Diary
of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 9, No. 20
By Krishna-kripa das
(October 2013, part two)
By Krishna-kripa das
(October 2013, part two)
New
York City Harinama Adventures
(Sent from New York City on November 9, 2013)
(Sent from New York City on November 9, 2013)
Where
I Went and What I Did
I
continued chanting on harinama
six
hours a day at Union Square in New York City with Rama Raya Prabhu’s
party, and living in Radha Govinda Mandir in Brooklyn, cutting
vegetables for their lunch program and Sunday feast. I also gave two
evening lectures, one at Sunanda Prabhu’s Krishna Balarama temple
Sunday program in Queens, and another at Atmanivedana Prabhu’s
Saturday program at 26 Second Avenue.
I
share insights from a Prabhupada lecture I heard, excerpts from
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s blog, mostly about the public chanting of
the holy name, and notes I took on Yogesvara Prabhu’s (Joshua M.
Greene’s) weekly Bhagavad-gita
class
at Jivamukti Yoga School in Manhattan. I also share a couple of
interesting points from conversations.
Harinamas
at Union Square
Lilah,
a student at NYU, frequently walked past our chanting party at Union
Square. Her mother remembered seeing the devotees chanting in the
1970s. Lilah decided to do a video story on the return of Hare
Krishna chanting to the streets for a school project. Her friend
Ronan was her cameraman. For hours she interviewed devotees involved
in the harinama
party
and in the Brooklyn temple and produced this brief video
(http://youtu.be/3eigSPP5w4Y):
but for journalism students to do a whole little documentary is rare.
Thanks so much to Lilah and Ronan for their nice service.
Some
days we had many chanters at Union Square.
Janette
was so enthusiastic she even danced with this old Chinese lady who
was not really the dancing type.
Chandra
Mohini dd would invite people to sit and play with us,
like the guy above, and the two girls below.
like the guy above, and the two girls below.
Sometimes
when you see something far out,
Some
days people brought so much prasadam
for
the harinama
devotees,
we could even distribute some to onlookers as well.
On
the subway back to Brooklyn, a young adult asked if I was with the
Hare Krishna people singing in Union Square. I said yes and explained
we chant there from 2 to 8 p.m. each day. We conversed, and I learned
the person was called Dustin and had gotten Science
of Self-Realization and
read almost all of it. Dustin personally believed that there is one
God with many names, and hearing that, I gestured with the “thumbs
up” of approval. Dustin does practices he has found from different
traditions. Because the Brooklyn temple is closest, I gave Dustin an
invitation card for its Sunday and Wednesday programs with free
vegetarian meals, and gave my business card as well, saying, “If
you go, let me know how you like.” We parted wishing each other
well.
It
is awesome spending Karttika in New York City. You can sing
“Damodarastakam” and offer lamps at Union Square at 7:00 p.m. (or
6:00 p.m., now that daylight saving time has ended), at the
Krishna-Balarama temple in Queens at 8:00 p.m., at the Bhakti Center
in Manhattan at 8:15 p.m., or at the Radha Govinda temple in Brooklyn
at 8:30 p.m. So many choices!
At
Union Square, not only did the devotees offer lamps to Damodara, but
Rama Raya Prabhu decided to allow anyone to, and Janette
enthusiastically would invite anyone who walked by. She was hard to
refuse.
This
boy, who was just passing by, offered a lamp to Damodara and then
joined the kirtana party, playing the shakers and begging from
me a card with the words to the Hare Krishna mantra on it.
This
girl did not know it is not proper etiquette to use your lamp to
light your cigarette before offering the lamp to Lord Damodara.
Phalguni Radhika dd is both amused by her behavior and amazed at the
extent of the mercy of the Lord. It reminded me of the people at the
Polish Woodstock that hold their beer cars in one hand and pull Lord
Jagannatha with the other.
After
that girl offered the lamp to Damodara, she did a nice dance before
the altar for a few seconds, but I was not fast enough to photograph
it.
Michael
Collins continuing leading lively kirtanas that attracted a lot
of attention.
Here
one friendly young yoga lady does a dance by swirling multicolored
flags in time with the music.
