Travel Journal#5.13: Croatian Harinama Tour, Budapest, Prague

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 5, No. 13
By Krishna-kripa das 
(July 2009, part one)
Croatian Harinama Tour, Budapest, Prague
(Sent from Siemysl, Poland, on 8/7/09)

Where I Am and What I Am Doing

Last year I heard about the Croatia traveling harinama program but attending it proved impractical. This year, however, I was already in Slovenia, a bordering country, on their padayatra, and my friend Syama Rasa Prabhu from Mayapur and the Polish festival program invited me to come to the first part of the three-part traveling harinama tour in Croatia. Heading toward Poland for the Woodstock, I decided to stop in Budapest on the way for a harinama and their Ratha-yatra which some of my friends enjoyed attending last year. After Budapest, I went to Prague for their Ratha-yatra to be held the next week.

Highlights

Harinama at the Train and Bus Stations
Spiritual Conversations
Harinama in Croatia
Budapest Ratha-yatra
Notes from a Niranjana Swami Darsana
Insight from Lectures

Harinama at the Train and Bus Stations

While traveling from Celje, Slovenia to Karlovac, Croatia, I had some time to play my small accordion and sing while waiting for a couple of trains. I would go to the platform where my train was to come, and start playing softly and then singing in a not too crowded place. My favorite tune is a sweet tune that Bada Hari Prabhu invented and Madhava Prabhu made popular. Some people always smile and nod appreciatively.

At Celje within a few minutes a young man came up to me saying “Namaste” and a few words of the Hare Krishna mantra in greeting. He explained that he bought a couple of books from a devotee who was visiting his village and that he liked the books. He told how some friend of his had given up drugs as a result of meditation. I encouraged him to try chanting the Hare Krishna mantra as it was very powerful meditation. I gave him a card with the mantra and also a card for the Sunday feast program in Ljubljana. Both his girl friend, and a middle-aged man, who was sitting next to me when I had begun chanting, eagerly asked for both cards too. The young man helped me with my luggage and told me when my stop had come. It was a nice encounter.

At Zidani Most, the train to Zagreb was late so I had almost a hour to sing. I played all the songs I knew for five or ten minutes and then began again with my favorite one. One young lady at the other end of my bench stayed there reading a magazine, although she could have chosen a more quiet seat, further down the platform. Later I found she sings in a secular choir as a hobby. I figure my singing could not have been so bad, or she would have moved. A middle-aged lady, sat down next to me to eat a sandwich. As my train was supposed to arrive in five minutes, I started to pack up, but she motioned that I continue. The young lady who was reading the magazine was also going to Zagreb and when she explained that the train to Zagreb was delayed for fifteen minutes, I decided continue playing. On the train, she told me that being brought up in a largely Catholic country she developed a great dislike of religious institutions as a result, although she has some idea of God. She said she appreciated the religions of the East more than others, and she is a vegetarian herself. I told her about our Govinda’s vegetarian restaurant in Ljubljana.

Later enroute from from Budapest to Prague, the bus I rode stopped for ten minutes in Bratislava, and instead of smoking cigarettes, buying snacks, and using the rest rooms like the other passengers, I sat on the bench outside the bus playing a favorite Hare Krishna tune on my miniature accordion. Almost immediately a young man came up to me and smiled, saying “Dobra!”, one of the few Slovakian words I knew, which means “good” in almost every Slavic language. When he realized I only knew English, he said, “Super!”  (a word now adopted from English by almost every language on the planet.) I gave him an invitation to our Govinda’s in Bratislava, so he can find out more about Krishna and His chanting. It was a small experience but it brightened up my day and my journey.

Spiritual Conversations

Bhakta F. of Rijeka, Croatia, fought in the war that ravaged the country for four years. He said you end up building a wall around yourself and having no friends. The ones you had are killed in the war, and stop making new friends because it is too hard to hear that they too got killed in the war, just as you were getting to know them. Stories of the miseries of war are far removed from my daily experience, and it was educational for me to talk with someone with experience of this very miserable aspect of material existence, and deepen my realization of the material world as a miserable place.

Harinama in Croatia

In Karlovac, Croatia, the temple president Mohan Prabhu and the devotees there started their summer harinama program five years ago with five devotees and one vehicle and traveled for two weeks. Now they have eighteen devotees and four vehicles and plan to travel on three journeys totaling two months. They chant in two or three cities a day, once in the morning, sometimes splitting the party over two locations and then all together in the evening.

They chant about two hours in the program and at least two hours in the evening, sometimes more. Their morning program is not as developed as the Slovenian padayatra, and they promised to improve in that department. This year they hope to do over ninety harinamas in the summer season.

Some attract the attention of as many as a hundred or a hundred and fifty people at one time.

At Rijeka, sometimes twenty-five or thirty people watched our evening harinama, including a couple small girls who each danced at least fifteen minutes.

One morning at a flea market, one girl, perhaps twelve years old or so, spent the entire two hours with the devotees, sometimes singing, sometimes dancing, sometimes talking with them, and sometimes watching them. A lady in her fifties was very happy to see the devotees, having met them in San Francisco in her youth. She has since moved to Croatia, where her Italian-speaking mother is from, and expressed an interested in the Sunday feast program in her town of Pula.

Over a hundred people gathered around a stage we had permission to use in the resort city of Rovinj on the Adriatic Sea.

Many young girls enjoyed the dancing, and some tried saying the mantra. Many people bought items from our table.

Finally, the devotee men have assimilated all the dances the devotee ladies know, so we looked more professional when we danced on the stage. We have three of each, dancing in a row, to the side of, or as in this case, behind the kirtana party. Tonight there were so many potential dancers in the crowd, I suggested we add a dancing contest and give away a piece of jewelry as a reward, as Indradyumna Swami does with the saris on the Polish festival tour.

