Inauguration of ISKCON - Tirupati
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30th, Jan, 2007 - Inauguration of ISKCON - Tirupati, Second Day:
Inviting the Lord to His Temple:
Today is the day that the Lord is formally invited to come and live in
His temple. The marble Deities of Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Asta-sakhi
are already on the closed altar with Their eyes covered. Their otsab
murtis (Festival Deities) of Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Sri Tirupati
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Sri Laksmi Narasimhadeva are being
brought from the elaborate Puja Mandapam next to the temple to Their
permanent home.
Different Senior vaisnavas were carrying the metal Deities and were
greeted by the Doorway. The small Srila Prabhupada Deity was being
carried by another devotee while the Head Priest touched Srila
Prabhupada's hand and then offering the flowers to the Lotus Feet of
the Deities. Many mantras were chanted. Then I was asked to repeat the
"Swagatam" mantra or welcome mantra. I don't remember all the Sanskrit
but it was Something to the effect: "My Dear Supreme Lord, Lord of the
Universes, Possessor of Divine qualities, for the mercy of the
conditioned souls we welcome to Your Temple!" The final words still
ring in my mind: "Svagatam tava mandiram!" Welcome to Your Temple. I
was so moved by this I couldn't help but get very emotional. The Lord
was coming to His new home. His temple was being offered to Their
Lordships.
It is a beautiful Temple. Colored with intricate golden filigree,
marble floors, carvings and painting everywhere. They have raised the
"bar" in Tirupati with this beautiful offering to the Lord. There may
be bigger temples in ISKCON, but this one is very beautiful. One
important thing is the temple was primarily built from book
distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books! It is a temple produced by
Srila Prabhupada's book distribution! The book distribution Minister
HG Vijay Prabhu was here to celebrate it as well as Jayadvaita Swami
the BBT Trustee. They commented to me the temple had a book
distribution vibration!
Today a proksana abhisheka (bathing) was offered to purify the murti's
from any contamination during Their moving and making. It is called
"silpa dosa snana". A special worship was offered by one of the famous
priests of Sri Balaji temple who is well versed in elaborate worship.
This is also to have local acceptance. He did "Raja-upasana" worship
or royal worship. One example is he held a camara fan over incense and
filled it with incense smoke and then fanned the Deities with the
scented air. Like that there were many offering all really special and
majestic.
Then the abhisheka was performed by all the senior devotees present.
Some of the senior devotees that I can remember were:
Sannyasis Present:
HH Jayadvaita Swami, HH Prabhavishnu Swami, HH Bir Krishna Swami, HH
Radhanath Swami, HH Lokanath Swami, HH Bhanu swami, HH Bhakti
Vrajendranandan Swami, HH Bhakti Vijnana Swami, HH Bhakti Vijna Vinasa
Nrsimha Swami, HH Bhakti Purushottam Swami Maharaj, HH Amiya Vilas
Swami and HH Radha Ramana Swami.
Special Guests: HG Ambarish Prabhu, HG Yasomatinandana das, HG Bhima
das, HG Dinabandhu das, HG Sarvaisvarya Das, HG Vedanta Caitanya das
and many others.
So far 3750 devotee guests have been registered! Everyone is praising
HG Revati Ramana das, the Tirupati Temple President, and his crew of
devotees. They say their service attitude is exceptional.
Evening session
The evening installation program included "netra-unmilinam" or opening
the eyes, nyasa-homa or touching and awakening the different parts of
the Deities form, fire yajnas, pujas, swing festival and "sayan
adhivasa" or putting the Deity to rest. These programs took place in
the temple. Apart from the temple program there are cultural programs
with dance drama's from Srimad Bhagavatam.
HH Gopal Krishna Goswami, HH Guruprasad Swami and HH Bhakti Madhurya
Madhava Swami and some other senior devotees like HG Devamrta Swami
and HG Srestha das from Vrindavan also arrived.
Opening the eyes ceremony was very beautiful. After touching the eyes
with honey and ghee with a gold and silver rod to awaken them, 32
senior devotees were carrying auspicious articles. The curtan was
raised and everyone could see the Deities being shown the auspicious
articles and worshipped. This whole ceremony took about 1.5 hours.
Devotees were ecstatically chanting during the whole ceremony.
Then the priests, ISKCON devotees, went to the fire yajna mandapam and
performed the nyasa homa for fire sacrifices to the Deities. While
this was going on devotees went to see the dance drama performed on
Lord Sri Krishna's pastimes from Srimad Bhagavatam. After the fire
sacrifice was performed some "sampat" or ghee remnants from the
oblations was brought up and each Deity had a devotee assigned to
touch and enliven the different parts of the Deity's form with a kusa
grass stick dipped into the ghee remnants. The devotees softly chanted
while this was going on.
Then the Radha Govinda otsab murti's (festival Deities) were placed on
a carved swing and all the senior devotees took turns in swinging the
Deities. Then lights were dimmed and everyone offered lamps. After
that HH Radhanath Swami led a beautiful kirtan very softly as the
Deities were put to rest in "sayan adivasa". Then vina and traditional
music was played for the Deities. I had the mercy to fan the Deities
with a chammar fan along with other devotees.
The program was going on until 1145PM and then I decided to leave as
tomorrow I have to give a lecture on Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Only
thing I missed was a bharat natyam dance for the pleasure of the
Deities performed by a young devotee.
It was an ecstatic evening filled with Krishna conscious activities.
Tomorrow is the maha-abhishekha program on the holy day of Lord
Nityananda Prabhu.
Yours in service,
Jayapataka Swami
For More information on Mayapur: www.mayapur.com For General
information & on my preaching: www.jpsoffice.com For Lectures and
Recordings: www.hearjps.com For Congregational Preaching info:
www.namahatta.org
some pictures are here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=2796