You
can see her in action in this video (http://youtu.be/zg7wyjYK9PI):
You
can see from this video, that attracted a lot of attention
(http://youtu.be/P5uNy6iY0h4):
I
have a couple additional videos of Michael Collins singing, one with
several people playing instruments and a couple chanting and dancing
(http://youtu.be/_eVvmLhVCwM),
and the other with some lively dancers (http://youtu.be/wdoZuBxI4WE):
On
October 23, due to rain we chanted “Damodarastakam” in the subway
station. Thanks to Zina for the photo.
It was a first for many of us. Unfortunately, due to
regulations we could not offer the candles there, but Chandra Mohini dd and I did that later in Brooklyn.
On
October 24, it was really cold, probably the low 50s F (11–13ยบ C).
On the Union Square harinama,
Sofia, a Russian-speaking young devotee lady who is a regular, was
mentioning how cold it was. I smiled and said, “But you must be
used to cold. Where exactly are you from?” To my great surprise.
She replied, “Siberia!” Then she explained that she had become
conditioned to the warmer temperatures of New York.
Despite
the cold, I had so many wonderful experiences:
I
do not recall seeing an entire family of five onlookers participate
in a harinama
by
playing instruments and dancing. It was incredible
(http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGerEnGdI0xIm8Z7L7k7kjzHIkYd7B5HZ):
Apparently
the cold temperatures did not dampen the public response to our
chanting!
That
day a French couple came up to me and asked if I was ever in Croatia.
“Three times,” I replied, “2009, 2010, and 2011.” Then they
asked if I was in Zadar in 2011, and it was true. I was there with
the devotees who called their group, “Mediterranean Meets
India"—two
hours of harinama each
morning and evening. I tell about it here:
It
should be like this, wherever people go on vacation in the world they
meet Hare Krishnas! Maybe they will even try chanting Hare Krishna
some day!
Also
the same day I met a 59-year old lady who remembered when we had a
restaurant in the basement of our temple on 55th
Street 33 years ago. She recalled liking the stuffed zucchini. I told
her about our Radha
Krishna Temple,
and Govinda’s
Vegetarian Lunch in
Brooklyn.
A
man who has sat behind our chanting party for hours over the last few
days described our singing as beautiful and even fantastic. He told
me also that he felt my dancing added something to the singing. Later
I was distracted from the dancing, giving “On Chanting Hare
Krishna” pamphlets to all those who offered lamps to our Damodara
picture in Union Square. Seeing this, the man told me to dance more,
which I did, until I got talking with those offering lamps. When he
left, he said he would have stayed longer had I kept dancing. I think
Krishna is teaching me through this that my service of dancing is
more important than I generally think it is.
One
day a girl enjoyed dancing to our chanting, and I offered her an “On
Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlet as she passed by and told her we
sing from 2 to 8 p.m. each day, inviting her to come by when she was
in a dancing mood. She said she was visiting from London, and I told
her about our afternoon harinama
there on
Oxford Street, which leaves at 3:00 p.m. from in front of our
restaurant at 10 Soho Street, which she copied the address of.
One
day in Union Square, during the beginning of our chanting session
when we had just five or six devotees participating, a young lady
came by and asked if I knew where the “Hare Krishna” was. I had
to restraint myself from laughing. We were singing Hare Krishna and
had a sign with the Hare Krishna mantra written on it, and I was
personally dressed in traditional Hare Krishna robes. I explained
that we were the Hare
Krishnas. Then she asked, “Where is everybody?” I explained that
usually around 6:00 p.m. we have twenty people, but that we had just
started and had only a few. Then she replied, “No, I mean where are
all my friends?” Apparently her friends had all agreed to meet in
Union Square at “the Hare Krishna,” and she did not have a clue
about what the Hare Krishnas were! It was striking for me to learn
from this that the Hare Krishnas are such a permanent fixture in
Union Square that people plan to meet their friends at “the Hare
Krishna.”
Another
day a man who was watching our chanting at Union Square seemed so
pleased I went to give him a pamphlet, but he said he already had
one. In fact, he said he already had the Bhagavad-gita.
