Living in Vrindaban

Somehow memories of Sri Vrindaban dhama are still dwelling in both Shraddhanjali's and my mind. If this may last only for a while, we don't know but we do want to go there again and as many times as possible. Thus we are praying to all of you, to please bestow your mercy that we always feel the lamentation of being separated from Vrindaban.

While thinking about everything we experienced in our yatra developed the thought to write this article because there is someone very very great for us to thank. We may not have truly realized the essence and power of Holy Vrindaban but he is such a great personality that he has not only re-created the real Vrindaban in Vrindaban, India, but brought Vrindaban to the whole world to Indians and foreigners alike. Without his mercy, the reciprocation between the soul (us) and the Supersoul (Krishna) can never ignite in our hearts. And today due to his causeless mercy most of us have an opportunity to experience the settings of Vrindaban in our localities and nearby.

Getting an opportunity to visit Vrindaban can only be possible by the mercy of Srimati Radharani. However the great devotee of Srimati Radharani, Srila Prabhupada made it possible for even the ordinary fallen souls like us to be allowed to go to Vrindaban. Even if we are having a dwindling memory of Vrindaban, it is happening only by the unparalleled mercy of Srila Prabhupada.

Thank you Srila Prabhupada!

During our visit to the Iskcon temples in India, we were provided with first class services, some even far better than a 5 star hotel. The treatment we received in Juhu, Baroda, Ujjain and even in Vrindaban was beyond our expectation. We found it more comfortable to be there than in our American/ western homes, which is known to provide material comfort to the peak.

If you enter the Vrindaban Iskcon Krishna Balarama Mandir from the main entrance and turn to your right, go through the books and Mahaprasad stalls, you will notice 2 dioramas of Srila Prabhupada. The one on the right is the diorama as shown in the picture below.

Srila Prabhupada leaving for America on board, Jaladuta (Ship)

When Srila Prabhupada left for the West, he only had 40 Indian Rupees with him and there I found myself standing within a complete marble structure building, where even the floors are made of marble which maybe worth millions of dollars. Actually most of the temples we visited were made of expensive and attractive marble.

When HH Bir Krishna Maharaja took us to visit Srila Prabhupada's room at the Radha Damodar Temple in Vrindaban, we saw how in the 2 small rooms Srila Prabhupada used to live and complete most of his writings.

Srila Prabhupada took upon many more difficulties than these to provide us with the most comfortable way of practicing Krishna Consciousness and thus attempted to create Vrindaban within our hearts.

We all have an opportunity to connect, re-connect or refresh our connection with Srila Prabhupada. To be connected with Srila Prabhupada is like being connected with the Internet. As soon as we lose connection, we immediately check the connection, re-connect or refresh the connection. We basically cannot stay without Internet. I also sensed a loose connection with our eternal spiritual master but this dhama yatra proved to be beneficial in many ways.

Srila Prabhupada is very dear to Krishna and if you desire to succeed in spiritual or eternal life (since we are living on borrowed time), please take shelter of His Divine Grace. If one is dedicated and sincere, Srila Prabhupada promises to take him/ her back home, back to Goloka Vrindaban in this lifetime.

Iskcon is the boat and Srila Prabhupada is the Captain who will lead us cross over and deliver us from this material and temporary world. So if you want to serve Krishna and live with Him in Vrindaban, let us get on Srila Prabhupada's boat and never get off.

We will eternally be indebted to you, Srila Prabhupada.
We beg at Your Lotus feet to keep us engaged with Your preaching mission,
Dvaipayana das, Shraddhanjali dasi and Gopeesha dasi

Jaya Srila Prabhupada!!!
Srila Prabhupada in Iskcon Vrindaban

Govardhan Parikrama Day 3 & Day 4 - Jan 5 & 6

Day 3

HH Bir Krishna Maharaja took us around Govardhan for this 2 days. Maharaja has spend considerable amount of time living in Govardhan and knows each and every special spots where the Govardhan pastime took place.

Again I reflected my memory to the lecture about that thief who wanted to meet Bhagavan, Krsna. When he was unsuccessful in meeting Krsna after performing some sadhana, he asked his old Sadhu friend of what to do next. So his old Sadhu friend told him, "Now everyday you should make a parikrama of Govardhan Hill, then by the mercy of Sri Govardhan you will advance in your sadhana and will be able to meet your Bhagavan, Krsna".

