Darshan July 14, 2010

book distribution report by Anita dasi

Ever get the feeling you are being watched? We did, and it was amazing – giant wide eyes and a smile hidden by the crowds waiting hours to have a chance to go up on the chariot for a special darshan. Our book stall was directly in front Lord Jagannatha’s cart. It’s inexplicable what it feels like to be distributing books and to look up and see Lord Jagannatha watching. Those eyes . . .


Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra spent the night in Their chariots and the whole next day. This way many could come for darshan. Very long lines formed behind each chariot. With offerings in their hands, people would wait for hours for a chance to go up onto the chariot and have a very close darshan. Several of us went along the lines distributing books. Since those in line were in a devotional mood (and also probably a bit bored waiting in line) many took books.


Many people visited our book stall as they waited for Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra to come down from their chariots and enter the Gundica Mandira.

Around 9 pm the police roped off the path to the entrance of the mandir. Sulata dasi and myself were lucky to be in the front row, and the police were very kind to do their best to keep the crowd from overtaking us. Hundreds of pujaris gathered with their gongs. There were fire-twirlers and dancers to entertain Lord Jagannatha. One pujari tied a piece the rope that pulled the chariots around our hands and said. “You are all Jagannatha’s children.” Later the same pujari came with some maha prashada from Subhadra. He came up to us so quickly I opened my mouth in surprise and he stuffed a piece of cucumber in my mouth. Mahaprashada ki jaya!

We watched as Sudharshan, then Baladeva, then Subhadra and finally Jagganantha were coaxed from their chariots, across the courtyard and into the Gundica mandir.

(In this photo you can see Sri Baladeva wearing a big flower crown as He comes down from His chariot.)

Ratha-yatra July 13, 2010

book distribution report by Anita dasi


“Mahaprabhu added this idea to the Ratha-yatra Festival, that the gopis brought Krsna from the mandir in Nilacala – they brought him from Dvaraka. . . .The singing of Radhika and the gopis is the deep mood behind the Ratha-yatra Festival. They were pulling the ropes of Jagannatha’s chariot by their moods of separation, and He was coming with them to Vrndavan.” – The Origin of Ratha-yatra

Hundreds of thousands come each year to Puri to see Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra leave Their temple, mount giant colorful chariots and pull the chariots by ropes down the Grand road to the Gundica Mandira. We came to witness Ratha-yatra and to serve Lord Jagannatha by offering those attending the festival an opportunity to understand the deeper moods of this festival and to receive the mercy of our Acaryas through their books.

Sulata dasi and myself distributed books in the proximity of the Gundica Mandir and waited for the carts to arrive. Many people would stop and take books.

For several years the devotees from the Jai Sri Damodar Matha here in Puri have set up a book stall in front of Gundica Mandir. Many people visit the book stall and it also serves as our base for book distribution.

Sri Balaram’s chariot comes first. When I first saw the bright top of His chariot coming down the road I hurried to meet it. I joined our kirtana party as they chanted and danced in front. When the chariot is moving there is a heart-stiring cacophony of gongs.The cart stopped for a little while and the kirtana party danced in front. Suddenly the gongs started up again. I was quite close to the ropes. Pulling the ropes can be quite dangerous because so many men are trying to get a chance and they literally run at times, but just as they started the end of the rope was sticking out, so Anandini dasi and myself ran over and grabbed the rope for a thrilling instant before dashing away.

We distributed books and waited for Subhadra’s chariot to arrive in a gentle rain. When I saw Lord Jagannatha’s chariot in the distance I hurried to meet it. After walking some distance I tuned back, a rainbow spanned the sky ending at the two chariots in front of Gundica. It seems there was a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, better than a pot of gold.

Our kirtana party was there again, but this time it had swollen to include hundreds. I joined them for sometime until Jagannatha’s chariot stopped. I had my first glimpse of His giant and immensely merciful eyes. Those of you who have experience know what I am talking about; those of you who have not, I am sorry, I cannot find the words.

