Rupa Ragunath Prabhu from Australia had joined the Sydney temple shortly after me in the mid eighties', and over the years we had met every now and again in Mayapur. For all these years he had been a dedicated book distributor, and now I had invited him and Dvija-nayaka Prabhu from Croatia to join me on my visit to Bangladesh. On the 6th of March, after relaxing in Dhaka for a couple of days we took a domestic flight to Sylhet, where we spent the following days over Gaur Purnima.
The Sylhet devotees were joyfully receiving us for the upcoming festival, especially since many of their devotees were still in Mayapur. After all, visitors always uplift the atmosphere of a festival.....
The three of us took turns in giving the morning- and evening-program, and after a couple of days the two "boys" went on an excursion for several days to various holy places: Advaita Acarya's birthplace, Madhavendra Puri's original bhajan kutir, and Jagannath Mishra's original residency.
Like so many associates of Maharprabhu, Advaita Acarya appeared here in East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. His birth place is on the Padma River which marks the border to India, where he performed one rather amazing pastime: One day his erlderly parents wanted to go on parikrama to visit all the holy places, and Advaita Acarya said: "You are old now - no need for you to go on parikrama. I will bring all the holy waters here to appear in the Padma River." And surely enough, still up to this very day there is one particular day in the Vaisnava calendar when the Padma River swells up, and her waters mysteriously rise during the night. There are thousands of pilgrims who come for this event, since all the holy rivers appear in the Padma River. And everybody calls out "Ganga Mata Ki Jaya", performs puja with lamps, and dives into her waters in great jubilation. It is almost a little scary and spooky - especially since it is around midnight, and people go wild in ecstacy....
Many Hindu societies offer preaching programs on this occasions, and ISKCON also has a big pandal tent with devotees giving lectures and distributing books and kitchari prasadam.
The three of us took turns in giving the morning- and evening-program, and after a couple of days the two "boys" went on an excursion for several days to various holy places: Advaita Acarya's birthplace, Madhavendra Puri's original bhajan kutir, and Jagannath Mishra's original residency.
Like so many associates of Maharprabhu, Advaita Acarya appeared here in East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. His birth place is on the Padma River which marks the border to India, where he performed one rather amazing pastime: One day his erlderly parents wanted to go on parikrama to visit all the holy places, and Advaita Acarya said: "You are old now - no need for you to go on parikrama. I will bring all the holy waters here to appear in the Padma River." And surely enough, still up to this very day there is one particular day in the Vaisnava calendar when the Padma River swells up, and her waters mysteriously rise during the night. There are thousands of pilgrims who come for this event, since all the holy rivers appear in the Padma River. And everybody calls out "Ganga Mata Ki Jaya", performs puja with lamps, and dives into her waters in great jubilation. It is almost a little scary and spooky - especially since it is around midnight, and people go wild in ecstacy....
Many Hindu societies offer preaching programs on this occasions, and ISKCON also has a big pandal tent with devotees giving lectures and distributing books and kitchari prasadam.
While Rupa Ragunath and Dvija-nayaka Prabhus were on their tour, I offered a three session seminar on the topic of "Obstacles in Cultivating Bhakti" back at the main temple in Sylhet. Over three evenings we discussed the various facets of envy and prajalpa being a very common and often unidentified stumbling block, which greatly obstructs our cultivation of bhakti. And not only that - it contaminates other devotees' hearts aswell and creates politics. Often prajalpa has its root cause in envy - we criticize and find faults in others because our heart is full of envy, and thus we try to establish our superior position, demonstrating that we are better.
Our brahmacaris and student boys performed very nice role plays demonstrating the envious and non-envious behavior towards seniors, equals and juniors, and our participants received deep insights into the topic, discovering these tendencies in their own hearts.
Our brahmacaris and student boys performed very nice role plays demonstrating the envious and non-envious behavior towards seniors, equals and juniors, and our participants received deep insights into the topic, discovering these tendencies in their own hearts.
The devotees kept me busy with further programs: a morning class, a University program for newcomers, and a couple of programs with our practicing students at their hostel. In this part of the world it is still valued as a form of recreation and social life to meet and discuss Krsna consciousness!
