Churning the Kartik Ocean

I mean, how better can it get? Krsna consciousness is simple, yet sublime! When one gets the opportunity to hear, chant and remember Krsna in his village and at the places he played; associate with his devotees and gradually have all doubts about spiritual life flee, then you know you're in the Spirit Soul business.

Govardhana puja was one of my favorite festivals this year. Ok, so we're staying at the foot of Giriraj and everyday is a deeper journey to find the root cause of entanglement in matter, and cut it off for good. The morning began with setting up chairs and other accommodations for guests, putting up schedules for the program, and marveling at the huge pots being set up to cook the feast every time I walked by.

Gopiparanadhana prabhu gave the morning lecture followed by go puja, worshiping two of the cows we have at the asram here. We then proceeded to the Hill itself, right across the street, with a Kirtan led by Vaisesika Prabhu. Next, we bathed Giriraj with Ghee, Honey, Milk, Yogurt and water, and then placed at his feet an arrangement of vegetarian preparations, fresh fruit and my favorite, an array of sweets- gulabjamums, rasagula, laddhus, kheer, etc.

There was so much food to be served out, that just looking at them I felt completely satisfied. I had already eaten with my eyes (plus the gulab I stole off the maha plate), so I just kinda stood there in amazement until HH Kesava Bharati Maharaj, laughing at me, mentioned how amazing the festival was. Turnout was much less than before, but the crowd of devotees sitting to take prasadam couldn't match stomachs with the pots in the kitchen. After feeding guests- three different arrival of guests- they devotees took the rest of the food to the gate to distribute to the pilgrims doing parikrama around the hill.

The guest list was amazing with devotees on every level- swamis gave their darshans, Senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada, peers, well wishers, villagers, simply wonderful.

We ended the reading with our usual three hour reading and discussion. Last night we read a section of Caitanya Bhagavat describing Lord Caitanya's sannyas.



Overall, I felt happy to have been engaged in devotional service all day! Everyday can be a festival if we allow ourselves