Hare Krishna Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Here in Dallas at RADHA KALACHANDJI DHAMA we just celebrated Kirtan 50!!
Every year it just seems to get sweeter!!
The kirtaniyas are amazing!
Gaura Vani, Kalindi DD, Akincana Krishna, Amala Harinama, Achyuta Gopi, BB Govinda Swami , and more!!
And every day the feasts are spectacular:
Quesadillas, Chinese noodles, Momo's, Waffles, and the normal Indian cuisine.
Devotees come from all over the world for this... 50 hours of kirtan spanning over three days and it ends with a puspanjali flower shower for Radha Kalachandji.
There is no better way to start off a new Year!!
The temple is not so big, but hundreds of devotees attend... So just trying to get a spot in the temple is a job in itself... I usually try to climb up on a pillar and kind of half-way hang there... But this year I barely got a spot.
I saw Yasodanandana Prabhu!! As you probably know, he designed and installed most of the beautiful stained glass installations here at Radha Kalachandji's.
It's always been one of my dreams to make stained glass art for Krishna!
I've connected with this Prabhu many times and he said he will take me as an apprentice, but he has no money to start the projects at the moment. It's fun to hear and talk about future projects though. He's a very talented artist.
And of course the Prasad is overflowing, not all of it gets served...On the waffle day (I ate my waffles plain with butter only), there were so many waffles left over. So Achyuta Govinda prabhu and I took a tray of waffles, cranberry sauce, maple syrup and butter and went door to door offering them to the local families.
It was a good chance for me to practice my Spanish and we distributed about 13 plates of double-stacked and fully loaded waffles!
Oh on Friday before the festival, Daruka Prabhu held a massive pizza party for all the devotees and visiting musicians!
He and Mother Sweta (the head cook for Kalachandji's restaurant) normally cook an offering for Radha Kalachandji every year for Sadhu Sanga that's big enough to serve the Prasad to about 3,000 devotees!! So a pizza party for 300 devotees seems like a cake walk.
Daruka had just built the wood fired pizza oven and deck. ... I'm sure this is just as good as Panca Tattva Prabhu's pizza!
They also had cauliflower pakoras with parmesan cheese, salad, and a bean soup.
It was amazing and the whole community came to party in the back yard.
There was a book distributor there needing Spanish books, so I gave him 40 small books... I'm not sure if this counts as distribution??
HpS - Una eslabon en la cadena!
On New Year's Eve, the kirtan really started to get intense and Achyuta Gopi sang sweetly for Lord Jagannatha. Kalindi Mataji prepared everyone for midnight, and then the incense started billowing as the curtains opened for Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji!!
We were so so happy to see Radha Kalachandji for the new year.
His Holiness BB Govinda Swami lead a raging kirtan until about 1:30 in the morning. He grew up with Elvis, or had some connection with him. During one of the previous years he was dancing like Elvis and doing push-ups during the kirtan.
So hilarious!!
(We made it to the mangal next day! By his mercy)
Then the kirtan was winding down on New Years Day until the flower shower for Radha Kalachandji!!
And by his mercy Maharaja I was able to sneak up there are throw some rose petals for Radha Kalachandji!! I'm eternally grateful !!!
After Radha Kalachandji and all of the other presiding deities are up to Their neck in multi-colored rose petals, then boxes and boxes of the Maha Prasad are offered to Srila Prabhupada and all of the devotees!
The crowd goes wild and prasad for everyone!!
It's a flower fight!!!
Below is a link for the kirtan!
Exactly at 1 hr : 48 minutes : 45 seconds is when HH BB Govinda Swami tells everyone that has a phone to look up the Radha Krpa (Katasksa ?) Stotram.
It's so good!!
Your aspiring servant,
Jaya Hari das
https://www.youtube.com/live/FMqamennpNU?si=4Jb0YF3bCxStF56J
And here is a link for Yasomatinandana Prabhu's video....
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1lEjmyu0cpBAXeLMCvXZ6CrOMgWRrOT7rtCJM0/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
HpS - Thank you! Such nice report!!! We can also report that it was so ecstatic that several of the devotees from Houston who went for the festival brought some of the participants back with them.
They came back with three day flu virus. 😅
Docotoress, Mother, Guru-bhati Devi Dasi is almost recovered.
I guess the Bacteria also benefits from the Prasadam!!! 💪🙂
Our Light of the Bhagavata Symposium was great and now we're headed for Vyasapuja and DTC-Spain release.!
