Memories of Nirguna Prabhu

I want to share with you some words of glorification of Nirguna Prabhu, a dedicated book distributor and follower of Srila Prabhupada, who passed away on November 3, 2007, in Mayapur, surrounded by devotees chanting the holy name. This account includes a conclusion which is not included in the versions of this on http://www.dandavants.com/ or send to my email list, so if you have read those versions, you might skip down to the conclusion.
I will include notes from our travels together, notes on his lectures, a nice story told by Niranjana Swami about him, and perhaps most importantly, notes from his seminar on book distribution at the 2005 Odessa festival.

Nirguna Prabhu on the Polish Festival Tour

I got to know Nirguna Prabhu when he inquired from me about the Polish festival tour when were attending the Festival of Inspiration in New Vrindavana in May 2005. Seeing thousands of people coming in touch with the culture of Krishna consciousness each day on the Polish festival tour makes me so happy I love to participate in them. Many people ask me for details about the festival, but few actually show up, so I was pleasantly surprised to see Nirguna Prabhu arrive for the Polish Woodstock festival in July of 2005. On the Polish festival tour Nirguna Prabhu would go on harinama, answer questions, and teach yoga. I was fortunate to serve Nirguna Prabhu by holding an umbrella over his head at harinama on one rainy day at Polish Woodstock festival.

Nirguna once mentioned that when he teaches yoga, he has the students chant the maha-mantra one word at a time. Indradyumna Swami asked, “Do they do it?”
Nirguna said, “Yes, they like it very much.”

Notes from a class given by Nirguna Prabhu on the Polish tour, August 10, 2005:
He glorified Indradyumna Swami for his determination. “His only business is to use each moment to spread the glories of the holy name.” Regarding the spread of Krishna consciousness in Poland, Indradyumna Swami says he is simply a witness to all the things going on. “He appreciated the devotees’ service. He bought ice cream for all the setup devotees, and when he ran out he drove to town to buy some more.” Nirguna expressed appreciation for the cooperation of the devotees on the tour. He recalled Prabhupada’s statement that the devotees could please him by their cooperation to serve his mission. If we have an appreciation of everyone’s service, no matter how different it is from our own, that will help us cooperate together. Our attachments in the world keep us so busy we have no time to hear and chant about Krishna. One may be younger or have come to Krishna consciousness more recently, but they may be lifetimes ahead of us. One may do so much service, but the real measure of our Krishna consciousness is now we treat others. A devotee is a kind friend to everyone.

Traveling with Nirguna Prabhu to New Vraja Dhama and the Odessa Festival

After the Polish festival tour Nirguna Prabhu arrived in Warsaw around 6:00 p.m. or so after 30 hours of traveling from our basis near the Baltic coast. Apparently the tires blew out on the cart they were pulling which carried the generator, and they had to wait till morning for a mechanic. Nirguna slept under the van to have the luxury of spreading out and to avoid the dew. He was still determined to take the 6:00 a.m. train to Budapest for the New Vraja Dhama festival for Janmastami which Indradyumna Swami ordered him to attend. I decided to fulfill Nirguna Prabhu’s desire and go with him. It meant missing opportunities to catch up on emails and entering my journal into the computer. It also meant missing the Poland 30th year of Krishna consciousness festival and being with my friends from the tour. I played the role of Nirguna’s travel agent, and tried to get us to Budapest the cheapest way possible by paying for a ticket in each country separately and avoiding the costly international rail tickets. We saved $36 dollars each going from Warsaw to Budapest, and later $88 each going from Budapest to Kiev. Nirguna Prabhu used his sankirtana expertise with the passengers on the train to trade my dollars for euros as conductors will not take dollars and but will take euros, however reluctantly.
We got into Fonyod, near the New Vraja farm, at 10 p.m., long after the buses had stopped running, so we had to take a taxi for $33 to New Vraja (Nirguna talked him down from $40). Everyone was asleep at the farm, so we slept under someone’s porch where we were attacked by mosquitoes the whole night. Another night we stayed in a tent, myself near the center, to avoid the cold and mosquitos, and Nirguna Prabhu toward the edge. Unfortunately for him, it rained at night and his stuff got wet. I noticed he took the setback better than I would have.
On Janmastami during the Radha Krishna boat festival, Nirguna Prabhu spoke briefly about the Lord and His boat pastimes. At the feast, Nirguna Prabhu kindly gave me some of the sweets they gave the sannyasis, but there were more than I could eat so we gave them to the servers, who gratefully accepted them.
On Vyasa Puja, Nirguna Prabhu read from the Brahma-vivarta Purana about the golden age predicted by Lord Krishna and talked about Srila Prabhupada’s important role in fulfilling that prophecy.
On the train to the Hungary border, a young woman stayed in our compartment for a couple hours. She spoke English pretty well. She had been to a public program the devotees had done recently. Nirguna gave her an Isopanisad he had for distribution, and showed her pictures of the festival on his digital camera.
At the border of Ukraine we met a lady who could speak some English and helped us to get across the border and to purchase our tickets for Kiev. Nirguna gave her some cake prasadam which she gratefully accepted. I think due to Nirguna Prabhu’s piety the female train conductor gave us a two-person compartment, although we only had paid for a four-person one, and thus we could do our devotional practices in peace.
We chanted all the morning prayers and evening prayers as well, and we got caught up in our journals, in our reading, and in our resting. In that respect, train travel can be ideal. We had a sink in our compartment, which was nice for washing hands after eating.
We saw lots of green vegetation, a few cows and goats, and lots of small gardens with corn, squash, and other things, many with people working in them, as we went by at an average of 35 mph, slow for a train.
Devotees from Kiev met us at the very car of the train we got off at—talk about expert! They drove us 25 minutes to the temple where they offered us flower gardens, showed us to our rooms, and provided us some dinner, although we were not hungry since the Budapest devotees had given us so much prasadam for our trip.
In Kiev, Nirguna Prabhu gave class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1. He mentioned that the last verse of Vedanta Sutra stresses liberation through sound, and the last verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam, its natural commentary, stresses the congregational chanting of the holy name, a parallel I was unaware of before.

