Sankirtan Rasa

[Guest guest]

The capacity of our temple in Spanish Fork is about 500, upstairs and

downstairs. For Last Saturday¹s Gaura Purnima/Holi Festival we were way over

that. Though straining at the seams, more and more people seemed to be able

to squeeze in until the entire crowd of many hundreds burst outside for the

Holi celebrations: the huge bonfire, kirtan and throwing of the colors.

From 4 pm we showed the film ³Golden Avatar² on the 12 foot high screen,

and followed with a gala abhishek of Lord Chaitanya. While quests lined up

to bathe Lord Chaitanya, we showed on the same screen a Quick Time slide

show of Lord Chaitanya¹s life with images and captions at 16 second

intervals, including many classic, sublime paintings and concluding with the

eight verses of the Sikshastakam. There was sit down kirtan going on

throughout the bathing ceremony and by the end everyone was chanting Hare

Krishna with great gusto.

After a dynamic Bharat Natyam dance presentation by Shyamala Moorthy of

Los Angeles, the chanting of Hare Krishna resumed outside around the two

story high bonfire lit for the occasion. Six hundred zip lock bags of non

stain, dry colors were sold within ten minutes for $1.00 each. We later

decided we could have sold 800-1000 bags if we had prepared them.

Our experience has been with the kirtan that, at first, while guests are

busy applying the colors on each other not many join, but within a half hour

or so after the colors are exhausted, more and more people turn to the

kirtan and the dancing. It just grows and grows until there are multiple

lines and circles of 50-60 or more going round and round, back and forth.

Bankim Roy Prabhu lead the bulk of the kirtan. The wireless mike and

outside speakers gave him mobility, but after the first hour there was no

need for him to move around. The people were like multicolored tides of an

ocean flowing back and forth, to and fro, and their singing was akin to the

roar of waves. We installed Bankim on a high bench and like a rock icon he

lead the thunderous chanting and whipped the crowd up more and more.

Chaitanya means the ³life force of the living entity exhibited in eternity²

We amply saw the vibrant life force of hundreds of unlimitedly energetic

young people engaged hour after hour in the mellow of sankirtan rasa. One

could see that with these young people the sankirtan was indeed giving them

a taste of the nectar for which they have always been hankering, bringing

some of them back from the brink of despair, and giving them a new lease on

life entirely.

When the kirtan had finally wound down and the fire was embers, Bankim

could speak only in a croak, our older bones were sore, our faces and hair

stiffened with the plastered colors, and even the teenagers had spent every

drop of energy. Before returning to their homes, many blissfully exhausted

people told the devotees, ³It was the best day of my life!²

 

 

 

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Best wishes,

Caru das and Vaibhavi