Realizations After the Polish Woodstock Festival

I left my bag at the site and so had to return the next day. I was fearful of returning as I might get engaged in physical labor which has never appealed to me, but I did not want to ask the devotees to get my things for me so I decided to go myself. It turned out to be Krishna's mercy on me that I could distribute the five Krishna—Reservoir of Pleasure which I had in my bag and collect three emails.

It is always an emotional experience to go to the site the next day. The torrent of mercy has become a trickle. The last day of Woodstock, hundreds of thousands of people were hearing about Krishna and getting Krishna prasadam, and now it was down to only hundreds of people getting prasadam, a very few at a time. It is simultaneously exhilarating to think how so many people benefited in a spiritual way, and depressing to think that such a large event will not happen till next year, so I always end up crying on the bus upon as I reflect on the abundant mercy of the festival and see the partially dismantled site.

I went to the few people taking prasadam and asked them how the food was and showed them the Krishna—Reservoir of Pleasure, telling them they could have it if they read English and they promised to read it. I try to choose the people who eat all the food on their plates since I think they are more appreciative. They are also less distracted by eating.

The previous day Indradyumna Swami engaged us in picking up trash in front of our festival. I found 12.10 zlotes while doing that and decided to use it to pay for food for the occasional people I meet who could not afford the 3 zlote (90 cent) meal. One boy liked the prasadam so much he wanted I second plate but didn't have enough money, and he was so grateful when I bought it for him. He said he could read English so I gave him a Krishna—Reservoir of Pleasure and took down his address.

I told one young girl in Polish, that if she could read English, I would give her this English book I had on Krishna. She agreed. Questions I couldn't ask her in Polish, I asked in English and she answered in Polish. I think I got more practice speaking Polish that day than the rest of the trip. And this girl was so liberal as to say I spoke Polish well. She was from Koszalin, a city on the Baltic coast, and I told her about the summer festival tour. She asked when the festivals were, I said I could email her the times. When she wrote her email address in my book she also wrote Hare Krishna and a bunch of hearts, and when I chanted kirtana to myself, she chanted along. She wanted to get a Krishna music CD, and I told her about our web sites in Polish and English where she might find some music. She seemed charmed by the devotees.

A boy from Gdansk, also on the Baltic coast, was also interested in hearing about our summer tour and considered that Kolobrzeg was not too far to travel for another Krishna experience. He also expressed interest in CDs of Krishna music.

A young architectural student and her boyfriend from Krakow who spoke English nicely inquired if we had a center there. I said we have no temple, but that they could write Trisama Prabhu about regular devotional gatherings in their area. I encouraged her to use her architectural skill to build at least one building for the glorification of God in her lifetime and that would be her perfection, and I told her about our proposed city of Mayapur. They also got my final Krishna—Reservoir of Pleasure.

Out of books, I was less inclined to stay and talk with people, so I took the next ride back, happy that by Krishna's grace I was able to cultivate a few more souls as Krishna's Village of Peace 2006 came to an end.

The remaining 9.10 zlote I gave to pay for the books I distributed.

I asked different devotees to tell me their experience of Woodstock:

Kavicandra Swami always likes opportunities to spread spiritual wisdom and so came back to the Woodstock festival once again. He felt there were less violence and better questions than before. "When we talk of Krishna we create an atmosphere where people can take shelter. Some devotees are always asking for mercy, but if you look up mercy in the dictionary, you find that it is something that is given. Actually we have so much mercy already, we do not need any more. We need to give out the mercy we already have and if we do that, we will find that we get more mercy."

