I arrived in Cologne in the early afternoon of Radhastami, and after lunch I was invited to give the class for a little Radhastami program in the temple room. Since the auspicious day fell on a Tuesday not so many devotees were able to attend the program, and the main Radhastami festival was scheduled for the following Sunday.
Cologne has the most established temple out of all cities in Germany. ISKCON owns a four-storey town house in one of the suburbs of Cologne which is mainly inhabited by Muslims from Turkey and North Africa. So the Hare Krishna's fit quite well into the picture, and people don't complain about our loud kirtans. They are used to all kinds of unusual cultural sounds and appearances. Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara are the Lords of the establishment - very beautiful marble Deities. A five-minute walk from the temple takes us to the main shopping street of this suburb, and there is also a Metro station. So people can easily reach us.
I had asked my dear assistant and friend Alakananda Mataji to come and spend time with me during my visit to the Cologne temple. She has been living with her sister in Belgium for the past year, and I had invited her to come with me to India at the end of this year. It was wonderful to meet again - after we had not seen each other for quite a while. And it was a good help to have her there to assist me, since there are only boys living in the temple. We have known each other for the past 16 years when she started coming to the temple in Riga/Latvia.
Over the next seven days we were deeply churning the topic of giving and accepting shelter being the foundation to Vaisnava relationships and Devotee Care. We were a small group of six temple devotees, and other devotees from the congregation were sometimes joining us. Some days we held our discussions during the morning program and continued in the evening. The churning of the topic brought so many deep points and also relationship issues to the surface, and the participating devotees greatly appreciated it and felt it to be very helpful in order to empower them to uproot a few weeds in their garden of the bhakti lata. This association was very inspiring to all of us, and it brought us closer to each other and gave us visions and ideas how to move forward to develop the Cologne yatra.
The area of Cologne is very densely populated, and in a radius of around one hundred kilometers are probably around three hundred devotees living, which is a lot for Germany. Many of these devotees are from Russia and Ukraine, who are very eager and active. There is also a very active Indian congregation - in fact one Indian devotee is the Vice President, which nicely builds the bridges between the nationalities.
Rama Gopal Prabhu, who is the father of the temple is very keen to bring in elements of Devotee Care, which is so important in order to nourish devotees spiritually. The motto of Devotee Care is "more devotees - happier devotees." And the foundation is the principle of giving and accepting shelter. Without this basis there is no meaning to Devotee Care. Giving and accepting shelter is what makes relationships deep and meaningful. Without giving and accepting shelter our life and our relationships remain superficial, external and selfish.
One morning we went on a little harinam in the nearby shopping street, and I distributed invitation cards to the Sunday program. It was fun, and we met so many favorable people.
On Saturday afternoon we went on a bigger harinam in the center of the city, where the world famous Cathedral is. Since it was during the autumn holidays, there were many tourists in the city visiting the huge cathedral to take darshan. I was shocked to see how degraded and low class people appeared to be: many young people in obnoxious appearance - dirty and wretched looking, with crazy hairstyles, displaying their choice of being homosexual or lesbian. And elderly people who seemed to have spent most of their life pursuing sinful activities, and the regular consumption of alcohol had made them dull headed and gross.
Germany is certainly not any longer what it used to be....! The opulence had degraded them.
Once again I realized that I had been born at the best time of the Germany history - enough years after the second world war in order to recover from it, and early enough to beat the heavy degradation. In 1958 when I was born life was still OK in Germany, especially in the villages....
One evening we conducted a Matajis' program at the temple, and many nice and sincere ladies came. We discussed to importance of mothers within spiritual culture - a topic which is always so relevant and eye opening to the ladies.
On Sunday I was invited to lead the japa workshop in the late morning, which was well attended. Devotees very much appreciated the discussions, and I also built in a little japa exercise in order to deepen the learning experience. It was a good appetizer for the Holy Name Retreat which we are planning to conduct in Goloka Dham early next year.
Then the main Sunday program began with a nice kirtan lead by Tota Gopinath Prabhu who is originally from Ukraine. For the lecture we took the small Gaur Nitai Deities in the next door Kirtan Hall, which the devotees have started to rent since the temple room cannot accommodate the growing community any longer, especially during Sunday programs and festivals.
I continued the discussions on the glories of Srimati Radharani, and we concluded the festivities with a pushpa abhishek for little Radha Krsna Deities, and a wonderful feast. Around 150 devotees had assembled, which is a good number for this part of the world, and many of them had come from far away, driving for two or even three hours in order to reach.
My visit to Cologne was truly inspiring to me, and I decided to spend more quality time here in the future, maybe twice a year. When the leaders are eager to move things forward and involve us traveling preachers, then we can actually offer some service to the devotees of the yatra by giving inspiration, guidance and visions through principles. And the local leaders eagerly accept them and try to put them into practice. Then the cooperation becomes like a well tuned football team, where we play the ball to each other....
The area of Cologne is very densely populated, and in a radius of around one hundred kilometers are probably around three hundred devotees living, which is a lot for Germany. Many of these devotees are from Russia and Ukraine, who are very eager and active. There is also a very active Indian congregation - in fact one Indian devotee is the Vice President, which nicely builds the bridges between the nationalities.
Rama Gopal Prabhu, who is the father of the temple is very keen to bring in elements of Devotee Care, which is so important in order to nourish devotees spiritually. The motto of Devotee Care is "more devotees - happier devotees." And the foundation is the principle of giving and accepting shelter. Without this basis there is no meaning to Devotee Care. Giving and accepting shelter is what makes relationships deep and meaningful. Without giving and accepting shelter our life and our relationships remain superficial, external and selfish.