He told me
he just likes to stand and listen for awhile whenever he passes by.
He said that now, in talking with his family and friends, he does not
even call it Union Square anymore, but Hare Krishna Square instead!
One
guy who lived in Dallas for part of his life, went to a festival
there at which the devotees catered the vegan/vegatarian food. He
played music with them and loved their food. Later he became a
Christian, seeing that different prophecies in their scripture came
to pass, but he had nice memories of being with the Hare Krishnas,
and so he sat down in the middle of our chanting party and played the
drum for half an hour.
One
girl named Nicole from New Jersey, who works in Manhattan, was
fascinated to see our chanting party. She knew of Hare Krishna
because her father was a devotee and liked to watch Prabhupada
videos, but she never saw the singing in public before. Her mom was a
Catholic, but she felt closer to the Hindu views as she saw a broader
description of the divinity—a God who could appear in many
incarnations, and therefore, could appear to those in different
traditions. Originally, being a skeptical New Yorker, she refused the
cookie I offered her, but after our conversation she happily accepted
it. She said she would tell her father about her encounter with us.
The
two sisters playing the karatalas in
these pictures are not the children of Hare Krishna devotees as I
originally thought.
They have have just seen the devotees chant for
almost two years in Union Square, and stopped by enough times to
learn how to play the kalatalas and
to do an impressive job of it.
One
kid who played the shakers with us, was transporting a pumpkin in a
stroller, a new sight for me.
As
we were setting up our book display on Halloween, one young lady
wearing a special robe for Halloween came up and noticing the
Bhagavad-gita, asked
its price. I said they were five dollars, and she immediately
purchased one. I explain that we were setting up, and would be
singing in a few minutes, continuing to 8:00 p.m., if she wanted to
come back and hear. She made some comment like “if it is on my
path,” and I just assumed we would never see her again. I was
wrong. Later I saw her sitting in the center of our party and
meditating on the sound of the kirtana,
and
afterward taking some prasadam.
Although Sad-hari
Das has a turban like a Sikh, he has Vaishnava initiation from Bhakti
Sundar Govinda Swami, successor of Srila Prabhupada’s godbrother,
Sridhara Maharaja. He has many ISKCON devotee friends and comes
several times a month to listen to the Union Square kirtana.
Alex, who calls
himself Alex Vaisnava on Facebook, comes almost every evening for an
hour or two, and often takes very beautiful pictures. Here he is
taking pictures on Halloween.
One older devotee
couple from South America comes to New York every year to visit their
relatives, and each year they spend a few hours on the Union Square
harinama.
One
young lady offered a candle to Damodara and then seemed to really get
into dancing to the kirtana. She
teaches gardening at an alternative school in Harlem, but was very
familiar with seeing the devotees as her boyfriend sells crystals at
Union Square.
She must have danced at least half an hour with a very blissful, meditative mood!
She must have danced at least half an hour with a very blissful, meditative mood!
To
see the additional pictures I took but did not include in this blog,
click on this link:
The
pictures I did not use appear at the end of the album.
Insights
Srila
Prabhupada:
from
a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam
1.2.16,
on August 19, 1972, in Los Angeles:
“Just
like small children, a baby, he’s also appreciating, trying to
stand up with his cymbal. Appreciating. From the very beginning of
life, appreciating, ‘It is nice.’ He knows or does not know, it
doesn’t matter. Simply appreciation is giving him a touch of
spiritual life. It is so nice. Sraddha
[faith].
If they do not go against, simply appreciate, ‘Oh, they are doing
nice . . .’ So development of spiritual life means development of
this appreciation, that’s all.”
“Whatever
you want, especially in this human form of life, whatever you desire,
Krishna will give you chance. It may be very unpalatable, but this is
a fact. We have heard from authorities. That is why in Vrindavana
there are so many hogs and monkeys and dogs. This is very mysterious
thing. . . . Those who are executing devotional service, but at the
same time cheating . . . Cheating means outwardly very devotional,
inwardly doing all sinful activities. Such living entity is given the
chance to become a hog and dog in Vrindavana so that the reaction of
the sinful activities, they get this body; at the same time, due to
their touch with the dust of Vrindavana, they become eliminated of
all sinful activities and liberated. So these hogs and dogs, they’re
also very important. They are not ordinary thing. But this is the
explanation. . . . Therefore a devotee, when he’s
punished in that way for the short time, they’ll
be liberated. Undoubtedly.”
