On March 3rd, thousands of devotees who were gathered in Sri Mayapur Dham for the opening of the Nrsimhadeva Wing of the TOVP witnessed the Pancha Tattva Maha-Abhisheka, which occurs every five years.

This joyful event also marks the 20th anniversary of the Sri Sri Pancha Tattva installation in 2004. Senior leaders from around the world performed the abhisheka ceremony. “The Pancha Tattva have endeared themselves to the global community of ISKCON devotees who look forward to this rare Maha-Abhisheka event,” said Anuttama Dasa, ISKCON’s Global Minister of Communications, “It was simply amazing to see so many Vaishnavas engaged in intimate service to the deities by bathing them in auspicious offerings like milk, yogurt, ghee, honey and various fruit juices, in addition to the gallons and gallons of water. I think witnessing this abhisheka left an indelible mark of devotion to the Lord and joy in the hearts of all those who observed it.”

The Maha-Abhisheka began around 8 am, and devotees who couldn’t be accommodated inside the hall were able to watch the ceremony on large screens outside. The ceremony concluded with a beautiful pushpa abhisheka. Exactly 50 years ago, on March 3, 1974, Srila Prabhupada gave a class on Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi-lila 7.3 in Mayapur, where he extolled the glories of Sri Sri Pancha Tattva. You can find the recordings and transcriptions here.  Below is a gallery of images provided by Anuttama Dasa. A full video of the ceremony can be found on Mayapur.tv’s YouTube channel.