Radhastami

Yesterday we celebrated the holy appearance day of Srimati Radharani- the topmost Goddess and Lord Krsna's most beloved. Usually this day is a fasting until noon day with a morning class about Radharani, abhiseka- bathing of her divine deity form, arati-puja and kirtan and big feast. Since the festival days go by lunar calendar it fell on a Sunday yesterday so rather than have 2 festivals it was combined with the weekly Sunday Love Feast so there were many many people who came and got the blessings of Radharani. This is the one day out of the year her lotus feet are shown for everyone to see and take shelter of her sweet loving compassion. In the morning we tuned into Alachua's morning program live which was really nice- HG Deena Bandhu was giving class. There are so many loving pastimes with Radha, her dearmost friends and Krsna. He tells the stories in such and exciting fun way. They had some nice long bhajans during the abhiseka. Since there are so many devotees there it was going on for quite some time. Simutaniously we bathed and dressed our deities we have at our home. Lakshmi is my enthusiastic assistant.

Each major festival day the devotees sew a new outfit for the deities. Here is the pink new one with new jewelery too. The flowers match nicely- pink is the color of love- and Radharani is sweet loving compassion personified. Her right hand is up giving loving benedictions. I feel so fortunate to come in touch with some of her unlimited glories.


Above photo is from http://www.vrindavandarshan.com
Please see http://www.mayapur.com/main/?q=node/897 to go to Radhastami in Mayapur and to hear classes.

RADHARANI KI JAYA MAHARANI KI JAYA VRNDAVENESWARI KI JAYA JAYA JAYA!

Vrndavan and Lakshmi had the first day of school. Here Lakshmi crosses over the rainbow bridge to receive a rose greeted by her 1st grade teacher. A better photo was in the newspaper. Very sweet ceremony. They love being in the school. Although I had such a wonderful time homeschooling and am so grateful I a had the opportunity to teach them reading and writing amongst many other things, I am relieved that they are onto many more magical adventures.

We made it to the ocean again for 2 beautiful days. The ocean water cleared up the cold/allergies Vrndavan & husband were developing. Very purifying the ocean water felt. Most of the time we were all in the water. This week we started our new season at the ballet school. I love dancing with the children :)