Friday (which is here the main holiday of the week) I was invited to give the evening program. The open Nath Mandir (temple room) was packed with young people, and the wheather was testing everyone's sincerity: it started raining, and the electricity went off. But nevertheless, we were able to conquer over those challenges and keep a good focus, and we concluded the program with distributing Prabhupada's books.
Rupa Ragunath and Dvija-nayaka Prabhus returned to Sylhet for Gaur Purnima. Saturday evening we had a sweet adhivas program: little Gaur Nitai had kindly agreed to appear on a simple altar in a nice little straw hut in the temple room, which created a very personal and intimate atmosphere. And the pujaris performed the adhivas ceremony very expertly, involving senior and also us visiting devotees to offer various articles to Their Lordships, accompanied by sweet kirtan.
Gaur Purnima fell this year on a Sunday, which is the first working day in a Muslim country. I was invited to give the morning class, sharing the internal and more confidential reasons for the Lord's appearance as Mahaprabhu. Even though it was a working day, nevertheless many devotees came to the temple, and after class we went on a big harinam. The procession was permitted by the city authorities, and all along the way we received good protection by armed police. It was perfect timing - around 10am, when the main streets were not too busy and congested yet, but enough people were there to see us.
Throughout the day we chanted in kirtan in front of the Deities, and in the afternoon I gave another talk sharing Lord Caitanya's pastimes with a more general audience.
And the final event was an elaborate abhishek of Sri Sri Gaur Nitai, taking place on a big stage, so devotees could be absorbed in witnessing this feast for the mind. I was moved how the boys invited me first to initiate the abhishek by allowing me to offer so many different items to Their Lotdships. In this part of the world the boys see a woman as mother, and the honor and respect she is offered is an expression of their affection and gratitude....
Friday (which is here the main holiday of the week) I was invited to give the evening program. The open Nath Mandir (temple room) was packed with young people, and the wheather was testing everyone's sincerity: it started raining, and the electricity went off. But nevertheless, we were able to conquer over those challenges and keep a good focus, and we concluded the program with distributing Prabhupada's books.
Rupa Ragunath and Dvija-nayaka Prabhus returned to Sylhet for Gaur Purnima. Saturday evening we had a sweet adhivas program: little Gaur Nitai had kindly agreed to appear on a simple altar in a nice little straw hut in the temple room, which created a very personal and intimate atmosphere. And the pujaris performed the adhivas ceremony very expertly, involving senior and also us visiting devotees to offer various articles to Their Lordships, accompanied by sweet kirtan.
Gaur Purnima fell this year on a Sunday, which is the first working day in a Muslim country. I was invited to give the morning class, sharing the internal and more confidential reasons for the Lord's appearance as Mahaprabhu. Even though it was a working day, nevertheless many devotees came to the temple, and after class we went on a big harinam. The procession was permitted by the city authorities, and all along the way we received good protection by armed police. It was perfect timing - around 10am, when the main streets were not too busy and congested yet, but enough people were there to see us.
Throughout the day we chanted in kirtan in front of the Deities, and in the afternoon I gave another talk sharing Lord Caitanya's pastimes with a more general audience.
And the final event was an elaborate abhishek of Sri Sri Gaur Nitai, taking place on a big stage, so devotees could be absorbed in witnessing this feast for the mind. I was moved how the boys invited me first to initiate the abhishek by allowing me to offer so many different items to Their Lotdships. In this part of the world the boys see a woman as mother, and the honor and respect she is offered is an expression of their affection and gratitude....
On the following day of Jagannath Misra's festival we traveled to the nearby town of Moulvi Bazar and conducted a very wonderful program, with many enthusiastic people attending and receiving Prabhupada's books which are always my most ecstatic moments of such public events. After taking sumptious prasadam we traveled on to our farm outside of Kulaura and stayed for one night. The local devotees were delighted to receive us, and after I gave the SB class on the following morning we went for a little walk around the farm property. ISKCON has a lot of land here with forest bedecked hills, and recently the devotees planted thousands of more trees.
We finally traveled back to Sylhet and concluded our visit with a sweet kirtan program for the temple devotees and students.
On the 15th of March we flew back to Dhaka.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
We finally traveled back to Sylhet and concluded our visit with a sweet kirtan program for the temple devotees and students.
On the 15th of March we flew back to Dhaka.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
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