The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple, Boston MA organized their annual special event Gaura Purnima Festival on Wednesday 20th March 2019 with hundreds of devotees with much spiritual fervor and gusto. This Gaura Purnima (golden full moon) festival was celebrated as birth anniversary of Shri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His uplifting teachings by Krishna devotees all over the world.

Shri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born on the full moon night of 18 February 1486, at the time of a lunar eclipse and later, he spread the spiritual enlightenment simply by chanting the holy names of the Lord Krishna: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. His devotees witnessed Shri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Ji dancing and chanting his blissful love for Lord Krishna. He embraced everyone and anyone regardless of background or spiritual qualification and encouraged them to deepen the love of God and experience great spiritual pleasure by chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. The present-day, ISKCON is continuing and spreading the philosophy of Shri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji with utmost dedication and commitment. His followers generally observe this festival by fasting and chanting the holy names all day to strengthen their devotion and spirituality. 

On this day, the special puja of the temple deities took place in the early morning at 4:30am by the temple priests and some special devotees. In the evening, an exciting public Puja program was hosted by the temple. This special event stated with Hariram chanting at 5:00pm by Chatamayi Mataji. This was followed by Abhishekam of Lord Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s statues by the temple priests namely NiskinchanNitai, Charanrenu, BrajendraNandan, ChaitanyaNitai and Sanjaya Prabhuji with all the religious rituals and mantras. At 6:30pm, Shri MuktaVandya Prabhuji gave an informative and enlightening lecture on Chaitanya Prabhuji’s birth and his preaching to all the devotees. Shri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji is also known as Gauranga, Gaura (golden one)-Nitai (Nityananda), ‘Sri Nityananda', 'Prabhu Nityananda' or 'Nityananda Rama'. Then, Gaura Aarti was performed at 7:00pm after dressing up the deities with new garments and ornaments with chanting of Maha Mantra and devotional Arati songs. Delicious Maha Prasadam was served to all the devotes including both fasting and non-fasting devotes with much love and warmth. Shri. Vanamali Prabhuji, the president of the temple thanked sponsors, volunteers and the devotees for their active participation and making this event a grand success.

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