One morning we went on a little harinam in the nearby shopping street, and I distributed invitation cards to the Sunday program. It was fun, and we met so many favorable people.
On Saturday afternoon we went on a bigger harinam in the center of the city, where the world famous Cathedral is. Since it was during the autumn holidays, there were many tourists in the city visiting the huge cathedral to take darshan. I was shocked to see how degraded and low class people appeared to be: many young people in obnoxious appearance - dirty and wretched looking, with crazy hairstyles, displaying their choice of being homosexual or lesbian. And elderly people who seemed to have spent most of their life pursuing sinful activities, and the regular consumption of alcohol had made them dull headed and gross.
Germany is certainly not any longer what it used to be....! The opulence had degraded them.
Once again I realized that I had been born at the best time of the Germany history - enough years after the second world war in order to recover from it, and early enough to beat the heavy degradation. In 1958 when I was born life was still OK in Germany, especially in the villages....
One evening we conducted a Matajis' program at the temple, and many nice and sincere ladies came. We discussed to importance of mothers within spiritual culture - a topic which is always so relevant and eye opening to the ladies.
On Sunday I was invited to lead the japa workshop in the late morning, which was well attended. Devotees very much appreciated the discussions, and I also built in a little japa exercise in order to deepen the learning experience. It was a good appetizer for the Holy Name Retreat which we are planning to conduct in Goloka Dham early next year.
Then the main Sunday program began with a nice kirtan lead by Tota Gopinath Prabhu who is originally from Ukraine. For the lecture we took the small Gaur Nitai Deities in the next door Kirtan Hall, which the devotees have started to rent since the temple room cannot accommodate the growing community any longer, especially during Sunday programs and festivals.
I continued the discussions on the glories of Srimati Radharani, and we concluded the festivities with a pushpa abhishek for little Radha Krsna Deities, and a wonderful feast. Around 150 devotees had assembled, which is a good number for this part of the world, and many of them had come from far away, driving for two or even three hours in order to reach.
My visit to Cologne was truly inspiring to me, and I decided to spend more quality time here in the future, maybe twice a year. When the leaders are eager to move things forward and involve us traveling preachers, then we can actually offer some service to the devotees of the yatra by giving inspiration, guidance and visions through principles. And the local leaders eagerly accept them and try to put them into practice. Then the cooperation becomes like a well tuned football team, where we play the ball to each other....
My visit to Cologne was truly inspiring to me, and I decided to spend more quality time here in the future, maybe twice a year. When the leaders are eager to move things forward and involve us traveling preachers, then we can actually offer some service to the devotees of the yatra by giving inspiration, guidance and visions through principles. And the local leaders eagerly accept them and try to put them into practice. Then the cooperation becomes like a well tuned football team, where we play the ball to each other....
Alakananda Mataji returned to her home in Belgium, and we were looking forward to meet again in Mayapur. I took the train to Munich on the 11th of September to continue my tour around Germany.
Alakananda Mataji returned to her home in Belgium, and we were looking forward to meet again in Mayapur. I took the train to Munich on the 11th of September to continue my tour around Germany.
In Munich the devotees are renting a house in a quiet residential area of a suburb. Prithu Prabhu has established his preaching base here, and several devotees from the Baltics are living also in the temple, some of them being married couples with a child.
I was invited to conduct two evening programs on the topic of spiritual culture. Since there are many young families with children in this yatra, I dedicated one evening to the topic of the importance of mothers.
I had observed that so many young ladies don't like to be mothers, thinking their children to be an obstacle in their devotional life. And of course the child can strongly perceive this and feels neglected, unwanted and not loved. And as a result the child becomes very misbehaved, simply to attract the mother's attention. After all, how else is the child able to get the attention of his mother?! And of course the mother becomes even more irritable and constantly chastises the child, which leaves emotional traumas on the child's mind. And naturally, when the child is grown up it will not like Krsna consciousness very much. The Samskara is deeply engrained in his heart that this Krsna consciousness was taken his mother away from him.
I was invited to conduct two evening programs on the topic of spiritual culture. Since there are many young families with children in this yatra, I dedicated one evening to the topic of the importance of mothers.
I had observed that so many young ladies don't like to be mothers, thinking their children to be an obstacle in their devotional life. And of course the child can strongly perceive this and feels neglected, unwanted and not loved. And as a result the child becomes very misbehaved, simply to attract the mother's attention. After all, how else is the child able to get the attention of his mother?! And of course the mother becomes even more irritable and constantly chastises the child, which leaves emotional traumas on the child's mind. And naturally, when the child is grown up it will not like Krsna consciousness very much. The Samskara is deeply engrained in his heart that this Krsna consciousness was taken his mother away from him.
Unless we transform our attitude to our children and undergo a paradigm shift in this regard, we will not be able to keep our children in Krsna consciousness. And ironically, one of the best ways for any mother to be absorbed in remembering Krsna is indeed to engage her child in Krsna conscious activities....! It is a whole world in itself - full of creative and devotional activites ....! One can indeed experience Goloka Vrindavan every single day in one's home by engaging the children in serving and remembering Krsna.
The Sunday program we dedicated to the topic of the false ego. Around 30 people assembled - not enough for a big and important city such as Munich! The prasadam was very opulent and tasty, cooked with love and devotion.
On Monday the 15th of September I continued my journey to Berlin, traversing once again the entire country from South to North, by one of those most comfortable German trains.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
The Sunday program we dedicated to the topic of the false ego. Around 30 people assembled - not enough for a big and important city such as Munich! The prasadam was very opulent and tasty, cooked with love and devotion.
On Monday the 15th of September I continued my journey to Berlin, traversing once again the entire country from South to North, by one of those most comfortable German trains.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
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