The following night at Medulin was even better. Once the audience was so big it formed a ring, in places several people deep, all around the kirtana party, which itself had swelled to twenty-five people with local devotees recruited from the afternoon’s Sunday feast program.

One evening at Pula, three kids danced with great pleasure along with the ladies.

Actually each day on this Croatian harinama tour, the evening harinamas has been better than the previous day. The day I wrote this, a few kids, probably all aged twelve and under, danced with us for a while. Brahmacari Mahananda Prabhu encouraged them to chant, saying he would give the best one a prize. At one point four kids were following our dance steps, and three of them were chanting. One girl videoed our party for at least an hour. At the end of the evening the owner of an ice cream shop, who had watched us chant for an hour and had given a donation, offered to give free ice cream to all the devotees. It turned out that he had gotten Srila Prabhupada’s books in Albania some twenty years before. When he had a crisis in his life, Srila Prabhupada’s books helped him get through it, and so he felt very indebted to the devotees.

One evening a couple young ladies remained as we were packing up. I asked where there were from, and they said Czech Republic. I told them how we had programs of singing and dancing every Wednesday evening at Govinda’s Restaurant in Prague and gave them the invitation for it, and I told them about the harinamas there which begin each Wednesday and Friday at 4:00 from Namesti Republiki. They said they’d seen the devotees before and promised to come to the restaurant. A couple days later, a couple girls listened to us for an hour and a half and bought Indian jewelry and two bhajana CDs. I was impressed—that is such a long time for newcomers to listen to a kirtana program! I asked them where they were from and they said Bavaria. I gave them invitations to our two Bavarian temples, Munich and Simhachalam, the Nrsimha farm. I told how twice a month in Munich the devotees get permission and set up a stage and have five hours of bhajanas, and they were very happy to here about it. On our final evening harinama, a middle-aged couple who watched for at least half an hour, with the lady ultimately singing along, took an invitation to our Munich temple, and a couple of girls from Czech Republic who watched for over an hour took my invitation to the program in Govinda’s Restaurant in Prague. I always feel victorious if I can get interested people in touch with local programs in their area, for then they can easily have regular joyful, spiritual experiences of hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord in the association of His devotees, and make steady progress in spiritual life.

The Croatian devotees from Karlovac share some the ecstasy of the harinama tour on their web page (www.avadhuta.hr), through these articles:

http://avadhuta.hr/yatra_news/315/ecstasy-in-rovinj

http://avadhuta.hr/yatra_news/316/harinam-with-celebrity

http://avadhuta.hr/yatra_news/317/harinams-on-the-islands

and through these galleries:

http://avadhuta.hr/galleries/112/sri-sri-nitay-gauracandra-harinam-tour-2009---istra--islands-i

http://avadhuta.hr/galleries/111/sri-sri-nitay-gauracandra-harinam-tour-2009---istra--islands-ii

http://avadhuta.hr/galleries/110/sri-sri-nitay-gauracandra-harinam-tour-2009---istra--islands-iii

http://avadhuta.hr/galleries/109/sri-sri-nitay-gauracandra-harinam-tour-2009---istra--islands-iv

The prasadam desserts were special in Croatia. I do not ever recall having cantaloupe coconut halava before, but there it is one of the popular flavors and for good reason. For the last lunch of the harinama tour, the cooks threw all the remaining fruits in the halava—peaches, apples, banana, apricots, and plums, and it was really quite nice. There were also a few local sweets including one with an outside made with mashed potatoes mixed with flour and fried which a tasty fruit filling. There was also a pastry with a cream filling.

Budapest Ratha-yatra

I was humbled by being kicked off the train by a Hungarian conductor, and thus missing the Budapest Ratha-yatra, but fortunately not the whole festival. The train station at the first town in Hungary past the Croatian border did not take VISA cards, nor have either an ATM machine or currency exchange office. Although I had enough dollars and euros together to buy the ticket at the price quoted on the internet, that wasn’t good enough for the conductor, so he motioned that I had to get off the train. You could see he was really enjoying his position of power—such a smalltime opulence—the ability to kick someone off a train. The station I was dumped off at had the same lack of financial facilities, and I had to wander around town looking for an ATM machine, thus missing my chance of reboarding the same train. I did save $5, however, for the distance covered before the conductor through me off, a small solace.

The Ratha-yatra stage show had some nice kirtana, both traditional and contemporary, and my desire to sing and dance for Lord Jagannath was fulfilled, so all was not lost. I also met many friends from Munich and Prague and enjoyed taking prasadam and chatting with them. One of the bhaktas from Munich even danced along with me to the kirtanas on stage.

Notes from a Niranjana Swami Darsana

In 1979, as the New York bhakta leader, Niranjana Swami, then a brahmacari, advised me to spend my time off from college in the New York temple and see how much spiritual advancement I could make. Because I was traveling with a college friend to meet a mutual friend who graduated the previous year and we had planned the trip for some time, although I had spiritual inclinations, it was a difficult choice to make. Years later Niranjana Swami told me I was the hardest person he even convinced to stay in the temple and that he had to pray to Krishna. Seeing the power of Niranjana Swami’s prayers in my case, I asked him to pray to Krishna that I may remain faithful to Srila Prabhupada and his mission and that I may awaken my dormant love for God in this way, and he said he would. Now with renewed conviction, I continue my program of supporting the congregational chanting of the holy name wherever I go.

