Nrsimhananda das: Recently I came across a letter (below) questioning the value of a new flower festival at the Detroit temple. The flower festival for Sri Sri Radha Gopinath in Chowpatty Iskcon ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGqOU27f8I0 ) is probably the most well-known, and it has been the progenitor of many others. Then there are the new wave of Iskcon sponsored “Festival of Colors” events inspired by the large gatherings organized by Caru p and Vaibhavi dd in Utah. Seems like there are new “traditions” established yearly by various Iskcon branches including the yearly Srila Prabhupada festival in Los Angeles. The question humbly posed by the author is: are they bonafide?
Being a lazy producer, not a scholar, I asked Hari Sauri p. to weigh in on the subject. As usual, he found the perfect quotes from Srila Prabhupada to satisfy the nagging question.
As far as I know we can have a festival everyday for preaching and attracting outsiders to the temple:
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Svati — Unknown Place January 1972
“Best way to maintain enthusiasm is by regular chanting with the devotees together in the temple and by having festivals. So you should immediately have one festival then everyone will be busily engaged. There are so many festivals that I can give you one for every day.”
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Tamala Krsna — Columbus, Ohio 13 May, 1969
“Your next festival will be as follows: RAIRAYA — On this day the Gopis played by making Radharani a Queen, and She is seated on a gorgeous throne, and Krishna is made as Her doorman of the palace, so He is standing by the throne-room with a sword. So this is one Pastime arranged by the Gopis, and there is nice feasting, dancing and singing on account of the coronation of Srimati Radharani.”
Hari Sauri p comments: After all, we have the Sunday feast festival every week although there is no mention in our calendar of any specific pastime. So what is the harm to have festivals throughout the year?
I hope that this answer encourages devotees to make every day a festival. As long as their is sumptuous Krishna prasadam, I don’t think anyone will mind and that the Lord will be satisfied.
YS, Nrsimhananda das
The letter:
The flower festival is clearly a new festival which was not introduced by any of the acharyas, and which was not suggested in sastra. Why our ISKCON devotees continue to ignore Srila Prabhupada’s main instruction about introducing speculations in deity worship?
In Vaisnava tradition, there are so many festivals, and we are not having enough man power and energy even for celebrating those festivals. But some kind of new energy is seen in this kind of new inventions. It is better to follow the festivals given by Sastra and acharyas rather than inventing this kind of festival.
Is it not an offense to step over the flowers which were offered to Krsna?
Or am I ignorant of some of the teachings of Srila Prabhupada? Can anyone give any reference from Sastra or from Srila Prabhupada to support this kind of festivals?
