{"id":3408,"date":"2007-05-08T15:43:08","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3408"},"modified":"2007-05-08T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2007-05-08T14:43:08","slug":"radharamanjis-500-liter-milk-abhisheka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3408","title":{"rendered":"Radharamanji’s 500 Liter Milk Abhisheka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Deena Bandhu dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 2nd was Purnima and the day that the Deity of Radharamana was self manifested from a Saligrama-sila. Commemorating this occasion there was a very gorgeous festival at Sri Radharamana Mandir in Vrindavana.<\/p>\n

More than 450 years ago on the day of Nrsimha Caturdasi, one wealthy merchant came and was giving dresses and jewelry to the different Goswamis in Vrindavana to use in the service of their Deities. Sadly Gopal informed him that he had no Deity, but was worshipping Saligrama-silas, so he would be unable to use any dresses for Them. Feeling slightly dejected, Gopal read from Srimad Bhagavatam, the chapters concerning Lord Nrsimha.<\/p>\n

Late in the evening, he closed the Sacred Bhagavata and offered a prayer to the Lord, that just as He had appeared from a stone pillar to protect His devotee, He should likewise protect him. At that time there was no temple, so Gopal was keeping his Saligramas in a bag hanging from a tree. After hanging the bag, he took rest.<\/p>\n

In the morning, he noticed that the bag was having a strange shape. When he opened the bag, he found that one Damodara-sila had self-manifest as the enchanting Deity of Radharamana, the lover of Srimati Radharani. All the Goswamis were amazed at the beauty of the Deity and the great fortune of Gopal Bhatta Goswami. As the Lord had appeared from a stone pillar for Prahlad, now He had appeared from a stone Saligrama to accept the service of Gopal!<\/p>\n

So the full moon day after Nrsimha Caturdasi is the appearance day of Sri Radharamanji. Every year there is a five hundred liter milk abhisheka of the Deity. We all went there in the morning after breakfast prasadam and the abhisheka was already underway. As Radharamanji, is quite small, one lucky Goswami was holding Him steady at the base for the entire duration of the abhisheka. All the Goswamis in their brightly colored silk dhotis were joyfully and devotedly taking their turns doing the abhisheka. All the milk was kept in large solid silver pots and was poured from one small silver pot into a conchshell that each Goswami was holding at the feet of the Lord. Srivatsa Goswami was presiding over the ceremony and chanting all the particular mantras very carefully.<\/p>\n

Although the weather has been blazing hot, 45F, today by Radharamanji’s grace there were clouds and pleasant showers to cool all the devotee. The milk abhisheka went on for more than two hours and the crowd was jostling one another to take darshan. When they finished with the milk, then they poured yogurt, ghee, honey, and sugar cane juice. Finally many other auspicious substances, such as sandalwood paste, saffron, and aguru, were poured over Sri Radharamanji. Even they put precious jewels in the conchshell and He is bathed with ratanjal, jewel water. Then ground pearls and many other auspicous substances. Then they brought seven clay pots that contained water from the seven sacred rivers to bathe the Lord. For the grand finale, a round silver pot with many holes was placed over the Deity and several sacred herbs were put into it and then water was sprinkled over Sri Radharamanji like a shower.<\/p>\n

We had been watching the abhishek now for three hours. After they closed the curtain to dress and decorate the Lord, wherever you looked, you could see the divine form of Radharamana in front of your eyes! If you looked at a wall or shut your eyes, that divine form you had been watching for three hours slowly manifest itself!<\/p>\n

Then we all went to Padmanabha Goswami’s house were we were served panchamrita in small clay cups until it was pouring out of our ears. It was so divine and satisfying with little bits of solid ghee floating in it, as they had added huge chunks of ice to the pots containing the panchamrita.<\/p>\n

Finally at 2 pm was the darshan and artika. Radharamanji was splendidly dressed and shining very brightly from His wonderful abhisheka. Just beside the altar was frame with yellow cloth around it and tilaka painted on the glass that contained that chadar that Mahaprabhu had given to Gopal Bhatta Goswami. Also on a silver stand with the other Saligrama-silas was the small black sitting place. These things are only visible on this day and on Janmastami only at the time of artika and at the evening darshan.<\/p>\n

Sri Sri Radharamana Lalji Ki Jaya!!!<\/p>\n

In service of Srimati Vrinda Devi, Deena Bandhu dasa<\/p>\n

PS. If anyone has pictures of the abhisheka, please forward them to the above sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Deena Bandhu dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 450 years ago on the day of Nrsimha Caturdasi, one wealthy merchant came and was giving dresses and jewelry to the different Goswamis in Vrindavana to use in the service of their Deities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deena-bandhu-dasa","category-iskcon-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}