Chapter 44

[Guest guest]

Diary of a Traveling Preacher

 

Volume 3, Chapter 44

 

July 23-August 3, 2001

 

The summer is flying by as we are literally doing a festival every day.

Pobierowo, Mrzezyno, Mielno and many other towns come and go, and in my

mind's eye I am left with only an impression of an ocean of people before

our stage in each place we visit. All 160 devotees on the tour are working

hard and there is not a spare moment for anyone. In class the other day I

thanked the devotees for their endeavor, teamwork and cooperation. I

explained to them that this was the mood when Srila Prabhupada was present

many years ago - everyone intensely engaged in establishing the sankirtan

movement. I told them that by such endeavor one can achieve the mercy of

His Divine Grace and go back home, back to Godhead in this very lifetime, as

demonstrated by my dear godbrother, Jayananda prabhu. Srila Prabhupada so

much appreciated his hard work and dedicated service that in a posthumous

letter to him he wrote:

 

"As you were hearing Krsna-kirtana, I am sure that you were directly

promoted to Krsna-loka."

[Letter, May 5, 1977]

 

Encouraging the tour devotees in the spirit of working tirelessly for the

spiritual master, I also recounted Srila Prabhupada's arrival address in

Paris in 1973. We had been working hard to prepare for his arrival, and

taking note of that as he saw the new decorations in the temple room, he

said, "I thank you so much for all the inconvenience you have undergone on

my behalf." Then he paused a moment and said, "Actually, it is not

inconvenience - it is all mercy." I understood his words to mean that it was

mercy to be intensely engaged in Krsna's service, which quickly purifies our

hearts and helps us to awaken our love for the Lord.

 

By far the best of all the summer festivals was the second festival we did

in Kolobrzeg. After our first festival there several weeks ago, the deputy

mayor went out of his way to arrange everything for another one. He gave us

the choicest spot on the boardwalk, a small park near a well-known

lighthouse, and personally contacted all important media people, encouraging

them to advertise the festival.

 

With the summer at its peak the Kolobrzeg beach was packed with people,

and during our harinamas we led Raju, our padayatra ox, carefully through

the crowds on the sand. At one point a group of five lifeguards approached

us and said we had to immediately remove Raju from the beach because he

posed a health hazard. I asked what they meant by a "health hazard," and one

of them replied, "He'll relieve himself on the beach."

 

When I responded by saying we had a solution to that problem, he looked at

me incredulously and said, "What possible solution could you have to an ox

passing dung on our beach?"

 

As if on cue, at that very moment Raju raised his tail before everyone and

began answering nature's call. Simultaneously, Bhakta Swavek, a 12-year-old

boy who accompanies Raju on the padayatra team, lunged forward with a big

bucket and caught everything before it hit the ground. As the lifeguards

stood there with their mouths open, I said, "Actions speak louder than

words," and we happily continued down the beach, Raju leading the

procession.

 

Just before we finished the harinam that afternoon, we passed a man fishing

off a small pier on the beach. Several devotee children walked up to him

curious to see what he was doing. Suddenly he caught a fish and began

reeling it in. With a big smile he lifted the big fish out of the water and

placed it by his side while turning to look for a knife. Little 10-year-old

Rasa Lila dasi, quickly ran forward, and within a moment took the hook out

of the fish's mouth and stood up to throw it back into the water. Seeing his

prize catch about to be liberated, the man lunged forward to grab the fish

screaming, "No. No. What are you doing?"

 

Rasalila deftly stepped to the side and threw the fish back into the sea.

 

Reproaching her angrily the man said, "Do you know what you have done?"

 

She replied, "Yes sir. I saved the fish from dying and you from going to

hell."

 

The man stood speechless as the children ran to catch up with the harinam.

 

A television show of the previous festival in Kolobrzeg was aired four times

since the last festival. It concluded with an advertisement for the next

program in Kolobrzeg and a mention of the wedding we planned. As a result,

everywhere we went in Kolobrzeg people approached us asking about the

wedding. Excited about the festival, the deputy mayor called us to his

office on two occasions, giving advice on how to promote it better. He asked

for 50,000 invitations to be distributed by the crews of the excursion boats

that tour the Kolobrzeg harbor and ordered a gigantic banner to fly from the

lighthouse which read: "Festival of India - Kolobrzeg July 23."