Nirguna Prabhu—Book Distribution Seminar Notes

Niranjana Swami glorified the devotees who had come for the first time to Odessa to do seminars, among them, Nirguna Prabhu. Niranjana Swami told a nice story illustrating Nirguna Prabhu’s dedication to distributing Krishna consciousness. Once Nirguna was hit by a car while distributing books in North Carolina, and when Niranjana Swami and Madhuha Prabhu heard about it, they went to visit him in the hospital. He was in surgery when they arrived so they had to wait a couple hours. When they were finally allowed in, Niranjana Swami put his face above Nirguna’s head since his body was completely wrapped up like a mummy because of extensive injuries, and he couldn’t move. When Nirguna saw him, he immediately exclaimed, “Niranjana Swami, please accept my obeisances! Tell me, how is the preaching in the CIS?” During their brief conversation, Nirguna was reluctant to talk about the accident. He was more interested in hearing how Krishna consciousness was being accepted in the former USSR. When Niranjana Swami left, Nirguna said, “Could you just bless me I might always be engaged in distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books?” Niranjana Swami was amazed how little Nirguna was concerned about his body, even when in such a serious condition.
Nirguna Prabhu shared knowledge and techniques about book distribution and also went out distributing as well. I only attended two of his several sessions, but he shared very valuable realized knowledge that I would like to pass on to you for your inspiration since Srila Prabhupada valued book distribution so much. Here are some of the things Nirguna Prabhu said:
We must read Srila Prabhupada’s books to be inspired. We must buy some books. Keep the book room neat. No damaged books. Books of each type together. Keep inventory. Ukraine, because it has many devotees, can do a lot to spread Krishna consciousness.
One devotee who was doing carpentry in the temple noticed how ecstatic the sankirtana devotees were from selling books, and he decided to go out. Very soon he sold many books and gave up the carpentry to do fulltime book distribution.
Keep at least one of each of Srila Prabhupada’s books on hand, and the inexpensive and mass produced ones, you should have a stock of. Every book that is distributed is read by an average of five people. Try different venues for distributing books and see which works for you. Every home can have a book display. We must want to distribute Krishna consciousness more than everything. We must try to avoid distractions from devotional service. The more our mind is fixed on Krishna, the more effective we will be. Set time aside to distribute books.
Greet somebody in a very friendly way and stop them. Ask them a question. Put a book in their hand, and say we are showing these to everyone today. Show them some of the pictures in the books and say a few words about them. Say we like everyone to have one because they make people’s lives better. We just ask a donation. Distribute damaged books to poorer people, some pious person who will read it. Sometimes bad weather is good because the people will buy the books because they appreciate the devotee’s determination.
Nirguna asked devotees to tell stories of book distribution.
One young Russian lady told how she brought some books home with her when she went home to visit her grandmother one day’s train ride from Moscow. When she went to the nearby town to make a phone call, she dressed in a sari because it was so hot outside. A guy who was waiting for the bar to open started talking with her about a cure for his hangover. She decided to go home after making the call because she felt that this person was not good to associate with, but when she went he followed her. He said that he read that people dressed the way she was had a cure for hangover, and he asked if she had some prayer he could say. When she got home, she wrote down the Hare Krishna maha-mantra on a piece of paper for him and gave him some yogurt prasadam. He was so grateful that he gave her 50 rubles ($1.75) and told her to buy some chocolate. She decided that was enough to cover the cost of a book, so she gave him a book. He said, “I want you to get some chocolate!” And he gave her 50 more rubles, and so she gave him another book. He was so grateful, he said, “Thank you. Thank you.” And walked down two stairs to go and said again, “Thank you. Thank you.” And he waved his hands in the air like the devotees do during kirtana.
One older lady saw an ad for Srila Prabhupada’s books in a Russian magazine. Bhagavad-gita was in the center of a group of books, and the caption read, “These books can change your life.” She told her husband that she wanted to order them, and he permitted it, so they did. In time, they forgot about it. A few months later, an unexpected package showed up. She was going to open it after lunch, but when she went into the kitchen to cook, it was as if a voice within her suggested that she open it then. It was the book she had ordered. When she saw the picture on the cover, she wondered what this nice boy is doing involved in this war. When she started reading it, she found it was about a battle, but she wasn’t interested in warfare.
Then she skipped through the first chapter and came to the second. Then she found it so fascinating that she read it day and night, whenever she got a chance and finished it in twenty days. Her husband was traveling and happened to meet the devotees and was interested in the books but did not buy any because he was poor. He was glad to find that his wife had the Bhagavad-gita when he returned home.

Summary
1. All the books are based on Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.
2. Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura wanted to preach all over the world.
3. Book distribution is our primary service.
4. If they get a book, they have Srila Prabhupada’s association 365 days a year.

For success in Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution:
1. read the books
2. do little nonsense
3. make your abode like a temple
4. associate with devotees
5. have books for distribution on hand
6. have a book display
7. bring books with you wherever you go.

Notes from a class given by Nirguna Prabhu on September 13, 2005, in Kiev, Ukraine:
By surrendering to Krishna we can transcend material nature, because He is in control of material nature.

Nirguna gave a book distribution seminar in which he told of novel ways people had come in touch with Srila Prabhupada’s books. One person saw a shaft of sunlight shine through a crack in some rocks onto a picnic table in the forest and illuminate a Srimad-Bhagavatam that happened to lay there, so he picked up the book. As a result, he developed an interest in Srila Prabhupada’s books. Another person found a Bhagavad-gita As It Is in a cave in an island off the coast of Crete where he was vacationing, and he read it and became a devotee. Another heard a clanging noise when he drove over something with his car. When he investigated, he found it was a Bhagavad-gita, and he read it and became a devotee. Still another was going to commit suicide by jumping off of a cliff, but he met a devotee who showed him a Back to Godhead magazine, and so he changed his mind, read the magazine, and then became a devotee.

Conclusion

I hope this account gives you some insight into the transcendental qualities of Nirguna Prabhu, a faithful servant of Srila Prabhupada. For me I see his submission to Indradyumna Swami in following Maharaja’s advice to go to New Vraja’s Janmastami festival. I see his humility and practicality in inducing the train passengers to trade their euros for my dollars. I see his humility also in not wanting to disturb the New Vraja residents by arriving at 11:00 p.m. to the extent of being willing to sleep under someone’s mosquito-infested porch. I see his tolerance manifest when his paraphernalia got wet when it rained at night. I see his gratitude and compassion in sharing prasadam with those who helped us on our journey. I see his preaching spirit in distributing the Sri Isopanisad to the girl on the train and showing her pictures of the New Vraja festival. His preaching spirit is actually so strong, inspiring him to come to the Polish festival tour for two years and to teach the seminar on book distribution at the Odessa, Ukraine, festival. Niranjana Swami’s account shows how Nirguna valued spreading Krishna consciousness far more than worrying about his personal comfort. I could see from traveling with Nirguna Prabhu that he is a remarkable, spiritually advanced personality.
My only prayer is that Nirguna Prabhu, by his service and qualities, may attract the mercy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is famous as Krishna-prema pradaya, the giver of Krishna prema and that Nirguna Prabhu might receive from Him that ultimate gift. Please join me in this prayer.
I also pray to him that he may forgive me for my incompetence in his service.

Nirguna Prabhu ki, jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki, jaya!

Czech Republic's First Ratha-Yatra

The Ratha-yatra in Brno, Czech was a first for the Czech Republic. The group of devotees in Brno began holding regular weekly programs within the last year. After the Prague devotees planned to have Ratha-yatra in their city the last two years but abandoned them, being tired from the summer festival season, the Brno devotees decided three weeks ago to do one themselves in their city.
There was beautiful weather the entire time, sunny but not too hot.

Smita Krishna Swami began leading kirtana.

There were lots of young people in the crowd. Lots of onlookers took invitations for both the stage show after the parade and the devotees’ weekly gatherings.

The cooperative mood among the devotees, who numbered maybe fifty or so, impressed me very much. Some sang, danced, pulled
the cart, carried the sound system, and many distributed festival flyers, temple flyers, prasadam, and Srila Prabhupada’s books to the many people on the streets. On a few occasions, where we had a large crowd, the devotees addressed the crowd, explaining about the festival and inviting them to the program in the park.

I chanted, danced, and distributed flyers. I was so happy to see the large percentage of people who took the invitations, perhaps as many as 80%! The words for 'thank you', 'you're welcome', and 'I already have' in Czech are so much like the Polish ones it reminded me of the summer tour and I felt at home.