Caturatma Prabhu came from Alachua for his second Woodstock festival, and it was nice for me to connect with one of my friends from there. He loved leading harinama, answering questions, and the association of Indradyumna Swami, so he was very happy at Krishna's Village of Peace. I asked him about his realizations, and he shared them with me:

"The most enlivening thing was the appreciation of the devotees by the young people there. They all either liked the devotees, liked what the devotees were doing, or liked the food." Caturatma served the prasadam (spiritual food) on several occasions and saw the positive reactions of the people, especially the universal "thumbs up" mudra. "These Polish kids are intelligent, and they can even think when they drink." He mentions that beer drinking is so popular in Poland the people have developed the ability to function normally after a few beers to the extent of still being able to ask intelligent philosophical questions. Also their questions indicate they have some prior knowledge of Eastern philosophy. I asked him what he would tell about his experience to his friends, and he said he would like to bring his whole Sadhu Sanga men's group there. They are mostly Prabhupada disciples with a lot of talent and could contribute in many ways and would have a great time, but it is probably not practical to organize.

Caturatma Prabhu also felt that Krishna was individual arranging experiences for him to help him in specific ways where he needed help and that was very powerful.

Nirguna Prabhu, who came to the last Woodstock, returned again, this time teaching yoga in addition to answering questions. He felt that the young people there accepted the devotees as authorities more this year.

Mahaprabhu Prabhu, a disciple of Radhanatha Swami from Mumbai, found the young people inquisitive and tolerant of other views. He is optimistic that just as the some of the hippies who came in contact with Prabhupada became devotees, some of these young people will become devotees by contact with Prabhupada's followers. In this world, no one wants to benefit you, without demanding anything in return. If we befriend these people, and they appreciate that we sincerely want to benefit them, they will be attracted.

Radhe Govinda Prabhu was in charge of the garbage this year and doing that was the high point of the festival for him. Once he just finished with the garbage as the Ratha-yatra returned, and he offered obeisances to Lord Jagannatha and felt satisfaction. He also reflected on watching the devotees and the nondevotees at the end of the festival. The nondevotees were wiped out and appeared disappointed, but the devotees were wiped out but smiling.

Nanda Kumara Prabhu recalls seeing how much love the boy Maharaja gave special mercy to showed for Maharaja as he participated in the final kirtana. Nanda Kumara starting picking up trash during that kirtana , and some of the appreciative young people helped him. People were always coming up to the devotees at all times in all places asking nice questions. We need more Polish speakers everywhere to answer them for next year.

Our security department had the realization that if you have bands play music that is too heavy, it brings out anger in the drunken people, and results in fights. Apparently there were two such bands like that, who were good musicians, some of whom were devotees, but whose music stirred up some people's anger. Once someone attacked the speaker in the questions and answers booth, late on the final evening. So for next year some adjustment will have to be made.

As for my realizations, they are spread throughout this story. The quote from Mother Theresa from Kolkata painted on the stairwell of the Kostrzyn school again comes to mind. "The greatest joy is to give to others." And what to speak of if the gift is love of God, the eternal gift, and the way to attain it. Lord Caitanya has descended to give the highest benediction of love of God to the most unqualified people. To be connected with His auspicious mission is the supreme benediction.

"The fruits [of devotional service] ripened and became sweet and nectarean. The gardener, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, distributed them without asking any price. All the wealth in the three worlds cannot equal the value of one such nectarean fruit of devotional service. Not considering who asked for it and who did not, nor who was fit and who unfit to receive it, Caitanya Mahaprabhu distributed the fruit of devotional service. The transcendental gardener, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, distributed handful after handful of fruit in all directions, and when the poor, hungry people ate the fruit, the gardener smiled with great pleasure" ( Sri Caitanya-caritamrita 9.27-30). So my realization is that the great gardener Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu smiled with great pleasure to see the otherwise unfortunate, drunken people singing and dancing and pulling the cart of Lord Jagannatha, and by His smiling glance, everyone connected with the event became blissful.

Questions and Answers: What is it like in Heaven?

We had Ratha-yatra at 11:30 a.m. which turned out to be the final one. As is often the case with Ratha-yatra, it was rainy lightly minutes before we were to leave, but it cleared up and was even sunny. I realized it was possible to chant, dance, and distribute flyers at the same time, so I was doing distribution probably half of the time. I know how people benefit from our festival, and thus I took pleasure in promoting it.

