By HG Vishnurata das
As per the Muslim tradition once a year they celebrate a festival known as IdhulAdha or Qurban. Qurban means sacrifice. So on this particular day, hundreds and thousands of animals are being sacrificed or killed for offering to God.
Bhakta Slamet Susilo who had been following Islam religion before he came into Krishna consciousness explained “… Actually, in Muslim history, Muslims are not supposed to eat meat; but due to their uncontrolled senses, they demand so much to eat meat. So Prophet Mohammad allowed them to eat meat only once in a year (and I believe it’s not the cow, it’s actually camel). But these days people are eating meat every single day. In Indonesia camel is a rare animal, so instead of a camel, they eat cows. Especially on this Qurban festival, it becomes so horrible. They kill thousands of cows and as a result so many natural calamities hit us like Tsunami and earthquakes. I feel so lucky that now I become a Hare Krishna…”
On August 11, 2019, it was Qurban. HG Yadhava Hari Prabhu who is the head of GAURI (Gau Raksha Indonesia) requested all the devotees to perform a special Go-Puja on that day in every ISKCON centre in Indonesia. Although we have been conducting Go-Puja every Purnima, on this day we performed Go-Puja to worship our Universal Mother, Mother cow, and pray to Lord Krishna for the well being of all the innocent cows who were killed for no-fault.
Around one hundred devotees came to our ISKCON Temple, Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandira, in Puncak, Bogor, Indonesia, to attend the regular Sunday love-feast, take part in the first day of the Jhulan Yatra festival and to enthusiastically perform the Go-Puja ceremony.
The aratika was performed by a very young but trained pujari named Bhakta Giridhari. The Hare Krishna Mahamantra was also being chanted continuously by the ecstatic youth kirtaniyas of Sri Sri Radha Govinda Brahmacari Ashram. After the aratika was done, all the devotees fed mother cows with some bananas. The day ended with the recitation of the “Sri Surabhi Mahatmya” lead by HG Vishnurata das.