FLOWER SHOWER

patram pushpam phalam toyam / yo me bhaktya prayachati
tad aham bhakty-upahritam / ashnami prayatatmanah

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.”

Bhagavad-gita 9.26

On January 31, 2009 photographer Stephan Crasneanscki shot the annual Pushya Abhishek Festival at the Radha Gopinath Temple in Mumbai. Below are some of the photos as well as an excerpt of the inaugural talk given by H.H. Radhanath Swami Maharaja.

Kaustubha das

Excerpt From the Inaugural Talk

“This wonderful festival is a festival of devotion. Please don’t see just with your eyes, see through your heart. Through the wisdom we receive from the Holy Scriptures and the great saints. It is a shower of our combined intent to please Krishna, to purify our own hearts and ultimately to be instruments of love in every aspect of our life.”

“The world is in turmoil, economically, ecologically, emotionally, psychiatrically. According to the World Health Organization depression, mental illness, is the number three disease that causes pain and death. Why? Externally we have so much, but internally so little. The jewels of divine love within our hearts have been plundered by the thieves of greed, envy, anger, arrogance, selfish passion and illusion. Driven by those thieves, enemies within us, even the pure soul creates havoc within this world. There is a great need to understand what is really of value. Things like character, integrity, humility, self- control, a selfless spirit of compassion towards other living beings, which are all part and parcel of love for God. These are the greatest needs within this world.”

“Today hundreds and hundreds of devotees have been plucking flower petals. It is really beautiful to see, and to really appreciate it you have to know the people. There are simple taxi drivers, simple waiters who work in restaurants, simple people who are unemployed, living in little huts. And they are sitting next to multi, multi millionaires who are industrialists with international corporations. And together they are just plucking the petals. Little children are sitting next to PhD, IIT graduate engineers. Anyone can do it. We are all united in our combined efforts to just offer this very, very simple service to the Lord. It is said that all people are created equal. On the spiritual level we are all created equal but as long as we think ourselves American, Russian, European, or any of these other things, we are not equal. As long as we think ourselves man or woman, young or old we are not equal. There are no two snowflakes, since the beginning of time, that are identical. There are no two cats, two dogs or two human beings that are the same. We all have our karmas, conditionings, and attributes. Real equality is on the spiritual platform. In our devotion to the Lord we are equal. It was beautiful to see this.”

“India has been condemned because of its caste system, which is a perverted conception as it is lived and understood today. On the spiritual platform we are all servants of God and we can be united in that love, on a real level, not just a sentimental level. So we are all together plucking flowers and the result is baskets and baskets of flower petals, more than one ton. How beautiful! How much does the flower petal weigh? The endeavor to get so much made everyone so happy. People go to Bollywood movies, people work so hard to get a Mercedes Benz, or good clothes. They go to the gyms to get strong. Nothing against these things, but as far as happiness is concerned, none of these could compare to plucking the flower petals. Why? Because it awakens such ecstasy in our hearts if we do it with the right intent. And we really all become brothers and sisters, united. And the culmination of so many people plucking is that, although not one of them is getting paid, they are happy because they are doing it out of love in the spirit of service.”

“The culmination is that we get to see every single tiny flower petal made an offering of our united devotion. Our meditation while offering these flower petals is that we are making a prayer for the purification of our own hearts, for the awaking of the love that is dormant within us. We are praying for the blessing of the Lord within all living beings. We are praying for the spiritual prosperity of every living being. That is the mood of the offering of each of those millions and millions of petals. And after the offering there will be the festival where of all the maha prasada flower petals showered upon all of us.”

H.H. Radhanath Swami Maharaja

Click here to hear the entire talk, and for more photos and descriptions of the festival.

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