Newsletter November 2019

Dear Friends and Devotees of Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohan,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

We are in the middle of the auspicious month of Kartik. Every morning and evening we hear the sweet sounds of Damodarastakam, being recited for the pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohan. Many lamps are offered daily and many prayers from the hearts of devotees are placed at Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohan’s lotus feet. – Kartik, the month full of deep spiritual emotions and many heart-enlivening pastimes and festivals.

For example, we hear about the appearance of Sri Radha-kunda. How the gopis endeavored to create a pond by breaking their bangles and using them to dig a deep whole in the ground (nowadays known as Kancana-kund). Then they built a long, long line of gopis reaching till Manasi Ganga, and from one gopi to another they handed over many pots of Manasi Ganga water to fill up their own kunda.

Then we hear about Dipavali, the festival of lamps. It was on a new-moon day, many thousands of years ago, when Lord Rama came back from His 14 years of exile in the forest. Since the night was pitch-dark the inhabitants of Ayodhya lit the path with many, many candles so that Lord Rama could see. That night has ever since been celebrated as the night of lamps, or Dipavali. Even the inhabitants of Vrindavan remembered this occasion, and while residing at the banks of Kusuma Sarovara lit the night with many lamps.

The Dipavali-celebration is closely followed by Govardhan-puja –possibly the most liked and longed for festival during the month of Kartik. The inhabitants of Vrindavan start early morning from Manasi Ganga their way towards Giriraj. Instead of worshiping the king of heaven, Lord Indra, little Krishna convinced them to better worship Giriraj instead. That’s what they faithfully followed without any doubt. A 5km long table of different food preparations was arranged in front of Giriraj and offered to Him with full love and devotion. Krishna, in a gigantic form, sitting on top of Govardhan Hill, happily accepts and eats all of the offerings prepared by His loved ones. Then, once the puja is done and Giriraj is satisfied to His full content, the first Govardhan-parikrama in history starts, with Krishna and Balaram in the front and all the inhabitants of Vrindavan together with their cows and calves following them joyfully… Our kids came together on that day and in a joint venture brought many stones from the river to build a beautiful Govardhan Hill, decorating it with grass, leaves, bushes, toy-animals, toy-flowers, etc. Then all the Girirajas from the congregation assembled on the hill and enjoyed a huge feast with many tasty sweets and savories, lovingly prepared by devotees…

Some days after Govardhan-puja again we came together to celebrate the disappearance day of our dear Srila Prabhupada. Where would we be had he not taken the courageous step to leave Vrindavan and travel around the world distributing the message of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu? – We offered a little abhishekam to SrilaPrabhupada, accompanied by the sweet, heart rendering song:“ye anilo prema dhana – karuno pracur….” After that we got reminded of many interesting incidences in SrilaPrabhupada’s life, such as his sincere prayers to Sri Advaitacarya before he started the mission and his strong and unwavering determination and patience till Srimati Murariji finally gave him a free passage to America on one of her ships. His heartfelt call of surrender, which later on became known as “The Jaladuta-prayer”, gives deep insights into his mood and endears him deeply to us. His words: “…make me dance, My Lord, make me dance, as You wish, I am just like a puppet in Your hands…” express his deep humility and his call out for help.

This sweet month will unfortunately soon come to its end but nevertheless, let us keep all the little heart touching memories which we have collected over the last four weeks stay alive in our heats. Let us keep the teachings from the many pastimes we heard during that month remain deeply engraved in our hearts and let us continue to remember the fact that Krishna is bound only by our love not by anything else! Hare Krishna!

• Ayurveda-seminar with Frederieke Couvee, 22nd-23rd November, For detailes, please check 
• Visit of HH Bhakti Prabhava Swami, 1st Dec to 15th December
• Forgiving-seminar by Vaishnava and Rasa Murti, 14th-15th December

Hare Krishna,

Your servants from Goloka Dhama