Satsvarupa
Dasa Goswami:
from
The
Waves at Jagannatha Puri and Other Poems:
[a description of
the Indian vacationers]
“I
like their innocent do
nothingness, the no-ghetto-blaster mood,
the no fighting, no bikinis, no strutting,
and even though their visit is a karmi’s [materialist’s] vacation,
they go for darsana of
Lord Jagannatha.”
nothingness, the no-ghetto-blaster mood,
the no fighting, no bikinis, no strutting,
and even though their visit is a karmi’s [materialist’s] vacation,
they go for darsana of
Lord Jagannatha.”
“Today’s
drawing shows three
tilaked devotees dancing and chanting
with upraised arms.
Each is a unique individual:
The man on the right has
a pink head and an elongated neck.
The girl in the center is
brown-faced and the boy on the left
is bright-faced with a big smile. Devotees
come from different
cultural and ethnic backgrounds
with different psychophysical natures.
Prabhupada spoke of seeing ‘the
unity within the diversity and the
diversity within unity.’
There is no attempt to
squelch a person’s individuality
but all come forward
to cooperate in the
sacrifice of harinama sankirtana.”
tilaked devotees dancing and chanting
with upraised arms.
Each is a unique individual:
The man on the right has
a pink head and an elongated neck.
The girl in the center is
brown-faced and the boy on the left
is bright-faced with a big smile. Devotees
come from different
cultural and ethnic backgrounds
with different psychophysical natures.
Prabhupada spoke of seeing ‘the
unity within the diversity and the
diversity within unity.’
There is no attempt to
squelch a person’s individuality
but all come forward
to cooperate in the
sacrifice of harinama sankirtana.”
“Today’s drawing shows four bhaktas dancing and chanting
with upraised arms.
I drew with only a black pen
as a variety from the
multicolored sports clothes.
They are just as happy
as the colorful version
and vigorously dancing.
These men of mine compensate
for the fact that I no longer
can go out and
dance and chant. I
advocate that those
devotees who are fit and healthy should
go out in public and
chant and dance.
My disciple Krishna-kripa
always dances on harinama
because I asked him
to do it. It purifies
the atmosphere and
shows the people that
the Hare Krishna movement is alive and flourishing.”
Krishnahnika
Kaumudi
by Kavi-karnapura Gosvami
Second
Ray of Light
Morning Pastimes (Pratah-lila) 6:00–8:36 A.M.
Morning Pastimes (Pratah-lila) 6:00–8:36 A.M.
“Thus
Radha cooks innumerable preparations
with enticing aromas for the pleasure of Krishna,
Balarama, Nanda and Yasoda.”
with enticing aromas for the pleasure of Krishna,
Balarama, Nanda and Yasoda.”
[It
was striking to me that even Radha, Krishna’s most beloved, cooks
for Krishna’s
devotees, in addition to Krishna Himself.]
“Prabhupada
used to say the devotees were
not doing ordinary ‘ballroom
dancing.’ It is a symptom of
transcendental ecstasy that when one
is chanting in kirtana he
spontaneously rises and starts
to dance. Prabhupada
was very pleased when the
first devotee got up to
dance. Soon we
were all doing it.
He taught us the ‘Swami Step’ upstairs
in his room. Later
devotees began improvising
their own
sometimes
wild styles. Prabhupada
usually encouraged all kinds
of dancing because
he saw it as a sign of their enthusiasm.”
used to say the devotees were
not doing ordinary ‘ballroom
dancing.’ It is a symptom of
transcendental ecstasy that when one
is chanting in kirtana he
spontaneously rises and starts
to dance. Prabhupada
was very pleased when the
first devotee got up to
dance. Soon we
were all doing it.
