Golden Gauranga and his dear associates glanced at thousands of devotees with eyes full of compassion. There was love in the air and it seemed like thousands of honey bees had finally found the treasure house of nectar. The Lord showered nectar on his bee like devotees, as they sang with their hearts filled with deep gratitude and emotion that surely spoke more than words.

Welcome to an experience called “Kirtan Mela”

The sacred land of Mayapur has sure started making history in a big way. Recently, this year in the month of March, thousands of devotees from ISKCON centers all over the world gathered at Sri Dham Mayapur for five days of pure bliss, the Kirtan Mela!

True to Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur’s prediction almost a hundred years ago, Mayapur has visitors from all races whose numbers seem to be increasing exponentially every year. The Gaura Purnima festival brings the maximum visitors to the Dham and for two years now, the Kirtan Mela has been yet another major attraction to the festive season.

When it all began, more than five hundred years ago, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates gathered together and sweetly sung the glories of Lord Krishna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu declared that such soulful singing of the sacred names of Sri Krishna was the “Yuga dharma” (the most preferred religious practice if this age)  and was the only source of deliverance from the material realm of existence. 

This sublime message of Lord Chaitanya was brought to the modern world by His Divine Grace A.C.BhaktiVedanta Swami Prabhupada. He also inspired his early disciples to develop Mayapur and it was in the 1970s that Srila Prabhupada’s followers moved to Mayapur, learnt about Navadwip and built Mayapur brick by brick. 

Tamal Krishna Goswami was one of the pioneers in helping build the spiritual city, but he had more to just management. He was a lover of kirtan and inspired others to fall in love with it, too. Bhakti Charu Swami and Jayapataka Swami recall Tamal Krishna Maharaj’s kirtan gatherings at his room, that later were held in the temple hall, to accommodate more devotees.

With inspiration from such stalwarts, Sachinandana Swami revived the Kirtan culture in a big new way. After a huge success of the Kirtan Mela held in Germany, he inspired devotees from all over the world to come and spend exclusive time in Krishna-kirtan at Mayapur Dham.

Kirtan experts and dedicated devotees lead the singing, with thousands following in unison. The sound of cymbals, soothing harmonium and the bold mridanga set the mood for the day-long kirtans. Senior devotees inspired the others every morning by speaking their realizations about the Holy Name that helped people connect even more. As Madhava Das, B.B.Govinda Swami, Bhakti Charu Swami, Radhanath Swami and others sang, one was certainly transported to a divine realm and left people with an experience that satisfied their hearts. 

The Mayapur Kirtan Mela was a purifying experience and soothed every cell of one’s body. It was a perfect dialogue between the devotee and The Lord. What could be more powerful in the entire universe than this? Where could you probably find so much mercy, poring like nectar, that you never wanted to stop having?