Pita Dasji's story

[Gauracandra]

Pita,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your mother's health but it is good that you are there helping her. I'm wishing you the best and all strength. Take care.

 

Gauracandra

[Guest guest]

Pita prabhuji,

 

Dandavat pranams. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! Please forgive my macabre humor.

 

Godspeed.

 

bb

[Pita das]

Arriveing in Hong Kong

One day when our GBC leader was on a quick visit to Houston temple he asked me."Do you still want to go to Hong Kong?"

I had asked him before what was he doing there as he was co GBC with Guru Kripa and he had told me then "Nothing" sence he had been exciled from Houston for the long term then and Bhagavan was the acting GBC he had been ordered to make only Eastern Asia his home and Figi Islands.

He said he wasnt sure if I would be sent to HK or Figi but within afew weeks I recieved a letter for me to start collecting for my ticket to HK.

His new zone was all of China Hong Kong Philipines Taiwan and Korea.

Hamsadutta was also still in the Philippines as GBC but like him was also censured by the main GBC body that was late 1980 .

When I arrived in Hong Kong I was thinking as I flew in over the endless mildewed houseing estates that it was alot like I had imagzined it would be, mass humanity crushed together.

I was meet by my godbrother Ramasuran Prabhu who had been with us on the Indian BBT libary party and also in Houston temple.

The airport was a makesift one at best in tho days the main and only runway was on reclaimed land jetting into the harbour and the building airport small and only partially air conditioned ,in to that waiting room The frist blast of the hot ,humid, noisy and very strangly odered aromas that is Hong Kong hit me.

Very jet lagged and very thankful to be met at the airport by a familar face we made way out to the temple "uuuump ho man tin guy" Ram told the taxi driver in the local lanuage which mean 5 Ho Man Tin street "UMMM Goy "for thank you.

Then in front of this light green apartment house we stopped and Ram annouched "were here"

I think it was on the 8th floor where the temple had two apartments.

One was the temple and ashram and one was the offices of Jitarati Prabhu a Canadian devottee that had been in HK for a very long time even then.

Jitarati was an importer and exporter of jewerly clasps most to the Philippines where he single handedly surported both missions HK and the two temples in the Philippines with the profits from his business.

Opon entering the same living room of the temple apartment there was a full sized Vasyasana with Hamsaduttas picture opon it and a small chest of drawers with a small murti of Srila Prabhupada .

At Srila Prabhupadas Lotus feet were these very highly fragrant ginger flowers which gave off a frangance simular to gardinas but even stronger.

The altar was a poster of Pancha Tattva behind a curtian with a wooden self beneath

for holding the arotik trays and vases of flowers.

The temple apartment was a 3 room flat with a small kicthen and one and a half bathrooms with the half never being used as iits distance from the Lords kicthen was only a matter of feet.

That became the storage room.

One room was for the GBC leader and one was the brahmacari ashram both were 10x10 feet no more and an even smaller room was the temple office.

The one bathroom was shared by all

Here it is Ram told me, home.

Back Home Back to Godhead by was of Hong Kong???!!!!

After some time I made it over to the other apartment saw one very meek thin and heavly specticaled chinese fellow siiting behind a desk and this was Sriman Yasomati Suta Prabhu ,Srila Prabhupadas Chinese translator threw Yaso the Chinese would hear Srila Prabhupadas discribtions of Lord Chaitanyas Advent.

Hare Krishna Yaso greeted me ,with All Glories to Srila Parbhupada and please acceapt my humble obeisances ,all spoken in his very good English with heavy HK Cantonese accents

I was very pleased to met Yaso and he was very happy something was finally going to happen in HK for our movement.

Yaso had almost finished the trnslation of the Bhagavat Gita" As It is" and this was almost ready to be sent for the printing.

Yaso had been working alone on the Gita for afew years he told me while still working a job as accountant.

I assured him that very soon the BBT would be able to engage him full time and he hoped it was to be true.

