On the 18th of September I arrived in Barcelona/Spain - it was my first visit to this temple. It is in a good location - in the centre of the city, on a square in a touristy area, off the main mall leading to the harbour, with little shops, bistros and the Spanish style street cafes. Childhood memories came to my mind - I had been here before in my childhood, in 1968.
Even though Spain certainly has a strong heritage of spiritual culture and religion, nevertheless preaching Krishna consciousness is not so easy here.
The atmosphere is surcharged with all kinds of alluring possibilities for sense gratification, and it seems a challenge to catch people's serious interest in spiritual practice. The temple is in the midst of the nightlife area of Barcelona, and not many brahmacharis managed to survive. Furthermore, the temple cannot advertise their Govinda's Restaurant, since one needs a special permission to have a restaurant in this area, and the neighboring restaurants complain if Govinda's gets too prominent. Thus, the devotees cannot even openly advertise the temple and the restaurant, and only very serious people can work out where exactly it is located. Every country has its challenges in preaching...!
The atmosphere is surcharged with all kinds of alluring possibilities for sense gratification, and it seems a challenge to catch people's serious interest in spiritual practice. The temple is in the midst of the nightlife area of Barcelona, and not many brahmacharis managed to survive. Furthermore, the temple cannot advertise their Govinda's Restaurant, since one needs a special permission to have a restaurant in this area, and the neighboring restaurants complain if Govinda's gets too prominent. Thus, the devotees cannot even openly advertise the temple and the restaurant, and only very serious people can work out where exactly it is located. Every country has its challenges in preaching...!
I was invited to offer a number of morning- and evening programs and the Sunday feast lecture, which was very well attended. I was amazed how many nice people gathered, from all different national backgrounds! So I had a blissful time connecting with people at the book table after the class.
Vaishnava etiquette and culture is our saving grace, helping us to transform into Vaishnavas by giving up inappropriate behaviour and habits unfavourable for the cultivation of bhakti.
It is an important rule of Vaishnava etiquette that physical intimacy between husband and wife should not be exchanged in public. Of course, nowadays, non-devotees consider it normal to hold hands, embrace, touch or kiss in public. But for Vaishnavas, it is unacceptable. We clearly understand that such dealings contaminate the atmosphere around us and promote the mood of sense gratification and lustful affairs; we therefore have these exchanges in private – behind closed doors. We don’t want to make a public display of our intimacy, and would rather keep it confidential and personal. It will also help to preserve its deeper meaning for us.
In a lecture on the Srimad-Bhagavatam (6.1.56-62) given in Surat on 3rd January 1971, Srila Prabhupada confirms this point: "Therefore these things should be very secretly done. Everyone knows that a husband, wife, have sex intercourse. But not like cats and dogs. That is human civilisation. Not that on the road the boy or the girl is embracing, kissing, and having sex life. This is animal life."
The story of Ajamila teaches us how contaminating it is to witness lustful exchanges between a man and woman. In the same way, Saubhari Muni, while meditating underwater, happened to see a pair of mating fish and, as a result, lost all spiritual strength – even though the mere mating of fish has not been known to induce highly romantic and lustful feelings. Nonetheless, these examples clearly illustrate the contaminating effect such exchanges have upon one who witnesses them.
The same rule is also valid for physical exchanges between other grown-up family members of both genders – between a father and his grown-up daughter, or between a grown-up brother and his grown-up sister. In fact, in Vaishnava culture, grown-up family members do not express their affection for each other by embracing and kissing members of the other gender either in public, or at home.
After all, the shastra suggests they should not even sit on the same seat, let alone exchange physical gestures of affection! This is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (9.19.17): "One should not allow oneself to sit on the same seat even with one’s own mother, sister or daughter, for the senses are so strong that even though one is very advanced in knowledge, he may be attracted by sex."
Only small children are fondled to show them affection by the elders in the family, but once they are grown up, embraces take place only between family members of the same gender. Vaishnava culture advises a grown child to respectfully touch their parent’s feet, whereupon they respond by affectionately rubbing their child’s head, thereby giving blessings. This aspect of Vaishnava etiquette protects young girls and grown-up women from abuse, which unfortunately nowadays takes place very commonly amongst family members.
On the 24th of September I moved on to Cologne/Germany...
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
Vaishnava etiquette and culture is our saving grace, helping us to transform into Vaishnavas by giving up inappropriate behaviour and habits unfavourable for the cultivation of bhakti.
It is an important rule of Vaishnava etiquette that physical intimacy between husband and wife should not be exchanged in public. Of course, nowadays, non-devotees consider it normal to hold hands, embrace, touch or kiss in public. But for Vaishnavas, it is unacceptable. We clearly understand that such dealings contaminate the atmosphere around us and promote the mood of sense gratification and lustful affairs; we therefore have these exchanges in private – behind closed doors. We don’t want to make a public display of our intimacy, and would rather keep it confidential and personal. It will also help to preserve its deeper meaning for us.
In a lecture on the Srimad-Bhagavatam (6.1.56-62) given in Surat on 3rd January 1971, Srila Prabhupada confirms this point: "Therefore these things should be very secretly done. Everyone knows that a husband, wife, have sex intercourse. But not like cats and dogs. That is human civilisation. Not that on the road the boy or the girl is embracing, kissing, and having sex life. This is animal life."
The story of Ajamila teaches us how contaminating it is to witness lustful exchanges between a man and woman. In the same way, Saubhari Muni, while meditating underwater, happened to see a pair of mating fish and, as a result, lost all spiritual strength – even though the mere mating of fish has not been known to induce highly romantic and lustful feelings. Nonetheless, these examples clearly illustrate the contaminating effect such exchanges have upon one who witnesses them.
The same rule is also valid for physical exchanges between other grown-up family members of both genders – between a father and his grown-up daughter, or between a grown-up brother and his grown-up sister. In fact, in Vaishnava culture, grown-up family members do not express their affection for each other by embracing and kissing members of the other gender either in public, or at home.
After all, the shastra suggests they should not even sit on the same seat, let alone exchange physical gestures of affection! This is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (9.19.17): "One should not allow oneself to sit on the same seat even with one’s own mother, sister or daughter, for the senses are so strong that even though one is very advanced in knowledge, he may be attracted by sex."
Only small children are fondled to show them affection by the elders in the family, but once they are grown up, embraces take place only between family members of the same gender. Vaishnava culture advises a grown child to respectfully touch their parent’s feet, whereupon they respond by affectionately rubbing their child’s head, thereby giving blessings. This aspect of Vaishnava etiquette protects young girls and grown-up women from abuse, which unfortunately nowadays takes place very commonly amongst family members.
On the 24th of September I moved on to Cologne/Germany...
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
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