The Ratha-yatra went late and Maharaja decided to cancel the second Ratha-yatra altogether, not even replacing it with a harinama. Some of us who like harinama were disappointed, so we organized another harinama anyway. We knew Maharaja would not mind if we went out and distributed a few more thousand flyers and gave tens of thousands of people the chance to hear the holy name and dance in kirtana again. I wanted to do my questions and answer slot, so I could not go when the others had felt it best to schedule it, but I was happy just to encourage the devotees to do it. They went out for an hour or so and continued chanting for an hour and a half in front of the Ratha-yatra after they returned to our site. At the site, many young people, and an occasional older person, chanted and danced with us in great happiness. It was so nice to see.

My second day in questions and answers someone asked about what it is like in heaven. I explained to the audience that there is a difference between heaven and the kingdom of God. Heaven has a better standard of enjoyment than we have. Even in this world, there are heavenly places. For Americans, Hawaii is such a place, where it is always warm, there are many fruits, and beaches, etc. So heaven is like Hawaii but much, much better. But in heaven, the conception of being the enjoyer is still present. In the kingdom of God, everyone gives pleasure to God, and that is their great pleasure. In heaven, service to God exists, but there is also a sense of being an independent enjoyer. Then a young man asked, "Why perform so many austerities to go to a place that is just like here although with a better level of enjoyment?" I said, "You are intelligent. You have understood. It is much better to strive to go to the eternal kingdom of God." As in past years, someone always has some impressive realization, not something you would expect from a drunken youth, and it makes the service inspiring just to witness it. I am sure I wasn't smart enough to pick up on something like that at that age.

Izabela and Mikal came to questions and answers every day and listened to the bhajanas we had in the bhajana tent. On the last day Mikal inquired from me about the difference between the two Bhagavad-gitas we had, and I encouraged him to get the unabridged Bhagavata-gita As It Is or as they say here, Bhagavad-gita Taka Jaka Jest. He considered that 60 zlote ($18) is a small price for such a book. In the U.S.A . we sell them for $10, perhaps because we print a large quantity in English, and so they are cheaper. Mikal surprised me by saying he would like to travel with our tour for a couple of weeks next year. I didn't realize how much he was attracted to our programs. I said we had certain standards like no meat eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling, and I thought some commitment to chanting was required, so I suggested he get to know the local Krishna group in his area first, and went to find Trisama Prabhu, nama-hatta leader. He came and talked to Mikal. Apparently Mikal is from the same town as Dorota, my translator from my first Woodstock festival in 2001. I told him Dorota's hours in questions and answers and her email address so he could get in touch with her, and later noticed that Mikal and Izabela came to hear her speak in the Q & A tent.

After the final kirtana by Indradyumna Swami which had caught the rapt attention of one-third to one-half our large tent, engaging most in dancing, I went to the bhajana tent to hoping to continue till 5:00 a.m. We just had chanted for ten minutes, and got the microphones and harmonium set up when our security people said we had to stop because it was not safe enough. I was aware we had security people guarding our place the whole night and I thought that was sufficient, but there were more incidents of physical violence this year, so they wanted to be strict about it. It was a great disappointment to me because I always like to stay up till sunrise (5:00 a.m.) as we did three and four years ago. The people who come always appreciate it and for me it is a small sacrifice to give grateful people a little more mercy.

Just minutes before we left someone stole my shoes, which is indicative of the mood of some of the more drunk people. The loss of the shoes was a benediction as they did not fit properly and gave me so many blisters I only wore them half the time. Now I will be forced to buy some new ones.

Singing and Dancing at Woodstock Festival

I slept three hours as it is hard for me to sleep when day has come and others are up. I was able to chant my rounds, take breakfast, and use the Internet for half an hour before Ratha-yatra. That Indradyumna Swami lead kirtana a lot was a nice feature of this year's Ratha-yatra. All the devotees were really enlivened and the Woodstock youth picked up on the mood, many of them dancing with the devotees. Maharaja showed some special mercy to one guy who looked really out of it, and the guy miraculously became really enlivened. Maharaja engaged him in sweeping in front of the cart, in dancing, and Maharaja finally embraced him. That boy came to all the Ratha-yatras and the final kirtana on the last day, and appeared very happy and in a sober condition.