Bolo Giriraja Govardhanlal ki Jaya!!!

(Krishna's foot and cow's hoof imprint on Govardhan)

So we met at the Harideva Temple. Harideva Mandir is built at the center of Govardhan, the center point of Govardhan where Krishna put His little finger to lift the great mountain. We asked the priest what is the meaning of "Harideva". He explained that Lord Indra gave this name to Krishna. Indra, who is also known as Hari, but after finding out who Krishna was (after his blunt mistake), said You are even the Deva (Superior) of Hari, so from today you will be known as Harideva. This temple was constructed with that memory. HH Bir Krishna Maharaj asked us to take permission from Harideva before we start Goverdhana Parikrama.

We stopped Manasi Ganga which flows right across Govardhan, took darshan of the Mandir over there and kept moving. Maharaja wanted to complete at least 2/3 of the parikrama this day. He guided us to Iskcon Palace, the Iskcon temple at Govardhan where we would be having our breakfast. On the way to Iskcon Palace, we stopped at the place where Krishna was charging tax from the gopis. Maharaja had gone to his Govardhan house at the Basundara complex during this time and we met with Maharaja over there after breakfast.

We arrived at the Iskcon temple after walking a couple of kilometers. We first offered our obeisances to the Pushpa Samadhi of HH Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaja. This temple also has the Gaura Nitai deities which Tamal Krishna Maharaja used to serve. It was a very peaceful place to be. I was surprised to notice there were even no monkeys around. We had sat on the driveway entrance to the temple to honor breakfast prasadam. You can imagine having an outdoor breakfast on a 10'C morning. In US the only time we meet cold is when hoping in and out of our cars and we say it's too cold. Here in Vrindaban, we spend 8 hours in our rooms and the rest outside and that too with no heaters. It's true too much material comfort can sometimes makes us complacent. There were 3 kids traveling with us and even they seemed to have great fun with the grown ups.

We met with Maharaja later and continued with our parikrama. He made a stop at Govinda Kund. This is where Lord Indra offered prayers and bathed Krishna, after Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill. This kunda was made by the bathing ceremony. Krishna’s feet were bathed with Ganges water, milk, tulasi manjaris and lotus flowers. This kunda was originally filled with these ingredients from the abhiseka (bathing ceremony).

In the purport to Caitanya Caritamrita Madhya 18.37 it is stated. “Govinda Kunda is exalted for its many spiritual activities. It was here that Indra was defeated by Lord Krishna, and Indra offered his prayers and bathed Lord Govinda. In the Mathura-khanda it is also stated: ‘Simply by bathing in Govinda Kunda, one is awarded liberation. This lake was produced when Bhagavan Sri Krishna was bathed by Lord Indra.’”

Here Maharaja instructed the second initiates to chant Gayatri. The parikrama continued. Suddenly Maharaja took a turn away from the roadside where we had been walking most of the time and soon we found ourselves right in front of Sri Govardhan.

We witnessed the point where Lord Balarama's crown fell on the Govardhan Sila and made its imprint on that. He was peeping Krishna and the Gopis performing Their pastimes and His crown fell on a Sila.

There is one distraction you will find here is from the beggars. They will keep on bothering you until you give them something or succeed in ignoring them. We felt since they are Vraja residents so we shouldn't offend them, however Bir Krishna Maharaja told us to ignore them or give them mahaprasadam. I remember Deenabandhu Prabhu cracking a joke about these beggars. He said they should see us at ATMA, however they take out the last letter "A" from ATM(A) and only see us as ATM (machines).

At a further point where many small sized Goverdhan sila were lying around, Maharaja stopped us there and asked us to build our eternal homes in Govardhan, so we can have our home in spritual world. There were many different sizes and shapes of "buildings" constructed and was certified by Maharaja himself. Gopeesha was very keen and enthusiastically helped me build our home or maybe I was helping her:)

We reached the tail of Govardhan by this time. We saw the Apsara Kund and Naval Kund which are situated side by side. This kund was created after Radha (Apsara) and Krishna (Naval) both melted out of Their love for each other.

Picture link is here for this day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290274814139819393&authkey=rX3hI4B2Ibo&feat=email


Day 4
We met again at the Iskcon Palace on the 2nd day of our parikrama. We had more walking this day but our total walk was shorter that the day before.

