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Adivas Ceremony at ISKCON Siliguri
From Tusti Mohan Krsna Dasa
Posted May 7, 2004

April 22, 2004– Dear Devotees,

Dandavat Pranams.

On April 21, 2004, we had an auspicious Adivas ceremony for the installation of the five small temples at ISKCON Siliguri around the large main temple of Sri Sri Radha-Madhavasundar and Panca-Tattva Bhagavan, There were many activities throughout the day including a procession through the main streets of the city of Siliguri, preaching and promoting this important spiritual event— the Deity Installations that would happen today on Akshaya Tritiya April 22, 2004.

The Vastu homas were performed in the yajna shala by HG Bhadra Caru Prabhu, HG Caitanya Bhagavan das, and HG Devarisi Prabhu with other brahmanas from this temple.

At night, at a very auspicious time, we had the Adivas ceremony for the installation of the Deities of Sri Sri Prahlada Lakshmi-Narasimhadeva in the temple that was made according the original design of the South Indian temples.

HH Jayapataka Swami conducted the ceremony while we all were eagerly waiting outside the temple for the first darsan of the most merciful protector of the devotees, Sri Narashimhadeva, chanting the Mahamantra and the Narashimha prayers.

I received the mercy of being allowed to sing the first Narashimha prayers to the Lord. I was amazed when a devotee called on me to lead the kirtan. Later I remembered begging the Lord two years ago to let me do this, and by His mercy it happened this time, even though I had forgotten that request to His Lordship.

So we had the first darsan before the opening of the Deities' eyes, and later we had the darsan and the performance of the rituals for the Adivas ceremony, which were performed with the assistance of Their Holinesses Bhaktipurusottama Swami and Bhaktisiddhanta Swami.

For this occasion there were many devotees from Siliguri as well as from the nearby areas under Namahatta that came to participate as well as to be initiated by HH Jayapataka Swami, which it was not possible to get to before midnight. So the initiation ceremony started at midnight and finished two hours later.

Today we will have the Pranpratistha celebration, and this morning as I am writing this report it is raining— a sign of auspiciousness, as it was yesterday with winds and storms during Lord Narashimhadeva's Adivas installation ceremony. Everyone was saying that this was indeed auspicious.

As you all know, today is an auspicious day to start any project. It will be sure to succeed unless it is started between 1:15 pm and 3:00 pm, which as I came to know is not auspicious. So all the Pranpratisthas for all the temples— Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Lakshman-Hanuman, Sri Sri Jagannath-Baladeva-Subhadra, Sri Sri Lakshmi-Narasimhadeva, and Lord Siva— will be done before noon.

We encourage the devotees to please help this project by sponsoring these temples or Deities as well as the maintenance, since this important and beautiful project for preaching the glories of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is in a poor area and needs the help of all the devotees. We invite all of you to come and take darsan of these Deities whenever possible.

All these events were covered by all main newspapers of the area.

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