By Basu Ghosh Das – President, ISKCON Baroda
On November 9 and 10 ISKCON Baroda observed the twin festivals of “Dipotsava” (aka “Diwali”) and “Annakutotsava” (“Govardhan Puja”), by arranging for the traditional “Annakuta” – “mountain of grains”, new dresses for Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, Sri Sri Sri Jagannath Baladev and Subhadradevi, and Sri Sri Gaur Nitai.
We also performed “Go Puja” in our new “goshalla” (“goshti” in Samskritam), arrange for mass distribution of prasad (full meal/bhojan) to more than six thousand persons – within the temple compund – and arranged for the temple to be decorated by lights outside, which continues for the entire month of Kartik.
Also daily there are arrangements for all visitors to the temple to participate in the “diparadhana mahotsav” (personal offering of lamps to the Deities in the darkened temple room), when all the lights are switched off, and only the traditional “dipas” – lamps lit by wicks sitting in oil – are used to illuminate the entire temple room.
Please see pictures of the function on the internet uploaded to “flickr”:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13998688@N02/
Since “a picture is worth a thousand words”, we are confident that viewing them will enliven you all!
Great Photos!