It was another cold morning, but we saw many other pilgrims on their pilgrimage. After about an hour we reached Kusum Sarovar, the lake/ garden where the Gopis would pick flowers for Radharani. At this Sarovar there is a very beautiful temple of Uddhava and the devotee serving at this temple is from Sweden. Maharaja mentioned how sincerely this devotee had been serving at this temple for many years. Everyone was happy to donate some laxmi here.

Next we stopped at Ban Bihari Temple. This is where Krishna braided Radharani's hair. The temple also has Govardhan Sila deities depicting this scene.

We were walking little away from Govardhan as Maharaj had chosen this route to show us other important places around Govardhan. He took us to the place where is the ashram of the great Rishi Narada Muni who instructed Kayadu, Prahalad's mother while Prahalad was in her womb. Maharaja also mentioned that this is the only place where Narada Muni has his ashram.

We crossed through Radha and Shyama Kund but we did not stop for long as we were scheduled to come here the next day.

I am posting the pictures for this day and our day at Radha Kund the next day.

Govardhan Day 4

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290274084706620177&authkey=GdSGopGM-To&feat=email


Radha Kund Day 5

This day we did parikrama of Sri Radha Kund mainly. We visited the Goswami's samadhis, Pandava tree and Pilu tree who witnessed the divine pastimes. I took many pictures and inserted comments below them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=PHOTO&id=5290270726273260162&aid=5290268595421733201&authkey=VYvsVDL7gZ4&feat=email


This completes the entries for my blog, however memories of our India Trip particularly the time we spend in Vraja will always dwell in our minds.

Thank you for sending in your comments and associating with me via this blog. I tried my best to communicate the details of our trip though I know some of those instances were beyond the ability of my comprehension. The best rectification to that is to visit the dhama yourself and present a better description than I could do.

Hare Krishna!

Your servants & friends,
Dvaipayana das, Shraddhanjali dasi and Gopeesha devi dasi

Vraja Mandal Parikrama - Day 1 & Day 2 - Jan 3 & 4

After the 2 day pilgrimage we took a little break. We stayed mostly at the temple and around this time we had relocated ourselves to the Krishna Balarama guest house in the temple. After the 9am breakfast, we usually sat in the temple and relished the wonderful chanting. Since there were not many people, Gopeesha had bigger space to perform her "dance". I have even seen not only kids but adults too dance away for Their Lordships in such pleasure that they don't care if anyone is noticing them. I saw someone dancing with his hands lifted up and rotating only to the left side for a long time, eyes closed but with a big smile as if they are with the Lord, seeing Them or something. Simplicity, innocence is what can attract Krishna which devotees like this one and the kids have. Plus in dhama every activity is magnified a thousand times what to speak about the relishment from performing such activities. I learnt something; pleasing Krishna is the only goal in our life.

I knew HH Bir Krishna Maharaja was coming to Vrindaban, but I had little idea when. So I emailed to check with him and he said he will be arriving on 3rd morning and everyone will leave for the Day 1 of the Vraja Mandala parikrama. He arrived at 4am on the 3rd (from USA) and was ready at 8am to lead the devotees for parikrama. Maharaja's steadiness in his sadhana is simply unchallenged. We were very happy to meet Maharaja in Vrindaban as we didn't see each other since we left New Goloka.

Another grateful moment for me was to meet all those devotees who were joining Maharaja for the parikrama. They were all ex Fiji devotees now residing in Australia and New Zealand. I was meeting them almost after 5 years. A couple of devotes were from Finland and Croatia.

So here we go..... Vraja Mandala Parikrama ki Jaya!!!

When I joined the group lead by Maharaja, a feeling of security, protection blushed through my mind and I started wondering what our mission was that it felt so peaceful. Everyone looked so graceful and fully dependent on Maharaja wherever he will take us.

While pondering on my mission being with the group, I remembered the video lecture of HH Indradyumna Swami Maharaja which he gave in New Goloka about the thief who wanted to meet Bhagavan, Krishna. I know devotees cannot forget this lecture because it was not only the essence that we would remember but the particular style in which Indradyumna Maharaja had presented the story. It was a Prabhupada story which Maharaja told us in a very awesome style which will be pretty hard for us to forget. So it was like a onward journey to meet Krishna, but when.....I wish I knew.

Bir Krishna Maharaja asked long time Vrindaban resident, His Grace Deenabandhu Prabhu to lead for the first 2 days around Vrindaban and other main forests.

