Atlanta Ratha Yatra and Chipped Rice Panihati Festival!

So my last two blogs were not the most organized, I was in a rush so posted what I could pick out off my brain before more new events came up and clouded over my past experiences.
I just keep having new experience, new stories that keep being developed I'm not having enough time to document it all!

Anyways, this weekend me, Malati, and Govinda went to the Ratha Yatra and Chipped Rice Panihati Festival In Atlanta, Georgia. It was the longest drive so far (12 hour drive) and to make it all fit into a day we left around 5 am in the morning arriving at the Atlanta temple around 12 pm or so though because on the way the van we were driving in broke down. Yup, that's right so when we were 2/3 hours away from Atlanta the engine started smoking we had to pull over and call a tow truck. Though we had to wait 2 hours for the tow truck to come it wasn't so bad because we took some Prashadum, chanted some rounds and what not.


Before I go on with how the weekend went I really feel I should mention Malati and commend her in being one of the most clean and organized people I have ever met. 
She has great attention to detail which has tested my own attention to detail, in well a lot of things lol.
From folding my chudder and the table banner on the correct folds to putting away the utensils in the right container separated correctly. Yes, traveling with Malati is definitely an interesting experience.
But I noticed her strengths are my weakness so I hope in my stay and travels with her here that some of it can rub off.

Anyways, after getting that sorted out we finally made it to the temple at 12 am. We had a very nice room in the (what I found out later) bed and breakfeast portion of the self discovery house right next to the temple. We each had our own bed and a private bathroom, overlooking the festival/stage below. All this while people were sleeping in tents around the buildings below. The plus of traveling with Malati prabhu, as there are other amazing things that i have found to happen while traveling and serving her as well.

We were to exausted to wake up for mongalarti but we did wake up at 6 am, chanted, attended the service in the morning. What beautiful deities! I can understand why Prahbupahda was so emotional when he saw them, especially Gaura Nita, I believe those are the ones he commented on specifically too.
But wow, the Rahda and Krishna are so beautiful, I have never seen a Radarani look so blissful haha : P
Like she was being swept away with love, blissed out so too speak. And I think these are my favorite Gaura Nita deities so far, and the deity of Rahdarani is my favorite from the ones I have seen!
Though the temple room was somewhat smaller than I expected (compared to Dallas and Vrindaban temple rooms) it's still very nice with its marble floors and intimate atmosphere. Every temple has it's own personality and the mood I felt from this one was very sweet, very warm, very loving.

Malati than spoke about her experience with Prahbupada and the beginnings of the first Ratha Yatra festival, she also talked about how Jagannath came to the movement it was awesome to hear these detailed sweet memories of Malati Prabhu's of Prabhupada. Again, glad I recorded it ; )
Jayapataka Swami  was there, So far all I had heard about him was that he was that he had the most diciples out of anyone in the movement ( more than a 1,000) and that he was merciful, loving, kind and that prahbupada said he was a diciple of Lord Chatanya in a past life.
So pretty good things, but meeting and seeing the person is always the best to base on.
He had a lot of devotee's, disciples cheering him on as they rolled him in on a wheel chair. It's amazing he survived the stroke he was said to have and was even able to speak.

After morning service helped set up our table (Malati's table for New Vrindaban) which sales Ghee though the main purpose of the table is too help get more people to come to visit Vrindaban. More was done then the Ratha Yatra started! I ran to catch up (got some footage of the festival i'll try and post) and started walking.

It was so HOT not just hot it was HOT.....And to top it off I wore a plastic thick non breathable sari that day so by the end of the festival that day I pretty much felt like I was going to either die of heat exaustion or turn into a puddle of kim sweat.
Besides the heat this was another lovely Ratha Yatra, these devotee's moved much faster than the last ones and the Kirtan was very ecstatic!