All Yaso ever seemed to want was to be lefted alone to translate and a little money to send to his son.

There was absoultly nothing to do but become accustomed to this very uncomfortable close and exterely loud enviroment.

Together tho Ram, Yaso and I followed our useual ISKCON program of Mongal arotika at here tho it began at 5 am and chanting our rounds ,Srimate Bhagavatum class and Guru pujas .

We were informed to have another Vasyasana made for the leading GBC to be placed next to Hamsaduttas one and Im not sure if in those days if there were 3 guru pujas or 2 or if they were all done at the same time????

One travelling devottee once sang a song "3 gurus carana padma" when he came and saw our crazy set up. But thats was the was it was, what can I say.?that living room was no more that 10 feet by 15 feet.With the vasyasanas taking up at least a third of the room.

There was one other devottee in Hong Kong then named Tota Gopinath who lived in his office which brought oil paintings and supplied Hamsaduttas temples Tota tho only visited the temple sometimes to pay respects to Hamsaduttas shrine on his vasyasana and one other Chinese Devottee from mainland China Jagat Guru a former red guard

Jagat Gurus story was a very colorful one

he had join in the Great Prolitarian Cultural Revoultion as one of the Red Guards of Chairman Mao when he was about 14 years old.

He told me that for ten years in Guangzhou (a large southern city capital of Guandong Provience north of Hk by about 60 miles)he never saw a street light without a body hanging from it, upsidedown with a sign attached to it and a stick under it ,the sign saying "beat this person because he is the enemy of the people"

"After about an hour the people would all die anyway no matter if they were beaten or not".Jagat Guru would say noncalantly.

In those days I always carried a gun and it was my ticket for what ever I wanted.If some one would ask me to pay for something I would pull my gun and say here my money want it?

Many times my friends would come to my house and tell me come with us tonight because we are going to this christian chruch burn it down and stuggle the priests

and i would go.

Then they came and said they wanted to do the same to the Buddhists temples but this I would refuse.

I would never harm a Buddhist temple and so Jagat Guru lead his life for 10 years but as the Cultural Revoution began to turn against even the Red Guards he fled China for HK.

"My older brother and I decided to try to swim to Macau "( a portaguese colony then) off the cost of China just below HK.

Jagat Gurus brother after a short time gave up and swam back but he had no choice but to continue on.

Maybe this is a five to ten mile swim?

"As I swam the fog became thick and I didnt know where I was swimming to?"

"Out to sea ,back to China????"

"so I stopped and from my childhood I remenbered a Daoist Mantra my Mother would chant when I was a child I chanted this mantra and when a short time the fog lifted and I saw it was just a short swims away to Macau."

"When I got to Macau I saw this monk walking about and it was Hamsadutta and I asked him to become my Guru and here I amn

Im so sorry about my life before Prabhu

I have nightmare every night still" he would say.

Jagad Guru Prabhu soon started to work with Jitarati in his office and I have no doubt hes still with him today.

Everytime I see Jitrati I ask him hows Jagat Guru and he always says the same.

Jagat Gurus brother latter also became a devottee and has helped in the changeing of the tradition Chinese character Traditions which are used in Hong Kong Taiwan and Singapore Malaysia into the simplified Chinese Character used inside China

 

 

[Gauracandra]

Its good to see you posting your journal again. I know I've looked forward to the next installments.

 

Gauracandra

[Pita das]

After some time Our GBC leader arrived in HK basically he is good assoication haveing so much time with Srila Prabhupada he was often relating tales of his time with His Divine Grace this we all apreicated so much.

In HK he was also very expert at understanding how to go and get our society reregestered as a tax free religious instution.This he did at once.

Then one day he asked us to print a fyer which we handed out to the mass hores of people flowing on all the streets of HK with 3 question on it.

1) Why if I want to be happy I can not always be?

2) Why do I have to acceapt suffering?