Although Sivarama Swami tried his best to protect the recuperating Niranjana Swami from visitors, due to his great mercy, Niranjana Swami spoke to me on a couple of occasions in Budapest, sharing his wisdom:

“In many places, I have noticed there exists a vacuum between the congregation and new people. That needs to be addressed.”

Q: What gives you faith in Krishna consciousness?

A: Association with Godbrothers—those who have given every fiber of their existence for serving Srila Prabhupada. The holy name, who has not kicked me away after so many years. Srila Prabhupada’s books—I read other books but always come back to them, they are special—Srila Prabhupada did give us everything.

Q: What should I do for Srila Prabhupada’s mission?

A: Keep traveling and doing harinama, giving lectures, and supporting local temple programs, along with your proofreading work, as long as you are absorbed and not agitated or restless, and you benefit people in the temples you go to. I have always thought it was a good program, and so I have been encouraging you in it. Otherwise settle in a place you know the language or are willing to learn it and help develop the preaching according to your ability.

Insight from Lectures

Trilokatma Prabhu (of the Czech BBT):

When we have a problem, we should approach a superior with prayers and a service attitude before asking for a solution.

Spiritual life depends on mercy, which sometimes comes in unpalatable forms, but which the devotees accept as mercy for its education value.

I was attracted in the beginning to the idea the Krishna consciousness is the solution to all problems. Why is that idea a fact? Because the devotees know the original cause of problems.

People seek solving food shortage through birth control which has serious karmic reactions instead of simply becoming vegetarian and easily solving the whole problem.

Modern society does not think character should be taught in the schools but just at home.

Modern society tries in many ways to solve problems, but often they create worse problems.

As the sun dissipates the fog, bhakti yoga uproots sinful desires, while modern society, on the other hand, encourages them.

-----

na niskrtair uditair brahma-vadibhis
tatha visuddhyaty aghavan vratadibhih
yatha harer nama-padair udahrtais
tad uttamasloka gunopalambhakam

By following the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies or undergoing atonement, sinful men do not become as purified as by chanting once the holy name of Lord Hari. Although ritualistic atonement may free one from sinful reactions, it does not awaken devotional service, unlike the chanting of the Lord's names, which reminds one of the Lord's fame, qualities, attributes, pastimes and paraphernalia. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.11)

Travel Journal#5.6: Gainesville and the Tallahassee Ratha-yatra

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 5, No. 6
By Krishna-kripa das 
(March 2009, part two)
Gainesville and the Tallahassee Ratha-yatra
(Sent from Berlin on 7/26/09)

Highlights

Tallahassee Ratha-yatra

Insights from Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, Mother Ananga Manjari, 
Brahmatirtha Prabhu, Chaturatma Prabhu, 
Kalakantha Prabhu, Laksmi Nrsimha Prabhu, 
Sesa Prabhu, and Others

Where I Was and What I Was Doing

I was in Gainesville doing my service of chanting on the UF campus for the second half of March, and then we took a van up to Tallahassee for the Ratha-yatra the final Saturday of the month. During the end of March we had a visit from Gadadhara Pandit Prabhu who is doing college preaching in New York. They do three kinds of programs at a college there: a vegetarian cooking class, a sharing group, and a Bhagavad-gita class. When the people come to the cooking classes, they learn of the other programs. The sharing program involves students discussing different spiritually related topics with prasadam always available in a self-serve buffet style as soon as they arrive. We hope we gained some ideas from him we can use to improve our programs for the students in Gainesville. Vaishnava youth Gauranga Kisore, our old friend, now doing college programs at San Jose also came for a visit. He gave an evening class over an hour long and made philosophical points in an interesting way with PowerPoint. He told our congregation that there was no time for the post-lecture kirtana, but when the devotees and students both insisted, he agreed to ten-minute kirtana that went for twenty minutes or half-hour, surprising him by the jolly participation of everyone there. I felt happy to see that our congregation of devotees, students, and guests are developing love for harinama sankirtana, the only sacrifice recommended by theVedas for this age, and which has the power to award one with full development of love for God.

Tallahassee Ratha-yatra

The Tallahassee Ratha-yatra is the Hare Krishna contribution to the Springtime Tallahassee Parade, usually the last Saturday in March. We have been doing it so many years, and you can tell from the reactions of the crowd that they are very happy to see us there. Once when we didn’t fill out the forms in time to be in the parade, and we distributed books instead, three people who understood we were Hare Krishnas expressed dismay that we were not singing and dancing in the parade with our Jagannath cart. Another year, immediately after the parade, we did harinama to the beginning, and some people told us they liked our float the best. This year, we had about thirty devotees participating in the parade kirtana. For Bhakta Alex, who assisted Sivam in making the cart ready, it was his first Ratha-yatra. I encouraged the devotees to print a good number of invitations so we could distribute them to interested people. For me, there is always a tension between dancing and distributing invitations, so I did some of each, and sometimes both at once! stributing invitations, so I did some of each, and sometimes both at once! Our Ratha-yatra won the first place in competition for the Judge’s Choice, an award for the category of clubs and miscellaneous entries in the parade. 

As we did the past few years, we did harinama through a very crowded street festival after the parade. Many devotees participated in that as well, despite the constant threat of rain. I felt very happy because the friends who came with me in the van from Gainesville and Alachua really added a lot to that harinama. Sveta Svarupa Prabhu sang nicely for almost an hour, and Mother Ali Krishna and her friend, Mother Chandrabhaga, danced nicely in front of the party. I distributed invitations. Not only that, but they all stayed at the temple after the feast and sang bhajanas along with some of the local devotees, culminating in the beautiful “Jagannathastakam,” the words of which we downloaded from the internet, since it is not in the main song book. Daru Brahma Prabhu had a great feast for the devotees after the Ratha-yatra and harinama. He always has plenty of preparations that vegans can eat as well as vegetarians, and everything tastes delicious.

