By Uddhava Bandhu Das
The yearly boat festival in Vrindavan, part of the Gaura Purnima celebrations, is most popular amongst the devotees. The sunken courtyard of Krishna Balaram Mandir is flooded and becomes a beautiful kund where small Radha Shyamasundara are taken on gentle ride on Their swan boat. They glide to every corner of the lake to the sounds of resounding kirtan to see all Their devotees and admirers.
The surface of the temple lake is completely covered by flower petals by artisans in a beautiful flower rangoli design that mysteriously stay in place. This year’s design includes a huge lotus motif in rose petals with the ISKCON lotus-tilak symbol done in golden flower petals bordered by real floating open pink lotuses.
Seven-hundred kilos of flower petals were used to decorate the temple room and used by devotees to rain down on their Lordships that created a festival for the eyes. In total, over one-hundred thousand individual flowers were used for the festival decorations, taking sixty devotees about thirty-six straight hours.
The Vrindavan boat festival originally started in 1979, but we learn from long-time resident Daivi shakti Mataji that interestingly, the temple was purpose-built by Surabhi Prabhu to be flooded for a boat festival from its inception.
In the early days of the festival, devotees would perform dramas and place bhoga on the different banks of the temple lake. The Deities would then stop in Their boat to view the dramas and accept the devotees offerings.
Good article except for some wrong historical facts. I organized the first boat festival in KB mandir in 1985 to coincide with Ramanavami, the 10th anniversary of the opening of the temple. At that time I also installed the small Krishna Balarama deities. This can be confirmed with Gopal Krsna maharaja who was the GBC at the time.
Every day when cleaning the temple some leaves or other things used to block up the drain in the center courtyard. So I got the idea that this drain could be blocked on purpose and the courtyard flooded for a boat festival. At that time we took the new little deities of Krishna Balaramam, newly installed on a small makeshift boat and I went also up on the roof and showered down roman candle fireworks. I was a pujari in 1979 and it definitely did not happen then. Neither have I ever heard the story that Surabhi thought of this application when building the sunken courtyard. If this were so then Gopal Krsna maharaja’s question to me when I proposed the festival as to whether it were bonafide would not have been an issue. Also Surabhi would have made a proper wall around the Tamala tree in the middle to protect it during the times of flooding. Originally there was no provision for that.
After the ceremony I remember that Narottamananda who was selling his incense in the lobby of the guesthouse remarked to me that he had had this idea. To which in disbelief I replied “Maybe, but I actually did it.” Many people want to take credit for this and it has surely become a very wonderful festival much grander than when it started due to the efforts of so many nice devotees. Later that year I inaugurated the Swan Boat festival at New Vrindavan also. These are two examples of some innovative deity festivals that I introduced in ISKCON.
dasan
Gaura Keshava das
By the way this festival has nothing to do with Gaura Purnima. It has to do with Ramanavami the anniversary of the temple opening.