At dusk His chariot joined the other two in front of Gundica. The thousands of devotees in the crowd sang, offered ghee lamps, coconuts, prayers or just stood and stared.

One student named Asutosh was inspired to see us distributing books and began helping us by translating for us. Eventually he took his own small stack of books and began distributing alone. He met us again the next evening and says after reading the two books small books we gave him for helping that he wants to meet Srila Gurudeva.

Jaya Jagannatha!

Purification - Jagannatha Ratha-yatra July 10-12

book distribution report by Anita dasi

As we pulled into the train station at 6:45 am, I thought to myself, “Wow, everything is going so smoothly.” We entered the station and enquired what platform the train would be departing from, only to find out the train was running five hours late.


“No problem we can sing bhajans.” An hour passes. “Lets make breakfast.” Another hour passes. Tick, tick, tick . . .

“Lets distribute books.” We had a brought a box of books to distribute on the train, but out of boredom we broke it open. Unfortunately, after an hour we had distributed all the books except a few in Bengali and English. Only a few more hours to wait . . . tick, tick tick.

The books were a hit with the sampapri wallas. Even though there was a train teeming with hungry passengers in the station they set down their boxes of flakey sweets to examine the books. Word spread and more vendors came for books. I ran out and told them to follow me to the waiting room. Once I had more books they lead me to the room where they keep their goods. Nearly everyone one there took at least one book.

The five hour delay became six hours, and finally the train came. Once we were on the train it became more and more late. We were scheduled to reach Puri 12:30 pm, but it was 1:30 am when our train finally arrived. When we reached the matha the night guard did not know what to do with us, so we just collapsed on a balcony.

At 6am we awoke to gongs, whompers, mrdanga and devotees calling us to come clean Gundica Mandir. Delirious, we dragged ourselves downstairs.

“One day before the Ratha-yatra Festival, Mahaprabhu leads all the devotees to the Gundica Mandira to clean it. On the next day Jagannatha goes to Gundica Mandira along with Baladeva, Subhadra, and His devotees for ten days, after which they all return. Just as Jagannatha goes to Gundica Mandira after it is cleaned, so He may come into your heart if you make it very pure and clean.” – The Origin of Ratha-yatra

After some rest we returned to the Gundicha Mandir in the afternoon to distribute books. Sukadha dasi and Nagari dasi were just inside the gateway distributing books. Even though in this region they speak Oria, the Bengali books were a hit because so many Bengali bhaktas of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were coming for gundica-marjana.

Not the Controller

Book Distribution report June 20, 2010 by Anita dasi

Reflecting back on the last two weeks I see that we make our plans but Sri Krsna has His own. Not that I should not make plans or try to do the seva as best as possible, but I definitely learned the need to be flexible and open when He sends curve ball after curve ball.

From Shimla we went first to Panchkula. That we even went there shows what complex twists and turns the Lord weaves. We ended up in Rajendra’s home because he “happened” to go with a colleague to visit a special Hannuman temple, they had some extra time and her daughter who “happened” to be a disciple of Srila Gurudeva said they should stop in Vrndavan and visit Sri Rupa Sanatan Gaudiya Matha. While they where there they “happened to meet” Sukadha didi, “who happened to mention” that we would be in the Chadigar area. She took their info and texted it to me while we were in Shimla. I called and said we could come, sing some bhajans and speak something.

When we reached his home we were a bit surprised to see all kinds of commotion as they were hanging speakers off the balcony, preparing an altar with the traditional set of Hindi gods, spreading white sheets for sitting. “Can you really sing Hindi bhajans. Sing something now for us to hear.” At least three family members questioned us along these lines. “We didn’t think you could, so we invited someone who can sing many.” As the program began and the 70 odd guests arrived then we realized that we had become guests at the program originally organized for us. We did sing a few bhajans after the traditional ones for Ganeshji and other demigods were sung, and I am certain they sang more Krsna bhajans then they normally would.What to do? After the program we did our best to connect with people, distribute a few books and issue many invitations to Vrndavan.

