Sunday, February 27, 2011

Nanda Ghram

Today, or rather, this day, we went on a special parikrama to Vrinda Kund as it is the 8th inauguration of the installation of this special Vrindadevi deity. Deena Bandhu prabhu had buses and cars arranged to take devotees first to Nanda Gram, which is the palace of Nanda Maharaja up on top of a hill…

This is the bathing ghat of Nanda Maharaj. As you can see it is very misty and cold this morning - this is Vrindavan winter - and so it is still chilly. Nanda Gram is on the hill above us and not in this picture, but I will look and see if I can find another picture from the year before.

So, first the devotees met at Pavana Sarovar where we all met for breakfast. But first I have to say how this morning at Tulsi puja I met up with some very old and very dear friends of mine from 30 years ago. I was so happy to see them. I have always thought that I didn't want to leave this world without seeing them again so I was so overjoyed to see them. Here is a picture of Mahaguna, a mataji I knew if the early days in Hawaii. I love her so much and was so happy to catch up with her:

She is the Japanese lady. She use to be like a mother to me when I first moved into the temple and use to scold me when necessary! I made some silly joke about something as we were travelling to this place and she looked over at me and said, "You haven't changed, have you?"  "Nope, and still getting in trouble too!" was my reply. The other mataji, I also knew in LA in 1979, is Strisa.

So as I say this was a special place and we met here for breakfast, along with about 100 other devotees. Deena Bandhu prabhu, provided cars for us elderly Prabhupada disciples so we arrived in style, but a bit early as we waited and wondered what happened to everyone else. They did eventually arrive with hot, steaming prasadam which we honoured to our satisfaction - kitri, puris, and lime pickle.

Then we proceeded on with a Kailash Yatra festival where the women carry clay pots with a little water in them with a piece of clothe and a coconut on our heads.

Manmohini

Another old friend I was so very excited to meet up with after 30 years.

Breakfast at Pavana

Manmohini having a turn at churning butter. This is the traditional method for butter churning with clay pot.

Breakfast being served...

Mahaguna has a turn. I was going to but it was too crowded and in the end couldn't be bothered...

Just another beautiful participant

Going through the streets on our way to Nanda Maharaja's home.

Dad enjoying breakfast

Dad with Geet Govinda, one of the drivers and the one responsible for most of these pictures that I 'stole' from facebook. Also, Geet Govinda is the man who had to drive me to the hospital then to x-rays and back to the hospital again when I broke my wrist in 2009.

You know what these are!

It wasn't so much that the pot was heavy but that my arms got tired being over head for so long!

Geet Govinda in a meditative moment at Nanda Maharaja's home

You can see Dad with his hand shading his face just behind the guy with the yellow turban-like on the left

Dad on the right, middle... Where's Wally...

After we left Nanda Ghram, we continued down the hill a short distance to Vrinda Kund, on the left here. Here we had lunch prasadam before returning to Vrindavan.

These pictures are a little out of order. Here is the inside of Nanda Ghram where we had a big kirtan.

Here are some of the many paintings on the ceiling of Nanda Ghram. I don't know this particular pastime of Krsna with his father, Nanda Maharaja.

Here Mother Yasoda, Krsna's mother, and Mother Rohini, Balarama's mother, are consulting the astrologer who is telling them that their sons are not ordinary boys...

Here is a bullock cart outside our door. Dad went outside to take these pictures and then offered 2 garlands to him which he promptly ate! He prefers roses to marigolds... Beautiful though isn't he. His horns are painted blue with yellow decorations, which you can't see too well and he has necklaces.