Gaur Purnima, the appearance day of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, was celebrated with grandeur on 14th March at Iskcon Newtown Kolkata. On this day Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga wore multi coloured clothes and garlands of colourful flowers and Tulsi leaves.
The altar was decorated to give it a look of Jagannath Temple. It made sense because Lord Chaitanya after taking sannyas resided in Jagannath Puri for most of the time. And he daily visited the temple to take darshan of Lord Jagannath. Mahaprabhu by his personal example is teaching us the importance of visiting temple daily and taking darshan of the Lord.
In the temple hall two statues of crouching lions were put up just like we have in Jagannath Temple at Singhadwara. Inside the altar, the pillar was painted in yellow, red, blue, green and pink colour. The roof was of white colour and were decorated with orange and yellow marigold flowers. In the temple hall canopy having shades of red, yellow and green hung from the ceiling.
Srila Prabhupada’s altar too was decorated with flower, flower garlands and colourful leaves.
Outside the temple hall colouful rangolis were made at different places by the devotees.
Gaur Purnima is a very important festival for Gaudiya Vaisnavas, so devotees were putting their best efforts to decorate the temple. A separate pandal was built for cultural program and for prasadam serving. Each devotee was trying their best to render service to the Lord on this special day.
Devotees from various VOICE centres and congregation devotees came in large numbers to participate in the festival.
Morning program in the temple
Festival began from 4:30 am onwards starting with Mangala Arati in which many devotees participated. Devotees chanted the holy name of Krishna i.e. the Hare Krishna Mahamantra till 8 am. At around 7:15 am some of the devotees also went out for nagar sankirtan. At 8 am there was Guru Puju.
Devotees were eagerly waiting to take darshan of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga. And their desire got fulfilled when the altar opened at 8:30 am. The two Lord looked extremely beautiful and attracted the heart of all. Devotees offered flower to the Lord while singing “govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami” prayer from Brahma Samhita. After that all devotees sang śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu doyā koro more, the song was led by HG Prem Swarup Prabhu.
At 8:45 am Gaur Katha began. HG Acharyaratna Prabhu spoke on various pastimes of Lord Chaitanya given in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. After his class, Prabhuji, inspired devotees to buy Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, so that they can regularly read about Lord’s pastimes. There were devotees who wanted to have a copy of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta and there were also devotees who were desiring to donate Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta to those who wanted it.
Many devotees got Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta by the grace of the devotees who donated it.
After the distribution of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there was class by HG Anant Bhagavan Prabhu. In the class, Prabhuji described Mahaprakha Lila of Lord Chaitanya and the lessons we can learn from the pastime.
The class went till around 12 noon. At 12 noon there was bhoga arati of the Lord.
Evening cultural program included abhishek, drama, Gaur Katha and arati of the Lord
Hundreds of devotees had started congregating for the evening program. Evening cultural program was organized at pandal, and it began at 5 pm. There was grand abhishek of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga at the pandal. For abhishek, the deities were taken on palki procession from temple hall to pandal.
During the palki procession, devotees were chanting and dancing. Some were fanning the Lord, some were blowing conch shells, some were showering flower petals on the Lord, some were playing mridangas and some were playing kartals.
Both the deities were reverentially placed on abhishek table in the pandal. Pandal was completely filled with devotees. While the program was going on in the pandal, there were many people who were visiting temple hall to take darshan of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga. Many people came to take darshan of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga. They offered fruits and sweets at the lotus feet of the Lord. As same day Holi was being celebrated, so many were also bringing colours and were offering it to the Lord.
Abhishek of Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga
On this auspicious day of Gaur Purnima, devotees were fortunate to get the association of HH Subhag Swami Maharaj, a senior Iskcon sannyasi and disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Maharaj performed arati of Sri Sri Nitai Gauraga before the start of the abhishek in pandal. Maharaj also performed abhishek of the Lord.
The deities were bathed with pancamrita, pancagavya, fruit juices, scented water like Kesar water, rose water, coconut water, sarvaausadhi, mahaausadhi, astagandha and finally with colourful flower petals.
After abhishek there was a drama performed by the devotees.
Gaur Katha by HH Subhag Swami Maharaj
After drama there was Gaur Katha by HH Subhag Swami Maharaj. Maharaj beautiful spoke about the necessity of taking shelter of Lord Gauranga and serving him constantly without any ulterior motives. After the class, Maharaj invited questions from the assembled devotees. Many devotees asked questions, and Maharaj logically cleared their doubts.
After the class, there was Gaur arati. During the arati devotees sang, jaya jaya gorācāńder āratiko śobhā.
At the end there was delicious prasadam for all. It was a wonderful day for all to remember and worship Lord Gauranga on the day of Gaur Purnima.
