Beginnings: Annakuta Mahotsava and the New Braj Gurukula
By Srila Gurudeva’s mercy, Badger did indeed become New Braj. Once, during a morning walk, Gurudeva saw two puddles next to the path. “See,” he told the devotees, “these two puddles are Radha Kunda and Syama Kunda before they were excavated. This mountain before us is Giriraja Govardhan. The trees are bending over to offer their fruit. Krsna is walking, and he is saying to the sakhas, ‘Come on, come on, let’s fight.’” Gurudeva then said, “Do not think this remembrance of Vrndavana is imagination. By remembering and remembering, impressions will come, and they will gradually go deeper and deeper, and eventually your real atma will come.”
In this mood, Srila Gurudeva installed Sri Giriraja Govardhan, Sri Radha Kunda, and Sri Syama Kunda in New Braj. In order to teach us all how to aspire to follow the Vrajavasis, Gurudeva celebrated the Annakuta Mahamahotsava festival each summer during his visit. When he came for the second time in 1997, Gurudeva asked Nanda Gopal Prabhu whether there was “any good rock.” Nanda Gopal Prabhu then brought Gurudeva over to his house, where he showed him a large boulder. With his transcendental vision and potency, Gurudeva transformed it into Giriraja Govardhan in the West. With great pomp and joy, and under Srila Gurudeva’s direct guidance, the devotees prepared hundreds of preparations each year and then carried them on their heads to offer at the feet of Giriraja. At Govardhan, Gurudeva orchestrated and personally performed the worship of the cows, abhiseka of Giriraja and the bhoga offering, and parikrama of Govardhan. Gurudeva was especially delighted when the children would prepare a surprise drama during Annakuta. One year, a few children performed the Dan-Gati pastime, when Sri Krsna demanded tax from the gopis. At the conclusion of the play, the players demanded that Gurudeva pay tax in order to pass. With great delight, Gurudeva embraced them as payment. Giriraja would also appear atop the hill and demand more and more preparations until, pacified by the offering of Tulasi leaves, Giriraja would then offer his blessings that Krsna would “live a long life.” The mood of Braj that Srila Gurudeva brought around the world and to New Braj is unfathomable. How the mercy flowed, and how Gurudeva sprinkled the devotees with cooling drops of nectar. With great longing and heartfelt prayers to be a speck of dust at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, we perform this Annakuta Mahotsava every year during Hari-katha festival.
By Gurudeva’s order, Brajendranandana Prabhu and Gopa Nandini didi established a gurukula in New Braj in 1998. When Gurudeva first gave this instruction, Brajendranandana Prabhu hesitated, telling Gurudeva that he was not qualified to do such a thing. Hearing this, Gurudeva told him, “I will make you qualified.” Gurudeva wanted the children of New Braj, and around the world, to be trained in vaisnava culture, in spiritual scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, and in academics. But, as he told the teachers, the children should also “have fun.” Once, when Brajendranandana was praising one of the teacher’s excellent academic teaching standards, Gurudeva emphasized that the most important aspect of the school was teaching “with love and affection, not with intelligence.” Every year, the Gurukula children would recite verses for Srila Gurudeva. He was so pleased not only by their memorization of Sanskrit and Bengali verses but also by the student’s ability to share their inner meanings. By Gurudeva’s great compassion, even his disciples who were only small children could confidently declare that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to distribute the highest goal: service to Srimati Radhika as a palya dasi. “One day,” Gurudeva prophesied, “this school will become a light for the world, and students will come from all over.”
