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Festivals of Flowers

The flower festival, Pushyabhishek, falls somewhere in the period of January and February every year. It’s the most popular festival of Radha Gopinath Temple, and attracts visitors from all over. Petals from more than one ton of flowers are showered upon the deities of Radha and Gopinath on this occasion.

The preparation for the festival begins early morning, at 7:30 a.m. Many little mounds of flowers, of different colors and varieties, each with devoted hearts sitting around, plucking out tender petals: the preparation looks as festive as the festival itself. In all, a few hundred  assemble, and they are as varied as the flowers plucked: CEOs, PhD scholars, Heads of Departments of Universities, lawyers, Sanskrit scholars, simple railway workers, farmers, the poor, the rich, Indians, Germans, Americans, Australians, Ukrainians, Russians, Africans, etc.

If you are out to locate Radhanath Swami, you can be sure of his being at Radha Gopinath temple on this day. He addresses the volunteers at 8:15 a.m., giving them the spiritual insight into what they are doing. Though the scriptural examples quoted vary every year, the theme remains the same: “The Supreme Lord is the proprietor of everything, and so does not require anything more. He is not in need of food, wealth, palaces, jewels—or even flower petals. If these things are offered to Him without proper humility or devotion, He will not even look in that direction. The holy scriptures are filled with examples that illustrate this.” While the Lord is averse to the offering done in the wrong attitude, he hankers for the offerings done in devotion. And what will the volunteers get in return for their devotional offerings? “… to experience the essence of real happiness, the treasures of the soul, is so easy. Whoever we are, but if we have the consciousness of humility, generosity, and devotion, any one of these flower petals that we pluck—any single one of them—can help us attain the highest perfection of life. That’s how gracious God is.”

The plucking proceeds till dusk, as basket after basket gets brimmed with fragrant petals.

Evening 8:00 p.m. is the time sought by the more than six thousand visitors that now crowd every nook of the temple complex. At eight, the shower begins on the deities, with the accompaniment of uproarious Kirtan.

It goes till nine thirty. And then comes a thrill, and that’s a secret for all newcomers…