After the three-hour Ratha-yatra, there was a stage show in the park with included bhajanas and Bharat Natyam dancing. There was a feast afterwards.
The Ratha-yatra route was almost completely on streets where only pedestrians were permitted, other than an occasional service vehicle, and so there was not the necessity of having policemen directing traffic, a complication often present at Ratha-yatras. Only at the beginning and end, when we entered or left the park, could one or two traffic cops come in handy.
The whole event was very inspiring for me. It shows what cooperation and enthusiasm can do in Srila Prabhupada’s service, even if you are just starting and do not have many devotees. It reminded me of the early history of ISKCON, when devotees regularly started new centers and implemented our standard ISKCON programs like Ratha-yatra.

The Day After Woodstock

I looked at my watch after the Woodstock festival. It was August 5. The last date I remembered is August 1. The days in between blurred together in my mind. I was so busy I didn’t think about the date the whole festival.
I only slept three and half hours the day after Woodstock. I went to sleep at 4:30 a.m., which is usually the time I wake up.

Shanti Parayana Prabhu was interested in the idea of doing harinama at the site and encouraged me to bring the instruments and the sound system and see what transpired. Candrasekara Prabhu also expressed interest in the idea.
Indradyumna Swami wanted everyone to go to the site to help take down the festival. I did not want to defeat his program, so I told him that after the easy work is done, we end up just sitting around wanting for the bus while the strong men do the remaining heavy work. I was thinking that during that time we could have a harinama with the idle devotees. He accepted that idea.

I spent about an hour and a half helping to clean up. I chose tasks involving carrying things from here to there, so I could also work on chanting my japa quota in the process.
During the cleanup time, Radha Caran Prabhu met a couple guys who played guitar and who were interested in learning the mantra and a tune to sing it to. He taught them, and they left playing guitar and chanting Hare Krishna.

Indradyumna Swami looked at the cleanup progress and remarked with delight how everything was almost completely taken down so quickly. I suggested that we could celebrate by doing a harinama. He said that we had already done so much harinama, and he also did not want the remaining devotees finishing the clean up to feel bad they couldn’t participate.

Harinama at the Woodstock Site

Soon after that Indradyumna Swami left, and Candrasekhara Prabhu arrived with a desire to do harinama. Prema Harinama wanted to do harinama more than anyone, and Mother Kinkori also expressed some interest and encouraged five of her friends. Thus we had a nine-person party. We started a little away from our festival site toward the main Woodstock stage so as not to disturb the remaining cleanup crew.

I was so happy to be on harinama again. It seemed a fitting way to end the Woodstock. We started harinama as people were arriving, and now we were having our final harinama as they were leaving. Once after a Gaura Purnima festival, we chanted on the boat to Navadvipa, and felt a special end-of-festival harinama ecstasy that I rarely feel but was feeling again today. Some of our friends among the Woodstock attendees smiled and waved as we chanted past. I gave some mantra cards to Prema and one devotees lady to distribute, and four of the ladies danced in their characteristic patterns.

Ahead of us one girl sat on a blue barrel, clapping and moving in time with the music, smiling along with her friends. The devotees recognized one of the men with her to be one who Indradyumna Swami had danced with on Ratha-yatra, and so we came to visit their party. Two guys motioned like they had something important to show us so Prema and I came over to look, and they moved their tent revealing a large eight-foot deep hole in the ground. Two of the guys then jumped into the hole and danced along with our chanting of Hare Krishna, their heads below the level of the ground and their upraised hands just reaching the top of the hole. It was such an unexpected and unusual experience. They enjoyed chanting with us for sometime and then we moved on, giving them mantra cards to reciprocate their hospitality.

When we passed the vendors at the far end of the field, a group of them smiled, waved, and said “Bye!” in unison.
Sitting at a table I saw a short girl smiling at us who I recalled from the Woodstock 2003 festival in Zary. She was so special that Indradyumna Swami mentioned her in his closing address to us that year. He said that the last evening of our festival he surveyed our different tents and found a wild kirtana going on in our bhajana tent. He wondered who was leading it and looked over and saw a girl who was not even one of our devotees, wearing a bikini and black boots and chanting Hare Krishna and playing the harmonium, along with a girl friend. When Maharaja came back over an hour later her kirtana was still going strong. I described the whole wonderful story in more detail on my web page from that year www.krishna.com/seva/woodstock/2003/index.html. To see that part of the page, after the introductory words, in the table of contents, click on the link “People Who Were Attracted”. I gave her also the explanation of the mantra. She said she came to our temple tent this year as well.

We headed back toward our festival site and met one person who invited us to his ‘home’. Apparently he and his friends constructed a dwelling with four logs at the corners and a log frame. Boughs of evergreen trees were fastened to the framework to enclose it and about seven people were relaxing inside, so we chanted and danced for their benefit and gave our host a mantra card. A neighbor was playing her djembe drum in time with our music, and we stopped by to give her friend a mantra card for her.
Continuing back, we met a young man who had a bag of pickles which he offered to us.

One man and his girlfriend wanted to get married. He spoke English and inquired from me about the possibility that we could perform the ceremony for them. Perhaps he knew we did marriages on stage in previous years or that religious people often perform marriages. I said that as far as I knew we usually just did marriages for our members, but I knew some priests and if he gave me his phone number, I would have someone get back to him. Later Trisama Prabhu promised to give him a call.

We continued back toward our site, meeting favorable people along the way.
I was so happy we had gotten to do another harinama and give a few people some more mercy. Our whole program was to give mercy to people, and there were still many hundreds of people to give mercy to so it was hard to miss the chance.

When I got back I told Chaturatma Prabhu about “our unauthorized harinama.” He laughed and explained in his usual jovial mood that there is no such thing as “an unauthorized harinama.”

Harinama at the Train Station

It occurred to me that there must be a lot of young people at the train station waiting for the next train to their destination. I asked people who like to sing like Radha Caran and Hanuman Prabhus, but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go or who could take us. I mentioned it to Prema Harinama. He couldn’t forget the idea and kept reminding me about it. Sri Prahlad Prabhu was scheduled to do bhajanas which are always nice, but the harinama idea sounded like a special opportunity. Prema Harinama and I got a drum and karatalas and met in the school parking lot. A devotee whose car was otherwise empty was just leaving, and we asked him for a ride to the train station. It is difficult to get rides in that parking lot. Sometimes you have to wait half an hour or more. I accepted that Krishna was trying to encourage us by arranging the ride. When we got in the vicinity of the train station, we were not disappointed. There were hundreds of young people sitting on the grassy areas near the train station, in the bar next to the train station, and on the platforms from which they would board the trains. I wished we had brought more devotees with us.

We ran into some people playing music, including a djembe drum. We could get them to chant a little Hare Krishna, but mostly they wanted to sing mundane songs. They sang an old tune called “Yellow Submarine” and tried to get us into it. I wished Trivikrama Swami was there to get them to chant Hare Krishna to that same tune for it is one of his favorite ones. He hardly lets a kirtana pass without singing it. Seeing we were being influenced, and we not influencing them, we moved on. I would play the drum, and Prema, who is from Croatia but knows Polish, would talk to the people and pass out mantra cards to the favorable ones.

On the train platform we ran into the boy that Indradyumna Swami had danced with and who was still accompanied by his friends. We stayed with them for some time, and some of them chanted along with us and some of them danced with us. One girl beat on their blue plastic water drum as if it were a musical instrument. They proudly showed us where they had written the Hare Krishna mantra in Polish on the drum’s surface. The girl who was most into our music began to dance. She had many dredlocks including one that was so long, to my amazement, that it reached the ground behind her. While she danced to the kirtana, she spun her longest dredlock in a circle in front of her, then to her left side and then to her right side, and then in back of her, just like Dina Dayal Prabhu does with his baton on our festival show. It was so funny to see.