Deenabandhu Prabhu's style of narrating stories was very attractive. It could remind you the exact situation he was talking about. He gave small talks at almost every place we visited. We spent more time at samadhi's of various personalities and Prabhu mentioned how important it is for us to know and remember all these saints and their great input to the human society.

We took darshan of the following temples of Vrindaban.

Radha Madan Mohan Temple
Radha Damodar Temple
Radha Shyamasundar Temple
Banke Bihari Temple
Radha Gopinatha Temple
Asta Sakhi temple
Nrsingha Temple

We also did a parikrama of Seva Kunj, one of the gardens where Krishna performed pastimes with Radharani and the Gopis. The priests say that Krishna still performs His Rasa-lila there every night. They put all paraphernalia for Krishna and Radharani to use and when they arrive in the morning everything is used up. It is a very sacred garden where no stays after 5pm. Even the hundreds of monkeys which dwell there during the day, disappear from there during night fall. It is said if anyone hides in the Kunj trying to experience the Rasa Lila, they would become insane. One Iskcon devotee had stayed back there once and the next thing he knows he was on his way to the Krishna Balarama Mandir. He couldn't remember anything what happened in between those times.

We concluded early the 1st day as prasadam was not arranged for everyone. So we were back at the temple on time to honor lunch at 3pm.

Here are the pictures of our first day out. I have to beg for your forgiveness for not taking more pictures and labeling them accordingly.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290267277158169233&authkey=QwmcIsVCJek&feat=email


Day 2
Transport and sufficient prasadam was arranged for all of us for our day 2 parikrama. Deenabandhu Prabhu planned to take us to Mathura to see some of the main forests.

Our first stop was at the bank of Yamuna. We were going to the Brother Sister temple. The temple of Yamuna devi and Yamaraja. Though it was a cold morning, devotees opted for a boat ride for an experience. When visiting temples in India, there are many priest who would want to take you around and at the end expect some monetary donation. Even if you don't hire them, they will hire themselves, so we also had one priest who joined us to show us around. Though claiming to be learned he couldn't answer some questions Bir Krishna asked him, like how many brothers did Kamsa have and who killed them?

Then we headed to Madhuban, the glorious forest where young Dhurva Maharaja performed the great tapasya to meet Lord Vishnu to ask boon from Him. We first the honored the breakfast kichiri prasadam, then Deenabandhu Prabhu enlightened us on this famous pastime of Dhruva Maharaja.











Moving on from there, we stopped at Dauji's Temple, Temple of Lord Balarama. After elaborating on the pastime, Deenabandhu Prabhu sang a folk song.

Paar karenge naiya re bhajo, Krsna Kanhaiya
Paar karenge naiya re bhajo, Krsna Kanhaiya

(If we want to get delivered from this material world, we have to chant Krsna Krsna!)

Krsna Kanhaiya, Krsna Kanhaiya

Devotees repeated what he just sang, but he kept looking at us for a different response. Then young Kishori, who is a Vrindaban resident responded;

Dauji ke bhaiya

We have chanted that line together couple of times.

Then Prabhu completed the whole song.
Krsna Kanhaiya, Dauji ke bhaiya,
Krsna Kanhaiya, Bamsi Bajaiya,
Krsna Kanhaiya, Giriwar Uthaiya,
Krsna Kanhaiya, Gaiya Charaiya,
Krsna Kanhaiya, Rasa Rachaiya,
Krsna Kanhaiya, Dauji ke bhaiya,
Paar karenge naiya re bhajo, Krsna Kanhaiya
Paar karenge naiya re bhajo, Krsna Kanhaiya

That was one of the sweetest moments of glorifying Krishna's activities and Balarama's sweet relationship with His brother. I peeped from the corner of my eye to see if anyone became emotional as I found that moment very touching, but no one did. However everyone looked so blissful as if they were crying from within their heart.

Then we drove little further to the Talavan forest. 200 meters before reaching the main point, devotees got of their vehicles to walk behind Maharaja. I found walking on Vraja raj (dust of Vraja) very very inspiring plus being with so many devotees really boosts up the spirit.

Again Deenabandhu Prabhu gave a small talk on the importance of the pastimes. He specially mentioned how we need to get rid of the ass like mentality, the Dhenukasura demon which Lord Balarama killed.

We visited couple more temples then concluded for the day around 4pm and headed back to Vrindaban Iskcon Temple.

