By Sanjay Krsna Candra das
Hare Krishna dear Prabhus/Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupad.
VIDEOS & PHOTOS: Click here
It was one of the great Janmashtmi festivals celebrated in Tokyo on 9/9/2007. More than 500 devotees assembled to celebrate this auspicious occassion of Lord Krishna’s birth.
KRISHNA-LILA: The celebrations started with melodious chanting of Damodar Ashtakam and its narration in English & Japanese. This is a sweet lila in which Lord Krishna is tied with a rope of love by Mother Yashoda.
ABHISHEK: Along with the chanting of Brahma-Samhita, Deities of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna were bathed with Milk, Yogurt, Ghee, Honey & Sugar water. Devotees were having darshan with great devotion, focusing their eyes on the transcendental form of Their Lordships. Abhishek is usually performed on the Appearance days of the Supreme Lord. The Panchamrta prasad was distributed to the guests later.
KRISHNA DANCE: Then it was children’s turn to show their might. Kids dressed in colorful dresses of Gopis gave a glimpse of the transcendental appearance of the Supreme Lord. The first dance was “Janam Lino” depicting Lord Krishna’s birth and how Vasudev-ji took Him across the Yamuna from Mathura to Gokul.
Next was a bhajan by kids, which described various names of Lord Krishna depicting His sweet pastimes – “Jai Govinda Gopala Manmohan Shyam Kanhaiya Murlidhar Gopala Ghanshyam Nanda ke lala…..”
Then the young kids dressed up as cowherd boys (Gopas) in colorful outfits performed “Makhan chori” dance with sweet little Krishna in the center.
Kids and the teachers had worked hard for 3 months to rehearse the dances. Assembled devotees were captivated by the sweetness of Krishna Lila which came up so nicely when sweetly performed by sweet kids. “Madhuram Madhuram…..”
NEW TEMPLE: ISKCON-Japan is coming-up with an ambitious project to Radha-Krishna Temple in Tokyo. A brief powerpoint presentation was given with facts, figures, progress and necessity of this project. An appeal was made to devotees to join hands for this noble spiritual cause for benefit of one and all.
BHAJAN: Senior Japanese devotees with their devotional potency of decades of Krishna bhakti expertly presented different bhajans and finally made all the guests chant, reverberating the hall with the transcendental sound vibration.
GOVINDA: “Govinda ala re…..” (Govinda is coming…..) is a spiritual cum social cum traditional event in West India where people gather to break “makhan/dahi-handi” (butter-pots). It again depicts the lila in which Lord Krishna along with His Gopa friends used to break butter pots in the house of the Gopis. On the request of some enthusiastic devotees this event was also performed to involve participation of assembled devotees.
JHULAN: Assembled devotees performed Jhulan seva (swinging Baby Krishna), offered flowers at the Lotus Feet of Laddu-Gopal and took the blessings of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara who were dressed in traditional Japanese outfit – “Kimono”.
PRASAD: All partook the Mahaprasad which was expertly prepared by devotees which involved lot of endeavor & devotion.
Though the organizing devotees thought that there were areas of improvement, the guests thought it otherwise and were completely satisfied. It seemed as if Yoga-maya enveloped everyone. They expressed deep gratitude and happiness in attending this festival.
Hoynames were chanted by one and all, 300+ books and 500+ prasadam plates were distributed.
The highlight was the spirit of devotion, cooperation and selfless endeavor to please the Supreme Lord and serve His devotees who had gathered in big number.
After the grand success of the festival, devotees are enlivened and are enthusiastically coming forward to have more such festivals and work for the new temple project.
Please find below the links to photos/vidoes of the celebrations.
Thank you very much for your participation to make this event a memorable one.
Next Janmashtmi will be celebrated on 7-Sep-2008 (Sunday, 4~7 PM) at Funabori Tower Hall, Tokyo. Please mark this day. Krishna willing, we will serve to make this event bigger than ever.
your servants in the service of Lord Shri Krishna, devotees @ ISKCON-Japan.
VIDEOS & PHOTOS: