On the 4th of November after concluding the Holy Name Retreat at Pundarik Dhama we embarked on our tour around Bangladesh.
Our team of four Ukrainian brahmacaris (Vishoka, Gurupriya, Namacarya and Parama Karuna Prabhus), Sahasrajit Prabhu with his son Visvambhara, and a few local brahmacaris and myself squeezed into one of our Sankirtan vans....
Our team of four Ukrainian brahmacaris (Vishoka, Gurupriya, Namacarya and Parama Karuna Prabhus), Sahasrajit Prabhu with his son Visvambhara, and a few local brahmacaris and myself squeezed into one of our Sankirtan vans....
Our first destination was Kagrachori, a town in the Tribal Hill District towards the Indian border. We foreigners had to obtain a special permit to be allowed to visit this restricted area.
The nature is very attractive here - hills covered with dense tropical jungle which almost remind of the area around New Govardhana Farm near Brisbane/Australia.
Every day we did preaching programs with some of our Ukrainian boys giving a short speech in Russian, which Sahasrajit Prabhu translated into English, and Jagatguru Prabhu finally into Bangla. People are always eager to hear some realizations from foreign devotees - how they met ISKCON and took to this Krsna consciousness. Also Visvambhara participated in the programs by giving a little talk, and also by playing mrdanga. The local people are very charmed by him - his blue eyes, shaved head and blond shikha are very attractive to them....!
On one of these programs when sitting on the stage we suddenly heard a noise, and Vishoka Prabhu went missing with only his legs sticking up in the air - he had moved a little to the back and simply fell off the stage, not realising that the platform ended there...
With united forces we pulled him back up, all the while laughing and joking.
It was indeed an amusing part of the program.
On the next day when once again assembling for a program the entire stage collapsed, and our strongly built Ukrainian brahmacaris were falling into a big hole! In this part of the world the stage consists of several beds pushed together and covered by a cloth, and one of those beds was very old and collapsed under the unexpected load.
Vishoka Prabhu laughingly exclaimed in broken English: "Our bad karma with stage....!"
Bangladesh is probably the only country where such incident is taken with a charming smile and no feelings of embarrassment.....
Some days we were going on harinam - here we call it nagar kirtan. We went to all the Hindu's houses in the early morning, chanting outside their door step, and most of them happily welcomed us, giving donations in bhoga or money and requesting us to briefly enter their house and chant kirtan. Thus they feel their house to be purified.
The nature is very attractive here - hills covered with dense tropical jungle which almost remind of the area around New Govardhana Farm near Brisbane/Australia.
Every day we did preaching programs with some of our Ukrainian boys giving a short speech in Russian, which Sahasrajit Prabhu translated into English, and Jagatguru Prabhu finally into Bangla. People are always eager to hear some realizations from foreign devotees - how they met ISKCON and took to this Krsna consciousness. Also Visvambhara participated in the programs by giving a little talk, and also by playing mrdanga. The local people are very charmed by him - his blue eyes, shaved head and blond shikha are very attractive to them....!
On one of these programs when sitting on the stage we suddenly heard a noise, and Vishoka Prabhu went missing with only his legs sticking up in the air - he had moved a little to the back and simply fell off the stage, not realising that the platform ended there...
With united forces we pulled him back up, all the while laughing and joking.
It was indeed an amusing part of the program.
On the next day when once again assembling for a program the entire stage collapsed, and our strongly built Ukrainian brahmacaris were falling into a big hole! In this part of the world the stage consists of several beds pushed together and covered by a cloth, and one of those beds was very old and collapsed under the unexpected load.
Vishoka Prabhu laughingly exclaimed in broken English: "Our bad karma with stage....!"
Bangladesh is probably the only country where such incident is taken with a charming smile and no feelings of embarrassment.....
Some days we were going on harinam - here we call it nagar kirtan. We went to all the Hindu's houses in the early morning, chanting outside their door step, and most of them happily welcomed us, giving donations in bhoga or money and requesting us to briefly enter their house and chant kirtan. Thus they feel their house to be purified.
Wherever we went on our tour people gave us a wonderful reception: welcoming us in Vaisnava hospitality, with conch shells blowing and flower pedals raining on us, accompanied by loud 'ululu' noises of the ladies. We were offered sumptious prasadam, garlands and generous donations, and we were seen off with affectionate smiles and enthusiastic kirtans.
We spent a couple of days in Pravatok Temple in Chittagong, enlivening the devotees and distributing lots of books to the congregation. An overnight journey by bus took us to Sylhet. From here we took another journey to Advaita Acarya's place - the very place where he prayed for the Lord to appear in this world. It is a very remote area near the Indian border - we had to travel several hours on a little wooden boat to reach our ISKCON temple there.
The devotees here don't get so often the chance to receive foreign visitors and are thus always excited when somebody comes.
The highlight was a visit to the nearby bhajan kutir of Madhavendra Puri - the very original kutir!
We had to travel for ten kilometers on the back of a motor bike along a narrow path through rice fields, a river bed and jungle.
What an adventure! Needless to say: our Ukrainian boys were thrilled....!
The devotees here don't get so often the chance to receive foreign visitors and are thus always excited when somebody comes.
The highlight was a visit to the nearby bhajan kutir of Madhavendra Puri - the very original kutir!
We had to travel for ten kilometers on the back of a motor bike along a narrow path through rice fields, a river bed and jungle.
What an adventure! Needless to say: our Ukrainian boys were thrilled....!
It was indeed impressive to get the darshan of this holy Tirtha. The bhajan kutir was large and dark, almost like a cave! Next to it were the ruins of Madhavendra Puri's temple - it had collapsed, and climbing around the ruins we could discover beautiful decorations of the stone pieces which were once upon a time forming the ceiling.