We would walk along, until we found people who liked us, and we would stay there for a while. The young people who come to the Woodstock are generally very musical and they would sometimes ask to play the drum or karatalas. I would let them try to play the drum, and Prema would show them the karatala beat. At one point, we found two friends, one who played the drum and the other, the karatalas. I would sing and dance, and Prema would talk and pass out mantra cards. Then another devotee joined us, and we had grown to a five-man party. The two boys would walk in front, playing the instruments, then Prema and I, and finally the other devotee. It must have been such a sight for the people to see. At the far end of the platform, we saw the girl I remembered from Zary in 2003. She knows the mantra well and chanted along with us.

In addition to playing our instruments and the plastic water drum I mentioned, the young people had other creative instruments of their own. One boy played three sticks, two in one hand and one in the other. After he boarded the train, two girls banged the same sticks together to make music. One guy played the old plastic water bottle instrument, a girl rapped on the train window with her jeweled hand, and a boy banged on his cup with his spoon.
The lending of the karatalas to the boy backfired, when he showed them to someone else who was on the train. They disappeared into the train and were not seen since. Prema promised to donate his personal karatalas to the tour to atone for the mistake.

We kept walking along the platform, back and forth between the two groups of people, those who had boarded the train and were waiting for it to leave, and those who were waiting on the platform for the next train. We stopped in front of the people from either group who liked our music. One guy stood on the train seat and danced with his head and arms sticking out the window. Unfortunately, he spaced out once and banged his head on the train window. Looking through the train windows, we could see others clapping and moving to our music in different ways. From their smiles and their waving goodbye to us as the trains departed, we could see they were attached to the devotees. We tried to reciprocate as best we could.

While chanting at the train station we would see different railway personnel, security, and police. Not one objected to our presence there in the least.

We kept going for two and a half hours during which two trains departed taking most of the young people toward their next destination. Then we decided to walk back to the school which is our base as it was nearing 10:00 p.m. and getting dark. Prema found the boy who danced with Indradyumna Swami and his friends were to leave on the 11:00 p.m. train, and so he had just enough time to get leftover prasadam to bring to them and others waiting for that train. I was too exhausted to consider doing something like that, but he actually did it. I found Prema Harinama Prabhu’s enthusiasm for preaching most inspiring. Harinama sankirtana, ki jaya!

Second Harinama At Train Station

8/6/07
Prema Harinama Prabhu was so enthusiastic to do another harinama at the train station. He said there were people leaving the site today who would be taking the train. I was a little doubtful, but I didn’t know for sure. We decided to go and see. Unfortunately we did not get a ride, and we had to walk about half an hour to the station. We brought a bucket of halava and two-thirds of a bucket of sweet rice. This time Maksim, Dhanesvara Prabhu’s translator from Ukraine, also came with us and sang about half the time. Whenever we saw a potential customer for prasadam, we stopped and Prema Harinama spoke to them and served out the food, while Maksim and I kept the kirtana going. There were about five Woodstock attendees at the train station, and every fifteen minutes or half an hour, another group of Woodstock attendees would come by with their belongings, and stop and take prasadam. Also on the way back, we would meet people on the way, and serve them prasadam and chant to them while they ate. We gave out mantra cards to interested persons, and several people tried singing the mantra, and one danced with us. On the way back, we met a group of about six devotees who were shopping, include Ajita Prabhu, who is a great kirtana leader, and Balarama, who is a great mrdanga player, and they led us in kirtana back to the school that was our base. We felt victorious as we distributed three-fourths a bucket of halava and half a bucket of sweet rice, and many people heard the holy name and got mantra cards.

The Polish Woodstock, Days 2-4 (August 2-4, 2007)

I will attempt to give some idea of the Polish Woodstock Festival and in particular, Krishna's Village of Peace, the Hare Krishna festival that went on there. I describe what I was personally most involved with. I do not have the energy to describe it all. Our stage show and our tents were extensive. I described more about these aspects of Krishna's Village of Peace on my web sites of previous years: 2001, 2002, and 2003.

The Temple Tent

Especially in the evenings there was always lively chanting and dancing going on in the temple tent.

Sri Sri Gandharvika Giridhari graced the altar,

pictures of Krishna’s pastimes blessed the walls.

Both the devotees and the Woodstock attendees chanted and danced, and at sometimes as many as fifty people crowded into that small tent.

Sometimes the devotee ladies taught different dances to the new people. Sometimes people danced in circles or in chains. Just see the happiness of the people dancing!

Once in the afternoon we had a small gathering, and the seven people I gave mantra cards to all chanted along with us, half of them dancing as well. We felt happy to see the people enjoying the kirtana.

One blond girl came all three days and danced happily in the temple tent. She also came to at least two of the four Ratha-yatras. I asked her what she thought of our event. She liked the music, the food, the people, and the whole atmosphere. She is from near Krakow, and I introduced her to some Krakow devotees, Indulekha Dasi and her husband. In this way, she can have some connection with devotional service after the Woodstock is over.

I danced with one boy by interlocking arms and swinging around him around. When we changed directions by changing arms, he had to move his cigarette from one hand to the other. Finally, he gave up and tossed the cigarette away.

One girl in the temple tent asked me about what tilaka was, and I explained it was sacred clay from India. She wanted some. I bring my tilaka with me to put on before Ratha-yatra and before doing questions and answers, so I went to get it. I found a devotee lady willing to show the girl how to put it on. When she was done, I asked the girl if she wanted a piece of tilaka. She did, so I gave her a small lump. Her friend and other nearby Woodstock attendees could not appreciate her interest in the tilaka, but somehow it was really important to her, and she did not seem to care what the others thought.

We chanted till 1:20 a.m. each night there in our temple, and the last night we went to 3:15 a.m. We hoped to go to 5:00 a.m. but our security force was not completely in place because everyone was tired from the festival. They were afraid some of the many wandering, rowdy drunk people might hurt us. It is nice to connect with people at the end of the festival, but staying up till dawn the last day could be dangerous. We decided to try to chant the next day, as the prasadam serve out would continue and people would come. If Woodstock happens again, perhaps we could plan a harinama for the day after, just as we had one the day before. I am sure people would appreciate, and I am sure enough of us love harinama, so even in our exhausted condition, a number of us would still be into it.

Ratha-yatra

The wonderful Ratha-yatras are likely the most powerful events of our whole festival because they touched so many people there. The big cart and the lively singing and dancing of the devotees created a natural curiosity in people’s minds. I was very pleased to see the happy smiles of the onlookers as the Ratha-yatra approached.

This year was extra special because the last Ratha-yatra lasted six and a half hours! After four hours, Indradyumna Swami realized there would not be time to do the second Ratha-yatra scheduled, so he decided to make the first one extra long. He announced that we would continue another two hours, and we should not pay attention to our bodily aches, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, or whatever, but push on and take advantage of the great opportunity the Ratha-yatra affords—to share the happiness of Krishna consciousness with many, many thousands of people. Indradyumna Swami was amazed that although the cart was so large that cars had to drive over the curb and on the grass to get around it, no authorities complained about the six and half hour obstruction to traffic. In any other city, he said, the authorities would never let us get away with that.

I like to chant my japa before breakfast, but because of the long Ratha-yatra, I didn’t have breakfast till 7:30 p.m.! I had so much fun, however, I didn’t really notice the austerity.