Here are the pictures for day 2:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290270730245105121&authkey=ySuEmCgp7LE&feat=email

You can also visit www.bkgoswami.com for more pictures.

Radhe, Radhe

Your servant,
Dvaipayana das

Vrindaban Pictures

These are some pictures of Initiation at the Iskcon Vrindaban temple, New Year kirtans with Aindra Prabhu, 24 hour kirtan with devotees and HH Vedavyasapriya Swami Maharaja's house.

It is strictly prohibited to take deities pictures at Vrindaban temple. There are some pictures which are little shaky as I could not use camera flash function while in the temple.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290130726002391457&authkey=WMPXJ64UR9M&feat=email


More to come soon,

Radhe Radhe bolo,
Vrindaban mein dolo

Your servant,
Dvaipayana

Coming Home:)

Though born as an Indian and traveling India for the first time, I still found myself in foreign land when we first landed in Mumbai. I was meeting my in-laws, for the first time in Gujarat so that was another new experience for me. Then in Ujjain I was mostly recovering from my sickness. But when our car squeaked it's brake at our final stop of our yatra and our chauffeur exclaimed in Hindi, "Welcome to Vrindaban", we felt we arrived at home, our original home.

Bolo Sri Vrindaban Dhama ki Jaya!!!

We reached at 8pm, but we felt as we knew the place. Shraddhanjali who has been to Vrindaban before could not wait to explore more when the day breaks. For the first 4 nights we comfortably stayed at my spiritual master, HH Vedavyasapriya Swami's house. Then we moved to the Krishna Balarama Temple guest house. We were in Sri Vrindaban dhama from December 25 to January 8.


We woke up with the sound of Maha Mantra chanting around 4am the next morning. That was coming from nearby local temple. I thought it was coming from Sri Krishna Balarama Mandir, which is about a 7 minute walk from where we were staying. Then Shraddhanjali told me you will only hear Harinama in Vrindaban. An electric current like moment passed through my body. A place which is full of Radha Krishna devotees, temples everywhere, where almost everyone wears tilaka and everyone chants "Radhe". I have read and heard about such things but being there to experience the Goloka Vrindaban mood was simply ecstatic. Actually it is the real Goloka Vrindaban, unfortunately we do not have the eyes to see it. Shraddhanjali told me this. To me she seemed like a resident of Vrindaban. She had prepped me very well for our Vrindaban trip during our flight to India. Off course I couldn't understand much because I wanted to wait to experience it.

Around 8am, Maharaja took us to the Iskcon Vrindaban temple which is on Raman Reti where Krishna and Balarama performed Their pastimes. The atmosphere is so absorbing, vibration so intense, very very lively. I was told by many devotees about the beauty of Sri Sri Krishna Balarama deities so I was trying meditate on Them throughout. In most temples Krishna Balarama's altar is on the far right. When we entered the temple, we offered our obeisances to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. They are very expertly decorated, particularly the winter dress is so attractive. Then we moved forward. It was like Krishna and Balarama just appeared right before us. We just didn't want to move any further. Their magical smile is certainly unforgettable. Then I realized that Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundara is on the far right altar in this temple. Overall, taking darshan of These deities is a great feast to the eyes and much satisfaction to the soul. At the back of the temple, devotees continuously chant Maha Mantra. This is the Vrindaban 24 hour kirtan party. When Shraddhanjali's sister, Krsna Kumari went to Vrindaban, she told me how much I would have loved to stay around the 24 hour kirtan party devotees. And that was very true. The musicians are expert and they chant very melodiously. Taking darshan while hearing the sweet Maha Mantra chant is total elevation for the soul.

We took breakfast prasadam before we left for parikrama of the 7 main temples in Vrindaban. We left little late so we only were able to visit 4 temples as they all close at 12pm.

The next day we took a parikrama of Nandagoan, Barsana, Goverdhana, Radha Kund and Shyama Kund. We were accompanied by my god brother, Medhavi Prabhu and his family from Papua New Guinea. We did car parikrama of Mount Goverdhana. It was not easy for Shraddhanjali to walk around everywhere esp the steep steps at Barsana. You will find most historic temples on hills.

We concluded the second day parikrama by visiting HH Mahanidhi Swami Maharaja's house at Radha Kund. He was in Mayapur that time but I have some pictures of his residence.

This report is only for 2 days activities.

