1,500-kg edible Govardhan draws thousands to Iskcon

1,500-kg edible Govardhan draws thousands to Iskcon
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Thousands of devotees gathered at the Iskcon temple to perform parikrama around the Govardhan hill made from a 1,500-kg cake, on Wednesday.
Celebrating the auspicious day of Lord Krishna lifting the Govardhan hill to protect the residents of Mathura, traditionally every year a model of the hill is created from rice flour at Mathura. This year, the Govardhan hill at the Iskcon temple was created from the cake, attracting thousands of devotees.
“The huge cake was baked with the help of about 30 devotees at the Iskcon bakery, for the last three days. The cake was offered to Lord Krishna today (Wednesday),’’ Chanchalapathi Das, vice president of the temple, said. The cake was distributed to the devotees and will be distributed to children — under the Akshaya Patra scheme — on Thursday, as ‘prasadam’.
The temple goshala, consisting of 50 cows and calves, was decorated for the event and ‘Go puja’ was conducted in the evening. As part of the grand Diwali celebration, a special ‘aarti’ and ‘Karthika deepa’ were organized by the devotees. This was followed by the Narasimha Homa and Srinivasa Laksharchana. A 24-hour chanting of ‘Hare Rama’ for world peace was also organized at the temple.
“We will be celebrating the Deepotsavam till November 13 with a recital of special songs in the evening. Devotees participating in the evening puja will be given the opportunity of lighting ghee lamps to Lord Krishna during the monthlong celebration,’’ Chanchalapathi Das said.
Decorated with hundreds of lamps, the temple attracted more than 2,000 devotees on Wednesday.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com

Devotees perform parikrama around the Govardhan hill at the Iskcon temple on Wednesday