Insight from Lectures

[Note: Usually I just include lectures from the dates the journal covers. In this case, having a little more space, I also included undated lecture notes from my stay in Gainesville this winter and spring and some I foolishly forgot to enter earlier.]

Hridayananda Dasa Goswami:

There are an infinite variety of pure devotees.

The Krishna in your heart is your Krishna and is only there for you, just as when Krishna expands Himself into different expansions as a husband for a particular queen or a companion for a particular gopi.

Simultaneous oneness and difference pervades all aspects of our life. In a healthy relationship, there is a balance between oneness and difference.

Our final duty is to be enchanted about Krishna and to communicate to others that Krishna is our real leader.

Krishna’s devotees sometimes appear to act improperly (1) because they are not perfected and (2) as part of a pastime to show real life situations.

Some say we cannot see God, but why would God create beings and then hide himself from them?

Krishna is not God playing like a cowherd boy, but a cowherd boy playing like God.

In the spiritual world, there is no wish to cause trouble to another.

Q [by Brahmatirtha Prabhu]: How do we separate out the individuality that is a result of our conditioned nature and that which is part of our spiritual identity?

A: It is dependent on our motivation, and we have to introspect and consult senior Vaishnavas.

Q: What does “I am not the doer” mean?

A: You are not your body, so what is done by your body is not done by you.

Mother Ananga Manjari:

If you follow the recipe, the preparation will turn out nicely, similarly if you follow the practice of sadhana-bhakti, you will gradually attain Krishna consciousness.

We have to be grateful for the Lord’s gifts. The devotee appreciates these gits and offers them in the Lord’s service. We can become happy by being grateful.

Although Radharani is the greatest devotee, she is prideless.

Krishna’s kick and Krishna’s kiss are both mercy. If we see them in that way, we can progress.

We cannot control what happens to us, but we can choose our response to it.

When Srila Prabhupada came to Gainesville, the center was called “The Krishna House.”

The picture of Srila Prabhupada in Bhagavad-gita that has a picture of Krishna as Gopal there with him, with a garland on the picture, and with ferns, was taken in Gainesville.

Brahmatirtha Prabhu:

There is a tension between religiosity and spirituality. If we are not careful we can allow religiosity to be an impediment to our spirituality.

I never had a cigar or drink until I went to my bar mitzvah.

Our spirituality is beyond just externally following religious principles—it is our relationship with God.

Alcohol cannot be stopped [as was tried during the Prohibition] but it could be highly regulated. For example, stores that sell gas should not be allowed to sell alcohol.

Chaturatma Prabhu:

Srila Prabhupada points out modern education teaches us an art or a trade, but that is not real education because no knowledge is given about our spiritual identity.

We have to balance our spiritual and material activities.

In Vrindavan, I heard a bird in a tree. I could not see the bird, because the bird was green and the tree was green. Only by hearing could I tell the bird was there. In the same way, there are things, especially spiritual things, that we can only understand through hearing.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

Although India is becoming degraded spiritually following the Western lifestyle, still in India they eat only three pounds of beef per person per year as compared to the USA, where they eat ninety-four pounds!

Laksmi Nrsimha Prabhu:

The word ‘respect’ can be broken down into the prefix ‘re’ which means ‘again,’ and the root ‘spect’ which means ‘to see.’ So to respect means to see again, in a deeper way.

If you are proud, that means that you never look above you.

When Srila Prabhupada, for formality, needed a yajna done, as in Vrindavan, he engaged the Sri Vaishnava priests because of their expertise.

Sesa Prabhu:

It is an illusion to think that things can be completely resolved materially.

Just because the subject matter is inconceivable doesn’t mean you don’t have to try to understand it.

Maya, the Lord’s illusory energy, always provokes doubts about the supremecy of the Lord.

A transcendentalist does not blame because of higher knowledge.

“Circumstances do not make a person but reveal him or her.”—Richmond Hill community newsletter.

If you have doubts about why something happens to you, you can reveal your mind to Krishna. That is better than not doing so.

Self-interest on an individual level multiplied by millions creates the mass poverty we see in places like India.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gave unknown people charity but did not repeatedly give to the same people because that encourages professional begging.

MacAuley strategized to that conquer India, the British would have to destroy their traditional educational system. Our greatest charity is to institute educational systems to benefit the people spiritually.

It is an advantage that we have big tall buildings and people jumping out of them because they are so dissatisfied with life?

Gadadhara Pandit Prabhu:

If is important to always act under the direction of senior devotees.

If you want to correct people, make sure you also appreciate the good things about them in general, so you will not seen as someone who always criticizes.

Madhava Prabhu:

Why is the cow important in Vedic culture? Vedic culture comes from Krishna and so reflects Krishna’s likes and dislikes, and Krishna happens to like cows. His eternal planet is Goloka [the planet of cows]. He is Govinda [who gives pleasure to the cows] and Gopala [who is Lord of the cows].

Kelly:

To get people thinking about the soul and the afterlife, Kelly asked the students what were their conceptions of an afterlife in their childhood. Kelly wanted to be a mermaid or to fly. Jude wanted superhuman powers but did not care which ones. Maddy thought that we would all become angels and serve only God.

In the reflection of a tree, you can see the fruits but you cannot pick them. In the same way, we cannot really enjoy the material world although it looks like we can.

My friends tell me on Facebook that they are longing to return to the resort where they spent spring break. This is evidence that we desire to live eternally in an ideal place. That is because we are meant to reside eternally with God in the spiritual world.

