A Magical Evening Celebrating the Appearance of Lord Nityananda!
Festival Report by: Smruthi Venkateshan
Pictures by: Sahil Srivastava
This past Saturday, February, 20th, Toronto’s Hare Krishna Temple celebrated the appearance of Lord Nitayanada with a special twist.
The event started out with an arati ceremony where the stars of the event Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai beamed brighter than a 1,000 full moons, beside the ever gorgeous Deities of Sri Sri Radha Ksira-Chora Gopinatha.
After the arati, the guests settled in for an evening of storytelling with a stunning visuals, inspiring speakers and innovate stage setup. The program involved four stations around the temple room and devotees turned to face each station where different stories of Lord Ntityananda were told. Meanwhile, artwork depicting each story was lowered from the balcony!
This unique twist was organized by a group of teens from the community (Anjali, Krishna, Bagyashree and Aditi) who have formed the new festival team for the temple. They rounded up all their talents to put together stunning artwork, creative visuals and an awesome experience for the guests.
Despite this being their first time organizing a festival the hit it out of the park! As the teens put it, they felt “accomplished” and thankful for the success of the event. Upon hearing the enlightening past times of the Lord the devotees proceeded to a have an enthusiastic closing kirtan follow by scrumptious feast.
As the evening was coming to a close one of the young members of the Festival Team, Bagyashree, remarked on her experiences and she felt “more confident about the future and what is to come.” It is surely safe to sat that the Toronto Hare Krishna Community feels just as confident and excited about its upcoming festivals!