Ekadasi and Gita Jayanti! Two very auspicious days to be in Vrindavan! Of course every day in Vrindavan is an auspicious day, but it is even more fun to be there when it's a special day like this. We woke up early, not quite for mangal artik, but early enough that it was still quite dark out when we started. Every Ekadasi Dina Prabhu wanted to to parikrama around Vrindavan. Last Ekadasi it was just me and Dina, this time we had all of us going, KC, Lila, Yammy, Neem, Kar, Dina, and me! I was totally excited to go, and share the experience with everyone. This time I made sure I didn't drink too much water and went to the bathroom before I left.
We started out around 6:30 in the morning, with thick fog making everything feel unreal and mysterious. I was glad to be going early again, because there was hardly anyone on the path but us and a few fast walking sadhus. It was cold again, but not too cold. Everything was so quiet and hidden, it felt like we were walking in between the spiritual Vrindavan and the Vrindavan everyone else sees, because the mist would hide all the garbage leaving just the beautiful trees peeking out. We walked quite quickly only stopping a few places to take pictures, we took some water from the Yamuna river and Kesi Ghat, and offered obesciances to the deity of Yamuna Devi, and to the spot where Lord Chaitanya sat once. But it was extremely pleasant, peaceful and relaxed as we chanted and walked together. The sun came up, gradually burning away all the mist and leaving a beautiful cloudless day. By the time we got back to the temple, we felt lighter, purified, blissful, and tired. I wish I could start every day with a Vrindavan parikrama, it was definitely one of my favorite experience there.
We decided to all go home and eat some prasadam, then take rest, and meet again at 3:00 to read all of the Bhagavat Gita translations together. It was such a nice relaxed day, compared to the day before, exactly what we needed. We ate breakfast, and then took a nice nap, afterwards we finished whatever rounds, read a little, did laundry, until lunch time, then went to the restaurant to eat.
At 3:00 we went over to Yamuna and Dina's for the Bhagavat Gita reading. I was surprised at how many people showed up, we had at least 15-20 people coming for the reading. It was pretty exciting because I had never read the Gita straight through like that, and I was all ready for a big marathon. We thought it would take maybe 5 or 6 hours, so we were prepared to be there for awhile. We started with a little kirtan, and then just took turns reading one translation. It was a wonderful experience! I never could get into the Bhagavat Gita that much because I would always get lost in the philosophy, but when we read it all the way through like that I enjoyed every second of it! Everyone felt sad to come to the end. We actually ended much earlier then we thought, I think it was only 6 when we ended, or maybe even earlier. But then we had kirtan again for another 1/2 hour. It was so nice to chant the Holy Names after reading the Bhagavat Gita like that! Around 6:30 everyone left, and so we went and got some prasadam from the restaurant again, and brought it to Yamuna and Dina's and ate Ekadasi prasadam all together. A perfect end to a perfect day! I would love to do that whole day over and over again, maybe at least 4 times a year.
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