By Basu Ghosh Das
Pictures of the visit are posted on the internet [cut & paste into your web browser/click on link]:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/basughoshdas1/VisitOfSriRajendraSinghShekhawat ToISKCONBaroda#
Sri Rajendra Singh Shekhawat, the son of India’s President, Her Excellency Smt. Pratibha Patil, visited ISKCON Baroda yesterday afternoon, Sunday, January 11, 2009.
Rajendra Singhji had darshan of Their Lordships, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai, Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, and Sri Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadradevi. He bowed down to the “murti” (statue) of ISKCON founder-acharya Srila Prabhupada and then to the Deities.
Afterwards, he visited the temple’s goshalla, where ISKCON Baroda has forty “gir” (breed) cows, bulls and calves. He fed “gur” (unrefined sugar) to the cows.
He was accompanied by Sri Jagadish Patel, a local leader of the Congress party and others, and was greeted by several leading industrialists and businessmen who are ardent supporters of ISKCON Baroda.
Sri “Krishna Das”, who hails from Baroda and is on five year appointment to Her Excellency the President of India as “acupressurist”, is the person who inspired the visit.
Rajendra Singhji and the entire party took prasad under the banyan and pepul tree (a “landmark” at ISKCON Baroda). He remarked that ISKCON Baroda is a very pleasant place and he enjoyed the short visit.