOUD techno/bollywood music and all!

today we boarded some flat bed rickshaws and went with a group of friends to some local holy places:

here's the kids with the guys on one rickshaw (ladies had one to ourselves :)

Bhaktivinode's pushpa (flower) samhadi

Birth place of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (this need tree isn't the one which He was born under--it disappeared after He left...this one was planted by Bhaktivinode Thakur to mark the holy spot)

This is the postpartum house in which Saci mata lived with baby Nimai for 9 days after His birth. 

Lord Siva and Parvati are said to be the gatekeepers of Navadwip dham.

Gauranga Kunda (Radha Kunda and Shyam Kunda combinded) where Mother Saci would was clothes.

Srivas Angan, the home of Sri Vas Thakur, intimate associate of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

short walk from Sri Vas Angan to...

Advaita Bhavan and Gadhara Bhavan (homes of Advaitacarya and Sri Gadhara)

Jagannatha temple in Rajpur

Beautiful, merciful Jagannatha, Subhadra & Baladeva!

Govardhana and Saligram Silas

sweet Damodara murti

amazingly delicious Jagannathat Maha Prasada!!
(we were also given some of Their kitchari!)

This is new from last time we were here--a memorial for Jayanada prabhu.

Nitai relishing the sweet...

This temple is also new since we were here last...it's very beautiful.

The Deites are Caitanya Mahaprabhu appearing before Mother Parvati after her long years of meditation to fulfill her desire to have a part in His pastimes.

Some of the intricate stone artwork on Their temple.

So yeah, after that first night, we moved to the guest house we were originally going to stay in--the Vaisnava Academy.  It's right across from the goshala (where the cows live) and the atmosphere is peaceful and quieter than most (course, there's always some sort of noises going on in India--though here, instead of horns blasting, people shouting and music blaring we usually hear a combo of chanting, cows mooing, birds warbling, insects chirping, monkeys screeching and dogs and jackals howling).

Front view of the Vaisnava Academy.  We're staying on the first floor, for now, then we'll move up to the 2nd floor South facing during the winter months.

There's a little playground in the back.

Nitai having a pomegranate snack on the swings.

We took a boat across the Jalangi River to Navadwip.

And a rickshaw (Nitai's first rickshaw ride) to get our new...

...bicycle!  Check out Nitai's seat on the back--most of the kids 5 or 6 and under ride like this--a plastic kid's chair bolted onto the back.  New bike, basket, lock and child's seat cost us about $65 (we'll sell it before we head back).
It's so much nicer to travel around Mayapur this way--things are really spread out.
Almost everyone who lives here either has a bicycle or scooter/motorbike.

View of the construction of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) from the Jalangi river, heading back to Mayapura (it's H-U-G-E!!)  You can see Prabhupada's samadhi as well--look for the gold spire.

TOVP

Jalangi River

Our fellow passengers on our boat ride back.