3 days ago
City celebrates ‘Krishnashtami' with devotional fervour
Visakhapatnam: The city soaked in festive spirit as Krishna temples celebrated Sri Krishna Janmashtami organising various events for close to three days consecutively in Visakhapatnam.
ISKCON celebrated Sri Krishna Janmashtami with great pomp at the ISKCON temple in Sagar Nagar, Visakhapatnam. As part of the second day of the festivities, mangala aarti, chanting of Harinama, Annamayya kirtans, maha abhishekam with water collected from holy rivers, among other activities, were held.
Nitai Seveni Mataji and president of ISKCON Samba Das Prabhu preached Krishna Leela. The idols of Sri Radha, Damodar were decorated with silken robes sourced from Vrindavan and fresh flowers from different parts of the country.
The premises witnessed a beehive of activity as thousands of devotees from the people of Visakhapatnam and surrounding areas visited. Traffic congestion was seen at Sagarnagar as many visited the temple.
A special Harinama mandapam was set up so that the ardent devotees chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra 108 times before the darshan. Utlotsavam organised in the evening saw participation of thousands of children. Dance competitions and other contests engaged them. Adding to the spiritual fervour, the Hare Krishna Movement in Visakhapatnam celebrated Sri Krishna Janmashtami at Gadiraju Palace.
Following an elaborate abhishekam that commenced at 6 am on Saturday, Sri Bala Gopala and Sri Radha Madan Mohan deities were decked up impressively on the occasion. Organised under the leadership of Niskinchana Bhakta Dasa, president of Hare Krishna Movement, Visakhapatnam, the event saw a number of activities.
He explained the spiritual significance of Sri Krishna Janmashtami.
Here, devotees took part in performing abhishekam to the idols. Thousands of devotees availed the darshan and participated in Julan Seva.
Cultural programmes were organised on the occasion. Artistes from Sri Dwaram Thyagaraja Group, Chaitanya Brothers, students from Vidyadhari Music School performed programmes. Utti Mahotsavam, selfie with Krishna, sport the differences, Krishna quiz were the other programmes that entertained the audience. On Sunday, the movement is organising 'Vyasa puja' and 'Nandotsavam'.
At One Town Area, the festival celebration reached a crescendo as Arya Vysya Yuvajana Sangham organised programmes on the occasion. Pendurthi MLA and JSP Visakhapatnam rural president Panchakarla Ramesh witnessed various festival activities by visiting temples in the constituency.
At Abhayanjaneya temple in the 39th ward, 'annadanam' was served to the devotees. Visakhapatnam south constituency MLA Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav took part in the programme. The MLA highlighted that annually, Krishnashtami is celebrated with fervour in Visakhapatnam. 'Such festivals hold great significance in Hindu traditions and unites people of all sections,' he underlined.
As schools declared holiday for the occasion, some of the educational institutions celebrated the day in advance.
Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar celebrated the festival with devotional fervour. Bhajans, dance performances, pot-breaking activity, among others, were organised on the occasion. Students, dressed as Radha and Krishna, took part in various devotional programmes organised on the campus.
At Vignan's Institute of Information Technology, the festival was celebrated in a grand manner. The importance of Lord Krishna's birth was explained to the students. Institute's Rector V Madhusudan Rao, Principal J Sudhakar, and students took part in the pot-breaking exercise. The Principal and Rector exhorted the students to draw inspiration from the verses of Bhagavad Gita and tread a righteous path.
As part of the festivities, SR Digi School students took part in various programmes. Dressed in thematic attire, students celebrated 'Krishnastami' with fervour. Headmistress Y Padmaja, and other teachers took part in the festival programmes.
The campus of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Public School transformed into a 'little Vrundavan' as it celebrated Krishnashtami on August 14th.
Dressed up as Radha and Krishna along with other characters, students of kindergarten joined the celebrations which included cradling of Krishna, playing of flute, singing devotional songs, pot-breaking activity and arranging the campus with butter pots and other related festive decors that largely focused on yellow as the colour theme.
