Doors of the heaven opened

The Srinivasa Govinda temple of ISKCON in Rajajinagar was swamped with devotees with over one lakh visiting for darshan. It included politicians like Deve Gowda and H D Revanna and top bureaucrats.

The temple was open from 9 a.m. to 11 pm. Most devotees gave up the fast they had observed during the day only after offering their prayers.

Bharatarshaba Dasa, Head, Communications, told Deccan Herald that the deities of Sri Radha Krishna were installed on the dwara at Hare Krishna Hill.  Devotional concerts by  artistes like Tirumale Srinivas and Kadri Gopalanathan were arranged. The Society’s other temple, located on the Krishna Leela theme park on Kanakapura Road was also flooded with over 30,000 devotees offering prayers.

The 600-year-old Fort Sri Prasanna Venkatarama Swamy Temple at Avenue Road organised pujas right from 4.30 am to 11 p.m. “Nearly 35,000 devotees came today to have the darshan,” said Ramesh Babu, Manager at Arya Vysya Mandali, which maintains the temple
Between 24 to 25 ekadashis occur every year but the most auspicious of them all is the Vaikuntha Ekadashi. It falls in the fortnight of Narayana masa or Dhanur Masa.

It is on this day that the celebrated devotee of Lord Narayana, Nammalwar, entered the abode of Vishnu (or Vaikuntam).  It is said that the Lord personally came and received His devotee at the door of Vaikuntha. “It is generally said that anyone who enters the dwara and has darshan of the dieites is blessed with entry into the supreme abode of Krishna,” Dasa said.