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Huge Public Attendance at ISKCON Baroda on Janmashtami
By Basu Ghosh Das

A rough estimate of the crowd that lined up to have the holy darshan of Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Sri Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadradevi at Hare Krishna Land, Baroda on Sri Krishna Janmastami day would be well over the 100, 000 figure.

Some persons commented to me that there might even have been an attendance of between 2-3 hundred thousand!

The fact was that there was a queue of eager members of the public at least one kilometer long to enter the temple right from 6:00 PM until midnight, when the usual pandemonium broke loose in the temple when the abhishek of Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar began. (See picture)

Baroda Police Commissioner J. Mahapatra, who is from a family of priests at the famous temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri (his brother is presently one of the priests at Puri), visited Hare Krishna Land and commented that although he had been "making the rounds" of the major temples of Baroda, "this was the only one where there was a crowd. "

Besides some 25 policemen assigned to cover the road area in front of the temple, ISKCON Baroda employed 50 security men especially to help control the Janmastami crowd. Next year that number will have to be increased!

All those who came and had darshan at the temple on Janmastami were given banana and "panjiri" prasad.

The next afternoon, just after Srila Prabhupada's Vyas Puja observance in the temple, a feast was served out to 4, 000 life members and their families. Then in the evening, just after Mayor Bhartiben Vyas inaugurated a "bhajan sandhya" (evening of music) program, full prasad was distributed to all the members of the public who wished to partake. A an estimated 10, 000 plates were served.

ISKCON Baroda can now rightfully claim to be the "most visited" temple in Baroda - and there are of course literally hundreds of temples in this city of almost 20 lakhs (2 million). And that too in the short period of two years since the inauguration of the new Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar on Sri Krishna Janmastami day, 1999.

© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003

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