The locals were warning us of poisonous snakes which are living now amongst the ruins.....
We could perceive a strong transcendental energy at this place - it was almost as if Madhavendra Puri's shakti was still preserved in these original stones, which were now overgrown by jungle.....
The locals were warning us of poisonous snakes which are living now amongst the ruins.....
We could perceive a strong transcendental energy at this place - it was almost as if Madhavendra Puri's shakti was still preserved in these original stones, which were now overgrown by jungle.....
Traveling back to Sylhet we did another preaching program along the way in Sunamganj where we distributed lots of books to many educated people. We stayed a couple of days at our temple in Sylhet, from where we took a trip to Jagannath Misra's original residency. Here Sacimata had conceived the Lord in her womb, and the demigods had appeared in their court yard to shower flowers on her. Only two months before the Lord appeared they had moved to Navadvip, which was the educational capital of the area at the time.
Today we can visit the original ruins of Jagannath Misra's residency, with the original stairs leading up to his house - the very same stairs which were touched by his Lotus feet....!
Today we can visit the original ruins of Jagannath Misra's residency, with the original stairs leading up to his house - the very same stairs which were touched by his Lotus feet....!
Also Srivas Thakur's residency and school we visited, along with the very original Vasudev Deity he had worshiped....! What an amazing heritage of our Vaisnava line is to be found here in Bangladesh....
Another highlight was the Govardhana Puja Festival which we attended in Sylhet. In this part of the world we celebrate the festival in a very traditional way - as the lila describes in Krsna Book.
On this occasion we make a big hill of rice - the Anakuta, which Krsna instructed Nanda Maharaja to arrange and offer to Govardhana Hill, the cows and the brahmanas. We arrange for many clay pots with tasty preparations to be placed around the Anakuta. Here in Sylhet it came to around one thousand five hundred preparations. It was my greatest pleasure to line them all up on the big stage for the offering. We had made a chain of hands passing them along, and I was at the very end of this chain, crouching down on the floor and lining them up tightly.
I had to be very fast to keep up with the constant flow of arriving pots - it was indeed hard work....
On the top of the Anakuta we made a big smiling face of Krsna with various eatable items like shak, puris and fried vegetables. This reminds us of how Krsna Himself appeared in an unprecedented gigantic form in order to accept the offerings, shouting "aniore, aniore - give me more, give me more....!"
And Krsna had exclaimed to the inhabitants of Vrindavan: "Just see, this is Govardhana Hill, coming to accept your offerings! It just proves how Govardhana Hill is a person! Your Indra never came to accept your offerings, but Govardhana comes....!"
The devotees also had sculptured a clay murti of Krsna, and on a wooden board we had put some earth, twigs and greens to symbolize Govardhana Hill which Krsna was lifting on His little finger. We even made some cows and devotees to be placed underneath the hill, and a huge backdrop with a painting of Govardhana Hill perfected the festive arrangement.
Another highlight was the Govardhana Puja Festival which we attended in Sylhet. In this part of the world we celebrate the festival in a very traditional way - as the lila describes in Krsna Book.
On this occasion we make a big hill of rice - the Anakuta, which Krsna instructed Nanda Maharaja to arrange and offer to Govardhana Hill, the cows and the brahmanas. We arrange for many clay pots with tasty preparations to be placed around the Anakuta. Here in Sylhet it came to around one thousand five hundred preparations. It was my greatest pleasure to line them all up on the big stage for the offering. We had made a chain of hands passing them along, and I was at the very end of this chain, crouching down on the floor and lining them up tightly.
I had to be very fast to keep up with the constant flow of arriving pots - it was indeed hard work....
On the top of the Anakuta we made a big smiling face of Krsna with various eatable items like shak, puris and fried vegetables. This reminds us of how Krsna Himself appeared in an unprecedented gigantic form in order to accept the offerings, shouting "aniore, aniore - give me more, give me more....!"
And Krsna had exclaimed to the inhabitants of Vrindavan: "Just see, this is Govardhana Hill, coming to accept your offerings! It just proves how Govardhana Hill is a person! Your Indra never came to accept your offerings, but Govardhana comes....!"
The devotees also had sculptured a clay murti of Krsna, and on a wooden board we had put some earth, twigs and greens to symbolize Govardhana Hill which Krsna was lifting on His little finger. We even made some cows and devotees to be placed underneath the hill, and a huge backdrop with a painting of Govardhana Hill perfected the festive arrangement.
Various devotees were offering speeches, and once again we distributed lots of books by announcing that we would sign them with blessings.
This trick always works wonders.....
We also brought a small cow to the arena and offered puja, and everyone took great pleasure in feeding and cuddling her.
A joyful kirtan concluded the festivities, and our Ukrainian boys helped serving kichari prasadam to the many hundreds of people who had come to attend the festival.
This trick always works wonders.....
We also brought a small cow to the arena and offered puja, and everyone took great pleasure in feeding and cuddling her.
A joyful kirtan concluded the festivities, and our Ukrainian boys helped serving kichari prasadam to the many hundreds of people who had come to attend the festival.
This Govardhana Puja Festival is one of my very favorite events in our Vaisnava calendar, and I am dreaming of the day where I will be able to introduce this traditional celebration in our Kharkov community in Ukraine. Now that six Kharkov devotees experienced the joy of celebrating it according to the original pastime of the Lord I have some hope.....
Celebrating festivals in the traditional style deepens our meditation on Krsna's pastime......
On the 16th we arrived back in Dhaka - just in time for the celebration of Srila Prabhupada's disappearance....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Celebrating festivals in the traditional style deepens our meditation on Krsna's pastime......
On the 16th we arrived back in Dhaka - just in time for the celebration of Srila Prabhupada's disappearance....
Your servant, Devaki dd
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