3) How can I always be free to enjoy my life fully?

for answers to these question please come to 5 homantin street 8fl apt A

Im not actually sure if these were the actual questions but they were certianly alone these lines.

To our great surprise this small action started the Chinese comming to the temple.

So many came in fact that we soon started a lunch program and many young men and ladies would come each day some latter becomming devottees.

This lunch program has now turned into a regular preaching tool of HK temple still today they are doing.

For drawing in new people our GBC leader was expert his draw back has always been maintianing long term relationships this he has many draw backs with.

The frist young boy to join the temple was

to be named Hauman.

His mother was very opposed to him taking to vegetarian diet and visiting us so much.

So she went to see a fortune teller for advice

As soon as she entered the fortune tellers shop they told her .Your son wants to be a monk!In his last life he was a beggar and crippled on the streets.

If you stop him his next life he will also be a beggar and cripple.

Bang from that moment on she had no oppostion and actually cooked for him compeltly vegetarian meals until he moved into the temple full time.

As Hamsadutta was also in the general of the Philippines he came one day for a short visit.

When one personally meets Hamsadutta they have to like him he is a very carismatic magnetic personality to say the least.

When he came a group of his men came with him and as he lefted they stayed on.

It seemed they were there to compelte with us at getting the new men from our lunch programs to take iniation from Hamdadutta.

As petty as it seems now that was thier program.

It didnt last long tho as Hamsudutta left HK to go to Mayapur and hear from His Divine Grace Srila Sridhar Maharaja who at that time was assiting and giving advice to the whole GBC body.

Srila Sridhar Maharaja told the GBC that what Srila Prabhupada had put in place namely allowing Hamsdutta to iniate disclips they could not change and so he was reinstated.

When our leader heard this news he also ran to Mayapur for the same purpose thus returning to Hong Kong with his whole USA zone back saying that Srila Sidhar Maharaja was the greatest living Vasihnava on the planet.

Our men that he is giving Sanyasas to are bonified sanyasasis he said and our Society has to learn to understand how to accomendate this.

As he lefted for Mayapur just before he asked me to go with him to the printers.

Bhagavat Gita in Chinese was about to go to press.

I had no idea of why I was asked to accompany him and they talks he had with the printer I wasnt really paying much attention to.

As he was leaving tho he told me I had to oversee the printing?

Which we did and on the appearence day of Srila Bhaktisiddanta Sarawati Prabhupada I spent the entire day watching the Gita pages roll off the press.

I was only told that if I wasnt there they would speed up the presses and the printing would suffer so I would set and watch and some times check the pages to see the regestration was clear in the clor work of the printing.

Our next goal was how to get the Bhagavat Gita into China which the printer told us he could help with but into those days it was almost impossible.

 

[Jagat]

<h3>Arriving in Hong Kong</h3>

 

One day, when our GBC leader was on a quick visit to Houston temple, he asked me, “Do you still want to go to Hong Kong?"

 

I had previously asked him what he was doing there, as he had been made co-GBC of Hong Kong with Guru Kripa. He had then told me "Nothing." In the meantime, however, he had been exiled from Houston, where Bhagavan was now the acting GBC, and ordered to make his home exclusively in eastern Asia and the Fiji Islands. He told me he wasn’t sure if I would be sent to Hong Kong or Fiji, but within a few weeks I received a letter telling me to start collecting for a ticket to Hong Kong.

 

Our GBC leader’s new zone was all of China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan and Korea. Hamsaduta was also still in the Philippines as GBC, but he too had been censured by the main GBC body. That was late 1980.

 

When I arrived in Hong Kong, as I flew in over the endless mildewed housing estates, I was thinking that it was a lot like I had imagined it would be, a mass of humanity crushed together. The airport was a makeshift one at best in those days. The main and only runway was on reclaimed land jutting out into the harbor and the airport building was small and only partially air-conditioned. As I walked into that waiting room, I was hit by the first blast of the hot, humid, noisy and very strongly odored Hong Kong air.

