Janmashtami festival in a Village
Lord Caitanya prophesized, his name will propagate in each and every town and village of the world. “Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grām (Caitanya-bhāgavata Antya 4.126). Now you execute the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Go village to village, town to town, all over the world, and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And it is proved they will accept.” (SP Lecture, SB.6.1.44, Dec. 26, 1970, Surat). In India, nearly 70% of the population lives in rural areas therefore preaching of the message of Krishna consciousness in villages will be a great help to this mission. In villages, people in general have less material facilities and their life is based on simple living and high thinking. Villagers are comparatively simpler than peoples in cities, most of them are devotees of the Lord and worship him on daily basis. They acknowledge the Lord for their daily activities.
Jaipur is known as gupta-Vrindavana, as the Lord Shri Govinda-devji, Shri Gopinath Ji and Shri Madan Mohan Ji (later went to Karoli) came from Shri Vrindavana Dham. Since then, Jaipur became the place of pilgrimage for Vaishnavas. In 1972, Srila Prabhupada came to Jaipur and visited many temples. Srila Prabhupada said, “In the Jaipur there is Govinda-seva temple of Govindaji. The king of Jaipur took away, when Aurangzeb was harassing Hindus and he was breaking some of the Hindu temple, at that time from Vrindavana the Govinda murti—not only Govinda, but Govinda Gopinatha and Madana-mohana—these murtis were taken from Vrindavana to Jaipur. The king of Jaipur, he was Vaiṣṇava. (SP lecture, June 14, 1970, LA). After that, many of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples came here and started preaching activities. HH Subhag Swami Maharaja also came to Jaipur many times with ISKCON devotees to have darshan of the Lord. Consequently, few fortunate souls came in contact and to fulfill the mission of Srila Prabhupada, maharaja engaged them in preaching activities. In this regard Srila Prabhupada once said to Lokanath Maharaja, “I am pleased to hear that you are now travelling in Burdwan and preaching in the villages…. If possible you can also hold a festival which is also part of preaching.’’ (SPL to Lokanath Swami, Feb 15, 1977)
Festivals are the most precious time for preaching to a large number of people about Krishna Consciousness. Every year, devotees celebrate Shri Krishna Janmashtami festival in Bassi. Similar to last year, a huge pandal program was organized in a village near Bassi. People were very jubilant during the festival and celebrated the Janmashtami festival till mid night. Large number of women, children, young boys and men came from nearby villages to join the celebration. Program started with Kirtan and followed by Gaur arati in which people were so joyfully dancing and chanting that their voice was heard from far away distance. Nearly, 1500 people from different villages came to greet the Lord on his birthday ceremony and took prasadam. Around 500 people waited till midnight and took full prasadam after 12:00 a.m. with devotees. In the festival, many youngsters were dancing on the beats of magnificent kirtan by two Gandharvas HG Gaura Gunamani Prabhu and Bhakta Vipul. The loud chanting of Gauranga! Nityananda! vibrated the whole pandal atmosphere and every one was feeling transcendental pleasure in their heart. The villagers were blessed by the Lord and they felt the sweetness of the holy name of the lord. Many people acknowledged the higher taste and the transcendental pleasure they felt first time in their life.
Villagers highly appreciated these Krishna Conscious festivals and were positive in accepting the message of Lord Caitanya. Lord Nityananda used to engage the devotees in dramas that depicted the pastimes of the Lord Krishna. In the same way, devotees from Vrindavan and other places came to play drama based on the pastimes of Krishna with Kamsa. Kamsa send many demons to kill Krishna but nobody returned back which disappointed Kamsa and later on, Krishna came to Mathura and killed him. The special artist in this drama HG a Prabhu was highly appreciated for the role of Kamsa and people enjoyed his great laughing and killing in the end. At 11:30 pm, Matki Phoda program was also organized and lot of people enjoyed this festival and remembered the Lord’s childhood pastimes. At mid night Krishna took birth in Mathura and his birth was so auspicious that who so ever participated in his birth celebration got his mercy. After Bhoga offering at 12:00 am, arati and kirtan was performed and many people along with the devotees chanted, danced and took prasadam in the end. Now-a-days, villagers are getting contaminated by the city lifestyle and to maintain the pure Varnashrama culture, such programs should be organized in every village. Next day, Nanda-utsava and Srila Prabhupada Vyasapuja was celebrated with the guest and local villagers in the pandal. Nearly, 300 people and devotees took prasadam and glorified Srila Prabhupada.
We thank all for holding such a great festival for the Lord’s pleasure. We offer our humble prayers unto His Holiness Subhag Swami Maharaja for his blessings and personal guidance and for inspiring all the devotees to do festival more enthusiastically. We would like to thank HG Shri Ram Prabhu, Bhakta Ashish and Bhakta Vishwas, who worked tirelessly day and night for the festival. We would like to thank all the devotees who came from different places to make the festival complete.
Shri Shri Krishna Balaram ki Jaya
Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya
For matki phoda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLnJIvtFnf8
For Janamastami Celebration: https://youtu.be/ORiV4wXsWpg