 

At the end of the second meeting he revealed his plan to have us base our

festival program out of his city. He said, "You people are bringing culture

and life to our city. And I can see that year after year, although you are

basically presenting the same things - singing, dancing and food - no one

ever tires of your festivals. In fact, they become bigger each year. I don't

know what it is about your programs, but they seem to have a magic charm to

them! As a result, I want to donate a building or property to you from which

you can conduct your activities."

 

For me it was a gift from heaven, but we didn't have time to work out the

details for such an ambitious idea, so we said we would think about his

proposal and meet again on August 18. He said, "Come prepared. I want to

introduce this idea to the city council before autumn."

 

It poured with rain for days, but on the morning of the festival in

Kolobrzeg the skies cleared and the sun came out. We moved our trucks on to

the festival site at 2am, as it would be impossible to approach the festival

site later in the morning due to heavy summer traffic. All day we worked on

setting up the site and finished one hour before the festival began.

 

Although in 11 years there hasn't been a single festival where people

haven't come (and in large numbers as well), I'm always anxious how many

will attend. As the devotees made the final preparations on stage, I sat at

the entrance to the festival with my eyes riveted on the small path that

entered the park in which we were situated. I relaxed as the first people

began to arrive, and meditated that I was offering each new arrival to the

lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada. Soon the trickle of guests turned into a

steady flow, and within half an hour it became an inundation as thousands of

people began pouring into the festival grounds. Quickly offering the whole

inundation to Srila Prabhupada, I hurried back to my services at the

festival.

 

My dear Srila Prabhupada may you be pleased with such offerings to your

lotus feet! My only request is that you allow me to swim in this nectarian

ocean of Sri Krsna sankirtan life after life until your mission in this

material world is fulfilled.

 

"O my most merciful Lord Caitanya, may the nectarian Ganges water of your

transcendental activities flow on the surface of my desert-like tongue.

Beautifying these waters are the lotus flowers of singing, dancing and the

loud chanting of Lord Krsna's holy names, which are the pleasure abodes of

unalloyed devotees. Such devotees are compared to swans, ducks and bees and

the river's flowing produces a melodious sound that gladdens their ears."

[Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi lila 2.2]

 

By 5pm the festival site was so packed with people that there wasn't

even space to walk. Those that had come early were obliged to stand exactly

where they had situated themselves at the beginning of the program. The same

local television crew which had covered the previous festival in Kolobrzeg

arrived, and with great difficulty began making their way through the crowd

looking for Nandini and Radha Sakhi Vrnda to interview them. Unable to find

them, they inquired from devotees if there was another person they could

question. Suddenly, to their delight, they saw the deputy mayor sitting

among the crowd, laughing as he watched the puppet show on the main stage.

They immediately approached him and he agreed to be interviewed.

 

Their first question was about his impression of the Festival of India and

what contribution it made to the summer season in Kolobrzeg. With a big

smile on his face, he described how Kolobrzeg is quickly becoming recognized

as a town with cultural ties all over the world, as demonstrated by the

Festival of India which brings so much happiness to the town. Then to the

amazement of the devotees watching the interview, he revealed his plans to

facilitate a base for the Festival of India in the town.

 

"We're looking for a building for them where they can continue with their

activities throughout the year. In the future, we may even give them land

where they can begin a community to demonstrate their culture in a practical

way."

 

Throughout the festival people continuously approached me to sign books

they had bought at the book tent. One man proudly came forward with a

Bhagavad-gita, and said that every year he comes to our festivals and

purchases one single book. "Now after 11 years I am finally ready for

Bhagavad-gita," he said.

 

I wrote in his book in English, "May the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna, guide you

step by step back to the spiritual world where all walking is dancing, all

talking is singing and there's a festival every day." He turned to Rasamayi

dasi, and giving her a pen asked her to carefully write the translation of

my dedication in Polish on the next page, and then he had me sign it again!

 

Soon after my lecture on stage another man approached me with a huge pile of

books. He smiled and said, "It was very convincing what you said. Therefore,

I have bought every single book you have. My request is that you write a

dedication and sign each one." I gladly sat down with him and spent an hour

fulfilling his request.

 

When I was in the Questions and Answers tent, a lady came in and

Pracarananda prabhu, the speaker, asked her if she had any specific

questions. She replied, "Yes, I do. I bought a Bhagavad-gita at the last

festival here in Kolobrzeg, and after reading it wrote down my questions. Do

you have time to answer all of them?"