 

I was met by at the airport my godbrother Ramasuran Prabhu, who had been with us on the Indian BBT library party and also in Houston temple. Being very jet lagged, I was thankful to see a familiar face. Ram told the taxi driver "uuuump ho man tin guy" in the local language, which mean 5 Ho Man Tin Street, and "ummm goy" for thank you. We made way to the temple, stopping in front of a light green apartment house, and Ram announced, "We’re here."

 

I think it was on the 8th floor where the temple had two apartments. One was the temple and ashram, the other contained the offices of Jitarati Prabhu, a Canadian devotee who had already been in Hong Kong for a very long time. Jitarati was an importer and exporter of jewellery clasps, mostly to the Philippines. With the profits from his business he single-handedly supported both missions, the one in Hong Kong and the two temples in the Philippines.

 

Upon entering the living room of the temple apartment, I saw a full sized Vyasasan with Hamsaduta's picture on it and a small chest of drawers with a small murti of Srila Prabhupada. At Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet were these very highly fragrant ginger flowers, which gave off a fragrance, similar to gardenias, but even stronger. The altar was a poster of the Pancha Tattva behind a curtain with a wooden shelf beneath it to hold the arati trays and vases of flowers.

 

The temple apartment was a three room flat with a small kitchen and one and a half bathrooms, with the half never being used as its distance from the Lord’s kitchen was only a matter of feet. It was thus used as a storage room. One room was for the GBC leader and another was the brahmachari ashram. Both of these were 10x10 feet, no more. The temple office was in an even smaller room. The one bathroom was shared by all.

 

“Here it is,” Ram told me, “home. Back to home, back to Godhead by way of Hong Kong!”

 

After some time, I made it over to the other apartment where I saw one very meek, thin and heavily spectacled Chinese fellow sitting behind a desk. This was Sriman Yasomati Suta Prabhu, Srila Prabhupada’s Chinese translator. Through Yaso, the Chinese people would hear Srila Prabhupada’s descriptions of Lord Chaitanya’s advent.

 

“Hare Krishna!” Yaso greeted me with “All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Please accept my humble obeisances!” all spoken in very good English with a heavy Hong Kong Cantonese accent. I was very pleased to meet Yaso and he was very happy something was finally going to happen for our movement in Hong Kong. Yaso had almost finished the translation of the Bhagavad Gita "As It Is" and it was almost ready to be sent to the printer. Yaso told me that he had been working for a few years alone on the Gita while still working as accountant. I assured him that very soon the BBT would be able to engage him full time and he hoped it was to be true. All Yaso ever seemed to want was to be left alone to translate and to be able to send a little money to his son.

 

We had no choice but to become accustomed to this very uncomfortably close and extremely loud environment. Ram, Yaso and I followed our usual ISKCON program of Mangala Arati, though here it began at 5 a.m., chanting our rounds, hearing Srimad Bhagavatam class and Guru Puja.

 

We were told to have another Vyasasan made for our GBC leader to be placed next to Hamsaduta’s. I’m not sure if there were three guru pujas or two in those days, or if they were all done at the same time. One travelling devotee once sang a song, "Three gurus' charana padma" when he came and saw our crazy set up. But that’s was the way it was, what can I say? Our temple room was no bigger than 10 feet by 15 feet, with the vyasasanas taking up at least a third of the room!

 

There was another devotee in Hong Kong at the time, whose name was Tota Gopinath. He lived in his office and brought oil paintings and supplied Hamsaduta’s temples. Tota only visited the temple occasionally to pay respects to Hamsaduta’s shrine on his Vyasasan.

