A very extraordinary Nrsimha Caturdasi

Despite the Corona crisis and lock-down, the devotees in Simhachalam/Germany celebrated a very extraordinary Nrsimha Caturdasi festival this year. It almost appeared to be the Lord's personal and special arrangement in reciprocation to fulfill the desires of His faithful servants! It may have very well been the only true festival on this occasion this year in ISKCON world-wide...!

The temple was officially closed. Nevertheless, around 60 community members assembled for three full days (instead of the usual 400 to 600 visitors!), serving the Lord in intense devotion by making all kinds of beautiful arrangements and offerings - all for His pleasure: several beautiful new outfits, and a sandesh outfit made from colored sandesh and burfi, the traditional forest outfit, several fire yajnas, an elaborate maha-abhisheka, wonderful katha and ecstatic kirtans, a drama played by the children - all concluding with a pushpa abhisheka and the jubilant swing festival for Laxmi-Nrsimhadev and Prahlada on the last day, accompanied by wonderful kirtans.

The very highlight was the fact, that HH Sacinandana Maharaja came to attend the event - despite the lock-down! His participation was kept as a secret until the very last moment in order to avoid big crowds of devotees being drawn to Simhachalam, which may have gotten the local devotees into trouble.

Our temple president Gour Mohan Das closely cooperated with the local mayor, who gave us certain security parameters to follow, and furthermore fully supported and blessed the event.

Due to the festivities being celebrated in a small circle, the mood was very sweet and intimate, and we all derived great bliss and satisfaction at heart to have Maharaja's close association in kirtan and hearing his deep and wonderful katha. Other speakers and kirtaneers were further included through internet and live-stream, and many devotees around the world witnessed the festivities through internet.

I involved myself in helping to decorate the temple room. We arranged for white, round paper lanterns of various sizes and gave them a silver, golden and bronze touch with spray cans of color. And we hung them from the ceiling in various heights. We also collected heaps of pine cones in the surrounding forests, gave them also a bright, colorful touch and tied them up on strings - just like the mango leaves are strung up in India for festive decorations - to hang them across the temple room. Since the temple room has dark wooden walls and ceiling, it really needs bits of color to lighten it up. And the whole arrangement looked indeed nice and festive!
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The maha-abhisheka was a true feast for the eyes and heart! I simply marveled at all the wonderful offerings and arrangements, which the Lord so patiently endured, just to give us an opportunity to express our love and devotion. The "banana pack" is a special part of it, where His body is covered with whole bananas! Another spectacular part is the "turmeric bath", when His body is covered in tumeric powder, and He wears a garland made from bright yellow lemons. A splendid color combination!

Another blissful service was to help with the sandesh outfit. For the first time I had the opportunity to go on the altar and participate in this highly transcendental seva. We were six or seven devotees, all working rather spontaneously on all parts of Lord Nrsimhadeva's body, with a senior and experienced mataji coordinating our efforts and ideas.

All those parts in the photo which are light brown, are the Lord's skin and made with burfi, and the rest is colored sandesh. I made Nrsimhadeva's dark pink dhoti with the blue/yellow flowers, and I was asked to do all the fine details in the Lord's and Prahlada's face: the tilak, eye brows, whiskers, mouth, the mane on His chin, etc. Sometimes I had to take the help of a little wooden toothpick-like stick, hoping that it wouldn't tickle Him unpleasantly around the jaws. And He patiently tolerated our clumsy offerings of devotion....
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In previous years, my main service was to connect with devotees and visiting guests, and to be at my book table and preach. Although this also gave me great joy and satisfaction, nevertheless, sometimes I was missing parts of the program and was not so deeply absorbing myself in the kirtans. This year there was no need for a book table, since we were such a small crowd. And I had the opportunity to absorb myself more deeply by attending the kirtans and witnessing the abhisheka fully. In fact, I experienced the entire festival more on internal levels, in deeper introspection and prayerful mood. And it was simply wonderful to have Maharaja all for ourselves - in a small circle of devotees - something rarely to be found these days! The thought came to my mind, that it was also a nice change to only have one Maharaja visiting, rather than several. It further added a unique intimacy....

The entire event was a very unique and extraordinary Nrsimha Caturdasi festival - on all levels....!

Your servant, Devaki dd