Chittagong & Cox's Bazar/Bangladesh

On my arrival in Chittagong on the 29th of November we made plans to arrange for some special evening prasadam for the 1st of December - my birthday. I had a team of boys who were helping me to feed around 150 devotees, and we decided for a nice pasta subji with paneer, vanilla custard and mango sauce. All these preparations are a little exotic for our Bangla devotees - sometimes the senses like some different taste for a change....!

On this evening I was scheduled to give a program on the topic of "Srila Prabhupada - Our Founder Acarya". I felt it was very befitting to speak on Srila Prabhupada on that day, since he had given me my second birth - true life! Afterwards I had the pleasure to serve prasadam to everyone. The devotees from Pundarik Dham had made a very tasty cake, and I had to be part of a little cake-cutting ceremony, which was fun to everyone present....

I was scheduled to offer the course "Men and Women in Spiritual Culture" over three entire days - for the very first time in Bangladesh. Our youth preachers had requested me to conduct this course, and a nice group of around 120 devotees eagerly participated. It was nice to see that the brahmacaris and student boys were also open to this topic and eagerly attended the course. We had a couple of role plays, which were very funny and illustrative, showing the competitive woman who thinks herself to be equal, and the submissive one, who is the auspicious source of energy and inspiration to man. Some boys were playing the role of a woman, dressing up in a sari and even wearing a wig with long hair. Only the movements were lacking feminine touch - much to everyone's amusement....!
The printed materials with so many wonderful quotes from Srila Prabhupada's purports to the Bhagavatam had been translated into Bengali, and everybody received a copy. We all realized, how even in this part of the world this kind of education is becoming most relevant and needed, since Kali Yuga is also making a stronger advance here - mainly through internet. Maya has gone high-tech....! The course also helped building the bridges towards the Western world, giving our Bangla devotees deeper insights where we Western devotees are coming from, and what kind of conditioning we are carrying with us. It became very clear how much more internal transformational work we have to perform in order to free ourselves from the material tastes, likes and dislikes, world views and patterns of behavior.

We also conducted one evening program for the temple devotees on the topic of prajalpa. In his book Bhaktyaloka Bhaktivinoda Thakur classifies prajalpa into various categories: useless talk, arguments, gossip, debates, fault-finding in others, speaking falsehoods, blaspheming devotees and wordly talk. Interesting to understand that debates also fall into the category of prajalpa. When debating, the false ego is very much involved, and the goal is simply to win the debate and proof that we are right, and everybody else is wrong. There is no inquiry in submission, no desire to hear and transform. Such kind of debates are very contaminating, because of the poisoning effect of the false ego. Of course, internet is a perfect tool for all these kind of prajalpas. Sometimes we get dragged into debates over internet, and it becomes very hard to withdraw from it. It can go on and on - forever. Whatever we say - the other party twists things around, makes a weapon out of it and throws it back at us. And then we feel we can't just leave it at that, but have to respond. And in this way the ego involves us, and our heart becomes filled with pride, aggression and envy. Best to simply withdraw and let it go by. Sometimes it can take quite some time until we shake off this contaminating effect from our heart, which such debates bring along. False ego, pride and envy are the root cause for all these kinds of prajalpa. As long as we engage in them, it will not be possible for us to develop bhakti within our hearts, and to chant the holy name without offence.
In Kurma Prabhu's book "The Transcendenal Adventure" he describes an episode, where Prabhupada heavily chastises devotees for engaging in prajalpa, and Prabhupada exclaims: "Prajalpa - it will destroy our movement!" How true this is! The main dangers and threats don't come from outside ISKCON, but from within. Prabhupada knew very well.....

When the telex machine was the latest technology, the devotees were happily showing Prabhupada this new invention, suggesting that every temple should have such machine. But Prabhupada did not like the idea. He stated: "If every temple has such machine, you will gossip all over the world....."

The temple president of Cox's Bazar had urged me to visit his yatra, so I accepted his invitation and traveled to Cox's Bazar, which is a touristic town on the beach, 150 km's South of Chittagong. Apparently it is known to have the longest sea beach in the world - 125 km's of unbroken sandy beach. I remember how some years ago, on my last visit to the beaches of Cox's Bazar our van had gotten stuck in the sand, and it took us the entire afternoon to dig it out! It almost seemed like Krsna was giving us an instant reaction for making plans for sense gratification.....! We even had to cancel the evening program....! So this time I rather gave it a miss - I have truly seen enough beaches in this life time, and somewhat lost taste for it.... The power of the process of devotional service - we actually transform our taste....

I enjoyed associating with the devotees in morning, afternoon and evening programs over two days, churning various topics. The student preaching is also here very successful, and many new and intelligent young people are taking to Krsna consciousness. The evening programs were also well attended by many devotees, who were eager to hear and chant.

On the 9th of December I flew back to Dhaka and on to Kolkata.....,

Your servant, Devaki dd