I arrived in Munich/Germany on the 21st of May.
It was cold and raining - unusually cold for this time of the year. It felt like the spring hadn't even come yet.....
Two matajis from the Munich temple met me at the airport and drove me to the temple. The devotees are renting a private house in one of the suburbs of Munich. The facilities are very nice and comfortable, nevertheless only very few devotees are living here.
Not easy to preach in these countries where the standard of life is so high....! One easily gets the impression here that life in this material world is not so bad after all.....!
Danakeli Mataji is serving as the temple president - an energetic and resolute lady in her fifties. She confessed that it is not easy for her to make ends meet....
I stayed for one night and gave the SB class the next morning. After breakfast we received more visiting devotees at the airport and began our journey in the temple van to Simhachalam - the farm near Passau, where Lord Nrsimhadev resides.
We have only three big Nrsimhadev Deities in ISKCON - Mayapur, America and Germany. Nrsimha Caturdasi has always been one of the main festivals for the German yatra and the neighboring countries. I had attended this festival several times around twenty years ago when we were preaching in Riga/Latvia. We sometimes used to drive from Riga to South Germany to visit my parents, and we planned the journey in such a way that we could stop over at Simhachalam for Nrsimha Caturdasi since it is on the way.
This would be my first visit since then.....
We expected a number of visiting preachers and Maharajas: HH Bhakti Vaibhava Swami, HH Kavicandra Swami, HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, Narayani Mataji, Prthu Prabhu, Ravindra Swarupa Prabhu, Vedavyasa Prabhu (a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who will be taking Sannyasa next year), and of course Dina Sharana Mataji who is serving the devotees as the GBC.
I shared a room in the Guest House with Narayani Mataji and thus had an opportunity to get her personal association - one of the few traveling preachers in a woman's body.....
I was impressed to see how many devotees assembled for this three-day festival. I estimated it to be around two hundred and fifty, which is quite substantial for this part of the world.
On Thursday the 23rd devotees were offered a number of seminars throughout the day, with evening kirtans. Friday marked Nrsimha Caturdasi, and the Lord's glories and worship were the very center. An elaborate abhishek left memorable impressions on everyone's hearts and minds. Some senior ladies were also invited to come on the altar to bathe big Lord Nrsimhadev - I was amongst those lucky ones.....!
A once-in-a-life-time opportunity......
As part of the abhishek the Lord even received a 'banana pack' - fresh bananas were pressed onto His entire body......
On Saturday we could relish further seminars and presentations, with evening kirtans and a swing-festival for their Lordships.
Every morning when greeting Lord Nrsimhadev we were taken by surprise: He was dressed in very amazing outfits - one day in the breathtaking 'Forest Outfit', and on another day in the 'Sandesh Outfit', when the Lord was entirely covered in colorful sandesh.....
The devotees had worked very hard to make so many pleasing arrangements for the Lord.
I especially marvelled at the Head Pujari's way of offering artik to the Lord. In great anticipation and eagerness he was leaning forward and looking at the Lord when offering the various items - as if directly connecting with Him in a personal way.....!
I gave a presentation to the ladies about the importance of spiritual culture and its connection to Devotee Care. It was well attended and left deep impressions on the ladies' hearts.
I could detect that a number of ladies were indeed moved to tears....
My presentation served as a pre-view to our sceduled Vaisnavi Retreat which we will conduct in the beginning of August in Goloka Dham near Saarbruecken in Germany, where I will give a condensed version of the course "Exploring The Roots Of Spiritual Culture."
Throughout my visit to Simhachalam I was very busy connecting with the devotees privately, and I was happily surprised how eager the devotees are for association - beyond my expectation indeed.
I also met with some of the leading preachers and with Dina Sharana Mataji and presented the idea of systematically cultivating the students and youth.
Germany needs indeed a new generation of intelligent and educated devotees who can push Lord Caitanya's Sankirtan movement forward.
Dina Sharana Mataji was very inspired about the concept of systematic youth preaching and requested me to make a presentation at the main National Council meeting next year.
And she already wrote it into her calendar....!
German efficiency....!
I was very impressed to see how systematically Dina Sharana Mataji is developing her GBC zone, involving and inspiring the young generation to step forward and take responsibility. And she expressed her desire to involve me more in the German yatra - something which I hadn't really planned for.
Nevertheless, I feel it might be pleasing to Srila Prabhupada to try and serve the devotees here.
