Kirtan Madhuri Mela is a ten-day gathering in Alachua featuring traditional Bengali devotional music and discourses on the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Narottama Das Thakur. The event is organized to celebrate the beauty of the devotional tradition of the vairagi saints and mystics of Vraja who spent their days and nights in thoughts of Radha and Krishna, worshiping the divine Names.

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-o) KIRTAN MADHURI MELA (o-

- Alachua, Florida - August 4th-13th -

Kirtan Madhuri Mela is a ten-day gathering in Alachua featuring traditional Bengali devotional music and discourses on the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Narottama Das Thakur. The event is organized to celebrate the beauty of the devotional tradition of the vairagi saints and mystics of Vraja who spent their days and nights in thoughts of Radha and Krishna, worshiping the divine Names.

The program will last from Friday 4th to Sunday 13th August. The first official program will be held on Friday evening. For latest news, please see http://www.gaudiyakutir.com/mela.

Location

The program is located at Braja Gopal's place in Alachua, a few minutes from the local ISKCON temple. We will be able to provide assistance with accomodation, transportation, and prasadation. Exact location at 21511 NW 75th street, third plot south from the NW 218th Avenue crossing - you'll find signs out there to help you find the exact location. For maps, please see here.

Classes

Classes are given by Madhavananda Das. Morning classes will be on Narottama Das Thakur Mahasaya's Prema-bhakti-candrika, the aim is to cover the entire text in the course of the upcoming 10 days. Evening classes will feature Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Siksastakam, with emphasis on the examination of the growth of spiritual emotion in the sadhaka's heart.

Schedule for classes and special days during the event


Daily program


Morning bhajan

The carrying theme in the four-hour individual morning bhajan will be accomplishing a lakh (64 rounds) of names, or as much as fits into four hours. We are eager to see everyone dive deeper into nama-bhajan, and the free time everyone has provides an excellent opportunity to at least do it for a while, if not forever, and gain an experience of what to look forward to in the future.

Daytime program

The daytime program is largely improvised. What's in the air is an introductory Sanskrit class, istagosthi discussions and sadhana workshops on themes of choice, bathing in local tirthas, taking prasad and much more! The two weekends will have a bit of a tighter schedule than the week in between.

Evening programs

Some evenings will also see special programs, such as a one-hour non-stop video-parikrama around Radha-kunda with stories of the locations, and possibly a public gathering or two with a broader audience.

Songs

Given that many may not be very familiar with the traditional arati songs and the such, all participants will receive a fine home-made song book that covers all the standard daily songs, as well as most other songs we'll be singing in the course of the event.

Participation

Please let us know in advance if you're coming, we'll put aside an extra plate for you. Contact Braja Gopal Das for information on accommodations, directions and other practicalities at .