Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Jaya Jagannatha!


Last Sunday was Ratha-yatra in London in Trafalgar Square. Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subadra mercifully gave darsan to thousands of onlookers in busy London.

I went with the Gangamatas there with Srila Gurudeva's beautiful book, "The Origin of Ratha-yatra." We all met so many wonderful people who were so thrilled to receive this book from us, and to be able to learn about the different histories of Lord Jagannatha's descent.


One devotee we met said he had been looking for this book for so long and that we made his day. Here's a video of it:




When I was walking down the street alongside the parade, I was passing by this cafe. Two very elegant ladies were sitting outside drinking a glass of wine, and they stopped me and asked me what was going on. I explained a bit about Lord Jagannatha, and then they asked me what Hare means. I deliberately did not bring any little books with me (I usually always have a Way of Love with me). I had a Gopi-gita in my bag, and I took it out and showed them a picture of Radha and Krsna and explained how Hare is the devotional energy of the Lord. They loved the Gopi-gita and thought it was so beautiful. These women were very lovely and open-minded, so I told them they should get this book as it will transform their lives and their home. One lady went back into the pub, and came back out and gave me 10 pounds. It was really inspiring.

When we were about to leave, Sita and I saw this man very sad about the death of Michael Jackson. He was writing Michael's name and looked like he was crying. So, Sita went up to him and talked to him about it and gave him a Ratha-yatra book. He gave her one pound for it, which for him was a lot! He told me to take a picture of him giving a pound as it was a big thing for him to give someone money.


News reached Srila Gurudeva of the days activities and about how many wonderful people we met, and he sent his heartly blessings to us all and said he was happy to hear so many received these books.

No comments:

Post a Comment