Juhu, Kharghar, then home

Dubai Airport was boring and uncomfortable, as usual, but at least they had some decent vegetarian snacks and good drinking water we could buy. We were in Dubai for just a short time before catching our flight to Mumbai. After a (thankfully!) smooth landing, we made a quick trip to Juhu and checked into our room.  It was the afternoon of October 8th. Our ingenious plan to gradually ease ourselves off of jet-lag hadn't worked. Even though we'd spent a week in Ireland, we were still wiped out when we reached Juhu. Oh well, it sounded good on paper.

ISKCON Juhu Beach Guesthouse

As soon as we walked into the front foyer of the guest house, we could see into the beautiful temple room. The Deity doors were open, so we got immediate darshan. Yay!  We were so, so happy to see Their gorgeous Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji...

,

Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji

Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Laksmana-Hanuman...

Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Lakshmana-Hanuman

and Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai...

Sri Sri Gaura Nitai

lovingly dressed, decorated and enthroned on Their brightly lit altars. What an awesome blessing. The English language does not afford one the depth of poetic expression to be able to describe the experience of darshan at Juhu Temple. All I can say is, it was (and always is) definitely worth waiting for.

We took the elevator up to the second floor, found our room, managed to unlock it in our sleepy stupor and stumbled through the door with all our copious luggage. We took hot showers and immediately crashed on the beds. As I drifted off to sleep, I whispered a prayer of gratitude,“Thank You, Lord Nrsimhadeva, for carrying us safely across the ocean and allowing us to come to Srila Prabhupada's 'office' to have the blessed darshan of his beloved Deities Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari, Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Laksmana-Hanuman, and Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai.”

Mangala-arati in Juhu is an unforgettable experience. It is not as crowded as Vrndavana and Mayapur, so it is more pleasant in that way. 

Mangala Arati Juhu

For me, having the opportunity to gaze at Sri Sri Sita-Rama-Lakshmana-Hanuman is like that of a thirsty man with a dry, parched throat searching for water in the desert, and after a long, long time of searching, he finally finds a clear, cool spring and drinks to his heart's content.

Govinda's Restaurant, Juhu ISKCON

We called our friend Shivani and arranged to meet her for lunch at Govinda's. This time we managed to control ourselves and take small portions of each item, although that was hard to do because everything at Govinda's is so delicious. Our plan to eat sparingly was ruined, though, by the appearance of three kinds of homemade ice cream at the end of our meal. Darn. The ice cream was too good to pass up, so all three of us ended up rolling out of Govinda's instead of walking out gracefully.

 Thali at Govinda's Restaurant

We left Juhu on October 10^th and headed over to Navi Mumbai. We arrived at the home of our dear friends Madhusudana, Nirupama Gaurangi and Priya Rani in Kharghar. Nirupama Gaurangi and Priya Rani had cooked an amazing lunch, and after we honored yummy prasadam to our full satisfaction, we took some rest. We had a casual evening with our hosts and turned in early so we could get up early for mangala arati.

After the morning program on Sunday October 11, we took a short break and then started the Sunday Feast kirtan at around 10:30 a.m. We chanted for two hours, then the Rajbhoga arati started. After arati, my husband gave class, then we honored Rajbhoga prasadam at Surdas's office, another unforgettable experience.

That evening, there was a big harinama-sankirtan in Chowpatty, so my husband, Madhusudana Prabhu and Priya Rani went there to participate. Nirupama Gaurangi and I were too tired and we had japa left, so we stayed back at the house to rest and chant.

Monday was busy. We rose at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for the morning program. Haripada Prabhu gave the Bhagavatam class. He always keeps his preaching simple and straightforward, like Srila Prabhupada's preaching. He talked about how the human form of life is very rare and special, and that the soul in a human body has a great responsibility to become self-realized. Self-realization means to understand who we are, who God is, and what is our relationship with God. His main theme was that the most highly recommended method for achieving self-realization in this present Age of Kali is the chanting of God's name. He spoke of how easy it is to chant Hare Krishna, and how sublime. He said that because we are eternally Krishna's servants, it is our duty to seek to please Krishna at every moment of our lives. He concluded his talk by recommending that one of the best ways to serve and please Krishna is to chant His holy names, especially congregationally, in a group.

After class, at around 9:00 a.m., we took a little breather. At noon-time, we headed over to Anubhava and Janaki's place for kirtan and a little fruit prasadam, then over to Bahulavana Prabhu's home for lunch. 

We had had a wonderful time with all the devotees that day and hated to say good-bye, but we had to leave for Udupi that afternoon. Madhusudana and Nirupama Gaurangi kindly took us to the train station and after some sweet, loving farewells, we were finally off to our little home in Udupi, after three months of being away.

To be continued...