We also stopped at Iskcon Delhi's Sri Sri Radha Partha Sarthi temple before leaving for Vrindaban. Unfortunately darshan was closed so I couldn't take pictures inside the temple but here are some pictures of this gorgeous temple. If you stand at certain parts of the temple you wouldn't be able to see the "outside world". It is so huge.

Iskcon Delhi Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290085976920238865&authkey=viKxsdk6aqk&feat=email


Here is the Vrindaban picture link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5290100575700174977&authkey=3xqRBPiy4jE&feat=email


We are back at our Florida home now. Our trip was simply ecstatic and unforgettable. Please wait to read more of our Vrindaban yatra.


Hare Krishna,
Your servants,
dvaipayana, shraddhanjali and gopeesha

More from Ujjain - Dec 23

On Tuesday, December 23 we went on Parikrama of the holy places in Ujjain. This day was Ekadasi so we thought to make the best use of this day and visit the greatest Vaishana's temple known in Ujjain, The Mahakaleshwara temple, temple of Lord Shiva. Taking pictures in this temple is strictly prohibited so you may not find any exhibits of our visit to this temple. But there are many Shiva temple's around. There were other small temple of various demigods and goddesses in the arena.

We went to Rama Ghat. When Lord Rama heard of his father, King Dasaratha's death, He was at that point during his exile, in Ujjain.

Then we went to Narasimha Ghat where the half man half lion incarnation of Krishna took rest after ripping apart the demon Hiranyakasipu.

We were accompanied by a Russian disciple of HH Bhakti Caru Swami, who is now a resident of Ujjain. Nayika devi dasi along with her 3 year old daughter, Nayana, know the Holy places well and were a wonderful guide for us. Nayika dasi is the personality who takes and posts pictures of activities at Iskcon Ujjain on the BCS Istagoshti. During this trip she also offered to take pictures for me. To identify her easily, I have put her and Shraddhanjali's picture first in the picture link. Gopeesha made good friends with Nayana.

Our last stop was at Sri Sandipani Muni's Ashrama where Krsna, Balarama and Sudama studied art with their Guru Sandipani Muni. Krsna was there for 64 days and expertly learned all the 64 arts before leaving back for Vrindavana. Till today the ancestors of Sri Sandipani Muni's heritage are maintaining this temple and allowing everyone to experience this holiest place where the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna studied.

Lord Shiva's ride, Nandi, the bull, is usually seated as an idol at most temples, but here at Sandipani Muni's ashrama, He is seen standing. The pandas (priests) are saying Nandi was paying his respect to the Guru of the Supreme Lord.

Devotees who may know more about the existences of such Holy places in Ujjain dhama, please free to share your knowledge via this blog.

We are extremely grateful to HH Bhakti Caru Swami who organized a wonderful stay for us at Ujjain allowing us to visit important places in Sri Ujjain dhama.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5289606830472593073&authkey=A6gnrxDgwNQ&feat=email

Your servant,
Dvaipayana das

Iskcon Ujjain Mid Day Meal Project

This is innovation at it's best. We visited Iskcon Ujjain's Mid Day meal Project and it is simply awesome to see puffed up chapati's rolling down the unique chapati making machine. Dough is mixed up in a separate vessel and the mixture is transferred to this huge machine where the dough is flattened by heat, then cut in nice circles, passed through an oven and there rolls out your puffed up chapati.

Laxmi Nath Prabhu coordinates this whole process and took his time out to show this "charitable" factory. Iskcon Ujjain distributes prasadam to over 25,000 students daily as their mid day meal. Subzi's are also prepared here using steam boilers which cooks huge quantity in very less time. The chapati machine produces 10,000 chapati's in 1 hour:)

Food prepared here is first offered to Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhdra. There is also a full fledged temple as you enter the building on the right. Laxmi Nath Prabhu also has beautified the surrounding by creating attractive gardens which will never make you feel you are in an industrial area.

Prasadam is packed in sterile containers and sealed with a special cable tie which has the word ISKCON printed on it. I kept one for myself as a historic souvenir.

Just imagine how much Srila Prabhupada would be pleased with such activities. Distributing prasadam is one thing but creating such a technology is a great achievement for ISKCON as a whole, I think. This is one of the examples of first class work of HH Bhakti Charu Swami.

Here are the pictures for your pleasure:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/sredir?uname=dvaipayana&target=ALBUM&id=5282591415891911377&authkey=TCFtgOmFiSQ&feat=email

Ys,
dvaipayana das