20230922 Śrī Rādhāṣṭamī Adhivāsa Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I will speak in English, afterwards Bengali. This is the adhivāsa ceremony. And everyone is requested to participate. Adhivāsa is observed the day before the actual festival. When the festival is very important there is an adhivāsa ceremony. Many articles, 27 or so, are offered to the Deity before. Each of the articles is offered to the Deities, to tulasī, earth and various items are offered before the adhivāsa ceremony. So these are all meant for everyone to offer everything to the Deities. So we should, in this adhivāsa ceremony, also offer ourselves. Śrīla Prabhupāda would have us at the end of the adhivāsa ceremony our devotion and our service to the Deities. Now, we are all meant to offer devotional service to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Since this Navadvīpa-dhāma was created by Rādhārāṇī, Kṛṣṇa was very grateful that She made this dhāma for His pleasure. And He said, that this dhāma is non-different from Vṛndāvana. Those who render devotional service here will get the same benefit by rendering in Vṛndāvana. And here the Deities, They come forward to accept your offerings. So this is a very great opportunity to offer our love and devotion. So we are very grateful that many devotees are participating in the adhivāsa. We usually have the presence of our Jananivāsa Prabhu, so we will have his presence very soon. And we would like to thank everyone for participating in this adhivāsa ceremony.

We are very happy that all of you are present. Jaya Śrī Rādhe!