Murali Manohar Krishna Installation
11th February 2018 would be remembered as a very special day for AVM. It was the occasion of the installation of Sri Murali Manohar Krishna at our ashram, one that turned out to be His installation in our very hearts. Swamiji had explained how the Bhagavatam describes that finally it is on the mandhahaasam or the enchanting ‘punnagai’ (smile) of Lord Krishna we meditate upon and true to that, His captivating smile simply beguiled us.
After the sun had set, the devotees gathered at our very own Vrindavan at AVM for the official unveiling of the looter of the heart Sri Murali Manohar Krishna. The atmosphere was charged with so much divinity that it had a ‘deva loka’ effect. In the nandavanam, standing tall and handsome with His murali (flute) in hand and flowers adorning Him, Lord Krishna was swaying in laya with the gentle breeze. All the gopis were reveling in Raas Garbha, which increased the spiritual charge of the place.
While we were enchanted with the beauty of His form, some of our devotees’ children dressed up as Krishna, Balarama and Radha vied for our attention. Who do we fix our attention on? The hero of the occasion Sri Murali Manohar or the little pranky Krishna running about! This was a good problem to have since we weren’t going to lose either way!
The Lord and His little children were a real feast for our eyes, just as the beautiful bhajans were to our ears. To round it off, the variety of sweet bhog offered to Lord Krishna was partaken by us as prasadam, making it a literal feast for our tongues.
Chanting of verses from the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, slokas on Lord Krishna, bhajans, garbha and Swamiji’s talks on Krishna, transported us all to a different realm where Sri Murali Manohar Krishna was the Purusha and all of us were gopis.
The best gift for us was Swamiji’s talk on ‘The four keys to Gita’ through which Swamiji summarized the entire Gita in a capsule and shared an easy-to-remember approach to living the Gita way of life every day.
