Cakes & hymns on Krishna’s birthday

NEW DELHI: Temples dedicated to Lord Krishna had a busy day on Friday as devotees turned up in large numbers on the occasion of Janmashtami. Those who couldn’t make it to the Lord’s house fasted during the day and celebrated at home.
The prominent temples in the city—Birla Mandir, ISKCON Temple and Akshardham Temple—were all decked up. “More than four lakh devotees have already visited the temple and by midnight the figures are set to cross 10 lakh.Last year, about eight lakh people visited our temple on Janmashtami,” said an organizer at ISKCON Temple in East of Kailash.
He said this year, for the first time, they have got a designer dress for Lord Krishna embedded with Swiss crystals. He added that more than 100 varieties of flowers, some of them exotic ones imported from European countries, have been used to deck-up the temple. A 51-kg cake prepared by the devotees was also an attraction there, said a priest at the temple.
At the Birla temple, a tableau was prepared at the Geeta Bhavan where Lord Krishna's rasleela was enacted. Ravindra Nagar, head priest at Birla Mandir, said the tableau depicted the birth of Lord Krishna, his childhood pranks as ‘makkhan chor’, his frolics with Radha and the gopis, and his expounding the sacred messages of the Gita to Arjun on the battlefield.
“We refer to the day as the rise of Lord Krishna, not birth,” Nagar said.
The participation of youngsters in the celebrations was noticeable. A number of them could be seen chanting ‘hare Rama, hare Krishna’ at temples. A ‘Govinda Ala Re Matki Phod Programme’ was organized at Utsav Ground, IP Extension in Patparganj where a group of 40 girls managed to crack a dahi-handi that hung at a height of 31 feet. “The team from Bhagat Vihar and Karawal Nagar managed to crack it,” said an organizer.