Chennai & Juhu

On my arrival in Delhi on the 22nd of March I traveled out to Vrindavan for a couple of days. I had to do some little errands, and it gave me a nice opportunity to spend a couple of days in Vrindavan. And we always meet some old devotee friends from various parts of the world, who we don't expect to meet.....! And it was once again recharging to spend time in Prabhupada's quarters chanting.
On the 24th I flew on to Chennai - it was my very first visit to this yatra. ISKCON has a big and beautiful temple in the green and peaceful outskirts of the city. HH Bhanu Maharaja has established this temple some years ago and takes very nicely care of the servants of Sri Sri Radha Krishna with Lalita and Vishaka, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra.
In Chennai most devotees speak English, which makes preaching for us foreigners easier. I guess the devotees are used to hearing English classes since HH Bhanu Maharaja speaks only English.

I was scheduled to offer the Men/Women course here to a mixed audience - for the first time in India (apart from Mayapur). The attendance was not huge since there was a South Indian Convention taking place on the same weekend, with several Maharajas giving seminars, and most of the regular devotees were attending this event. Something which I did not know......!
Nevertheless, the course was very well received by a nice group of serious and senior devotees, and I felt very satisfied that I had a chance to personally connect with the devotees and build relationships.
I was also invited to offer the SB class on three mornings, and we had lively discussions and uplifting exchanges.
Devotees requested me to come back next year and offer the course to a wider audience - something I would indeed like to do! I was once again surprised how these topics are so extremely relevant even here in South India, which is becoming in many ways almost more materialistic than the Western world.
India has gained a lot of economic development within the last twenty years, and this has definately pushed aside the spiritual culture within the society and has allowed materialism to set in strongly. Even amongst devotees I can observe how people's main focus lies on material progress and advancement: professional career, earning high salaries, material comfort and convenience - in short: striving for material satisfaction. It is still all very new and glossy for everyone here in India! Maybe it will take another generation for a few people to understand, that material progress will not give satisfaction to the soul......

On the 30th of March I flew on to Mumbai to visit Juhu.
It was a great pleasure and honor for me to be received here as a preacher. Visiting Juhu temple reminded me of a visit to Dvaraka: so majestic and royal - full of oppulence, awe and reverance!
Prabhupada struggled so much in order to establish this project - it must be especially dear to him! He used to call it his office.....

Vraja Sundari Mataji, one of the senior ladies of the community took nicely care of me, arranging for my special diet and everything else required for the seminar which I was scheduled to give over the upcoming weekend: "Men and Women in Spiritual Culture", once again to a mixed audience of men and ladies.
We churned deep and transformational topics in a nice group of serious devotees over 15 hours - the entire Saturday, Sunday and concluding on Tuesday evening. The atmosphere was very warm and personal, and during the break we sat down together and took our lunch prasadam.

We can understand the various bodies which the soul accepts as different vehicles. There are so many different bodies in different species of life, and within the human species we have the male and female vehicle. As in any traffic situation there are also traffic rules within human society in order to assure that everything goes on smoothly and harmoniously, without any chaos and traffic jams.
One of Krsna's general traffic rules is for the men to be in the front, and the ladies in the back. Of course, needless to say, any traffic rule also has exceptions.
There are three very good reasons why Krsna is giving us this traffic rule. Reason number one is that men are agitated through the eyes (women through the ears), and if the ladies are in the back, the men will get less distracted. Very simple. This is even more relevant in the modern days, where we ladies have lost our shyness and are not in the habit of dressing in such a chaste way, often not covering our head, etc. The second good reason is, that if the men are in the front, it will encourage them to perform their purifying duty of taking charge. And the third reason is that if we ladies are in the background, it will encourage us to accept the subordinate position, since only then we can be the auspicious source of energy and inspiration to men. So Krsna has His good reasons for giving us certain traffic rules. We have to be very careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that our modern men-made traffic rules are better than Krsna's! That is actually atheism.

Some years ago I attended the GBC meetings in Tirupati, where Krsna's traffic rules are still more followed than in many other parts of the world. There the ladies are still more in the back of the temple room, and they don't mind at all to offer their flower petals to Srila Prabhupada a little later. Infact, they would not even want to be there in the front. Observing these ladies in Tirupati, how they were singing the Prabhupada Guru Puja with closed eyes, deeply connecting with Srila Prabhupada within their hearts, the realization suddenly struck me that our development of pure bhakti is not dependant on where we stand in the temple room. If we think it to be so important whether we stand in the front or in the back, then obviously we are missing the whole point, and our understanding of devotional service is rather external and superficial.
Infact, it can even be seen as a blessing to be more in the background, since it gives us an impetus to connect with Srila Prabhupada on deeper levels.

Here in Juhu I felt they have found a nice compromise by maintaining Krsna's traffic rules of the men being in the front at Mangal Artik, and the ladies in the back. And after the pujaris offer the flowers, the men part in the middle and allow the ladies to come up to the front and take darshan. A wonderful solution.....!

On the 5th of April I participated in the joyful celebrations for Rama Navami. The entire temple room and court yard was beautifully decorated, and the three altars looked simply amazing. Their Lordships were bathed in an elaborate abhishek, and miraculously I found myself in a great spot to view the celebration. I felt very nicely treated and cared for by all the devotees, especially the men, who were eager to accomodate me as a special guest - something I would have never expected......

In the afternoon of the 5th I left Juhu to yet embark on an unexpected adventure....

Your servant, Devaki dd