After the Ratha-yatras the kirtana would continue for some time. One girl had just gotten a plate of prasadam, when she saw the kirtana in front of the Ratha-yatra cart. She ran over to the cart and began dancing ecstatically with the devotees, with a big smile on her face, still holding the plate of prasadam in her hand!

Later in the day I talked to one girl who was committed to her Catholic religion but a little curious as well. She could understand English, but could not speak English. I would talk to her in English, and she would talk to her friend in Polish, and her friend would talk to me in English. She asked about our purpose in coming here. I said our main purpose was to people to benefit spiritually. We were not just trying to convince people of our spiritual path, but if they didn't have one, we would advocate ours. I mentioned about the Catholic Saint Francis who considered that the animals were his brothers and sisters, and that we thought it would be better if Christians adopted that exemplary mentality. In the course of the discussion she made the point that the giving up intoxication and meat eating is consistent with the actual teaching of the Bible, but it is hard to follow so no one does. I made the point that that is the main problem with religion. People claim to belong to a certain religion but do not actually follow the principles of the religion, and thus they do not get the promised spiritual advancement.

On Friday, we had an evening harinama instead of Ratha-yatra, probably because of the crowded conditions. Many young people chanted and danced as usual. Once we went back and forth through rows of tables crowded with people drinking beer. As our lively party of dancers passed, two girls dressed in black, eagerly got up from their table, beer cans in hand, and began dancing with the devotee girls at the front of our harinama party. They learned the dance steps by imitation, and after twenty minutes or so, they had either finished their beers or through them away to concentrate on their dancing. When our party stopped in one place for fifteen minutes or so, the girls followed the movements of the female dancers from Bali, this year's attraction at our stage shows at our festivals, and learned them as well. I had to take a break to go to the questions and answers service, which I found was preempted by more ambitious devotee, but when I got back after the half an hour or so, those two girls were still dancing with our party. At one point, the devotee girls' gave them their own flower garlands to wear. They ended up staying until we returned to Krishna's Village of Peace and continued chanting there for twenty minutes or so until the kirtana ended. While we chanted and danced before Lord Jagannatha and his brother and sister atop their chariot in the center of our village, Indradyumna Swami sprayed the hot chanters and dancers with a mist of water from the hose, enlivening them and cooling them off.

I was dancing to the final kirtana on the main stage, and a boy approached me with great feeling and said, "Remember me?" I have such a bad memory for faces, so I didn't and so just stared blankly. Then he said, "You gave me a plate of food last year." Then I remembered. I was dancing in kirtana and this boy wanted something. The volume of the music was so loud, I could not understand what he wanted, so we went outside to talk. He told me he wanted some free food, so I made a plate of whatever the devotees had for lunch and gave it to him. I was delayed for sometime, but he was still waiting for food, and he was very thankful. This year he remembered the event with the same gratitude. He said of all the Americans he knows, I am the best. (Of course, he does not know Indradyumna Swami.)

In previous years when we had more space, we had continuous kirtana in both a temple tent and a meditation tent. This year, neither were planned, thus some of us felt a lacking. Even some of the people coming to our festival wondered where the temple and meditation tents were and lamented their absence. At Shanti Parayana Prabhu's suggestion and with his encouragement, we turned the yoga tent into a bhajana (devotional songs) tent from 9:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. We often had between thirty and forty people, with five to fifteen dancing in the center. Several people chanted the mantra for over an hour, some smiling the whole time. Indradyumna Swami came by around 3:00 a.m., after Black Summer Crush, a band he had invited from America, had finished on the Woodstock main stage. Their final song was a Hare Krishna tune, heard by hundreds of thousands of people. When Indradyumna Swami came by our tent a peaceful devotee lady named Jana was singing. Later he told me he liked her singing. I hoped to continue our singing in the yoga-turned- bhajana tent to 5:00 a.m. (sunrise) on the final day, and I promised some of my friends we would do this.

