Devotees in our Huejutla sanga in Mexico celebrated Janmastami on August 28th. Cooking beganfor the programme one day ahead of the festival and Haridasa Babaji Maharaja and the devotees from Jardines Govinda arrived the night before.
In the morning the ladies decorated the altar and the temple room and more devotees were cooking. One by one, guests were arriving for the programme. .
Jovita, Shyamala and Govinda Dasi had a very intense day of more than fourteen hours of non-stop service organising the festival.
The festival started with a bhajana by Babaji Maharaja and an introductory talk with all the guests by Rsi Prabhu and Janardana Prabhu. Some guests were regular visitors of the Sunday programmes, but some of them were first time guests.
Janardana led a nice bhajana and then Babaji Maharaja gave a very nice talk about the meaning of Janmastami.Then we had another bhajana led by Janardana and then the festival exploded. The Holy Name conquered the guests and everyone was chanting, smiling and clapping loudly..
After that kirtana, Babaji Maharaja explained about puspanjali and showed the guests how to offer flower petals to Mahaprabhu. One by one the guests gave a small offering.
Then there was another kirtana and Babaji Maharaja offered aratika and Shyamala and the other devotees made arrangements to make an offering of more than fifty different preparations! At that moment more guests arrived but because the place was full, they had to stay outside the temple room.
After that beautiful kirtana, all the guests were very enthusiastic and Rsi invited them all to sit down for the feast. Many of the guests ate two or three times and others asked for something to bring to relatives on their homes.
One lady approached Rukimini Dasi and told her, "Thank you very much for inviting me to attend this wonderful evening." She promised to come for every Sunday programme.
For more photos of the event please click on the following URL –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36881027@N04/sets/72157635286244527/
Sri Janmastami Maha-mahotsava ki Jaya!
