Holy Name Retreat in Kharkov/Ukraine

On my arrival in Kharkov on the 10th of June I was welcomed by joyful devotees greeting me with a beautiful garland, affectionate words and happy smiles. It was nice to be back again....

Even though Kharkov is in the very East of Ukraine - only 180 km's away from the war zone and 60 km's from the Russian border, nevertheless life here is basically going on as usual. The only noticable effect of the war is the bad economy - a huge inflation with the Euro being 25 Hgr's now, whereas it was around 8 Hgr's last year. Prices are constantly increasing, but wages remaining the same. The gas for heating has increased six times in comparison to last year - people don't know how to survive the next winter. Also our devotees are struggling, and we are planning to switch over the temple heating system to wood....

Especially in such difficult times the devotees need association and encouragement. Naturally, foreign preachers are not so eager to visit this part of Ukraine at the moment, being afraid of instability, crime and violence.

We had scheduled a four-day Holy Name Retreat over the following weekend, and upon my arrival I immediately got involved in the organisation of this event, making sure that everything was nicely arranged. As two years ago, we rented the same holiday camp 45 km's outside of the city. Around one hundred devotees participated - many young devotees who had taken up the process of devotional service over the last two years. Also senior devotees attended the retreat, welcoming it as a wonderful opportunity to go into seclusion for four days and polish up their chanting habits in order to ongoingly deepen their relationship with the holy name.

On the day of arrival I collected lots a beautiful wildflowers and arranged the vases to decorate our little altar and Srila Prabhupada's Vyasasana. This little service always brings about a devotional mood within my heart - a great way to embark on a Holy Name Retreat....

The atmosphere was sweet and deep, and devotees gained valuable insights into deeper levels of chanting - in japa aswell as in kirtan. One day of mauna vrata helped us to be more introspective and do some internal work on our hearts. The holy name carries an echo called dvani, and even after chanting this echo still affects our heart. However, what immediately destroys this transcendental echo is unnecessary talk, or prajalpa. And little do we realize how much of our daily talking is unnecessary! Prajalpa immediately switches on the mundane mind, whereas the holy name stops the mind from rambling on and on.
As we know, overeating creates toxins within our gross body, and thus it is healthy to fast sometimes, simply to give the body a detoxifying break. In the same way, unnecessary talk creates toxins within our subtle body, especially the mind, and thus it is very beneficial to observe a little mauna vrata sometimes, simply to give the subtle body a detoxifying break!

Sometimes on such retreats the widely discussed question arises how we should chant - Hare Rama or Hare Ramo. In this regard it is interesting to note that in Bengali language the 'a' is pronounced as 'o'. In Bangladesh the devotees very commonly spell my name as 'Deboki', and they also pronounce it in this way. And of course the maha mantra they also pronounce as 'Hore Ramo'. It is simply a linguistic matter. And when we hear German or Chinese devotees chant the maha mantra, it again sounds rather different. Infact, when we learn to speak as a young child the palate within our mouth even develops differently, according to our language. So obviously we would not do right by telling the Bengali devotees that they have to change their chanting now and cannot chant 'Hore Ramo' any longer.

However, what will ruin our movement is the tendency of introducing new fashions, especially in regards to chanting the holy name. Once we get on deeper levels of chanting we will feel an ever increasing satisfaction. We will not feel the need to introduce new fashions - Radhe Radhe Syam Syam, or Hare Ramo, or whatever it may be. The mundane senses always demand a new kind of stimulation and satisfaction. And if this tendency enters our chanting, then it will remain mundane. We will not be able to receive the ultimate benefit which the chanting of the holy name can give. We will fall victim to this most dangerous mentality of thinking we have to come up with newer and newer ideas and practices, which will eventually water down the process of bhakti. Prabhupada was repeatedly warning us of this. And it is exactly this mentality, which will ruin our movement.

After concluding the retreat and returning to Kharkov I conducted a five-session seminar on the topic of giving and accepting shelter. Also for this community it is a highly relevant theme, especially since we have started some years ago to implement a mentor system. And this seminar gives deeper insights into the urgent need of having a mentor, and eventually becoming a mentor ourselves.
We spent a wonderful time together, churning this topic on deeper levels. Around 60 to 70 devotees participated every day - a good attendance, which I never expected! We even included the well attended regular Saturday morning program in this discussion, and also the Sunday feast lecture. Devotees felt genuinely encouraged and inspired, and we received valuable food-for-thought and practical tools to assess ourselves: to what extend we have actually accepted shelter within our spiritual practice. Witnessing the wonderful response and the deep realizations which devotees shared in the concluding session I felt very encouraged to again offer such systematic courses and seminars on my future visits to Kharkov.

On the 24th of June I flew off to Odessa for yet another Holy Name Retreat....

Your servant, Devaki dd