November 4th saw Sri Govardhana Puja, celebrated by the devotees and guests at Govindaji Gardens.
The programme began with a Purusa-sukta homa performed by H.H. Giri Maharaja and Gaura-Gopala Dasa. Oblations were offered in the sacred fire to Krsna and with the chanting of the gopala-mantra 108 times. Immediatly after the homa, there was a sudden cloudburst and it began to rain. All the devotees, including Srila Guru Maharaja considered this to be an auspicious sign.
Bhajans were led by Vamanadeva Dasa and then Guru Maharaja took his seat to give class and spoke about the Govardhana Puja festival from Srila Prabhupada's Krsna Book.
After class, devotees and guests did abhiseka to Giriraja with milk and rose-water and did parikrama Govardhana Hill with kirtana.
All the various food preparations that had been cooked by devotees and guests were brought to Govardhana Hill for the pleasure of Giriraja as arati was offered by Srila Guru Maharaja and Kunja-vihari sang Sri Govardhana Arati.
Go-puja was offered to our cow Ekadasi by Visnu Maharaja and she was fed laddu-prasadam and grass.
At the end of the proceedings, Madhumangala Dasa and Balarama Dasa (on behalf of his brother Manjunath in Oman) had sponsored the programme and honoured all the asrama devotees with garlands, fruits, shawls and dakhsina.
Everyone then went to the prasadam hall to honour the wonderful prasadam of Giriraja Govardhana.
We would like to thank all our devotees and guests who offered their services today – especially, Manjunatha and his family in Oman, Madhumangala, Ganesh, Girish, Lila-sakti, Subhadra, Sri Gopala, Vaisnavananda, Paramatma as well as Deepa Mataji and all the other devotees that helped with the new dress for Sri Sri Gaura-Radha-Madhava.
Giriraja Maharaja ki Jaya!!
