Deena Bandhu dasa: You may have noticed in the recent announcement about the Vrindavan Festival that there was no mention of the famous Boat Festival. In recent years, it has become so crowded that even senior devotees and Prabhupada disciples are unable to enter. Since there was no mention of it, some devotees have decided to do what I have been suggesting for years now. On Saturday 21st March we will have the Boat Festival at the Yamuna at Keshi Ghat! At Keshi Ghat, there are plenty of steps where everyone can sit peacefully and view the festival. For this purpose we have already acquired some four foot murtis of Radha Shyamsundar, so that everyone will be able to easily take darshan.

We will have a kirtan procession to Keshi Ghat starting from Krishna Balaram Temple at 4:30 pm. The time of the festival will be from 5pm to 7pm, a little earlier than the festival in the temple was, so that devotees can conveniently make it back to the temple or guesthouse before dark. We will tie many boats all along the last step of the ghats, so that no one can accidentally fall in the Yamuna. All senior devotees and local VIPs will sit in these boats. We’ve already contracted for cleaning the ghats and placing durries so that all can sit comfortably. On one of the pier-like structures, we will have the kirtan party, on another, the media, on another many leading sadhus will sit. In this way everyone can easily take part.

Now that we started our preparations, we have also heard that the temple is still having a boat festival in the courtyard. They are not announcing it and they want to have it on a weekday on March 19 so that congregation from Delhi and Chandigarh will be unable to come. However since we started this program, many devotees from the community and congregation have come forward to assist us. The organization that does the artika at the Yamuna have also given their blessings and are very happy to cooperate with us. So we invite one and all to see the wonderful Boat Festival in the Yamuna at Keshi Ghat.

In service of Srimati Vrinda Devi, Deena Bandhu dasa

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