Our worshipable Deities at ISKCON Brisbane are
their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura
Nitai. These are the forms of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and
Lord Nityananda Prabhu who appeared on this earth five hundred years
ago. Lord Chaitanya's descent was predicted in the sastras. In the
Srimad Bhagavatam it is said that in the age of Kali-yuga Lord Krishna
will appear in a golden colour and He will be surrounded by His
associates who will be His weapons in distributing the yuga dharma
of the process of realization for the age - the sankirtan of the
Holy Name of the Lord.
The Deities of Gaura-Nitai are made of five metals
and they were carved here in Australia - in Melbourne in the 1970's.
For some time they were the resident Deities of the travelling bus
program headed up by Sabhapati prabhu and they travelled all over
Australia. They came to Brisbane in the 1980's after being the original
Deities on the New Govardhan Farm.
The Deities are worshiped with four bhoga offerings
- which means offerings of foodstuffs every day. They have their
first offering at 4.10 am in the morning where they are offered
four different kinds of milk sweets prepared by the devotees as
well as hot milk and tulasi leaves. The second offering is at
7.40 am where they are offered a full menu of rice, dhals, sabji,
etc. The next offering is at 3.40 pm in the afternoon where they
are offered two different kinds of milk sweets as well as well as
four different kinds of fruits, prepared by the pujaris and then
at 5.40 pm they are again offered a full prasadam meal of rice,
dhal, sabji, etc. The final offering is just before they take rest
at night at 8.30 pm and consists of condensed milk and chewing spices.
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Their Lordships are woken at 4 am every morning,
after which They are offered mangala arati at 4.30 am - offered
dhupa-arati at 8 am and They take rest at 11.30 am and They are
again woken at 3.30 pm and given an offering of incense and flowers
at 4 pm. Another full arati is offered at 7 pm daily and then Their
Lordships take rest at 8.30 pm.
Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai are dressed in a different outfit everyday and
They are bathed and dressed in fresh clothes every morning and sandalwood
paste is offered to Their lotus feet. Every morning at 7 am the
devotees greet Their Lordships.
At Gaura Purnima time Sri-Sri Gaura-Nitai are
bathed and this is a very ecstatic abhishek as it not usual to see
abishek performed to such large Deities.
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