Today's Darshan

Lords of Wicklow

Kartik Darshan
Lords of County Wicklow, today.

Kartik Darshan
Lords of County Wicklow, today.

Lake Isle Weekend
Some images of Govardhana Puja on Inis Rath Island, Derrylin, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland last Weekend. Our Giriraja was centre-stage.

Lord Giriraja on holiday.

Annakuta Mahotsava.

A moderate Govardhana Hill of prasadam.

Damodara at home

Small Radha Govinda

Radha Govinda

Breakfast at Salagram's

Forest of Salagram

Giriraj

Lord Matsya

Lord Sudarshan

Lord Varaha

Spring Salagram

The Family

Tulasi Forest Salagram

What's New in County Wicklow?
There's a lot going on in our neck of the woods in sunny Ireland these days. Dhira and I have been slowly but surely settling in.
We've had speaking engagements at the Dublin Hare Krishna Temple, have been entertaining guests, cooking, planting flowers, wood-chopping, walking, and tending to our home Puja, amongst many other things.

Up close with the ever-smiling Lords of Ballinaskea, Ireland

Lord Siva, Sukadeva Gosvami, Devarsi Narada, and all the jnanis and great munis, headed by Lord Brahma, are circumambulating you.
O mother! O Maharani, Candrasekhara thus sings your glories. Please bestow upon him the gift of pure devotion

Summer blooms from the woods adorn our altar. The forests are full of white, pink and red fuscia, the pretty dangling red blooms pictured here.
 
 
 
 
 

DhiraLalita mataji & Kurma prabhu in China en route to Europe with Thakurs

Lords of the New Territories
Today's 15th Floor Darshan in the mountains near Hong Kong.

Left to right: Lords Kurma, Varahadeva, Giriraja, Sudarshan, Matsya.

Seems like there are always nice flowers nearby on our traveling puja roadshow.

Giriraja, Lord of the Mountain, adorned with wild flowers from the forest nearby.
 

The Family.- New Gods on the Block

Lord Kurmadeva and Lord Varahadeva

Lord Giriraja.

Lord Sudarshan and Lord Matsyadeva.

Krishna has blessed us with a profusion of home-grown flowers at the moment - multi-coloured sweetpeas, nasturtiums, regular jasmine and chinese star jasmine,
along with red roses and gardenias, pansies, marigolds, orange blossom and sweet violets - to name but a few. Here is a glimpse of today's altar decoration, by Dhira Lalita.

"O Lord, the cheeks of Your blackish lotus face, which is encircled by locks of curling hair, have become reddened like bimba fruits due to Mother Yasoda’s kisses.
What more can I describe than this? Millions of opulences are of no use to me, but may this vision constantly remain in my mind."

"O unlimited Vishnu! O master! O Lord! Be pleased upon me! I am drowning in an ocean of sorrow and am almost like a dead man.
Please shower the rain of mercy on me; uplift me and protect me with Your nectarean vision."

"O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You for liberation, nor eternal life in Vaikuntha, nor any other boon.
My only prayer is that Your childhood pastimes may constantly appear in my mind. O Lord, I do not even want to know your feature of Paramatma.
I simply wish that Your childhood pastimes may ever be enacted in my heart."

"O Lord Damodara, in Your form as a baby Mother Yasoda bound You to a grinding stone with a rope for tying cows.
You then freed the sons of Kuvera, Manigriva and Nalakuvara, who were cursed to stand as trees and You gave them the chance to become Your devotees.
Please bless me in this same way. I have no desire for liberation into Your effulgence."
 

Spring has brought wonderful flowers and vegetables to our tiny Sydney patio forest.

Today's altar and afternoon offering photos show 10 varieties of home-grown flowers, including 4 types of sweetpeas, jasmine, nasturtiums, marigolds, violets, lavender, jonquils, and geraniums. Bliss!

Morning Breakfast Offering

I don't often cook our daily offering to Krishna in the early morning, but since we had an early appointment yesterday, Dhira and I decided to perform the puja and cooking as the sun rose.

It brought back very sweet memories of my pujari days in Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir, and especially the wonderful days of worshiping the resident Salagram Silas there. I always wished to have that opportunity again, and Krishna has more than fulfilled my desires. I even get to tend our 6 magnificent tulasi plants daily, When we make one step towards Krishna He makes ten steps towards us - with open arms.

I prepared lemon and sultana semolina halava, pan-fried tomatoes, grilled haloumi and zucchini, roasted red peppers, a nice tasty potato curry with fresh chilies, coriander and African Berbere masala, herbed unleavened Australian bush-bread (damper) with swiss cheese, along with strawberries, cashews and mandarins, and handfuls of fresh radish leaves and Lebanese cress from the garden. It all tasted as it should - like Krishna had personally touched it with his lotus lips.

Raja Bhoga offering today, Mahadvadasi

Here's today's darsan and bhoga offering: cheesey quinoa burgers with homemade tomato sauce scented with fresh marjoram; oven roasted french-fries coated with berbere spice masala; butternut and carrot soup with rosemary, black pepper and sour cream; freshly picked garden herbs - lebanese cress, mizuna, vietnamese mint, continental parsley, baby kale, baby bok-choy, rocket and choy sum.
 

26th April 2014

The Lord of Sweetness

Today's Dvadasi darsan of our home Salagrams. The intoxicating aromas of sweetpeas, gardenias, frangipanis, Srimati Tulasi-devi and the first jonquils of the season, mixed with Krishna's bodily aroma of sandal, saffron and heena fills our mini temple with fragrance. Thank you my dear Dhira Lalita for making it all happen.

venur madhuro renur madhurah
panir madhurah padau madhurau
nrityam madhuram shakhyam madhuram
madhur-adipater akhilam madhuram

His flute-playing is sweet, His foot-dust is sweet,
His hands are sweet, His feet are sweet,
His dancing is sweet, His friendship is sweet,
Everything is completely sweet about the Lord of Sweetness.

(from 'The Sweetness of Lord Sri Krishna' by Sripad Vallabha-acharya )

Their Lordships are looking resplendent on their new asanas with some of Their new paraphernalia.
We are indebted to Srimati Acintya Rupa devi dasi for all her austerities in kindly agreeing to purchase the needful during her recent visit to India. Thank you!
 

Images from this Morning's Puja

 Summer in Sydney means lots of beautiful flowers to offer to the Lord of the Universe.

 Our Salagram Silas (from left to right) are Sri Laxmi Nrisimhadeva, Sri Matsya Nrisimhadeva, and Sri Varahadeva.

Altar Full Overview

"I'm thankful to Bhakti Caitanya Swami, who kindly gave me my first sila, Sri Matya. I'm also grateful to Radha Govinda Swami, who sent me Sri Varaha and Sri Nrsimhadev, as well as the two Gomatis. I would also like to acknowledge Gandharva Devi-Dasi, who mercifully took the photographs.

I'm happy to correspond with anyone regarding aspects of worship via my email <dhiralalita108@yahoo.com>"

Lord Matsya

Lord Matsya

Lord Varaha

Lord Varaha with a diamond in His mouth

Sri Nrsimhadev
 
 
 
 

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