He taught us the ‘Swami Step’ upstairs
in his room. Later
devotees began improvising
their own
sometimes
wild styles. Prabhupada
usually encouraged all kinds
of dancing because
he saw it as a sign of their enthusiasm.”
“Today’s
drawing shows three
devotees dancing and
chanting with upraised arms.
This style of harinama
was introduced by Lord Caitanya
and His associates in
Navadvipa and Jagannatha Puri
over five hundred years ago.
The upraised arms
are a sign of surrender
to Krishna and an expression
of joy. The dancing
feet are a physical
response to an
inner feeling.
These three devotees,
a woman and two
men, are all smiling
out of natural happiness.
It is not a staged or
professional performance but
a pure movement of the soul.”
devotees dancing and
chanting with upraised arms.
This style of harinama
was introduced by Lord Caitanya
and His associates in
Navadvipa and Jagannatha Puri
over five hundred years ago.
The upraised arms
are a sign of surrender
to Krishna and an expression
of joy. The dancing
feet are a physical
response to an
inner feeling.
These three devotees,
a woman and two
men, are all smiling
out of natural happiness.
It is not a staged or
professional performance but
a pure movement of the soul.”
“Today’s
drawing shows four
bhaktas dancing and chanting
with upraised arms.
Four men is a good enough
number to attract the
attention of passersby. They
may be startled or think
them crazy fellows. But
if they continue to pass by
daily they will be impressed by
the determination of the chanters. They may
begin to make out the words
of the mantra and even
find themselves repeating
it during the day.
A steadily appearing
harinama group
has the potency to
transform people’s
lives. It is pleasing
to guru and Gauranga,
and it certainly
purifies the hearts of the chanters.”
bhaktas dancing and chanting
with upraised arms.
Four men is a good enough
number to attract the
attention of passersby. They
may be startled or think
them crazy fellows. But
if they continue to pass by
daily they will be impressed by
the determination of the chanters. They may
begin to make out the words
of the mantra and even
find themselves repeating
it during the day.
A steadily appearing
harinama group
has the potency to
transform people’s
lives. It is pleasing
to guru and Gauranga,
and it certainly
purifies the hearts of the chanters.”
Yogesvara Prabhu:
[Yogesvara
Prabhu (Joshua M. Greene) gives Bhagavad-gita
class
each Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Jivamukti Yoga School NYC, 841 Broadway 2nd
Floor, New York, near Union Square]
I asked my teacher,
Srila Prabhupada, “Why would some people want Krishna as a friend,
some as a child, and some as a lover?”
He replied, “It is
question of personal taste.”
It is good to have
an altar. It is important to acknowledge the foundation.
Arati
is offering the elements of God’s creation back to God.
The
Gita
is
a dialog which scholars later divided
into
chapters.
Krishna and Arjuna
are lifelong friends.
Srila Prabhupada
said, “If you are going to do something for Krishna, it is worth
doing it right.”
Bhakti-yoga
or
what Srila Prabhupada called “Krishna consciousness” is that yoga
that transforms every moment and act of your life into devotion to
God.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
gives
the most knowledge about bhakti
of
the eighteen Puranas.
Anxiety is the
result of thinking something is outside the will or control of God.
The
first result of bhakti
is
freedom from anxiety because you know you are in good hands with
Krishna.
The
foundational understanding of Bhagavad-gita
is:
I am not the body. I am the soul. I am part of God. I can be
satisfied only by connecting to God through the practice of devotion.
In a conversation
with Professor Kotofsky, the professor made the point that there is
always revolution in the world, thesis, antithesis, etc. Srila
Prabhupada explained that when one comes to Krishna, that is the
final revolution.
comment by Sharon
Gannon, cofounder of Jivamukti: “Vallabhacarya says, ‘Spend one,
or at most three, hours each day maintaining your existence in the
world, but do not forget the Lord in that pursuit.’”
Two
things you can learn from the Gita:
The
story is deeper than it seems, and you can do more than you think.
If we think in each
situation “How can I serve here?”, that will greatly improve our
experience of life.
One religious writer
says ritual can be empty or it can be everything, all depending one’s
mentality.