The next morning we offered arati and sang for our deities. Besides the immediate family, grandma, aunty, uncle and cousins stayed the night. They began to join us and called for more songs, and more songs, and more songs. We began explaining something about the songs. They asked more questions which led to more explanation. All the points we had planned to make in the class we had prepared came out naturally that morning. Our host even said, “If I had known, we would have let you sing like this yesterday.” Everything has its reasons . . . we are not the controllers.

Next we shifted to a home near Chandigar. We stayed for a few days meeting friends and family. They had planned a program for the 10th. We were totally shocked when we came downstairs for lunch and saw a small pandal being constructed in the road in front of the house.

We had prepared our class and even made photocopies of the songs we planned to sing from the Hindi song book so everyone could follow. But the pandal was never expected. We thought, “don’t panic, we are dancing white elephants. Whatever we do will be entertaining.” The pandal even had white elephants as part of the decorations.

I think this family also was not sure we could pull off a good enough show so they also hired singers. This troop was somehow connected to Vrndavan, so at least everything they sang was Sri Sri Radha Krsna Bhajans. When our turn came we were less shy this time and sang bhajans until we got the tap . . . twice. Then Kunja told me, “they want us to let the others sing again, but just speak something quick.” We had planned a class starting with how you can’t be truly happy in this world so you have take care of the soul, building into the glories of the holy name with the grandspectacular conclusion that you need sat guru. I guess it needs more work, or else the crowd wasn’t ready for it. So I stammered something about where we where from, why we were here, why we sang so much mahamantra and invited everyone to visit us in Vrndavan and meet our beloved guru. Not what we planned but . . . we are not the controllers.


A few crazy days in Vrndavan, changed my traveling companions for Yashoda didi and off to Delhi and then to Nanital. Well turns out the family that I had met in Haridwar who said they lived near Nanital, actually lived over an hour away. And instead of the cool mountains by the lake, it was still on the plains and hot like Vrndavan. I definitely was tricked into this.

The first evening we went out for book distribution. The first few people I tried were not interested. I could hardly believe it when I was called over by a few men at a food cart with bits of chicken bodies skewered to look . . . appealing?! I tried to avert my eyes but ended up looking at the chopping board and knife. I winced as they spread the books I handed them on the counter. But I can never underestimate the reach and compassion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They took four books, including the Bhagavad-gita. After that we had quite good luck distributing books in this town, Haldwani, which I never even knew existed, much less planned to visit.

The family was very sweet and enthusiastic. The daughter, Papul, loved distributing books. She was always thinking where would be the best place to take us and what to say to people. Even the mother and sister who only spoke Hindi would tell guests to the home all about us and then start pulling books from the box and selling them to their neighbors, family and friends.

But again all plans were changed when Yashoda didi came back from a day of book distribution quite sick. At the hospital I gave books to some of the staff who were helping us. One doctor spoke to us a long time and actually come to the house the next day. He ended up taking a Jaiva Dharma, and nine other books, including some to give as gifts. Maybe we came here to distribute books to the doctors at the hospital? Or maybe the guys in the chicken cart. Not sure. But we had to come back after just three days because our host family was called back to their village because their grandmother was in the final stages of cancer. A week in the mountains distributing books besides a lake, well . . . we are not the controllers.

I just pray that that Supreme Controller was able to make use of us somehow.

School

June 4, 2010

Book distribution report by Anita dasi

Archana, the cousin of the family we are staying with, begged us to come visit her at her school. It’s an all girls government school with 3,000 students. We wandered through the halls past girls in neat uniforms, with braids tied with ribbons on the end, searching for the right class room. We narrowed down the wing, then the floor, and after completely disturbing about 3 classrooms found the right one. Archana popped out of her seat like a jack-in-the box. “My friends mam.” We came in and all the girls stood up to greet us.



We introduced ourselves and summarized why we came to India, what we are doing in Vrndavan. It was nearly the end of the day so the teacher let us speak for some minutes about how lucky the students are to grow up in Vedic culture and encourage them to go towards their own culture rather than turning towards western culture. We passed fliers around the room and invited them all to visit us in Vrndavan and to go our website.



