By Kavicandra Swami
Every year for 20 years the Vraja Mandala Parikrama has celebrated GOVARDHAN PUJA at Varsana.
The festival is always very sweet. The devotees bulid a beautiful duplicate of GOVARDHAN HILL and a sublime cow dung murti of GIRIRAJ KRSNA. Many devotees, including HG Deena Bandhu Prabhu, come from Vrndavan for the intimacy of this festival. A team of matajis prepared 271 preparations for offering to GIRIRAJ, and of course there was a big feast for everyone. This year over 600 devotees were present for the abhisek and an ecstatic kirtan lead by HG Bhadra Prabhu.
Every year Parasurama Prabhu takes all the left over prasadam on his Bullock cart and distributes the mercy through VARSANA town. He is an amazing driver and can squeeze through the very narrow roads. So many Brajavasis were chasing after the cart and the matiajis could hardly serve the prasadam fast enough. In less than an hour four or five big potfulls were emptied.
The devotees who went along for this were especially happy. Kavikarnapura Prabhu from Nigeria lead a blissfull kirtan the whole time. Parasuram Prabhu, of London FOOD FOR ALL fame, is an unsung hero of the Vraja Mandala Parikram. For over 15 years he drives his bullock along the way and distributes prasadam and books. He prints special small books and distributes them freely. He gives out about 50,000 books every year. Back home he works as a security guard and saves for this project. He also has donors who help him. Every night he goes into the local village with harinam and shows Krsna Conscious movies.
The normally very rowdy dhildren sit silently to watch the Krsna Conscious films. He shows films such as YOUR EVER WELL WISHER among others. He is well known by the local villagers who ask him to stay at their homes. He is also famous amongst the homeless in London.
These photos show the GOVARDHAN PUJA festival much better than I can describe it.