After the Ratha Yatra everyone started spreading out at the temple field for the festival and I saw Jayapataka Swami , one girl that I made friend with (also traveled with malati last year and was a friend with Govinda) told me she got blessing from Jayapataka swami  for her grandfather to become a devotee and sure enough he did at the age of 90 something. wow....So I asked her If I could get blessings and she said of course.
She introduced me too Jayapataka swami  and even though he has trouble speaking (again he had a stroke recently and is now recovering) he spoke to me for a good while. He asked how long I have been in Krishna consiousness, and what do I wish a blessing for, I told him right away to always remain near Krishna. He seemed surprised and gave a big Haribol! Than he asked what I wanted specifically, my mind went blank and so he said "I will pray that you always remain and grow strong in Krishna consciousness "

He than touched my head and gave me a blessing. And I kid you not, for the next two hours I felt a difference in my energy after that. Like I really felt...blessed lol. Such a kind and wonderful soul, just by him doing that and the energy I got from him, I could feel the love and compassion he has for everyone. No wonder he is so loved.

After that there was lunch and helping with the table some more, got to hang out with the lovely Bhaktin Jennifer a bit , talked with some really sweet girls from Florida (all the devotee's I've met from there so far are awesome)

got some really REAlly cheap cholis that were much needed at the shop right next to ours and some gifts for people and temple back home.
Most of the time after Ratha Yatra was spent at the table but when Malati and Govinda went to bed early around 8:30 or so I went to the festival which goes on later in the night, at least when it's back to back.Walked over to the temple room first to see the fire initiaion before it ended, got to catch the last 20 minutes. Was my second time seeing it, so interesting. They threw the rice and bananas to smother the fire at the end. Will have to learn the exact meanings of these actions later.
  Than last got to see some songs from Mayapuri's who I had been wanting to see. Very good show of course, but what I really liked was after the dancers left the stage the lead singer invited everyone in their seats to come on stage and do kirtan! Lovely, lovely kirtan. That lead singer for the Mayapuris  is amazing. Not only good voice but sings with such soul. I started falling asleep while on stage (almost fell off the stage was so tired) so went to bed around 10 while the kirtan went on into the night.


Woke up a bit late for Mongalarti , forgot they started at 4:30 not 5 like in NV. Did some chanting, than Malati came up to me and said she wanted me and Govinda to go help for the panihatti festival , that's the reason she wanted us to get up early. Oppps! Had forgotten that so we rushed to go help. Luckily there was plenty to help with. Helped chopped vegitables and slice, got cutting advice and talked with a very wonderful cook at the Atlanta temple by the name Makunda who while we were cutting cucumbers told me about how he joined the movement and his experiences traveling across the world at different temples, serving them by cooking all kinds of dishes.

I enjoyed helping in the kitchen and when I was done there I helped serve out breakfeast for everyone with a crew of other lovely devotees. While serving out the food I saw Alan prabhu! Which was awesome, haven't seen him for months since he came to the San Antonio Temple. After I was done serving I went over and sat nearby and we talked about where Kc has taken us so far. He said how he was living in  Florida now at the temple where they have the food for life (serving the large lunch for the college nearby). He also told me how he was playing violin for the mayapuris the night before (I was wondering who that was on violin!) And how they had asked him if he wanted to play with them on tour! Whoa! haha I am really happy so many good things are happening for him
And we got in a coversation about where we are supposed to be. I told him how I want to be in the place I am needed most, can be utilized the most for service. Another reason why I am coming back for sure home. New Vrindaban is nice, been offered to even stay in North Carolina now, but San Antonio is my home for now. It is where at the least I feel I can help the most right now.

