This Friday, the 2nd of June, marks the beginning of the Acharya Shrivastava Goswami Maharaj’s seva at the Shri Radharaman Temple in Vrindavan. Maharajji is a senior Acharya of Radharaman Temple and the founding trustee of the Vrindavan daily, Vrindavan Today. This year the seva will be held from 2nd June to 5th July. This year is also special because it marks the 475th anniversary of Shri Radharamanji’s appearance.
Each morning of the seva period, a complete reading of the Shrimas Bhagavatam will be performed by 40 scholars. 10 Bengali vaishnavs will also be present who will be reading the Chaitanya Bhagavat. In addition to this, the auspicious prayers of Gopal Sahasranam and Narayan Kavach will also be chanted. Each jhanki or darsha of Shri Radharamanji will be accompanied by the appropriate music and songs describing Radharamanji’s lila at that moment.
The daily raag seva will be brought to life by the master vocalist Shri Tarun Krishna Das and pankhwaj virtuoso Shri Krishna Gopal Sharma. Each morning and evening there will be a special guest artist who will present an offering of song and dance for Radharamanji. A ceremony called Rajopachar Seva will be offered twice a day during Shringar Aarti and Sandhya Aarti during which the devotees will hold flags and other sacred symbols.
Throughout the seva period Radharamanji will wear gorgeous new outfits specially handcrafted by the ladies of the Shrivastava Goswami household and new jewellery will be offered to Him as well. New tapestries have also been ordered from the royal printer of Jaipur. Each day Radharamanji will be offered a new kunj or a beautiful forest hideaway.
Some notable holidays during this seva period are:
2nd June: Seva period begins
4th June: Ganga Dussehra
5th June: Nirjala Ekadashi
9th June: Jal Yatra
25th June: Rath Yatra
2nd July: Special Chappan Bhog Darshan
5th July: Seva period ends
