Ganges Voyager II Postcard #11 – Mayapur, Chandannagar

Last night’s surprise was quite magical, after dinner we were invited up on the sun deck to see surprise number one which was a trail of candles floating down the river past the boat. Crew had taken the sampan up river and were releasing them into the water and the effect was stunning.

Then we were invited off the boat onto the bank where there crew had made a fire and set up speakers to play music to dance to, it was great fun. The evening was finished off with fireworks and the releasing of Chinese lanterns.

We awoke this morning to find ourselves anchored near the other side of the river in front of the Chandrodaya Temple of ISKCON.

At 7:30 we set off by sampan to the bank and then walked for about 10 minutes to reach the temple complex. Today we had a local guide to show us around and explain the principles of the Krishna movement. We were shown around Prabhupada Pushpa Samadhi Mandir which is dedicated to Srila Prabhpada, the founder of ISKCON. A beautiful building inside and out and despite there being many signs saying no photography, our guide said please feel free to take photos, so I did.

We didn’t actually visit the main temple as it is still under construction but we we shown around a smaller temporary one right next to it. Again although there were signs saying no photography, our guide said go ahead. Below are two of the interior.

I did find a few angles where we could get a photo or two of the exterior of new one as we were walking around which will have to do.

We were back onboard by 10:00 and on our way to Chandannagar more or less straight after. The rest of our morning was spent on the sunbeds at the back until the lunchtime gong was sounded. At 5:00 we took a sampan trip over to the bank for a quick walk along the Chandannagar promenade before returning back to the boat to prepare for the evening.

We have dancers coming aboard then for the farewell dinner.

2 thoughts on “Ganges Voyager II Postcard #11 – Mayapur, Chandannagar”

  1. How lovely that the crew did that for you. I went to a Ganga Aarti ceremony in Rishikesh and stood on the steps of a temple and floated a boat made of banana leaves with flowers and a candle down the Ganges. It looked so pretty, similar to what you experienced. You’ve made me want to return to India.

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