I would often pass out invitations although I prefer chanting and dancing. I realized that no matter how many distributors we have, a few people go by our party without getting an invitation, and so I considered that my distribution of flyers to those people would be a help and felt satisfied to give more people the chance to come to the festival and benefit spiritually in an ocean of different ways. I became involved in the Krishna consciousness movement seriously as a result of getting a flyer for a temple, so I have faith in their power to transform lives.

We were scheduled to do two Ratha-yatras per day, but the next to last day of the Woodstock, we did not have time to do the second one. Prema Harinama Prabhu was so enthusiastic he encouraged me to organize another harinama. We got Indradyumna Swami’s permission, an amplifier, instruments, and several security guards, and twenty-five devotees attended. We went out for an hour from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. and distributed many flyers for Krishna’s Village of Peace. We were all glad that we went out again and felt victorious that more people heard the holy name and got invitations from our efforts.

More young people chanted as well as danced this year on this years’ Ratha-yatras. The beautiful smiles on their faces was heart-warming to behold. One girl, with a lollipop in her mouth, also chanted the mantra to my great surprise, as that is a little tricky to do, even for a seasoned chanter. Sometimes Indradyumna Swami showed the young people great mercy on the young men by dancing with them.

One of these boys later helped diligently to take down our festival, and another we met twice on harinamas the day after the festival.

In addition singing and dancing, many Woodstock attendees would happily help pull the cart.

At intervals the devotees would throw fruit from the cart into the crowd of Woodstock attendees surrounding it.

The people were very blissfully jumping and grabbing the thrown fruit, and eating it with great relish, meditating on its transcendental taste.

Once devotees brought whole cases of fruit onto the cart to throw off, and Indradyumna Swami personally threw the fruit into the crowd.

After the Ratha-yatra returned to Krishna's Village of Peace, kirtana with dancing would continue for some time, with the massive Woodstock site with its thousands of tents in the background.

The Ratha-yatra cart had influence in additional to that shown during the procession. When standing in the middle of our site, it was an object of pictures and inquiries. Some boys wanted to climb up on the cart to get a close up picture, and we let them with the permission of security. From the cart, Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva, and Lady Subhadra, along with their representative, Srila Prabhupada, would bless Krishna’s Village of Peace by their glance.

Illuminated at night, the Ratha-yatra cart was an impressive site.

When people inquired about the Ratha-yatra cart, I would explain that Ratha-yatra festival has gone on in a city in India called Puri for thousands of years. We are now doing it all over the world in Los Angeles, New York, London, and other big cities. Next week we do Berlin. In different religions people go to church to associate with God and those devoted to God and thereby advance spiritually. However, in the Ratha-yatra festival God and His devotees go out to see the people and bless them with spiritual advancement. That simple explanation disclosing the Lord’s merciful nature would always make the people smile.

Questions and Answers

Mother Urmila (right) expertly answers questions
with the help of translator Mandakini Dasi (left).

My friend Shanti Parayana Prabhu arranged for me to have a hour in questions and answers, as the organizers of that event didn’t schedule me. The tent can accommodate one hundred people and is always nearly full. The Polish people are quite willing to engage in philosophical discussion for quite awhile, even after having had a few beers. One question that is fairly common is “If God is one, then why are there so many different religions?” God arranges for persons to teach as much about him as the people at a given time and place are able to hear. Even Christ said that he had more to say, but the people could not bear to hear it. A person with a Ph.D. in math may teach an elementary student how to add, an older student how to multiply, and in high school, he may teach the student algebra. In algebra the equation “6 + x = 8” makes sense but someone just learning addition might complain, “What is this ‘x’? Math deals only with numbers not letters. This isn’t math. You are cheating me by teaching something bogus.” In this way, some religionists see others as not valid, when in reality they are also meant to gradually awaken one’s God consciousness.

I saw Dhanesvara Prabhu in the audience, and I felt bad for him as he is senior person, and he didn’t have a chance in questions and answers either. To be fair, I should have given him half my time, but I was too attached to what little I was given. So I told him, he could start after I had done forty-five minutes. I hoped the next devotee would be willing to give up some time to Dhanesvara Prabhu as well, but I was wrong, and rather than just take fifteen minutes, Dhanesvara let me do the whole thing.

I felt bad, so I gave Dhanesvara Prabhu that slot for the next day, taking a certain amount of trouble to find a translator for him. Unfortunately, that slot was given to someone else, and I wasn’t told till the last minute. So that attempt to facilitate him also failed.

The final day, as Shanti Parayana advised, I obtained a translator and sound system and made the arrangement for Dhanesvara Prabhu to answer questions in the reincarnation tent, as had been done in previous years. Actually when we had more space we had three questions and answers booths at Woodstock, all of them busy. Dhanesvara Prabhu was grateful for the opportunity, and his translator, Jananivasa Prabhu, a disciple of Kavicandra Swami, told me that some favorable people came and Dhanesvara answered their questions nicely in personal way and they appreciated.

I took the next hour after him. People often ask why we believe in reincarnation. I say that in religion, one receives knowledge from revealed scripture and we accept reincarnation by the strength of Bhagavad-gita.. When they ask if there is other evidence, I tell them about the studies of Ian Stevenson of detailed investigations of children’s past life memories. One of his books is now translated into Polish and available at our book table.

People often ask if they can come back as animals. I answer that if they act like an animal in this life, they can come back as an animal in their next. If they are very crude, have no respect for the rights or property of others, have no conception or worship of sGod, and have no regard for the laws of the land, such degraded people can come back as animals, rather than return as humans and continue to torment human society by their misbehavior.

One lady praised the explanations of karma given by Alexander Berzin in his books, and asked our opinion of them. I had to admit ignorance of both the author and his book. I told her if she gave me her email address, I would research it and get back to her. Later on the Internet, I found that Alexander Berzin is a Buddhist author, but I could not understand which of his books the lady referred to and so I will have to write her, with the help of my translator.

One man asked about dinosaurs, which was rather unusual. He wondered why books like the Bible did not mention such beings. I said that the Vedic world view does provide for 1,100,000 reptiles, so we do not have a problem accepting that dinosaurs could exist. I mentioned that 400,000 humanlike forms are also described and thus angelic beings and ghostly beings that people report seeing, as well as UFOs, could exist as far as the Vedic world view is concerned.

After an hour and a quarter, I had had enough, because of the tiredness characterizing the final day of the festival, because of having to speak over the rock bands, and because of the disturbance of occasional drunks. My translator had had enough too. As we were leaving a young woman came up and spoke to me with great concern. “We have heard this is the last Woodstock. What will happen to your Krishna’s Village of Peace that I have enjoyed coming to each year?” She mentioned that there are probably many people who would come if we could somehow continue it. I told her about our festivals on the coast and gave her the web site with the schedule. As far as Krishna’s Village of Peace, I don’t know. If Woodstock’s organizers, when announcing the end of Woodstock, promote Krishna’s Village of Peace, perhaps we could have it. Otherwise, how would people know of it?

Occasionally Trisama Prabhu would send someone to get me from the temple tent, where I was dancing, to answer some questions in English. In one case I talked with a boy who was so addicted to sex that he couldn’t go a day without it. He was completely unable to understand the simple idea that if we are spiritual beings beyond the body, that addiction to bodily pleasures will prevent us from realizing the primary spiritual truth, “I am not the body.” It reminded me of a friend I was traveling with who had the same difficulty when I first joined the temple back in 1979.

