Yes it is and you know what that means, right?
Yipee, Parade Parade Parade!
Saturday night here in Mayapur dhama is anxiously awaited every week by devotees young and old. That is the night when the chota Radha Madhava deities and the larger Gaura Nitai deities come out of the temple and are carried around the complex in beautiful oxen powered carriages. Practically everyone living in the community and many thousand Bengali pilgrims join the procession each week. Some of the boys chant the Purusa Sukta Mantras, others carry flags, incense, torches or lead the kirtan. The center of it all of course is the kirtan that can be heard all over the community.
The procession stops several times as they make Their way around Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi. At each stop there is full aratika for both sets of deities. Also on some of these stops devotees bring some baked or cooked offerings to be offered to the Lord and then mahaprasadam is distributed to the devotees. At each stop devotees make beautiful mandalas geometric pictures) on the ground with colored chalk, colored rice powder and an abundance of flowers.
These festivals are a fabulous way to fully utilize the tendency to dance, socialize and get intoxicated (by the Holy Names). After the procession is over the deities are returned to Their altars while devotees shower the path with flower petals and sing bhajans into the night. It is a shower of transcendental stimulation for the senses and the soul.
Daddy I wish we could have these festivals every night!
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