Maddy: People are afraid and so take shelter of the material world. They do not know that if they surrender to God they will experience the communion they want.

Vegan and Vegetarian Panel at University of Florida:

[I was amazed to see the support of vegetarians by the staff at University of Florida. One lady involved with health said that she regularly reassures the parents of vegetarian students that they have a perfectly healthy diet and the parents do not need to worry.]

Complementary proteins need not be eaten in the same meal; the same day is OK.

On vitamin B12: Vegetarians often have deficiency in vitamin B12. B12 deals with making DNA, new cells, and maintaining the nervous system. If you take 5000 units of B12 every once in a while, that will be sufficient. Large doses of B12 have greater likelihood of absorption. The body stores B12 for a long time, and if someone goes from eating meat to being a vegan, it may take years for a deficiency to arise.

On iron: When you donate blood, they will test your hemoglobin, and you can find out if you are somewhat anemic, but not too low in iron. Men usually get enough iron. If iron supplements are taken with whole grains or with other supplements, they will not be fully absorbed and you will not get the full effect. Take iron with vitamin C or on an empty stomach.

-----

nivritta tarsair upagiyamanad

bhavausadhac chrotra mano ’bhiramat

ka uttamasloka gunanuvadat

puman virajyeta vina pasughnat

“Glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is performed in the parampara system; that is, it is conveyed from spiritual master to disciple. Such glorification is relished by those no longer interested in the false, temporary glorification of this cosmic manifestation. Descriptions of the Lord are the right medicine for the conditioned soul undergoing repeated birth and death. Therefore, who will cease hearing such glorification of the Lord except a butcher or one who is killing his own self?” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.1.4).

Travel Journal#5.12: German Festivals and Slovenian Padayatra

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 5, No. 12
By Krishna-kripa das
(June 2009, part two)
East Germany Festival Programs and the Slovenian Padayatra
(Sent from Prague, Czech Republic on 7/17/09)

Highlights

East German Festival Programs
Slovenian Eco Caravan Padayatra
Book Distribution Story
Insights from Lokanath Swami, Kadamba Kanana Swami,
Prithu Prabhu, and Others
Excerpt from a George Harrison Interview

East German Festival Programs

My reason to go to Leipzig was to take part in a couple of outreach events, Cottbus Open, and a harinama at festival in Dresden Neustadt (New City), a place of alternative people. Both were during the same weekend, so we camped out at a Cottbus city park and did a day trip to Dresden Neustadt for a Saturday afternoon harinama. It was the fourth year the Leipzig devotees set up a camp at Cottbus Open, a festival with vendors and a few stages with bands.

We did a harinama around town before the festival got going. At the festival, devotees distributed mango lassi, yogi tea, pakoras and chutney, sweet balls, rice with vegetables, a few other things.

In their yurt, they had Deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra, Gaura-Nitai, Giri-Govardhan, and a picture of Srila Prabhupada and Pralhada-Nrsimha. They had bhajanas amplified with a good sound system with all the instruments and voices separately microphoned and mixed together. They distributed food till 11:00 p.m. and chanted till 1:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday just till 7:00 p.m., when a thunderstorm curtailed the event.

Throughout the evening many people came and listened, some participating in their own ways.

The two ladies on Prithu Prabhu's right
delighted in singing and clapping along.

In addition, the devotees had a stage with a drama and a devotee playing songs with spiritual lyrics on a guitar.

The drama was a humorous spoof on Darwin and his theory of evolution, and involved a spider who explained and demonstrated, both to Darwin and the audience, the difficulties entailed in evolving from an insect who chased its prey to one who constructed and utilized a web for the purpose. It also starred God, who appeared at the end and briefly described a little about his creation. Hrdaya Gauranga Prabhu from Berlin, the script writer who starred as the spider, hopes to visit Bhakti Marg Swami in Canada, and develop his dramatic talent while assisting him there.

Leipzig temple president, Sad-bhuja Prabhu and head pujari, Ramananda Gopala Prabhu, each told me how they find each year the residents are more comfortable with the devotees presence there, more spiritual food is distributed, and more people ask questions. According to Ramananda Gopala, they especially want to hear from the individual devotees how they became interested in Krishna consciousness. Prithu Prabhu said of the event, that he felt Srila Prabhupada was pleased to see the devotees’ presentation there. As we have no temple with regular programs in Cottbus, next month the devotees will do a follow up program for those who have to have some interest.

The devotees from Leipzig, Berlin, and nearby areas cooperated nicely together. The prasadam for devotees was pretty good, except once we had halava alone for our second meal, not ideal for old timers like me. The new bhaktas were really surrendered to doing the needful to help out. Gobhati and Mohini Prabhus, from Jena, are a nice bhajana couple, expertly playing the instruments and singing together.

For more pictures from our festival at Cottbus, click on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/--iskcon--leipzig--/sets/72157620152830129/

Die Tanzenden Haris from 108tv on Vimeo.

The Dresden Neustadt harinama was nice with about fifteen devotees. I distributed invitations the whole time, perhaps three or four hours, and many people took them. Certainly it was a place of alternative dress and hair styles. Some intersections had bands playing that drowned out our party, and others had no competition.

We did harinama in the center of some of these intersections for some time before moving on. A few people danced with us. Devotees do monthly programs in Dresden.

I like riding the trains in Europe. Since usually I am doing outreach in the cities, the train rides give me a chance to see the beauty of God’s creation. I can have my warmth, my comfortable seat, my computer, and my view of nature, all at once.

These mountains in Austria are awesome, with the rushing streams in the valleys beside them, waterfalls decorating their sides, and with misty clouds passing by their sides and summits. Green farm land is on their lower slopes. Europe is so very green. Man is always trying to conquer nature and is proud of his successes, but the greatness of the mountains makes man seem small indeed.