 

"Yes, of course," Pracarananda replied. "How many questions do you have?"

 

She reached into her purse and pulled out 20 typed pages stapled together.

To his astonishment she said, "I have 62 questions."

 

When I did a kirtan with devotees on stage there were hundreds of children

in front, all veterans from the last festival in Kolobrzeg. They all knew

that whoever danced the nicest during the kirtan would be called on to the

stage after the kirtan to be awarded the big flower garland I was wearing.

During the kirtan I noticed one young girl, her face painted with gopi dots

and wearing a sari from our Spiritual Fashions booth, who was dancing with

great enthusiasm, spinning and twirling in the kirtan while chanting the

Hare Krsna mantra. Every so often she would look up at me and smile. My

heart went to her, and at the end of the kirtan I chose her to come on

stage. Unlike other children, who are often nervous when coming before so

many thousands of people on our stage, this young child was all smiles and

waves. Her parents were thrilled and stood before the stage with a camera

in hand, ready to film her getting the garland. I then ran through the

typical questions with her that I ask children on stage. Handing her a

second microphone I asked:

 

"What is your name?"

 

"Agneiszka," she replied.

 

"How old are you?" I continued.

 

"I'm 9 years old," she responded.

 

"Very nice. And have you ever been to one of our festivals before?"

 

"Oh yes", she said. "Five years ago, when I was four years old, here in

Kolobrzeg."

 

"Very good," I said. "And what did you like the most about that festival?"

 

"I liked the big garland you gave me on stage for being the best dancer!"

 

As I stood there dumbfounded by the double mercy she received, the

crowd roared in approval and applauded loudly as I put the garland around

her neck. As she left the stage and joined her parents, the audience

continued applauding as if she had won an Olympic medal for dancing.

Actually, her dancing was more than any Olympic champion, for those few

minutes she was leaping and twirling in the sankirtan party of Lord Caitanya

Mahaprabhu guaranteed her future liberation and love of God.

 

"Now that wonderfully powerful Lord Caitanya has descended to this world,

the materialists, who have fallen into the raging river of fruitive deeds,

have been rescued and situated on firm ground. Even great boulders have

melted and even those whose hearts were fixed in non-devotional yoga are

dancing in love of Krsna."

[srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati - Sri Caitanya-candramrta, Text 112]

 

The Vedic wedding of Raja Rama dasa from Ceck and his Russian wife, Bhumi

dasi, on our stage captured the hearts of everyone. The entire crowd stood

transfixed as I carefully explained each part of the marriage ceremony. The

audience became sober when I emphasized the importance of marriage in

attaining life's ultimate goal, love of God, and they all laughed when I

tied the knot of the couple's chaddar and sari tighter and said, "And in

this way there is no possibility of divorce in Vedic culture."

 

People were mesmerized by the fire yajna and Vedic mantras and some of them

repeated the mantras along with the devotees in response to the head

priest's recitations. Word had spread throughout town to bring fruits and

flowers for the newly wedded couple, and when the ceremony finished and Raja

Rama and Bhumi descended from the stage they were inundated with fields of

flowers and orchards of fruit.

 

The next day we took all the devotees to a forest park for a break. The

Woodstock Festival is just around the corner and we need to be in good shape

for it. It will be the greatest preaching opportunity our festival program

has ever had. We calculated that since May more than 200,000 people have

come through the gates of our festivals - but at Woodstock there will be

over 400,000 young people. The organizers have once again given us a large

piece of land for our Krsna's Village of Peace tent not far from the main

stage. There we will be erecting the biggest tent ever put up on Polish

soil. It measures over 100 meters long and 32 meters wide. It can

accommodate more than 15,000 people. But I am wondering if even that will be

big enough. Riding the crest of so many successful festivals this summer it

seems to me that Lord Caitanya's mercy has no limitations. With my own eyes

I have seen mayors preach the glories of sankirtan, innocent children dance

in ecstasy and dumb oxen engage in the service of the Lord. What good

fortune awaits the people at Woodstock?

 

"Some, headed by Uddhava, have attained the Lord's service, others have

achieved a glorious position like that of Sridama, others have become

lotus-eyed girls in Vraja and other very fortunate and intelligent persons

have attained the lotus feet of Sri Radha. By the mercy of Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu what good fortune has this world not attained?"

[srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati - Sri Caitanya-candramrta, Text 123]