Week 20 - Returning to Holi

Today's newsletter, as well as Thursday's entry, are coming a day late due to technical difficulties --- the entry was stuck in The Archive's system and remained in limbo for a day.

This week, the audio and the video release swapped places. I guess we were so enthusiastic over the video! This week's video is the first (of five) in the Holi-series, featuring a splendid festival of colors from Shyamasundar Mandir, Radha-kunda, from our footage from spring 2005.

Kartta Sri Krishna Das Babaji's Tirobhava-festival

Kartta Sri Krishna Das Babaji was a great leader among the Gaudiya Vaishnavas of Vraja in his era. With his great austerity, the ascetics of Radha-kunda were given the right to bathe in the sacred pond again. Towards the end of his life, Kartta Baba, then a renowned siddha-mahatma, settled at Nuton Ghera, Radha-kunda, where his memorial festival is annually celebrated.

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Total running time: 48:00 min

Recorded: Jan 11th 2006

Location: Radha-kunda: Nuton Ghera

Holi at Shyamasundar Mandir

Holi, the wonderful festival of colors, is celebrated in the village of Radha-kunda for several weeks, with the devotees going from one temple to the next, singing songs of Radha and Krishna enrapt in the joys of the festival. As the songs reach their pinnacles, color-powder flies in all directions, covering the atmosphere in multi-colored clouds! This entry also contains the suchaka-song of Rasikananda Prabhu and a parikrama-procession visiting different temples of the village.

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Total running time: 37:36 min

Recorded: Feb 28th 2005

Location: Radha-kunda: Shyamasundar Mandir