Slovenian Eco Caravan Padayatra

This year, I took a break from attending the entire Polish festival tour, seeing that they have an abundance of devotees on harinamas there, and my role was relatively minor. Instead I decided to investigate other harinama opportunities in Europe. I recalled reading about the Slovenian Eco Caravan padayatra in a 2003 BTG article and Lokanath Swami, who was coming to its beginning, encouraged me to attend.

Padayatra plays an important role in our ISKCON outreach because it contacts people who would not otherwise have a chance to meet the devotees. Such people would either have no clue about Hare Krishna or just some rumors or speculation, mostly erroneous.

Haridas, the Padayatra horse, his cart, and his caretaker.



Hare Krishna Dasa from Italy can play accordion and sing for 5 hours with great devotion.
Organizer Bharata Dasa plays on mrdanga, and I dance behind.

When the people meet the padayatra they see a lot of colorful, friendly people singing and dancing, and sharing food and books.

Most everyone is smiling to see us, and almost all take prasadam. On good days, the devotees distribute 200 books, 1000 pieces of prasadam, chant for six hours, and travel an average of twelve kilometers or about eight miles. They give everyone a brochure, written in Slovenian, German, and English, which describes how the planetary crisis we are facing is largely an effect of bad karma and it can be changed by reconnecting with the supreme conscious person through devotional practices such as the chanting mantras like the Hare Krishna mantra which is especially powerful being composed of names of God and when chanted aloud by a group. The brochure also mentions cultural programs they do for four evenings at the some of the towns they pass through during their sixteen-day trek.

The padayatris do not just go down the main streets of the towns, but, to increase the number of people they meet, they go along many side streets, and people often smile and wave from their apartment windows. The devotees on the team are very hardworking, dedicated, and organized, and it is impressive to see their presentation. On the first day, we had about fifty devotees, but that reduced to twenty or thirty, for the succeeding days.

For me, being accustomed to going on the Polish summer festival harinamas, it was quite a different experience. They harinama were six hours instead of three hours, and so really tested the limitations of my material body. It was also austere living in a different school each night, instead of the same one, some with limited facilities. Also fewer people were contacted since the Polish festival devotees are known to distribute 7,000 invitations in just three hours, and so the outreach of the padayatra seemed a bit small time in comparison.

Some of the towns were very small,
as you can see from the signs!

In reality, the Slovenian Padayatra is no less important since for many of the people, it will be the only chance this life to contact the devotees, and so for those souls residing in rural Slovenia, its existence has all the importance of the world.

Also the Slovenian padayatra distributes quite a large quantity of books, comparing favorably even to their Christmastime Prabhupada Marathon, a very great accomplishment.

Despite walking and singing for five or six hours and setting up and breaking down their camp at a different school each day, the devotees had an hour and twenty minute morning program including mangala-arati, the Nrsimha prayers, tulasi-puja, greeting of the Deities, guru-puja, and a twenty-five minute Srimad-Bhagavatam class!

One day I gave the Bhagavatam class which was on Rsabhadeva’s teachings. The verse described that association with those lusty after the opposite sex is the path of degradation. To emphasize the point, I quoted a verse by Lord Krishna to his friend Uddhava which says that association of the opposite sex and persons addicted to enjoying the opposite sex is greatest cause of bondage and misery. Thus it was very amusing to me that on that very day on padayatra, as we passed through a underpass, I saw the following graffiti scrawled on the wall:

“I’m tragically attracted to you!”

We are fortunate that we can cultivate attraction to Krishna and be spared the tragedy resulting from mundane attachments. And not only that, we can help to protect others from being victimized in this way as well, by giving them a higher taste of spiritual pleasure.

Seeing the padayatra reminds me of Lord Caitanya’s desire that His holy name be chanted in every town and village of this world. Many such padayatras taking place in all the countries of the world could gradually make this prediction come to pass. Why not think of attending one near you? And if there is not one in your country, why not think of organizing one? It could start small and grow, as interest increases and more people come forward to contribute and participate.

For more photos of the Slovenian Padayatra, click on: http://www.harekrisna.net/ekokaravana/ and click on each of the 15 links on the left side for the photos for each of the 15 days of the event.

Book Distribution Story

The Slovenian devotees explained that during the Prabhupada marathon one year, a party of book distributors decided to distribute books in the same place that they did the padayatra earlier that summer. One might think that the people there would be less receptive because they are already bought books before and that it would be better to go to a new place, where people did not already have them. However, the devotees found that because the people so much liked the padayatra, with its prasadam, devotees, and books, they bought more books than the average person, and thus that party that distributed to the padayatra towns won the marathon.

Insights from Lectures, Talks, and Readings

Lokanath Swami during the beginning of the Slovenian Eco Caravan Padayatra:

After our eighteen-month long original padayatra reached Mayapur for the 500^th anniversary of Lord Caitanya’s birth, Lokanath Swami eagerly told Hridayananda Dasa Goswami that he wanted to continue for ten years, till Srila Prabhupada’s centennial. Instead of being impressed, Hridayananda Maharaja said, “Why not keep it going for 9,500 more years? [till the end of the golden age of Lord Caitanya.]”

The Slovenian padayatra visits different towns in that country each year. Lokanath Swami suggested that they make a plan to go to every single one.

When you are a little sick you go to the doctor, but when you are too much sick the doctor goes to you. The people are too much sick, so we are going around to the people with the holy name, the medicine for this age.

We may think that we are bringing the Deities of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda on padayatra, but in reality Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda are bringing us on padayatra.

