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Krishna Das
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posted by Daniel on March 24th, 2010
Here's a glimpse of Mayapur, the tiny village in West Bengal, India, that swells to 20 times its size annually when tens of thousands of Vaishnav pilgrims arrive for Gaura Purnima festival. This is the festival celebrating the 'appearance of the golden one,' the birthday of Chaitanya, the sixteenth-century Bhakti saint who launched what today is the modern Haré Krishna sankirtan movement.
Internationally renowned Loknath Swami is leading this kirtan, surrounded by a large crew of drums, cymbols, gongs, clappers and enthusiastic singers. You'll see mostly men, since that's the half of the room that I was in, but the ladies' side of the room was also up and dancing wildly. Check out the little Radha Krishna statues that get passed from one dancer's head to another, as the dancers spin and glorify the deities!
The sound quality isn't great on my little camera, but hopefully this video gives a sense of the spirit of the place! Cut to the last minute of the video if you want to see really wild dancing :) Dancers in the front, dancers in the back, singers in the middle, prayers on the sides, clear jubilant bhakti bhav everywhere! I've never experienced anything like this place, Mayapur. It's like every brick of every building is singing "Radha," every leaf of every tree is whispering "Krishna," and the stars rush into the sky as dusk falls cause they want to be there when the evening kirtan begins...
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