GEETHA PATIL
NORTHBOROUGH, Massachusetts: The annual festival of Krishna Janamasthami was celebrated at the Shri Radha Krishna Mandir in Northborough, Massachusetts in August by hundreds of devotees with coming from far and wide with family, friends and children.
The temple shrine was decorated with colorful lights and flowers and special programs were also organized on this occasion. In the morning, the program started with the Jhula (Swing) Stapan, Krishna Puja and Archan by priest Jagadeesh.
In the evening, a special program called breaking of Dahi Handi by young children with naughty Krishna’s spirit was organized. The ritual of Dahi Handi is also a popular celebration of the festival. In the temple hall, around 75 kids aged six months to eight years participated in a Radha Krishna dress show.
Braj Veer Singh and Ravindra Kumar Saxena from India were the chief guests for this event and distributed gifts to all the kids. Havan performance was started after the sponsor’s Sankalpam and Ganesh pujan was held by priest Jagadeesh with the chanting of Vedic mantras.A few special Krishna Leela dances were performed by Jayanti Gataraj and her student Anaya.
Krishna storytelling and recitation of Krishna mantras by kids was conducted by Maha Vishnu. He actively involved children in the story narration and Q &A session between Radha and Krishna teams. Beautiful bhajans were sung by the devotees created soothing devotional vibrations in the shrine.
After Baby Krishna’s special Abhishekam and Alakaram was placed in the Jhula for thedevotees to rock him, midnight Arati was performed by all devotees who celebrated the Lord Krishna’s birthday by chanting, “Jai Krishna Kenney Ki and Jai Murali Manohar Ki.” More than 150 home-made food items by the Krishna Parivar devotees were included in the nevedyam.
The yemple served Maha Prasadam to all the devotees and children. All devotees were blessed by the priest with fruits, flowers, and other goodies. Devotees enjoyed a lot and danced with full swing after Krishna Janma during Lord Krishna and Radha Rani procession in the parking lot until 1 a.m.
Temple president, Pankaj Adval thanked the entire Krishna Parivar for their help and support to make this event very successful and memorable one. Special thanks were given to Gurneek Singh, Sunny Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jyoti Singh and Pankaj Sharda for arranging Maha Prasadam for more than 500 devotees.