After class was dismissed we stopped in the principles office to ask if we could speak to the whole school. She asked what the topic would be, I suddenly felt like a student in the principles office again, “Um . . . stress and unhappiness and how the Bhagavad-gita can help, mam.”

“OK, you can speak at the morning assembly tomorrow for ten minutes.” She replied.

We did out homework and prepared a ten minute presentation about happiness and how we will never find complete happiness in a temporary body. This morning we got ready for school, took the bus, and waited outside the principles office. In the assembly all the girls line up by class and sing the national anthem. The principle came to tell us we could not speak because the power had gone out so the mike would not work. The students would not be able to hear without the mike. What to do? We spoke to some of the students one on one, gave a book to the principle, and made our way home.

Hill Village

June 2, 2010

Book distribution report by Anita dasi

Its amazing what we take for granted. For example delivery of a couch . . .




or some beds . . .



Here in the Shimla area everything is built on steep hills. Hills so steep I could would be daunted to walk up them, much less build a city. But the mountain people here literally carved out a way of life in the mountains.

Today instead of going to the crowded mall we meet our hostess for her lunch break. She works as a nurse in a community dispensary in a village called Sanjoli.



She took us up this steep road to a temple called Jakhu mandir. It is where Hanuman rested while going to get the herbs from the Himalayas for Laxman. We distributed books here for about half an hour. There were not so many people there and our hostess needed to get back to work.




We distributed books in Sanjoli while she worked in the afternoon. There weren’t the crowds we had become used to, but we certainly peaked people’s interest. I had groups of students, ladies sitting on benches, and people in chai stalls calling me over to see the books. Despite it being a village we still managed to distribute many books. Now we are beginning to worry we will run out of books.

First Days in Shimla

May 31, 2009

Book distribution report by Anita dasi

With half the books we started with, we packed up and moved on to Shimla. When we were in Haridwar for Kumbha mela we met one family from Shimla. They invited us to stay with them. For weeks I have been talking to the mother and her three teenaged girls on the phone. The youngest daughter named Sakshi had her birthday on May 28. I promised we would be there for the party. We arrived on the evening so we could be rested for the party.

I wish I had more birthday parties in this style growing up. Family, neighbors and friends came for bhajans. Of course they sing bhajans to many of the demigods. In the mountain region they mostly devotees of Lord Siva and his shakti, but because since we were there they felt inspired to sing many hindi bhajans about Sri Sri Radha and Krsna. We lead some bhajans and maha mantra. Actually when we switched to Radha Krsna bhajans a huge wind came up, dust was blowing everywhere, the power went out, the altar they made for Lord Siva fell, rain started, and lighting came. About half the people went downstairs (we were signing on the roof) but for those stayed it was quite and experience. We just kept signing and signing, absorbed in the bhajans despite everything.



The next day we went with the three girls of the family and their cousin to the Mall. The Mall was built by the British, it’s a beautiful area to walk along the top of the hill in Shimla. Many tourists and locals are roaming through out the Mall.


Not only did the girls distribute the books, but they ran into some of their friends from school who also helped distribute books. In less than two hours we distributed around 150 books. We gave them all a free book for helping.



Yesterday the family took us to visit their village named Kotkhai and a place called Giri Ganga. We stopped a few places along the way to meet many family and friends. Then we had to hire a truck to drive the last steep rocky narrow track to Giri Ganga. Durvas Rsi had Ganga in a kamandalu. He sat way up on this mountain to meditate, then a bird came which knocked the kamandalu over. Since then Ganga devi has flowed out of this mountain.





On the way home, we stopped for dinner at their aunties home. Actually I met her also in Haridwar with the rest of the family. She and her husband visit Vrndavana form time to time and they are Krsna bhaktas. After sampling the local preparation called sidu (a steamed stuffed bread roll), we sang bhajans together. We sang “Jaya Radha, Jaya Krsna, Jaya Vrndavan” and explained how this song reminds us of Vraja Mandal parikrama and what parikram is like. We invited them to come for parikrama and they said they would. I hope they make it.