Jay Sri Radhey Krishna….

I still remember the last year’s exuberant pious night of  ‘Janmashtami’, the holy day for the hindus which is marked as the birthday of Lord Sri Krishna.
yesterday, friday 10th august 2012, was the same auspicious day and i had planned to visit the ISKCON temple Ghaziabad at night, with my brother.
evening 5pm, we shifted the program as his friend Raghav, who is a skilled Tabla Player, had already planned the night with his performance on religious songs in a jagran  with other professional singers and musicians, at the old Sri Krishna temple at karkardooma,Delhi.
We all met at the Karkardooma metro station, crowd was in a hurry, as if something interesting was scheduled for the later today 🙂
we hired a Rikshaw, it was already 7pm and program was to commence at 7:30

as soon as we left the highway and mounted the suburb streets of the town, we found the whole locality with similar buildings and countless alleys! the streets were all lightened up with small chinese bulbs and colourful decorative items,.the feel was captivating and nothing less than that pictured in the bollywood movies…..people were  coming out of their respective house with small kids dressed as Radha and Krishna, most of the residents had decorated the front of their house along with lights,tableaus & a small decorated wooden structure (paalki) housing the beautiful idol of Lord Sri Krishna. They offered the ‘Prasad’ to each n every person passing by their house; no matter how rich or poor……….,sound of  ‘Hare RAMA Hare KRISHNA’  along with the blowing of Conch shells had already started to reverberate and pump us  with the joy .
It was quite difficult for the Rickshaw puller to navigate through the  streets densely packed with the crowd.
as soon as we entered the street containig that Old Krishna temple, the Rickshaw was immobile as the Devotees thronged the whole street packed tight , queued to enter the temple premises and grab a seat on the floor if they were lucky enough, coz the celebrations peak at midnight when Lord Sri Krishna was said to have been born 🙂

Sailing through the crowd ,we entered the temple, our seat was already reserved next to the performers. Ragahav along with my Brother Sudeep,took the front with his tabla facing the devotees who were already going impatient to witness the  mesmerizing program which was about to commence.
the whole indoor space of the temple was decorated beautifully and it was very difficult to take my eyes off the glowing statues of Lord Krisha and other Gods.
singing started, the vocalist had an outstanding voice and he started to sing all those beautiful songs praising and telling the stories of Lord Krishna, which we all were aware of since our childhood.
background singers,Harmonium, tabla,synthesizer, dholak, manjeera, hundreds of hands clapping and enchanting the songs….they all were producing such a melody which enthralled and forced each and every being to get lost into the glory of Sri Krishna and the whole ambiance got painted with the magical colors of Sri Krishna.women couldn’t resist and they all started to dance on those religious hymns.
devotees were showering  flowers and money and as the time was nearing the midnight…the tempo and excitement was on the top. I really cant describe  the whole Scenario as i said, we all were lost. you can yourself assess it by the fact that when i woke up in the morning , found my palms darkened because i clapped continuously for 5 hrs, and still i did’t remember it! Such is the Magic of Krishna 🙂
minutes before the midnight, prayers and ‘Aarti’ started. the chief of the Priests enchanted the holy prayers and we all stood happily with our folded hands, waiting for the moment .
Midnight………..and the whole town reverberated with the name of Krishna…’jay sri krisna’, the moment was truly magical and cant be described in the words.
huge clappings,shooting of confetties, foam sprays, anointing the Lord with flowers….heaven was on earth.
i stood spellbound with my folded hands, eyes closed,paid obeisance, prayed for my family and then wished happiness for everone. All those happy devotees including us, were given the prasad along with the one favourite to lord Sri Krishna i.e ‘Butter’ 🙂

we reached back home at 3am in the morning.
it was a beautiful experience for me and i thanked Raghav and my brother to make this day an unforgettable one.