My long pujo weekend- though drawing to an end now- was made wholly worthy by a visit to Sri Mayapur Dham! Got up in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, and after some 5 hours and 150 kms of road-journey, reached the sprawling campus of the ISKCON headquarters quite in time for the noon's "Bhog Aarti" at the main temple of Sri Radha-Madhava. The beautifully, intricately adorned Radha in pure-white marble, Krishna in stark-black marble, along with the Ashta-Sakhis, and the whole aura of the temple hall-and-floor blooms to full ecstatic life with these soul-wrenching hare-krishna/hari-bol kirtans. Also, the truly enchanting hari-naam chants at the bhajan-kutir, carried out non-stop day in-and-out by small choral groups taking their turns in shifts, is another experience that really touches you and lingers on with you.
The Mayapur campus boasts of modern amenities- phone-booths to cyber-cafes, currency exchange centers, ATMs, health-care, food-stalls, guest-houses etc. Cars are not allowed beyond the main entrance to the ISKCON premises. The only drawback of the place is the scorching heat at the temple courtyard- trees and shades around the temple premises are relatively few, and you burn your feet for sometime once you have bared them outside the temple premises. A wonderful respite from the relentless heat comes during the somewhat long and tranquil walk to the Goshaala- this is a typical narrow village road, surrounded by untouched nature- with ample trees and lakes on both sides. Occasionally you pass across ashrams/dharmashalas/cottages/schools run by ISKCON. The Goshaala is home for scores of cows/bulls, where each one is assigned a carefully chosen Hindu mythological name- Savitri, Sati, Laxmi,...- a very well-fed, hefty bull is aptly named Bheem :-)- and they supposedly respond to their names! The day ended well with a much-needed generous shower pouring in finally- cooling the earth, albeit dampening the Nabami spirit of many a pandal-goer! All in all, a wonderful experience!- Mayapur is one place i wish to visit every year!