Woodstock: Meeting & Making Friends and Rathayatra

On the last day of our festival in Kolobrzeg, the largest city we have a festival in on the Baltic Sea coast, two people promised they would see us at Woodstock.

One, Izabela (Isabel), had come to question and answers for two days in Kolobrzeg. Although a Catholic, as most people in Poland, she had developed enough interest in Krishna consciousness that she had downloaded a song called Govinda from a devotee web site and inquired out of curiosity about Govinda from Nirguna Prabhu at our Q & A booth. She also had either won a sari or bought one, which she wore on the last day. She happened to live in Kostrzyn, site of the Woodstock festival, so the devotees invited her to come and she said she would. Yesterday I thought I saw her as our harinama party passed people in the crowd, and today as I looked at the audience in questions and answers, I saw her there, with her boyfriend. She later introduced me to her boyfriend, Mikal (Michael) and another male friend.

The other was a jovial rowdy guy who took pleasure in swinging the male devotees around in the final kirtana in Kolobrzeg, the most lively kirtana of the summer tour, so far. After the kirtana ended and we were leaving, he shook my hand and said "See you in Woodstock". As I was walking through our village in Woodstock, he smiled and said, "Remember me from Kolobrzeg? I told you I would see you in Woodstock!"

In my experience of trying to encourage people to attend devotional gatherings, so many people say they will come and never do, that although their words are inspiring to here, I cannot take them very seriously. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised that both people came as promised, and they came early enough to participate in our entire three-day festival.

We had two Ratha-yatras this day and these and the Ratha-yatras on the subsequent days were filled with a lot of young people dancing with us with great enthusiasm. In addition to dancing, it seemed to me that more of them were also chanting than in previous years. A nice feature was the throwing of prasadam apples, peaches, and bananas off the cart and into the crowd. Sometimes Indradyumna Swami himself did this. Everyone took pleasure in jumping, reaching for the fruit, and eating it. Once I got an orange which I broke into slices and distributed them to those who did not get anything. It was just another wave of bliss in the ocean.

The Ratha-yatras had another level of specialness for me as I had just been to the Puri Ratha-yatra one month before and its impressions were still in my mind. At these Ratha-yatra's at the Poland Woodstock festival, there were features that surpassed the one in Puri. Our deities were clearly visible, illuminated by the radiant sun, while the Puri deities, although impressive in size and riding on individual carts, are blocked by devotees riding the cart and shadowed by the cart's canopy so as to be only vaguely and partially visible. In India, there are so many opportunities to obtain the Lord's mercy from holy places, holy rivers, sadhus, and many Vedic literatures, that the Ratha-yatra is just another opportunity to come in contact with the form of Krishna. However, in Poland, contact with the form of the Supreme Lord, is rare and so for hundreds of thousands of people to see the transcendental form of Lord Jagannatha, at the Woodstock Ratha-yatra, or see His devotees absorbed in His service, is more of a benediction.

To prepare myself for questions and answers, I prayed to Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada, Lord Caitanya, and Krishna to be able to properly represent them. The questions were not too challenging nor too trivial, and unlike on the summer tours, they were no gaps when there were no questions. I felt very satisfied to do the service. My only lamentation is since we had one venue instead of three and I could only do two hours over the three-day period. Last year, on the final day alone, I did seven hours.

During free time, I sometimes wandered through the young people taking prasadam, and I would ask people who appeared to like the prasadam if they knew English. Sometimes I read Bhagavad-gita in a public place, like the shade of the Ratha cart, and would talk to people who started a conversation with me. One devotee wore a sign saying that he could answer questions in English, but I was to shy to wear such a sign.

One boy, Rafael, who spoke English nicely said he had come for three years. Of the prasadam, he said he liked the havala the best. I told him about the Ratha-yatra, and its schedule of 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. each day, and he seemed interested.

