By Hari Narayana das
“In the village of Panihati, Raghunatha dasa obtained an interview with Nityananda Prabhu, who was accompanied by many kirtana performers, servants and others.” CC Antya lila, 6.43.
When the devotee meets his Lord there will be love exchange that could melt even the hardest rock. This was seen when Raghunatha dasa met Lord Nityananda Prabhu on the bank of the Ganges at Panihati. Lord Nityananda was by nature very merciful and instructed Raghunatha dasa to make a festival and feed all of His associates yogurt and chipped rice. By the blessings of Sri Niyananda Prabhu, Raghunatha das ultimately received the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The essence being that one readily becomes eligible to receive the highest benediction from the Supreme Lord, attaining love of God, simply by serving the devotees. Eager to reenact the pastimes of Panihati, the devotees of Indonesia, under the guidance of HH Subhag Swami, organized the Panihati Cida Dahi festival on 19 June, 2016 at Merta Sari beach, Sanur, Bali. This has now become an annual festival where devotees from different parts of Indonesia gather together, along with their deities of Gaura Nitai, to take part in the festivities. This year the festival committee was led by devotees from Radha Madhava Temple, Gianyar.
“These public festivals have proven very effective in spreading knowledge about Krsna consciousness to all the citizens.” SPL to Galim dasa, November 20th, 1971.
“….this unique procession has convinced them that our men are very nice and they can organize a great crowd without any violence. That is a fact if people actually want peace and tranquility, they must support this movement whole heartedly and we shall execute our prescribed duties very seriously and sincerely.” SPL to Madhudvisa, 14th April, 1970
Organizing such great festival was not easy because it needed great effort to make it successful. The committee of the festival had made preparations since six months back. Formerly they were supposed do the festival in one beach in Gianyar but seeing that they were unable to procure the permission from the local authority then they decided to have the festival at Mertasari Beach again where the devotees had a very successful cida dahi festival last year. A week before the festival the committee felt doubt to celebrate it because the funds they had was far less than that what was estimated for the festival. Adiprana prabhu took initiative to help the committee to organize the festival. When the devotees begin to depend completely upon the causeless mercy of the Lord, becoming humble and offering heartfelt prayers then the Lord bestows His unlimited blessings making impossible into possible, making the devotees’ faith in Him more firm and the exchange of feelings more relishable.
H.H. Subahag swami maharaj personally came to participate in the festival just after the temple opening and Ratha Yatra at Medan. Maharaja arrived a week before festival to inject extra energy and encourage devotees to be more enthusiastic in welcoming the festival.
A day before festival, the devotees were busy collecting the necessary items for the festival. They prepared a huge pandal at the Merta Sari Beach. Some devotees went to market to buy vegetable and fruits, and other things that was needed for the festival. In the evening devotees prepared the fruits and cut the vegetable that would be used the next day. The flat rice was sent from Singapore by Kadamba Kanana prabhu. Maharaj was really concerned about the festival and he curiously asked the devotees about the progress of the preparation. Maharaj also went to beach where devotees decorated the pandal and the temporary altar that was prepared to hold all the Gaura Nitai deities who would come the next day from different temples in Bali. On that day Indra deva was so merciful that he poured heavy rain to clean the beach and made the shores of the Mertasari purified to welcome the Lordships.
On the day of the festival, early morning final checkup of the preparation was overseen by Subhag Maharaj himself. At 09.00 am the devotees from all round Bali came carrying their Gaura NItai deities from their respective temples. The deities took Their place on the altar that that was beautifully decorated with flowers. Groups of bhajan from the temples one by one performed bhajan before the abhiseka. The pujari then offered bhoga and arati.
At 12.00 am the deities were put on palanquins and were made ready to be taken to the sea. Devotees gathered in line and carried the deities to the beach to take a bath. The deities entered the waters, followed by the men and children and then ensued a wonderful bathing ceremony and it appeared as if the deities would not want to come of the water. Finally the deities returned to the altar for abhisheka. Pacamrita, juice and panca gavya were prepared to bath the Lord. H.H. Subhag Swami Maharaja performed the abhiseka. A melodious brahma samhita was recited by the devotees while the abhiseka was going on. The bhajan team sung hare Krishna mahamantra along the procession. After abhiseka, Maharaj mixed the cidha before it was offered to the Lord. While the pujari dressed the deities, maharaj gave lecture on Caitanya Caritamrita about the origin of the Chida dahi festival. At the end of the class, maharaj asked the devotees whether they were feeling happy …spontaneously all devotees answered “yes”. Then maharaj further elaborated that Srila Prabhupada made this ISKCON to make people happy. After the offering and arati , the cida dahi mahaprasad was distributed to one and all. Again this was accompanied by ecstatic chanting and harinam. Many visitors to the beach also received mahaprasad. Many books were also distributed.
“We are finding these festivals very successful for attracting the citizens to our activities. More and more these festivals may be held, at least very large festival in a year, simply for glorifying Krsna in public places.” SPL to Bhakta dasa, November 20th, 1971
Devotees in Tolai, Sulawesi also celebrated Cida Dahi festival on the same day as Bali. Tolai is special because the first Cida Dahi Festival in Indonesia was held there and from there it has spread out to many places in Indonesia.
We take the opportunity to express our utmost gratitude to all the wonderful devotees who came forward to help in the most amazing ways. There were the ones who arranged the pandal, the funds, kirtan, prasadam, abhiseka and also those ones who took care to keep the place clean. A warm thank you to all the devotees. Special thanks goes to the team of devotees from Radha Madhava temple, Gianyar. We would also like to thank HH Kavichandra Swami and HH Ramai Swami, GBCs of Indonesia for their continuous support. We also thank HH Subhag Swami for being personally present at the festival and encouraging the devotees to carry on with different aspects of Sankirtan and thus remain close to Srila Prabhupada.
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