Reviving Berkeley Lord Chaitanya Festival

BY: GADADHAR DAS

Mar 30, 2011 — BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, USA (SUN) — The Lord Chatainya Spring Festival is a festival that was started in the 1970s by San Francisco Bay Area devotees like Nara Narayana, Madhudvisa and Jayananda Prabhus. This festival went on in Berkeley from 1970 to around 1975 or 1976. In 1984, Jagannatha Swami Prabhu revived the festival that year. This year, ISKCON Berkeley brought the festival back out to the streets of Berkeley with the Sankirtana Party parade, Police escorts, street closures, tents, and exhibits.

Here are a few snippets from Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, and letters regarding the festival:

FROM "SCIENCE OF SELF REALIZATION": "Recently there was a big procession of our students in Berkeley on the Advent Day of Lord Caitanya, and the public has remarked as follows: "This crowd of men is not like others, who assemble to break windows and create havoc." This is also confirmed by the police in the following words: "Members of the Krsna consciousness movement cooperated fully with the police, and their efforts to maintain peaceful order throughout the parade were so successful that only minimal police involvement was required."

PRABHUPADA LECTURE, Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.12 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1972: "At least, they are saying like that. Yes. "These Hare Krishna people, they are very nice, and we want more of them." And in Berkeley, when our procession was taken, the neighboring shopkeepers, they remarked that "These people are not window-breaking crowd."

PRABHUPADA LECTURE, Gorakhpur, February 20, 1971: "But this Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so kind, thousand of men joined Caitanya and they danced. Dhiradhira. Not that in the crowd only selected devotees were there. No. Most of them, ninety-nine percent all nondevotees. Similarly, in your country you have seen. That Caitanya Mahaprabhu statue attracted so many people in Berkeley"

PRABHUPADA LETTER TO Locana, Nalinikanta, Calcutta 18 February, 1972: "Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your many invitations to come there to enjoy with you the Lord Caitanya Day parade and festival at Berkeley. I am always thinking of that beautiful, quiet neighborhood in Berkeley, and of all my wonderful disciples there, so when I return to USA I shall certainly come there for some time."

The Lord Chaitanya Festival in Berkeley this year was an amazing experience. The weather forecast was predicting pouring rain with thunderstorms. The day before the festival, the streets were drenched with rain, thunder and lightning. But by Lord Chaitanya's mercy, the sun came out in full brilliance on the day of the festival! It's wonderful to see the devotees work with such determination. All Glories to their service!

Here is a link to the photos on Facebook. You can also visit our website:
www.LordChaitanyaFestival.org.

We hope to see you there next year!