One time when Maharaja Prataparudra looking at the Deity of Jagannatha, in place of Lord Jagannatha, he saw Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He rubbed his eyes, confused by his vision. He then twice asked the pujari what he saw, and the pujari replied each time that he saw Lord Jagannatha as usual. So in this way, Maharaja Prataparudra saw Caitanya, and the pujari saw Lord Jagannatha, and therefore it is said, “He who is Krishna, is also Gaura and Lord Jagannatha.”

Lokanath Swami reminds us that after offering obeisances to the Deity, we should stand before Him and offer prayers.

When Lord Caitanya saw Maharaja Prataparudra sweeping the street in front of Lord Jagannatha, He was impressed. The king could have easily hired so many sweepers to do that service, but instead, he performed the service for Lord Jagannatha personally.

Lord Jagannatha’s chariot does not move as a result of the pullers of the ropes, but according to the will of Lord Jagannatha.

Lord Jagannatha’s eyes are wide open as he was amazed to hear of Rohini tell of the symptoms of the traumatic feelings of separation from Him that His friends from Vrndavana experienced as a result of His leaving them. Thus Lord Jagannatha is in the mood of “Where are my devotees?” “How are they doing?” Lord Caitanya is looking for Krishna, and Krishna, as Lord Jagannatha, is looking for His devotees. Thus They are a great combination.

The Hare Krishna mantra is a Radha Krishna mantra. When we chant Krishna, Radha is pleased, and when we chant Hare, addressing Radha, Krishna is pleased, and it goes on like that as we continue chanting the mantra.

The Lord’s teachings are good for all times. By hearing even one instruction, one can perfect his life.

The man eats. The hog eats. The hog is not enjoying less. The man must work so hard for this same insignificant pleasure. Lord Rsabhadeva advises one think about this, but the popular mantra today is “just do it.” Don’t think about it.

People now cannot discriminate between the human life’s goal and the animal life’s goal. They have made the goals the same.

People are undergoing inconvenience or austerity, but it is not divine.

If you are looking for happiness, be prepared to suffer, for they are part of the same package.

In this age, just to stay together is a big austerity.

Without going out to the people they have just some vague idea of what is Hare Krishna.

Lokanath Swami describes the austerities of the Vraja Mandala parikrama and their result in the slogan, “From blisters to bliss.”

Kadamba Kanana Swami:

In Brhad-Bhagavatamrita there was a debate in Brahmaloka among the personified scriptures over whether mantras alone can give liberation, and the agamas won the debate by showing conclusively that mantras about the Supreme Personality of Godhead can give liberation. However, some confidential literatures left the assembly during the debate, displeased with the focus on liberation, and when Brahma invited them to return after the debate, they expressed that mantras glorifying the Lord do not only bring liberation but pure devotional service and love of God.

Srila Prabhupada made the following Srimad-Bhagavatam verse, which he quotes in its Preface, his life’s mission: “On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.” (SB 1.5.12)

In the verse, “By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact”, Srila Prabhupada explained the word “almost” in different ways. Once he said that we tend to become proud of our scholarship and thus chanting “Hare Krishna,” which reduces pride, is required in addition to hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam. We cannot be proud of our chanting, since it is only by the mercy of the holy name that His glory is revealed, not our personal endeavor.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in The Bhagavata and Its Ethics made the point that most people imprison knowledge in their minds as a magistrate imprisons a criminal, but it is better that the knowledge is lived and the acquired realizations are shared. The scripture declares the truth is within the heart of the realized soul.

Srila Prabhupada is unique in an entire day of Brahma for his great distribution of Krishna consciousness from East to West. Krishna appears only once in a day of Brahma and Lord Caitanya appears just once after Him. And this spreading of the teachings of Lord Caitanya all over the world, was done once, and Lord Caitanya selected Srila Prabhupada to do that service, and he did it. Therefore Srila Prabhupada is unique in an entire day of Brahma. There are other groups split off from ISKCON and others split off from the Gaudiya Math, but they all are resting on what Srila Prabhupada has done.

Once Srila Prabhupada said, “Now it is too late to stop this movement.” Like a contagious disease, at a certain point it is too late to stop.

In Caitanya Bhagavata it is described that many brahmanas wanted to offer lunch to Lord Caitanya, however the Lord said that He would only eat with a lakh-pati, a master of one hundred thousand. The brahmanas were dismayed thinking he meant one who had one hundred thousand rupees, but the Lord explained he meant one who daily chanted one hundred thousands names of the Lord or sixty-four rounds. This is where the idea of daily chanting sixty-four rounds came from.

Srila Prabhupada promised that if we chant sixteen rounds and follow the four regulative principles we can go back to Godhead in one life. Some tell their followers they need only chant four rounds, but the question is “Can those gurus guarantee their followers will go back to Godhead?”

We must be careful about adding too many new rules and regulations and making the process too difficult for people to follow and thus doing a great disservice to Srila Prabhupada.

Our mission in relation to the other groups of Vaisnavas is to rise above over the platform of competition. There will not be a unity of Vaishnavas until we can all respect each other’s service.

KKS Q&A:

Q: Is Narada a person existing in one universe or a position?

A: He is a person, not a position, but he can expand himself into other universes also.

Q: What evidence is there about this idea of expansion?

A: In Vaikuntha, the associates of Narayana, can manifest additional forms to enhance their service, while maintaining their own forms as well. This is described in Brhad-Bhagavatamrita.

There are two aspects to chanting:

1) We are making an offering to Krishna.

2) We are taking darsana of Krishna in the form of sound.

It is a meditation. Prabodhananda Saravati asks Krishna when He will appear in his meditation.

