T he beginning of the New Year was indeed a blessed one, starting from 31st night, devotees took to different platforms in glorifying the names of the Lord. In Mayapur we had the opportunity of participating in all night Kirtan. Several devotee chanters took turns in glorifying the names of the Lord immensely, while others dance out there soul enthusiastically and others were completely absorbed in the names of the Lord, calmly and silently offering their heartfelt prayers for the New Year at the Lotus feet of the Lord.
At exactly 11: 45pm the whole temple room was filled with the uproarious sounds coming out from all corners of the temple room, sweetly proclaiming the names of the Lord “Gaaaaaauuuuuuranga!!! Niiiiiiiiitainanda!!! Gaaaaaauuuuuuranga!!! Niiiiiiiiitainanda!!! Gaaaaaauuuuuuranga!!! Niiiiiiiiitainanda!!! Gaaaaaauuuuuuranga!!! Niiiiiiiiitainanda!!! Gaaaaaauuuuuuranga!!! Niiiiiiiiitainanda!!! Gaaaaaauuuuuuranga!!! Niiiiiiiiitainanda!!!”
“Well, our every day is a New Year. Nava-navayauvana. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice, the more you advance, you see new year, new year. That’s all. Nothing is old. People are seeing that they are simply chanting the old slogan, Hare Kṛṣṇa. But we are feeling new pleasure in every moment. Take any other chanting, you cannot chant more than few hours. But the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra we can chant perpetually.
So, unless there is new enlightenment, how we can do that?”
(Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk, Los Angeles, January 3, 1974)
With this, devotees graced in the New Year 2021 in the mode and spirit of the holy name.
1st of January 2021 came in calmly as devotees and visiting guest fully stocked the temple rooms, from Mangal-arati to Darshan-arati, the temple rooms were totally occupied. Squeezing and rushing down to take the glorious darshan of the Lord to start the Year was the order of the day.
The Year began with Viswa Shanti Yajna for humanity, and the names of donors were specially recited in Sankalpa. Our pujari read out the long list of more than 300 names during yajna and they were all submitted at the lotus feet of Sri Narasimhadeva.
Krishna is famous as ‘go-brhamana hitaya ca’ – gives pleasure to cows and brahmanas. After the yajna, Vaishnava seva took place and feeding our dear Sri Sri Radha-Madhava’s cows at Goshala. In the evening, Ganga puja and Ganga Arthi – In this way, all the sevas was offered in the most spirited manner invoking the mercy of the Lord for the Year.
Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur quote on New Year: “O New Year, all glories to you! Pay special attention to the development of Sri Mayapur Dham. Publish all devotional literature. Satisfy the people of the world by distributing the Lord’s holy names. Guide the living entities in such a way that they take to chanting of the holy names of the Lord while cultivating pure devotional service.”
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