In general, however, the devotees all said that the questions are getting better every year.

Hare Krishna Kirtana in our Main Tent

On the first day of our stage show, Indradyumna Swami and other devotees chanted nice Hare Krishna bhajanas on our main stage. Only four devotee ladies danced in the audience, and I danced on the opposite side. I wished that Woodstock attendees would dance but not much happened. A couple guys, obviously a bit intoxicated danced around near me, taking my picture from time to time. Then a couple devotee men danced in the middle. I would glance at the audience on occasion.

Very gradually more and more people joined in, and by the end of the kirtana we probably had twenty-five devotees and twenty-five of the Woodstock attendees dancing happily together. I later mentioned to Indradyumna Swami that I worried at first that no one was getting into the dancing but in due course they did and that it must have been the power of the Holy Name. He replied affirmatively and indicated that it is always like that. It noted that it took a while this time. His secret appears to be just to keep on chanting with faith.

People We Met

I was amazed that on the first day of the festival I met three people who planned to vacation on the Baltic sea near Kolobrzeg after Woodstock. I told them about our festival program there and gave them a flyer with the web site address so they could check the schedule, attend the festival, and get some more spiritual ecstasy.

Nanda Kumar Prabhu told me that the two girls from Kolobrzeg festival, who had their picture taken with Indradyumna Swami on the last day and who promised that they would see us at Woodstock, actually came and he and his wife talked with them.

Izabela, who saw us at Kolobrzeg and Woodstock last year, and who is a resident of Kostrzyn, the city where the Woodstock is held, came again, along with her boyfriend, Mikal, who bought a Bhagavad-gita last year. She would come every day to the questions and answers. She hoped to see the Shyam dance, but it was cancelled the day I saw her and not scheduled on the final day. I promised to give her a DVD of it to make her happy. I also saw her at the train station the day after Woodstock and invited her to come to our evening program at the school the next day, and she wrote “It was good to see you singing at the railway station today evening. I would be very, very happy to come. I love singing with you :)”

I met a young Indian man from the UK who talked to me for half an hour during the end of the long Ratha-yatra. He knew so many stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, but he did not know much about the Hare Krishnas or our philosophy. I stressed the importance of Bhagavad-gita a lot, and he asked if we could read the Gita together for some time. It sounded like a good thing to do to encourage him, and after the Ratha-yatra we found some quiet place in the dance lessons tent between classes and read. I talked to him about important verses like 4.11, “As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pritha” and verse 18.66, “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.” We talked about how Krishna reciprocates with people as they approach Him and that increases their faith in Him. He was one of those people who doesn’t pay for things but accepts whatever people give him. I gave him the remainder of a liter of orange juice given to me, and I got him a plate of prasadam. Generally we feed people who come to hear from us about Krishna, so it seemed natural for me. I had to go to the reincarnation tent, but I gave him my card, and told him to write. The man was only twenty-one, but I would have guessed he was older. In the course of our conversation he mentioned he really liked Chaturatma Prabhu’s style of answering questions. He thought Chaturatma was really “cool” and he suggested that Chathuratma’s picture would look good on an album cover, if we had such things.

While waiting for prasadam for the young Indian man, I talked to a girl named Matilda in line. She had not committed to any religion and was just curious to see what people believed in. She said there are a lot of people like her.

As I was arranging the amplifier for the reincarnation tent, I saw a man wearing a T-shirt with German writing on it. Figuring they spoke English, I asked his party of four how they liked the festival and mentioned about the Berlin Ratha-yatra, just next weekend. They were from Leipzig, about two hours from Berlin. I also mentioned our Leipzig Ratha-yatra had been today.

Cakra Tirtha Prabhu was talking with someone from Germany. He asked him about himself and he started to list all his bodily designations beginning with his name. Cakra Tirtha explained that he had just told him about his body which is finished at death along with all its designations. He inquired what the man had to say about himself, and the man came to realize he did not know about the self and was open to inquire about it.

Radha Caran Prabhu (below with satisfied custumers) noticed that when he went out to the visit the Woodstock attendees in their tents, as he did before it got too crowded, he could sell more books in the same amount of time than he did in our book tent. He felt the Polish people appreciated him coming to “their home” and were more open and at ease in that environment.

Some famous Jamaican musicians were there to play on the main stage, and Indradyumna Swami developed a relationship with them.

They also participated in a very lively kirtana to a tune the devotees love on our main stage at near the end of the evening of the next to last day of the festival. Many people had a great time dancing and chanting to it. On the final night of the festival the Jamaicans accompanied our festival singer Tribhuvanesvara Prabhu, who sang Hare Krishna to a very catchy tune on the Woodstock main stage to hundreds of thousands of people for ten minutes around 2:00 a.m. It was well received.

Devotee Bands

Five devotee bands played contemporary music to devotional lyrics on our main stage from 5:00 p.m. to about 1:00 a.m. each night for three nights. Some of the devotees were really into hearing their favorite band.

I only knew 18 Days, whose lead singer is my friend, Candrasekhara Acarya Prabhu (below).

I did not feel like cultivating an appreciation of other devotee rock bands at this point in my life. I was happy to dance to the nice Hare Krishna tunes that they played as well as their song “Giri Govardhan”, a favorite among the devotees.

Food

The prasadam is always very popular. People without exception said very good things about it.

As usual the halava is most well received. One of the people who highly praised the prasadam was heading to the Baltic coast for a holiday after the festival, and I encouraged him to come to our festival there where we have a much greater variety of prasadam that tastes even better than this. Usually I use the topic of the food to introduce the idea of vegetarianism.

The devotees distributed just over 100,000 plates in four days, as is usual at this event.

General Comments

A couple of my friends said their health on Woodstock was better than on the rest of the tour. For myself, I did not get sick at Woodstock this time, probably because I avoided eating too many beans and too much halava.

Devotees also felt the mood of cooperation among the devotees putting on the festival was better than previous years.

We had more educational programs this year which were very popular. These included instruction in dance, drumming, and the art of happiness. Sanjib Bhattacharya said he taught dance for six hours straight on the final day of Woodstock.

In Conclusion

For me Krishna's Village of Peace at the Polish Woodstock festival is a profoundly happy experience because I have faith in the great spiritual benefit that one receives from hearing the holy name of the Lord, seeing the devotees of the Lord, seeing the Deity of the Lord, observing the Ratha-yatra festival of the Lord, and taking the prasadam of the Lord. Every day many, many tens of thousands of people benefit, and sometimes even hundreds of thousands. Whatever role I can play in this makes me feel happy. That is why I have come for seven years. For me there is just nothing like it. If I can show by example how one can chant Hare Krishna and be happy, if I can answer philosophical questions, if I can invite people to Krishna’s Village of Peace, if I can give them a mantra card, if I can connect them to other devotees or other devotional activities so they can progress after Woodstock, if I can interest them in Bhagavad-gita or the Science of Self-Realization I feel I am connected to Lord Caitanya’s great mission of distributing love of God which Srila Prabhupada has brought to the Western world and which Indradyumna Swami wants to promote in a big way. I just wish I had the spiritual vision to see all the people’s karma destroyed and tens of thousands of seeds of devotion planted in their hearts and watered. Then I would be even happier.

“Lord Caitanya excused them all, and they merged into the ocean of devotional service, for no one can escape the unique loving network of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu” (Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi-lila 7.37).

