– By Bhaktin Diyan
Om Sri Surabhyai Namah! Om Sri Gurave Namah!
Chandan Yatra is an annual festival in Bali, Indonesia. The devotees made a very good arrangement for celebrating boat festival, which is generally held inside every temple pond.
From May 17 to 19, 2017, the boat festival took place at Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava Mandir, Siangan Village, Gianyar, Bali. The whole ashram residents had begun making preparations for this a few days ahead of the festival, such as cleaned the pond and painted it very attractively. They , made beautiful decorations, readied several garlands, different varieties of Raj Bhoga for the Lordships, along with various cow products. Since they own a few cows at the Goshala, so there is no dirth of cow dung and the devotees can easily make several types of cow products. The elder devotees trained the younger generation in the art of making the products beginning with the first step until sale ready shape with right kind of packaging . This was accomplished with the help of a solid teamwork for the pleasure of Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava.
At the festival, the Gaurahari Youth members extended enthusiastic support to the event. No anga of devotional service was ignored. Before the festival began, they rendered bhajan in traditional Balinese style, called Geguntangan. Many of the youth participants performed beautiful dances for the pleasure of the Lordships. They also had a special stand for the festival and could do some did successful fundraising by distributing prasadam. This GAURI stand was for selling the cow products as part of OM Sri Surabhi Champaign. A few attending brahmacaris explained the importance of cow protection and cow products while demonstrating the usage of cow products.
We hope and pray that all the devotees who had come, get the mercy of Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava and Mother Surabhi. This should ultimately encourage them to give up their hectic city life in favour of a natural vedic lifestyle in village.
Hare Krishna!