Anyways, watched the table a bit than Malati relieved me and Govinda to see the Panihatii bidding of the pots. Basically Panahattii is a festival (next day right after Ratha yatra) of chipped rice where they cook all types of chipped rice in different pots. This gives furthur details of what the festival is and how it started....http://e-vedas.com/panihati/whatispanihati.html

The biggest pot and most expensive was sold for 2,500 which came with a set of deities and full of chipped rice of course. The indian gentleman who bought it distributed it of course (how could you not, it was so much!) as did most people who bid on big pots etc. There was a yogurt, salty, mexican style chipped rice, condensed milk chipped rice.
All had different ingredients but chipped rice based in all. I got to a point where I had stuffed my stomach until it was going to explode, me and Jennifer had more than enough and had to even save it because we couldn't eat anymore. I came back to the table to find that someone had given me, Malti and Govinda our very own small pots for us filled with sweets and chipped rice. Couldn't even touch it was to full. So ended up eating a good amount the next day.
I'm sure I gained like 5 pounds just from that one day. I hope I don't come back a fat Matajii to San Antonio ;.;

I had so much maha that day I could have exploded with maha @_@
Oh and my favorite flavor was the salty and spicy ones. I think I am just burned out on sweet in general though, nothing personal to the sweet rice.
I had so much sweet chipped rice...ugh
but all of it was so delicious and really high quality ingredients too, cashews, and what not

After that they were playing some toss the honey soaked donut (what are those called?) which they were throwing from long distances and devotee's were catching with just their mouths. Crazy! I tried it too but just catched it with my hands, missed twice and got it on my sari though lol. Oh and the winner was one of the boys from the mayapuri's...got these hilarious moments recorded too. How am i going upload all of this. Later I stalked Lavangas Guru and took some photos than watched the table some more.

Next I had had one devotee girl invite me to come on stage when she was on to jam and so I went on stage when i noticed her there. She was singing and in their band (later found out this was a band, I just thought they were jamming at first) another girl singer who played kartals, harmonium girl player, and a male bassist and guitarist. I sang with them on their song than asked if they wanted to join me on Uke so they did and we had a great time. Afterwards the guy recording said he would send me a copy! Than I had several comments saying it was very nice, sold a cd to the bassist, who with his fiance were so sweet to me and invited me to stay any time with them and too come visit North Carolina and even that I should go stay there lol and join in on their music or if I ever needed hookups where to play etc. So got their information , you never know you know. They were all so sweet to me, sold 3 other cd's to these very sweet lady devotee's who said they loved the kirtan and met this nice Prabhupada disciple from Venezuela.

Next met up with alan again and we talked before he left,
after that she even gave us free pizza. Which was very kind, after that I looked at the flute and fell in love with this bamboo flue that I will start learning so I can play in kirtan now. The man who made them and was selling them was so kind he just gave me the flute (which he normally would sell for at least 25 if not 30) and said it's for the lordships and to play for them. : )

And on way back we stopped by to visit the friend of the driver who was driving us. nice indian lady gave me shawl and 21 dollar donation each for me and Govinda.How sweet is that....
Devotees I can't take it! Their to awesome....

On the way back the driver  we were driving with (since we had to ride separately from Malati because she had to take care of the van incident) accidentally ran over a racoon's and he asked if we should go chant to it, Govinda said yes right away and to my suprise he turned around and we went in front of the racoons and chanted....I love Devotees.
I mean seriously what "normal" person would do that? Typical people would just not even bat an eyelash and a dying animal like that but he was visibly distraught.

Krishna is so sweet, and if you want to know how just see how the devotee's treat you.
That is only a sliver of the love and kindness Krishna has for us.
It only takes an open heart and mind to see this.

So in conclusion to this blog, this was indeed a truly inspiring and beautiful weekend.
I was given so much by the devotee's, by Krishna I only hope to give back even more in service and love back. This is one of the things we should aspire too.
To give even more than we are given and in this purify our self centered souls.
I know I need it.
Much love to you all, and thank you for reading my blogs so far! I apologize if some of them are a bit all over the places, I can get very busy here and sometimes I have to just post quick bits what happened or I wont remember the fine details later.
And please if your reading this leave me a comment even if it's just to say your reading!
It's nice to know who's reading this, whether it be 2 or 5 people or however many.
It's nice to know the audience.

Hare Krishna, God bless

~Kim