Gaura Purnima Festival report 2013-Sedro Woolley Wa USA

Hare Krsna to all

Pranams

All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu

We  here at Sri Sri Gaura Nitai Mandir celebrated the festival of Gaura Purnima today, and as you can see from the photos, it was very nice and many devotees attended.

Fresh fragrant flowers from spring like forsythia, plum blossums, and daffodils graced Lord Gaurangas nicely decorated altar.

We offered 111 different foodstuffs for the Lords pleasure. This included but was not limited to- two dozen fortune cookies, gulab jamuns, 30 different types of burfy, Gauranga potatoes, rice, various subjis, dried and fresh fruits, sweet rice, cawly and eggplant pakoras, three kinds of chutney-well, you get the picture.

We began by  offering arotik, then did the bhajan Parama Karuna, read the purport by Srila Prabhupada, and then gave a short class on this song.

We next did Abhisek for three of our Deities, everybody took part bathing the Lords in pancamrta substances. Then Anubhavananda read one of his poems.

Next was a very amusing play of puppets put on by Kanhaiya das and his kids.

The play,taken from Caitanya mangala, was about the episode in Vaikuntha between Lord Krsna and His queen Sri Rukmini devi along with Narada Muni, all of which precipitated the advent of Gauranga, who was first seen at this time.

This was followed by– the FEAST !

Afterwards, the devotees mingled for a bit, then we did some more kirtans, until finally everyone had to leave for their respective ashrams. All things considered, I think everyone had a lot of fun, and most importantly–this Hare Krsna Movement as it was originally taught by Srila Prabhupada, is STILL going on, despite all that happened in the past!!!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the most merciful of all incarnations!!!

Damaghosa das/ Daria Devi dasi