Krishna temple in Pakistan!

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Damodardesh (Yatra) <Damodardesh wrote:

Damodardesh (Yatra) <DamodardeshPreaching in Pakistan"Damodardesh Yatra" Damodardesh.YatraHis Grace Sarvabhauma Prabhu just returned from a very successful preaching

tour of Pakistan. Usually we can't really report about this type of

preaching,but due to the nature of this tour, it was already highly

publicized in the media and the authorities in Pakistan were also closely

monitoring, so it is no secret.

Previously when Sarvabhauma was living in Pakistan, he was regularly invited

along with all the ISKCON devotees to preach at the ashram of one famous

saint.

Now that saint is no more, but his son Sant Yudhisthir Lal left Pakistan and

established an ashram in Raipur, India. He has also continued to invite

Sarvabhauma and the devotees to come and explain Bhagavad Gita to his

congregation. This relationship has been going on for about 25 years.

Sant Yudhisthir Lal was taking a pilgrimage to Pakistan for the opening of

the

first Krishna Temple in Pakistan since Partition. So he invited Sarvabhauma

to

join with them for their Shadani Tirtha Yatra in Scinda, especially for this

historic temple opening in Ghotki, in the province of Scinda. There were 74

pilgrims headed by the Sant and they left by train on the 22nd of October.

They

were travelling under a special Pilgrimage Protocol agreement between India

and

Pakistan.

At the Wagha Border they were received by Government officials from the

Evacu

Trust Board, a body in Pakistan that oversees all Hindu Temples, headed by

Saheed Ragab Ali. All the media were present along with hundreds of hindu

devotees. They garlanded the Sant and Sarvabhauma and the media persons

interviewed them. Prasad was then taken by all the pilgrims in a pandal

arranged at the train platform itself.

Without any of the ordinary customs and immigration botherations they

boarded

the train for Lahore and reached on Ekadasi evening. They had satsang in the

Gurudwara in Lahore where ekadasi prasada was also distributed.

Early morning they boarded a train reaching in the evening for a 3 day

program

at the Shadani Darbar and there was a huge pandal with 3-4 thousand people

were

attending. There every night Sarvabhauma spoke on the Bhagavad Gita and many

of

our ISKCON devotees from the nearby town of Larkhana did kirtan. And all

appreciated Sarvabhuama's lecture and they enthusiastically took part in

the

kirtan.

Then traveling in several vehicles, they visited three different towns

having

programs along the way with thousands of people receiving them and taking

part

in the kirtans. For our security and for their inteligence the government

had

hundreds of agents making videos and taking pictures of every thing they

did.

Even many of these agents told Sarvabhuama that they appreciated things that

he

said. In this was our preaching was going beyond just the people and places

where we were, but going to all the different government officers and they

were

having to hear our preaching.

Reaching Ghotki, the site of the temple, they found people from 40 towns in

Scinda gathered together along with many important saints to witness the

establishment of the first Krishna Temple to be built in Pakistan after

Partition.

In his address, Sarvabhauma explained that the establishing a temple is like

making a hospital for treating the perverted consciousness of the

individuals

to bring it to Krishna Consciousness. This temple is the embasssy of the

Spiritual World. It is not surprising that every town and village includes

Pakistan also, and Mahaprabhu's mercy is manifesting here, only time was

separating. Everyone is saying that this is a very unique event that no one

has

seen in his life, as many muslims had also come for this event, so the

conclusion is that Krishna is the uniting force to bring us all together.

Next morning they reached a small island in the River Indus (Sindhu) where

there was an ashram called Sadhu Bela. After 25 years he saw much

development

there and there was a beautiful of diorama of Radha Krishna's Jhulan Yatra.

He was sitting in the program held there with the head of the Evacu Board

Retired General Zulifqar. He's originally born in Rohtak in Haryana, but

moved

to Pakistan at Partition. He was very excited when Sarvabhauma said that he

had

just been doing preaching programs in Rohtak the week before the pilgrimage.

The General asked, "Ganga and Yamuna are sacred rivers for the Hindus,

what

about the Sindhu?" Then Sarvabhuama chanted the mantra where it mentions

Sindhu

and he was delighted to know that.

Since these programs were being broadcast on TV, radio, and in the

newspapers,

old friends watching the programs began to call Sarvabhauma to have programs

in

their homes and temples in Karachi like the year before. Last year he did 18

days program of one chapter of Bhagavad Gita a day and last a day huge

pandal

where 3,000 people attended. This was in the posh Clifton area of Karachi,

so

it was attended by the high class Hindu industrialists and professionals.

They

had been very impressed that no one had ever explained Bhagavad Gita so

clearly

the way Sarvabhauma was doing from the Bhagavad Gita As It Is of Srila

Prabhupada. Our devotees did kirtan and this was a great opportunity for

them

as mostly the ISKCON devotees are from the working class and this gave them

access to very nice people.

He told them his special pilgrimage visa was up in a few days, but since

they

are very influential people within a day, they got it extended upto four

months! This was practically impossible to do. At the train station when

Sarvabhauma was seeing off the Sant and his devotees, two agents approached

him

and wanted to know why he wasn't on the train. They had been observing the

whole pilgrimage from the beginning so they recognized him. He informed they

that he had gotten an extension. They said they would come to the house

where

he was staying to check out his papers the next day.

When they arrived, they apologized to him and said, that they had orders for

him to immediately proceed to Lahore where he would be sent across the

border

by foot. But then they examined all his papers and saw that he indeed had an

extension. Then they said that they really appreciated his talks as they had

been assigned to watch the pilgrimage. They couldn't believe how the

programs

would go up to 2 AM almost every day. They themselves couldn't keep up with

the

schedule. They took photo copies of his papers and sent them off to Lahore.

They next day emergency was declared so everyone forgot about him as they

had

more important problems to deal with.

Four days program on Bhagavatam was held in different houses in Karachi and

then on 5th day there was a huge pandal at Kunja Bihari Temple, the largest

temple in Karachi. Later he travelled and did programs with the devotees in

Hyderbad, Mirpurkas, Shukkar, Mithi (BP), Panoquil, Mirpurmatelo, and his

hometown of Rohri. People were very anxious for Krishna Conscious preaching

there. Sarvabhauma told me that throughout the entire pilgrimage he wore

only

devotional dress and there was absolutely no inconvenience.

Anyone interested in preaching there should contact Giriraja Maharja or

Gopal

Krishna Maharaja.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki Jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya!

Pakistan Preaching ki Jaya!

In service of Srimati Vrinda Devi,

Deena Bandhu dasa

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