All glories to all the wonderful devotees who worked tirelessly in an ocean of different ways to put on the festival of Krishna’s Village of Peace at the Polish Woodstock. All glories to the acaryas, beginning with Indradyumna Swami and Srila Prabhupada, who have given us precious faith in the distribution of devotion to Krishna. May we always remain in their service.

I gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Madhai Jivana Nitai Dasa, Prahlada Nrsimha Dasa, and Radha Caran Dasa, who gave me the beautiful illustrations that accompany this article. For more pictures of Woodstock, you may visit Madhai Jivana Nitai Dasa's gallery or Prahlada Nrsimha Dasa's gallery.

Woodstock 2007 (Day 1 of 4)

Our First Harinama

We went on harinama around 3:30 p.m. or so. About sixty devotees went, led by Sri Prahlada Prabhu. Mother Urmila mentioned to me that she considers Sri Prahlada’s kirtana so sweet it is worth traveling any distance to hear it.

There are very few people gathered for the Woodstock event compared to the hundreds of thousands who will be here in a couple of days. Some of the young people danced with great delight, swinging around, their hair and hand bags swirling, with smiles and laughs, along the side of our party. There were another two or three always following the devotees at the end, dancing as well. For the first time I wished I had a camera to catch the happy expressions of the dancers. Some were drunk, of course, but others displayed a more natural happiness.

Our flyers had the wrong time for the beginning of prasadam distribution, so I crossed it out with my pen and wrote the correct time in as we walked. I hate distributing flyers with incorrect information on them.

Sri Prahlada sang my favorite tune and I stopped correcting flyers and passing them out to dance along to it.

The most striking thing for me about the flyer distribution was the sweetness with which the people said “Dziekuje” or “Dzieki” (the Polish “Thank you” and “Thanks”). I have been passing flyers out for four weeks and no one has said “thank you” in such a sweet voice as the people today. Perhaps remembrance of previous festivals made them especially grateful. Sometimes people would say “thank you” in English, and I would be so surprised I wouldn’t remember what to say or else I would say “Prosze”, the Polish “You’re welcome”, out of habit.

One pair of girls handed the flyer back saying, “we don’t know Polish.” I said smiling with great delight and laughing, “Well I don’t know Polish either!” I translated the flyer to English for them the best I could. They said they were from Berlin, and they came last year. They especially liked the dramas and were looking forward to attending again.

I remember seeing in a previous year one unique young woman who was very overweight and had pierced facial jewelry.

After the harinama, Prema Harinama Prabhu and I passed out flyers for an hour or so, and Mother Kinkori relieved me so I could take lunch at 6:30 p.m. Prema Harinama Prabhu was so fired up he was still distributing flyers at 8:00 p.m. when I took the bus home, having skipped eating all together. I told him the next bus wasn’t till 10:30 p.m., but he was willing to stay and pass out flyers. How inspiring!

While taking prasadam, I talked to one couple and then to a boy and two girls who were students. They all knew English well enough to understand me. They all liked the food, and I used that fact to encourage them that it was possible to live quite happily on a vegetarian diet. All but one had come in previous years to our festival. I explained to them about the new drama and the amazing dancers from Manipur, India, who can play drums and dance in unison. One girl was getting her degree in philosophy, specializing in the mind. I told her how human life is meant for philosophy and that the Vedic tradition has lots of knowledge about the mind. The state of our mind we have a death is said to determination the body we get in our next life. By practicing yoga, one can control the mind, and choose his future destination, rather than having his mind control him. Our mind can be our best friend, but if uncontrolled, can be our worst enemy. I mentioned our books tell a lot about the mind, and we have a seminar on the art of happiness combining ancient knowledge of the mind and modern psychology, which she might be interested in.

I also mentioned we would have a parade with the big cart present there modeled after a well attended festival in India called Ratha-yatra which has been going on for thousands of years.

It felt nice to talk to people in a friendly way, to inform them about our festival, and to share a little Vedic knowledge with them. I am looking forward to the Woodstock event for so many people become exposed to the wealth of Vedic culture which culminates in pure devotion to the Supreme Person from whom everything emanates, Lord Krishna.

“Lord Caitanya excused them all, and they merged into the ocean of devotional service, for no one can escape the unique loving network of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu” (Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi-lila 7.37).

Indradyumna Swami's Sweet Dealings

After the final kirtana ending the final stage show at Kolobrzeg, I followed Maharaja from the stage to the car, as I stashed my computer there. He saw a little girl with tears in her eyes in the front row of the audience, and he stopped to comfort her. He told Dominik who manages the sound booth that the tune he played for the festival breakdown was too melancholy and asked him to change it. Then the pair of girls promising to see us at Woodstock came by to have their picture taken with Maharaja.

Indradyumna Swami arrived at the base for the Laksmi-Nrsimha Traveling Festival in Poland sometime around 9:00 p.m. I noticed the stairway to his room was a mess, so I swept it and missed his arrival speech. The devotees say he talked about Lord Caitanya’s mission.

He did not have any toothpaste and his servant told him I had some Neem toothpaste from India which he apparently really likes. I used to opportunity of giving him the toothpaste to briefly greet him. He thanked me and said it was the best gift I had ever given him. This was certainly a surprising thing to hear as toothpaste struck me as insignificant, and it made me laugh. And then he said something really special. “The best gift is not the thing with the most value, but the thing that is actually needed.” And then for him it was the toothpaste.
He asked about my Mom, and I said she was at a yearly Quaker gathering. He said something about her being an educated lady and me getting that quality from her. I told him she had written about him, “My regards to the Impresario.” And I explained that “impresario” meant a flamboyant director of an entertainment extravaganza and that she had seen the videos of the Polish tour which she liked.
Maharaja was pleased I came on time as he had requested, the day his organizers had recommended.

Because of cold, wet weather for days, on the Kolobrzeg harinama, Indradyumna Swami forbade those wearing only sandals from going out of fear they would get sick. A very few stayed in the bus honoring his will, but a lot of us went out anyway, rascals as we were. I had an umbrella and wore socks with my sandals, so I considered that was good enough to protect me from the cold and wet. I stood at the back so Maharaja would not see I didn’t have shoes, but I got caught anyway. He wasn’t too heavy about it, when I told him my excuse.
I was impressed with Indradyumna Swami’s enthusiasm to go on despite the miserable weather and equally impressed with the surrender of the other devotees. Some of the ladies’ saris got so soaked they stood near to our festival’s diesel generator using the heat to dry their clothes. Some wrang the water out of their socks before drying them, and as much water came out of them, as if they had washed them. I was lucky, avoiding puddles till the end, when trying to distribute some final invitations, I stepped in one. My umbrella kept my clothes from getting wet.

One morning Indradyumna Swami asked if anybody wanted to give class as he had deadlines for organizing festivals in other parts of the world and a parikrama in Vrindavan, Mayapur, and Jagannath Puri. No one volunteered for some time. Then I raised my hand and said I would do it if no one else would. He was pleased and praised the willingness to give a class at short notice as the quality of a brahmana. Just as ksatriyas never miss a chance for a righteous battle, vaisyas will always protect the cows, and sudras are always willing to do their handicrafts, a true brahmana is always eager to preach.