One girl from the middle of Germany, about seven hours from Berlin, came with some friends. She had met the Hare Krishnas at some festival in Hungary and had learned the mantra. She and her friend were impressed with how the devotees appeared to be very balanced and to be very happy. I explained there is a higher spiritual happiness that the devotees are connected with. I gave her a card for our Krishna.com web site and said wrote the address of our German site on it, Krishna.de. I told her she could meet me the next day at questions and answers after my slot at 7:00 p.m., but she did not come.

One boy came up to me and said we had talked for some time in Pobierowo last year. I remembered him. He did not know English well enough to continue our discussion and I couldn't find any translators, so we agreed he would meet up at questions and answers the next day, but it didn't happen, unfortunately.

Sometimes people would say they had no money for food. I would joke with them, even in Polish, "How is it you have money for beer, but you have no money for food?" It was a sorry state that some had to make such a choice, and more sorry that they made the wrong choice.

Polish Woodstock

We started harinama and prasadam distribution the day before our three-day festival called Krishna's Village of Peace at the largest outdoor concert in Europe, the Poland Woodstock, in Kostrzyn. Our first harinama began around 1:00 and went till about 2:30 p.m., when we had covered the whole festival area. The devotees passed out about 5,000 flyers. I would say at least fifteen people danced with us in a very lively way, and more followed behind. I think some of the people had previous experience with the dancing because it came so naturally to them, and they appeared so happy doing it. It made me happy to see the people happy to sing and dance with us. A couple of the girls looked familiar, perhaps because they danced with us last year. One boy smiled and came up to me saying he remembered me from past years. Indradyumna Maharaja, organizer of our event, decided we would do another harinama later at 6:00 p.m., when more people had come.

I missed the bus to the second harinama. I asked if I could go in another van that was just leaving, but they said it was full. I laughed because I had just come back from India recently, a place where they could fit twice that number of people in a van. Gopala Hari Prabhu also needed a ride. I encouraged them to take Gopala Hari Prabhu, who was one of the scheduled chanters, and so they did. Then Gopala kindly convinced them to take me, so I got to go.

I was surprised to see Hari Sauri Prabhu's wife in the car. Apparently she and her daughter decided to come to the Polish Woodstock for the first time.

On the second harinama, many, many people danced with us, including some of the Woodstock festival's security volunteers, in their red uniforms.

After the harinama, I talked to a girl named Ewelina (Evelin) who was studying English and so spoke very well. Initially she got my attention to ask the ingredients of the papadam. I had learned them in Polish from a previous festival, so I told them to her the best I could in Polish, till I found out she knew English. She had taken prasadam with us in previous years. She also wanted the recipe for halava, which I told her she could probably find in our Polish cookbook when we set up tomorrow or by searching on the internet. They both really like the prasadam which they say is the most inexpensive food at Woodstock. Her boyfriend Daniel said he has been waiting for this food for a whole year, since last festival. That is amazing because he is such a meat eater that he told Ewelina that if they got married, she would have to prepare meat for him, although she is vegetarian. We had an interesting conversation, in which I was able to make several points. (1) The problem with religion today is that people do not actually practice their religion. (2) People take shelter in intoxication, because they are not offered a superior spiritual shelter. [She had made the point that people drink in Poland because they are depressed. It is hard to get a job, and the jobs pay poorly.] (3) Lord Caitanya, who started this program of chanting and dancing, wanted to introduce a universal religious process that people would find enjoyable enough to practice. They live 80 km from our Wroclaw temple, so I am encouraging them to go there for the Sunday feast occasionally so they will not have to wait another year to get Krishna food. She also told me that when she went home after the festival one year, she could not get the mantra out of her mind. She also expressed some interest in looking at the Forbidden Archeology book which I had described to her. There is a saying in Bengal that you only have to test one grain of rice to tell the condition of the whole pot. How wonderful it is if every one who goes to our festival appreciates as much as Ewelina and her boyfriend did. They were the first and only people I talked to on this first day at the site.

I also took our Food for Peace prasadam, and it was better than last year. Each preparation, the bean soup, the rice, the halava, and the papadam, was tasty. I might even be able to eat the bean soup three days in a row this time.