When the devotee falls down, Krishna cries even more than the devotee does.

The difference between bhava and prema, is that bhava is like a single ray and prema is like the sun. There are no obstacles in prema, but there are some miseries in bhava.

Prithu Prabhu:

It was a blessing to have Prithu Prabhu at the Cottbus Open assisting the Leipzig and Berlin devotees at the festival in a city park. He is a pioneer of preaching at gatherings, purchasing his first yurt in 1981. It was twice the size of the one we had, and he would have eighty or a hundred people chanting and dancing inside. He would go to Rainbow Gatherings around America and sometimes as many ten people would join the Krishna movement on the strength of his presentation.

He specializes in real life stories that show the reality of karma in action, and told the devotees a couple.

He tells the story of his father, a devout theist, and his father’s childhood friend, an atheist. As a child Prithu’s father gave his friend a sandwich. His friend not wanting it, threw it away. Prithu’s father indicated that what we are given to sustain ourselves is a gift from God and should be respected, but his friend retorted, “I don’t believe in God.” Many years later, they were united again, this time in a German concentration camp, where they were both tortured, Prithu’s father most brutally. When the British officers liberated the camp, a doctor examined them, and noted that Prithu’s father’s friend was so undernourished that he would die, lamenting that had he had just one more slice of bread, he would have survived. The dying friend spoke to Prithu’s father with urgency, “Remember that time I threw the sandwich away?” Prithu’s father nodded, and his friend collapsed into his bed, never to stir again.

Once Prithu Prabhu was encouraging a young man to practice Krishna consciousness, but his family presented a great impediment. Prithu Prabhu suggested the new aspiring devotee to come with him to Vrindavana, and he lived there for several months, happily practicing Krishna consciousness. When he returned, however, his relatives were ready to challenge him. His aunt, a Catholic nun, preached to him for over two hours, but he did not say a word. When she finally finished, he simply said, “You may have your elaborate philosophy, but because you are eating meat, you will have to suffer.” She protested saying that was complete nonsense and that the Pope eats meat. He repeated the point, “You may say what you like, but because you are eating meat, you will have to suffer. Someday you will remember these words.”

Three or four weeks later newspaper headlines told of the shocking death of a Catholic missionary at the hands of cannibals in the remote country where she was preaching. It was that devotee’s aunt. A fellow sister, watching from the bushes, described how her friend was cooked alive in a kettle, spiced, and devoured by the maneaters for dinner. Apparentally, the Lord wanted to show that His devotee’s words were true, “because you eat meat, you will have to suffer . . . you will remember these words.”

Prithu Prabhu has a book in which he recorded powerful quotations. One that struck me was from Canakya Pandit, “To overpower the world with a single action, restrain your tongue from speaking ill of others.”

Caitanya Candra GGS Prabhu:

Our human form of life will be successful if we know something about Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How will this happen? Krishna has given us sastra, so we can know what is to done and not to be done. (Bg. 16.24) Sastra includes the four Vedas, Mahabharata, Valmiki’s Ramayana, the 18 Puranas, and the 18 Upapuranas. Sastra, being given by the empowered Vyasa, is free from the four defects of the conditioned soul, (1) tendency to make mistakes, (2) imperfect senses, (3) tendency to be illusioned, and (4) cheating propensities. The Madayadis have no love for Krishna and so cannot give anyone love of Krishna.Gopala-tapani Upanisad mentions Krishna personally, and so He is mentioned in the Vedas. Vedas describe sambhanda, abhideya, and prayojana. But do not hear from the Mayavadi.

Q:What is the Mayavadi philosophy popular in the West and India even today?

A: Because people like to be in illusion. They can do their sense gratification and feel they have some knowledge.

Lord Caitanya wanted to bring all Vaisnavas to the conclusion of acintya-bhedabheda tattva.

Q: Who is preaching Mayavadi?

A: That is not our concern. We are just concerned with Prabhupada and distributing what he has given.

Mahaprabhu Gaura JPS:

Usually fathers desire their sons to become economically prosperous and enjoy sense gratification, however, Lord Rsabhadeva gives completely different instructions—to work for the bare necessities of life only and to be not attached to their homes, relatives, and wealth.

Householders can save valuable funds for devotional activities by buying secondhand items of comparable quality instead of brand new items.

At the zoo, they told us the seal sleeps twenty hours and eats fish for the other four. Some of the other people there thought that would be a very good life.

Jayapataka Swami told there was a study done asking people what they want to be in their next life. The top two choices of the ladies were (1) cats and (2) snakes, while the men chose (1) dogs and (2) horses. Neither wanted to be human beings!

Hare Krishna Prabhu:

We can gratify the senses but not satisfy the senses. Temporarily we diminish the lust by gratifying the senses, like putting gasoline on a fire temporarily reduces the flames, only to have them return in a greater way.

Old age is like a billboard advertising “Death is Coming Soon.”

We are refreshed by a cold shower, although it is painful, and similarly austerity, though painful, cleanses our minds.

George Harrison in an interview published in Rolling Stone, Issue 176, December 19, 1974, available online at

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/georgeharrison/articles/story/5940028/cover_story_lumbering_in_the_material_world:

“My life belongs to the Lord Krishna and there’s me dog collar to prove it. I'm just a dog and I'm led around by me collar by Krishna. . . . I’m the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna. I’m just a groveling lumberjack lucky to be a grain of dirt in creation. That’s how I feel. Never been so humble in all my life, and I feel great.”

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prithi vite acche yata nagaradi gram

sarvatra pracara haibe more nama

Lord Caitanya said, “My holy name will be sung [preached] in every town and village.” (Caitanya Bhagavata)