One night after returning from a festival I was sitting on the stairs in the school that was our base, inserting a piece of cheese into a sandwich my friend Braja Kisora gave me. Indradyumna Swami came by and motioned for me to give him some cheese and bread, and I removed the top piece of bread from the sandwich and wrapped the cheese in it and gave it to him. It was an amusing scene and an unexpected opportunity to serve him. I told Braja Kisora what happened so he could tell his wife that Indradyumna Swami had eaten some of the sandwich she made.

I was walking around with an umbrella in the rain as one of our shows in Miedzyzdroje ended, when Mathuranatha Prabhu, who is one of Indradyumna Swami’s personal servants, tipped me off to the fact that Indradyumna Swami did not have an umbrella, and had to walk from the stage to his car. Thus I got to serve Maharaja with my umbrella.

At the last festival in Miedzyzdroje, I got some flyers out of Maharaja’s car to distribute. Maharaja saw me and asked how many there were. I described a six-inch stack of them, and he said I should get two or three devotees to help me and pass them all out. I found about six devotees willing to help, and we found many people still were unaware of the festival. I felt victorious to help out in this way.

Indradyumna Swami arranged to greet Trivikrama Swami with kirtana, foot bath, offering of flowers and guru puja, as is his standard for his guru and sannyasi godbrothers visiting the tour. For me it is very powerful demonstration of his desire to cooperate with his Godbrothers and please Srila Prabhupada.

Nice points made at Indrasyumna Swami’s festival lecture:
Gandhi said you can judge a country by how they treat their animals.
When you associate with a happy person, your distress is minimized. Thus is not surprising that when we associate with God, who is the happiest person, as we do by chanting His holy name, we also become happy.

First Full Day on the Laxmi-Nrsimha Festival Tour

Tribhuvaneswara Prabhu led the second half of the guru puja kirtana playing the accordion and getting everyone to dance. It was very lively and went on for nearly an hour. There are so many enthusiastic chanters and dancers here, the kirtanas are always very upbeat.

Since I often sit in the reincarnation booth during our festivals, Jayatam Jaya Sila Prabhu gave me a project of researching good ways to present reincarnation to the Polish people. I recalled on instance back in 2003 in which I felt successful in this.

One time a lady in her 30's came by the reincarnation tent, with her mother and daughter. She said the idea of reincarnation made her feel uncomfortable. I replied that because it is not a widely accepted idea in this society it is understandable that it would make you feel uneasy, but it can explain many things. Then she asked what it could explain. I described how some people are born into a situation of great suffering, while others are not. If God is all powerful, all good, and equal to everyone, and this is our first life, everyone should get an equal start, yet some have to suffer from the very beginning of life. Knowing about reincarnation and the law of karma (action and reaction), we can understand the people must have done something wrong in a previous life to deserve the disadvantaged situation in this life. Otherwise, we may conclude, as many do, that there is no God or that God is unfair. The lady ended up buying a book, and so did her mother.

I stopped by the school gymnasium, which serves as our temple room and prasadam hall, to get my bead bag which I left there at breakfast time. There was a play rehearsal going on and as I was leaving, the ladies directing it encouraged me to play the role of a sannyasi in it, probably since I was already wearing the right color clothes and they didn’t have anyone else. I just have to give blessings to four people, chant some mantras, and pour some imaginary ghee into an imaginary fire. We will see how long I last. . . .

I encouraged a couple of Vaishnava youth boys to chant the evening arati song with me. One had nice mrdanga playing ability and the other a great voice. The one with the nice voice led the Nrsimha prayers. Just as we ended a Russian devotee, who had played with Aindra Prabhu in Vrindavan, came by and sang some very sweet Hare Krishna tunes which he accompanied on the harmonium. I enjoyed dancing as the others played the instruments. Then he sang a very nice Hare Krishna tune that Village of Peace, our tour reggae band, played at our concerts on the summer tour and the Woodstock festival, and I felt happy recalling how all the young people had chanted and danced with us when they played. It is wonderful that devotional activities can be relished forever.

A Visit to London

I arrived at London’s Soho St. temple at 2:50 p.m. When the devotee introduced me to Murali Manohara Prabhu, who is in charge of the brahmacari asrama and who allowed me to stay there, I realized he was a devotee I had met in Mayapur. He reminded me that we talked over prasadam on a number of occasions. I was overjoyed to find out that harinama, one of my main impetuses for spending a day in London, was going out in just ten minutes. Although I couldn’t have slept more than three hours and I had just two bananas for the day’s meals and hadn’t even taken my shower yet, I could not miss this great opportunity to chant on London’s crowded Oxford Street with a group of very dedicated devotees. I saw Krishna Vidhi Prabhu, the main leader of the party, who I had met in Mayapur last year, on harinama, of course, as well as his wife, who I remember from when I came to London in 2002. The biggest surprise was to meet Prema Harinama Prabhu, a brahmacari who loves harinama and who I see every year on the Polish festival tour. Here they are very liberal and consider it a benediction to hear me lead harinama, and so for half an hour or so I chanted a favorite Hare Krishna tune I had recently played at Gainesville’s Krishna Lunch (http://www.krishnalunch.com/).

There are many people on Oxford Street, including businessmen, students, and tourists, in abundance, and many persons smiled, moved in time with the music, and took pictures of our chanting party. It was a very lively environment to do harinama in.

I was amazed that when the harinama was over at 5:00 p.m. Krishna Vidhi and Prema Harinama were discussing doing another harinama at 6:00 p.m.! At the conclusion of their discussion, they decided to go out again at 5:15! Such enthusiasm is most inspiring to see. After that they went to a local preaching program at King’s Cross. I wanted to go as well, but I had promised Murali Manohara Prabhu a couple weeks ago that I would give the evening class on Bhagavad-gita, which is at 6:00 p.m., during my visit.

I meditated on the verse during the harinama, but found out while giving the class that in the purport Srila Prabhupada stresses Arjuna’s good qualifications as the cause of his indecision to fight instead of his material attachment to his cousins on the opposing side. I talked about how that section around and previous to today’s verse, Bg. 2.6, discusses Arjuna’s reasons for not fighting, and it was interesting for me to see how sometimes Prabhupada praises Arjuna for his good qualities like compassion and sense control and at other he criticizes him for being materially attached. I followed Srila Prabhupada in his purport and praised Arjuna’s sense control and detachment in his willingness to consider the situation from a religious point of view and to live by begging if necessary to avoid fighting his relatives for the kingdom. I tried to explain clearly how sense control and detachment are necessary for giving up identification with our bodies and thus ending the cycle of repeated birth and death and making attainment of the kingdom of God possible. By the end of the class, there were at least ten people there.

The speaker traditionally leads the evening arati kirtana there at Radha-Londonisvara Mandir, and I chanted Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s beautiful Gaura arati song with great enthusiasm, along it felt odd to me that there are no Gaura-Nitai deities there, just a small picture of Pancatattva. Many people were enthusiastic about kirtana and that make it extra special. There must have been twenty or twenty-five people, many of them Indian, and I felt so happy to see the nice attendance.

I spent most the rest of the evening sorting out what I would not use until I return to London in October, as I have at least 5 kilograms of baggage over the limit for my next flight. I also helped a brahmacari install Wincom on the temple computer.

Reflecting on the whole evening, I felt so happy to be engaged in such superexcellent devotional activities as going on harinama, giving Bhagavad-gita class, and leading the sundara-arati, all in just the half day I spend here at Srila Prabhupada’s temple in Soho Street.

Onward to Poland tomorrow.

Srila Prabhupada ki, jaya! Sri Sri Londonisvara ki, jaya! Gaura premanandi!