After all he had visited here several times, and maybe I still owe something to this part of the world, where I had experienced a most wonderful childhood.....
And I could make some good use of the fact that I speak the German language....
On Sunday morning I traveled back to Munich and gave the Sunday Feast lecture. I chose the topic of "Our Search For Love" and ended by speaking about the holy name, introducing the beautiful bhajan "Sri Kevalastakam".
On the 27th of May I flew off to Riga and on to Chisinau/Moldova.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
We have only three big Nrsimhadev Deities in ISKCON - Mayapur, America and Germany. Nrsimha Caturdasi has always been one of the main festivals for the German yatra and the neighboring countries. I had attended this festival several times around twenty years ago when we were preaching in Riga/Latvia. We sometimes used to drive from Riga to South Germany to visit my parents, and we planned the journey in such a way that we could stop over at Simhachalam for Nrsimha Caturdasi since it is on the way.
This would be my first visit since then.....
We expected a number of visiting preachers and Maharajas: HH Bhakti Vaibhava Swami, HH Kavicandra Swami, HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, Narayani Mataji, Prthu Prabhu, Ravindra Swarupa Prabhu, Vedavyasa Prabhu (a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who will be taking Sannyasa next year), and of course Dina Sharana Mataji who is serving the devotees as the GBC.
I shared a room in the Guest House with Narayani Mataji and thus had an opportunity to get her personal association - one of the few traveling preachers in a woman's body.....
I was impressed to see how many devotees assembled for this three-day festival. I estimated it to be around two hundred and fifty, which is quite substantial for this part of the world.
On Thursday the 23rd devotees were offered a number of seminars throughout the day, with evening kirtans. Friday marked Nrsimha Caturdasi, and the Lord's glories and worship were the very center. An elaborate abhishek left memorable impressions on everyone's hearts and minds. Some senior ladies were also invited to come on the altar to bathe big Lord Nrsimhadev - I was amongst those lucky ones.....!
A once-in-a-life-time opportunity......
As part of the abhishek the Lord even received a 'banana pack' - fresh bananas were pressed onto His entire body......
On Saturday we could relish further seminars and presentations, with evening kirtans and a swing-festival for their Lordships.
Every morning when greeting Lord Nrsimhadev we were taken by surprise: He was dressed in very amazing outfits - one day in the breathtaking 'Forest Outfit', and on another day in the 'Sandesh Outfit', when the Lord was entirely covered in colorful sandesh.....
The devotees had worked very hard to make so many pleasing arrangements for the Lord.
I especially marvelled at the Head Pujari's way of offering artik to the Lord. In great anticipation and eagerness he was leaning forward and looking at the Lord when offering the various items - as if directly connecting with Him in a personal way.....!
I gave a presentation to the ladies about the importance of spiritual culture and its connection to Devotee Care. It was well attended and left deep impressions on the ladies' hearts.
I could detect that a number of ladies were indeed moved to tears....
My presentation served as a pre-view to our sceduled Vaisnavi Retreat which we will conduct in the beginning of August in Goloka Dham near Saarbruecken in Germany, where I will give a condensed version of the course "Exploring The Roots Of Spiritual Culture."
Throughout my visit to Simhachalam I was very busy connecting with the devotees privately, and I was happily surprised how eager the devotees are for association - beyond my expectation indeed.
I also met with some of the leading preachers and with Dina Sharana Mataji and presented the idea of systematically cultivating the students and youth.
Germany needs indeed a new generation of intelligent and educated devotees who can push Lord Caitanya's Sankirtan movement forward.
Dina Sharana Mataji was very inspired about the concept of systematic youth preaching and requested me to make a presentation at the main National Council meeting next year.
And she already wrote it into her calendar....!
German efficiency....!
I was very impressed to see how systematically Dina Sharana Mataji is developing her GBC zone, involving and inspiring the young generation to step forward and take responsibility. And she expressed her desire to involve me more in the German yatra - something which I hadn't really planned for.
Nevertheless, I feel it might be pleasing to Srila Prabhupada to try and serve the devotees here.
After all he had visited here several times, and maybe I still owe something to this part of the world, where I had experienced a most wonderful childhood.....
And I could make some good use of the fact that I speak the German language....
On Sunday morning I traveled back to Munich and gave the Sunday Feast lecture. I chose the topic of "Our Search For Love" and ended by speaking about the holy name, introducing the beautiful bhajan "Sri Kevalastakam".
On the 27th of May I flew off to Riga and on to Chisinau/Moldova.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
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