The annual festival of Krishna Janamasthami that marks the birthday of Lord Krishna who is believed to be the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu was celebrated at the Shri Radha Krishna Mandir, Northborough, MA on Friday, Aug 23, 2019 by hundreds of devotees with great devotion and happiness with children, friends, and families. Devotees came from far and wide to visit the Lord. Temple shrine was decorated with colorful lights and flowers and special programs were also organized on this occasion.

In the morning, the main Janamasthami program started with the Jhula (Swing) Stapan, Krishna Puja and Archan by Pt. Jagadeesh Ji. In the evening, a special program called breaking of Dahi Handi filled with candies by the young children with naughty Krishna’s spirit was organized which was enjoyed by the kids of the all ages. The ritual of Dahi Handi is also a popular celebration of the festival. In the temple hall, around 75 kids from 6 months to 8years participated in Radha Krishna dress show. Children dressed up as Lord Krishna and Radha Rani took part in this event. Braj Veer Singh and Ravindra Kumar Saxena from India were the chief guests for this event and distributed gifts to all the kids.

Havan performance was started after the sponsor’s Sankalpam and Ganesh pujan by Pt. Jagadeesh Ji in the midst of chanting of powerful Vedic mantras. A few special Krishna Leela Dances were performed by Jayanti Gataraj and her student Anaya. Krishna storytelling and recitation of Krishna Mantras by kids was conducted by Maha Vishnu. He actively involved children in the story narration and Q &A session between Radha and Krishna teams. Beautiful bhajans were sung by the devotees created soothing devotional vibrations in the shrine. After Baby Krishna’s special Abhishekam and Alakaram was placed in the Jhula for the devotees to rock him. Midnight Arati was performed by all devotees and celebrated the Lord Krishna’s birthday by chanting, “Jai Krishna Kenney Ki and Jai Murali Manohar Ki.” More than 150 Home-made food items by the Krishna Parivar devotees were included in the nevedyam.

Temple served Maha Prasadam to all the devotees and children. All devotees were blessed by the priest with fruits, flowers, and other goodies. Devotees enjoyed a lot and danced with full swing after Krishna Janma during Lord Krishna and Radha Rani Procession in the parking lot until 1:00am.

Temple president, Pankaj Adval Ji thanked the entire Krishna Parivar for their help and support to make this event very successful and memorable one. Special thanks were given to Gurneek Singh, Sunny Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jyoti Singh and Pankaj Sharda for arranging Maha Prasadam for more than 500 devotees. He also thanked Sanjay & Sweta Panwar, Rajesh & Shivani Chauhan, Parimal & Vipul Batra, Pushkar & Monalisa Sinha, Vasu, Ramesh, Arvind, Ashok, Swarna, Maha Vishnu, Yogesh Mishra, and Dr. Sunil Sareen. He thanked the temple priest and the volunteers namely Garima, Mishtu, Anusha, Anaya Arvind, Srinithi Ramesh, Smrithi Krishnaswamy, Vandana Premkumar, Meenakshi Sankaran, Sahnavi Rao Palimar, and Shreya Gattu for their selfless services.

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