Whatever you have
learned from your spiritual practice, find someone to share it with.
The
book Bhagavad-gita
is
worshipable as the literary embodiment of the divinity. Just like in
a Jewish synagogue there is an altar with the Torah on it that people
bow to.
Karma is so
complicated it is like untangling a large ball of twine. Krishna
advises Arjuna not to try to unravel it, but to take the sword of
knowledge and cut it.
I
rather get one thing clear in these Tuesday Gita
sessions
rather than go prattling on about many things.
Sattva,
goodness,
is the doorway to transcendence, yet it is still material.
As
you are reading Bhagavad-gita,
read
a few verses before and after to place a verse in its context.
The longer we reside
in this material world, the more we come to believe that we are
actually the body.
One you have desired
something, you cannot make the material nature act in a certain way.
Don’t blame God
for the results of your desires.
There
are lot of Bhagavad-gita
ideas
in Plato.
The
power of bhakti
is
that it elevates you above all actions and reactions of the material
world.
When
we are attracted to someone, our combination of the gunas
(material
qualities) is attracted to their combination of the gunas.
A
transcendentalist does not act on that attraction, and in particular,
avoids the tendency toward exploitation, desiring to render service
to the person instead.
I know many people
who are miserable because they partnered with someone that their
senses were attracted to, and not someone their intelligence
selected.
In the
transcendental position you engage your natural qualities in God’s
service. You do not develop a completely different personality. You
are also conscious of your weaknesses, and you understand what you
are unable to engage in the Lord’s service and therefore must avoid
altogether.
Donavan, a famous
singer of the 1970s, met Srila Prabhupada. For a while Donavan just
looked at Srila Prabhupada, not knowing exactly what to say. Srila
Prabhupada quoted a verse from the Vedas that glorified music as the
perfection of education, and that immediately put Donavan at ease.
Then Srila Prabhupada explained how he had given George Harrison
spiritual ideas to express through his songs, and he offered to do
the same for Donavan.
Nanda-nandana
Prabhu:
from a conversation:
I
spent a whole month preaching with Srila Prabhupada’s godbrother,
Krishna dasa Babaji. Krishna dasa Babaji would be chanting Hare
Krishna practically all the time. He carried one bag with him that
was just filled with slips of paper with “kirtaniya
sada harih”
[always chant Hari (a name of the Lord)] written on it in both
Bengali and English. He would give these to everyone he met. Thus all
he did was chant always and advise others to always chant.
Muslim
man at a fragrance and oils shop in Brooklyn:
from a conversation:
Allah originally
told Moses that he wanted His followers to offer prayers fifty times
a day. Moses explained to the Lord that it was too much, and Allah
reduced it to forty times a day. Moses said that it was still too
much. Allah reduced it again. This continued until Allah reduced it
down to offering prayers five times a day. When Moses said that it
was still too much, Allah said that He was tired of changing it, and
that if they would just offer prayers five times a day, it would
count as if they had offered prayers fifty times a day.
-----
“The living
entities ears are sacrifical openings. The tongue is a sacrifical
ladle. The sound of Lord Krishna’s glories is charming sacrifical
ghee. When the ladle of the tongue pours that ghee into the openings
of the ears, the ghee enters the heart. In the heart the ghee adds
fuel to the fire of ecstatic love. It makes that fire burn with great
flames. The flames of that fire make the body tremble. They make the
body’s hairs stand erect. Freed from sin in this way, the living
entities dance. Salokya [attaining the same planet as the
Lord] and the other kinds of liberation follow behind them. However,
the living entities will not cast even a sidelong glance at
liberation. Instead, tasting the sweet nectar of Lord Krishna’s
glories, they joyfully dance. The Vaishnava acaryas [spiritual
teachers] all perform this yajna [sacrifices]. Please know
that sankirtana-yajna [the sacrifice of congregational
chanting of the holy name] is the best of all yajnas.
(Caitanya
Mangala, “Mahaprabhur Vividhavese Prema-vitarana [Lord
Mahaprabhu's Manifestation of Various Divine Forms and His
Distribution Then of Ecstatic Spiritual Love],” verses 81–85)