On our arrival in Mayapur on the 8th of December it took us a few days to settle into our nice ashram at the goshala and get into a regular daily routine. My two assistants had never been to India before, so I spent some time showing them around Mayapur so they could orientate themselves. Mayapur has become a big township by now....
And we started to make all the necessary arrangements for the upcoming Holy Name Retreat at Ekachakra Dham over Xmas - a program which over the years has become very dear to my heart.
We had a big group of 45 participants from every corner of the globe: Australia, North America, South Africa, different parts of Europe, Nigeria, South America, Russia, Ukraine - and of course India. The mood was once again so wonderful, sweet and deep. Spending four days together in seclusion and endeavoring to receive deeper insights into the secrets of chanting the holy name had a very uniting effect on the hearts of our participants and created a very confidential and intimate atmosphere. Even though we may not have known each and every persons names - nevertheless, the holy name set a special foundation to our relationships and united us on deeper levels of eternal reality: our relationship to Krishna through chanting His holy name.
We had a big group of 45 participants from every corner of the globe: Australia, North America, South Africa, different parts of Europe, Nigeria, South America, Russia, Ukraine - and of course India. The mood was once again so wonderful, sweet and deep. Spending four days together in seclusion and endeavoring to receive deeper insights into the secrets of chanting the holy name had a very uniting effect on the hearts of our participants and created a very confidential and intimate atmosphere. Even though we may not have known each and every persons names - nevertheless, the holy name set a special foundation to our relationships and united us on deeper levels of eternal reality: our relationship to Krishna through chanting His holy name.
During these retreats, the evening kirtans are always especially sweet. After going through the internal work of spending all day in hearing and discussing various aspects of chanting - when applying the same principles in the evening kirtans, we could indeed experience a different quality of kirtan, which I have only ever experienced in these retreats!
Subhadra Mataji from Croatia who is blind lead the most amazing kirtans, crying out in true helplessness. It struck me how such calamities of being blind can be turned around into the greatest blessing - a rare opportunity to cultivate a deeper level of helplessness in chanting the holy name! Her evening kirtans were the highlight of the whole event.
Let us remember the wonderful statement Srila Prabhupada made during the Mayapur festival in 1975:
"This chanting should go on. Instead of meetings, resolutions, dissolutions,
revolutions and then no solutions, there should be chanting."
Subhadra Mataji from Croatia who is blind lead the most amazing kirtans, crying out in true helplessness. It struck me how such calamities of being blind can be turned around into the greatest blessing - a rare opportunity to cultivate a deeper level of helplessness in chanting the holy name! Her evening kirtans were the highlight of the whole event.
Let us remember the wonderful statement Srila Prabhupada made during the Mayapur festival in 1975:
"This chanting should go on. Instead of meetings, resolutions, dissolutions,
revolutions and then no solutions, there should be chanting."
Chanting in kirtan has such a powerful and uniting effect, focusing everyone on the real goal of life, namely to re-connect with Krishna. In kirtan we are all equal – spirit souls chanting the holy name, no matter whether we are a new bhakta or a senior-most leader. Kirtan has the power to help us go beyond the bodily platform, to overcome all designations, all upadhis.
We all know the story of Mahaprabhu chanting in the Jharikhanda forest. He caused all the animals to chant the holy name and dance – the elephants, tigers, deer and monkeys. They forgot their animal-like conditioning: their
tiger-mentality, monkey-mentality, deer and elephant-mentality. They simply chanted and danced in ecstasy, and the deer and tigers were embracing, in fact even kissing each other! Such is the power of chanting the holy name. It promotes us all to our real identity of being spirit soul, an eternal, loving servant of the Lord.
These animals reflect our materialistic conditioning – we have a few elephant-like devotees among us. There are a few tiger-like persons around also, not so many deer-like devotees, and lots of monkey-like personalities. By chanting deeply, with longing to serve, we can free our hearts from all temporary designations and conditionings. We will give up our enmity and our tendency for quarrel and conflict. Instead, we will simply glorify the Lord in harmony and love, overcoming all bodily identifications and interests.
Can you imagine what an amazing effect it may have, if the devotees in each of our communities would assemble every day for two hours of kirtan? Not only the young devotees, but all devotees! This would indeed give everybody a most unique focus and would provide the solution to all misgivings, tensions and disagreements.
Such a simple solution, yet so difficult to put into practice!
During the closing ceremony on the last evening of the retreat, devotees shared wonderful realizations - by the mercy of Lord Nityananda the entire event had indeed reached many hearts .....
Your servant, Devaki dd
tiger-mentality, monkey-mentality, deer and elephant-mentality. They simply chanted and danced in ecstasy, and the deer and tigers were embracing, in fact even kissing each other! Such is the power of chanting the holy name. It promotes us all to our real identity of being spirit soul, an eternal, loving servant of the Lord.
These animals reflect our materialistic conditioning – we have a few elephant-like devotees among us. There are a few tiger-like persons around also, not so many deer-like devotees, and lots of monkey-like personalities. By chanting deeply, with longing to serve, we can free our hearts from all temporary designations and conditionings. We will give up our enmity and our tendency for quarrel and conflict. Instead, we will simply glorify the Lord in harmony and love, overcoming all bodily identifications and interests.
Can you imagine what an amazing effect it may have, if the devotees in each of our communities would assemble every day for two hours of kirtan? Not only the young devotees, but all devotees! This would indeed give everybody a most unique focus and would provide the solution to all misgivings, tensions and disagreements.
Such a simple solution, yet so difficult to put into practice!
During the closing ceremony on the last evening of the retreat, devotees shared wonderful realizations - by the mercy of Lord Nityananda the entire event had indeed reached many hearts .....
Your servant, Devaki dd
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