FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF
SRI NAVADVIPA-DHAMA PARIKRAMA
Several thousand parikrama-goers from Navadvipa, Bengal, India and
the world have arrived on the transcendental island of Koladvipa,
to join the first Bhakti Trust International Sri Navadvipa-dhama Parikrama.
March 19, 2005 was the first official day of parikrama. Srila Narayana
Maharaja and the devotees have their base at the brand new Sri Kesavaji
Gaudiya Matha there in Koladvipa, at Kolerdanga Lane in the sacred
area of Haritala. The temple, which will soon be as grand as Srila
Narayana Maharaja's magnificent, new palacial temple in Govardhana,
is presently only a combination bamboo rods and pandal tarps,
canvas and plastic tarps, wires, a few grasshut-like rooms,
lights and fans; although the temporary altar, stage area, and a few
other small areas are a little more solid. Still, thousands of Bengali
devotees are happy to live there on the tarped earth floors, and even
many Western devotees live there in tents. International devotees
have happily given up their modern facilities to come there, hear
classes there and attend aratis, bhajanas and kirtanas there, and
walk barefoot from there for several hours a day, to reach the holy
places of Lord Caitanya's pastimes. They are happy to touch the dust
of those places, breathe the air there, see and touch the trees
there, and hear the glories of those places from the lips of Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu's personal associate, Srila Narayana Maharaja,
and his preacher-disciples.
On March 16th, under the pandal-roof of the temple-under-construction, Srila
Narayana Maharaja gave a basic lecture about how there is no
happiness in this material world, because sense gratification can
never make the soul happy. He mentioned that it was laudible
that many people in the audience had come there from all over
the world and are following regulative principles, whereas it
was shameful that so many people who resided in Navadvipa,
the land where Lord Caitanya had performed His divine pastimes, are
selling and eating fish. He urged those local residents to
take up devotional life and follow Sriman Mahaprabhu's instructions
and example.
Srila Maharaja speaks mostly in Bengali in his classes, and he calls
on Sripad Madhava Maharaja, Sripad Aranya Maharaja and others
to translate intermittently into English. Many devotees have headsets,
and that enables simultaneous translations to also take place,
in English, Russian and other languages. On March 17th, Srila Maharaja
discussed the glory of Navadvipa-dhama, explaining how, just as Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu is non-different from Lord Sri Krsna of Vrndavana, Navadvipa
is non-different from Vrndavana. He explained how it is superior to
Jagannatha Puri and Godavari for that reason. Seated on his vyasasana,
he greeted and lovingly embraced several respectable Bengali devotees
who had rendered serveces in past years and were now helping with
this year's festival as well. His class of March 18th was on
the evening before the first official parikrama day. It was the
evening of the day he took all the pilgrims to the bank of the
Ganges River at Triveni in order to perform sankalpa (making vows,
reciting mantras and offering prayers for the parikrama's success),
and the day they all went to Sri Devananda Gaudiya Matha and visited
the samadhis of Srila Maharaja's diksa-guru, Srila Bhaktiprajnana
Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, and his god-brother, Srila Bhaktivedanta
Vamana Maharaja, to receive their blessings. During that evening
class Srila Maharaja touched on the glories of his siksa-guru,
Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada, explaining how he spread Krsna
consciousness all over the world and inspired so many Western
and Eastern people to become devotees and worship the land of Navadvipa.
On March 19th, the first official parikrama day, Srila Maharaja
and the Deities Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai led the pilgrims to the divine
island of Godrumadvipa. There they visited Surabhi-kunja, Svananda-sukhada
kunja, Suvarna-bihara and Nrsmha-palli, and sang appropriate bhajanas
and kirtanas to invoke blessings at each place. At Surabhi-kunja
Srila Maharaja and his representatives spoke about King Indra's
offence and then his taking shelter of Krsna's Surabhu cow to be excused
and blessed by Him, and then they discussed Markendeya
Rsi's revelation of Navadvipa and Mahaprabhu by the grace of Surabhi.
At Svananda-sukhada-kunja, the residence and bhajana place of Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura and the bhajana-kutira of Srila Gaura-kisora
dasa Babaji Maharaja, they mostly discussed the glory of the
Thakura and described how he discovered the actual birthplace of Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu. At Suvarna-vihara they discussed the materialistic
King Suvarnasen's becoming a pure devotee of Mahaprabhu by the instructions
and mercy of the sage Narada. At Nrsmhapalli they glorified Sri Prahlada
Maharaja and Lord Nrsmhadeva, and many fortunate devotees bathed in
the lake in which Lord Nrsmhadeva washed his hands after killing the
demon HIranyakasipu. After harikatha and kirtana, brahmacaries
and sannyasis distributed 15,000 kgs of kiccari prepared
by the cooks, who had also used 2,000 liters of milk to prepare the
great amount of sweetrice distributed. Over 10,000 parikrama pilgrims
and local residents honored the prasada, prepared in honor of
Lord Nrsmhadeva.
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PARIKRAMA TO DEVANANDA GAUDIYA MATHA - NAVADVIPA
MARCH 18, 2005
Today, with over 600 Western devotees and about 400 Indian devotees,
Srila Narayana Maharaja visited Devananda Gaudiya Matha, the temple
of his Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktiprajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja. There
he performed arati at his Gurudeva's samadhi, and he also performed
arati at the samadhi of Srila Bhaktivedanta Vamana Maharaja.
After taking darsana of the Deities Sri Sri Radha-vinodabihari, Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Varahadeva and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
Thakura, Srila Maharaja spoke for about 20 minutes about his relationship
with his Guru Maharaja and the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti. After
Srila Maharaja's talk and a short kirtana, a few thousand Bengali
devotees who were residing at Devananda Gaudiya Matha joined
his procession to the Ganges and then back to his new matha.
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SRI MAYAPURA PARIKRAMA - MARCH 24, 2005
On March 24, 2005 Srila Narayana Maharaja led the international
pilgrims to Antardvipa, Mayapura. They first visited
Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Matha, the temple of Srila Bhaktivallabha
Tirtha Maharaja. There, Srila Maharaja glorified Srila
Tirtha Maharaja for his preaching all over the world and mentioned
that he went to the West before he himself went. Srila Maharaja prayed
to Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda that they will be merciful
to Bhaktivallabha Tirtha Maharaja, so that his health will be strong
and he can continue to preach throughout the world. Srila
Maharaja presented him with a copy the English rendition of his Hindi
transltion and commentary of Sri Gita-govinda, which was just published
in Delhi a few days earlier.
The parikrama party then continued on to Yogapitha, the appearance
place of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and on the way they had darsana
of the place where Sriman Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda prabhu
first met and fainted in ecstacy. They were also fortunate to visit
Srivasa Angan, Sri Advaita Acarya's house and Sri Gadhadara Pandita's
house. Kirtana took place the entire way and culminated
when they reached Yogapitha. There, Srila Maharaja spoke
for a few minutes about the glories of Antardvipa. After Yogapitha,
offering their obeisances and prayers there, the party proceeded to
the samadhi of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Srila Maharaja
called on a few sannyasis to speak about Srila Sarasvati Thakura,
and then he personally spoke about some of his glories.
After Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's samadhi, the devotees
had darsana of Chand Kazi's samadhi, and then honored prasadam.
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