 

Another Chinese devotee from mainland China was Jagat Guru Das, a former Red Guard. Jagat Guru’s story was a very colorful one. This is how he told it:

 

“When I was about fourteen years old, I joined the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the Red Guards of Chairman Mao. For about ten years in Guangzhou (a large southern city capital of Guandong Province north of Hong Kong by about sixty miles), I never saw a street light without a body hanging from it upside down, with a sign attached to it and a stick under it. The sign would read, "Beat this person because he is the enemy of the people" After about an hour these people would die anyway whether they were beaten or not. (Jagat Guru recounted all these grisly details nonchalantly.)

 

“In those days, I always carried a gun and it was my ticket for whatever I wanted. If anyone asked me to pay for something, I would pull out my gun and say, “Here my money. Want it?”

 

“Many times my friends came to my house and said, “Come with us tonight because we are going to this Christian church to burn it down and strangle the priests.” I would go with them. Then they came and said they wanted to do the same to the Buddhist temples, but I refused. I would never harm a Buddhist temple.”

 

Jagat Guru led his life in this way for ten years, but when the Cultural Revolution began to turn against even the Red Guards, he fled China for Hong Kong. His older brother and he decided to try to swim to Macau (then still a Portuguese colony) off the cost of China just below Hong Kong. His brother gave up after a short time and swam back, but Jagat Guru had no choice but to continue on, crossing the body of water that is maybe five to ten mile wide.

 

"As I swam, the fog became thick and I didn’t know where I was swimming to, out to sea or back to China. I stopped and I remembered a Daoist mantra my mother would chant to me when I was a child. I chanted this mantra and when a short time the fog lifted and I saw that Macau was just a short swim away.

 

"When I got to Macau I saw a monk walking about. It was Hamsaduta. I asked him to become my Guru and here I am. I am so sorry about my life before I met my Prabhu that I still have nightmares every night."

 

Jagad Guru Prabhu soon started to work with Jitarati in his office and I have no doubt that he is still with him today. Every time I see Jitarati I ask him how Jagat Guru is doing and he always says, “the same.” Later on, Jagat Guru’s brother also became a devotee and helped in the adoption of Chinese character reform in Hong Kong. [Mainland China started a simplification of the characters used in writing Chinese in 1951. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, the traditional characters were still being used. (See http://www.advancelit.com/albase/characters.htm .)]

 

After some time, our GBC leader arrived in Hong Kong. He was basically good association, due to having spent so much time with Srila Prabhupada. He often related tales of his experiences with His Divine Grace, which we all appreciated so much. In Hong Kong, he was also very expert at understanding how to go and get our society re-registered as a tax-free religious institution, which he did at once.

 

One day he asked us to print a flyer, which we handed out to the hordes of people flowing on all the streets of Hong Kong. It had three questions on it: 1) Why can’t I always be happy, when that is what I want? 2) Why do I have to accept suffering? 3) How can I always be free to enjoy my life fully? For answers to these questions, please come to 5 Ho Man Tin Street, 8th floor, apt A. I’m not actually sure if these were the actual questions, but they were certainly along these lines.

 

To our great surprise this small action started the Chinese coming to our temple. So many came, in fact, that we soon started a lunch program and many young men and ladies would come each day, some of whom later became devotees. This lunch program has now turned into a regular preaching tool of the Hong Kong temple, and continues to this day. Our GBC leader was expert in drawing new people in. His drawback has always been maintaining long-term relationships.

 

The first young boy to join the temple was to be named Hanuman. His mother was very opposed to him taking to a vegetarian diet and visiting us so much. She went to see a fortune-teller for advice. As soon as she entered the fortune-teller’s shop, however, she was told, “Your son wants to be a monk! In his last life, he was a cripple and begged on the streets. If you stop him, he will be a beggar and cripple again in his next life.” Bang! From that moment on she had no oppostion and actually cooked completely vegetarian meals for him until he moved into the temple full time.

 

As Hamsaduta was also in the general area of the Philippines, he came one day for a short visit. When you personally meet Hamsaduta, you have to like him. He is a very charismatic, magnetic personality to say the least. When he came, a group of his men came with him, and when he left, they stayed on. It seemed that they were there simply to compete with us at getting the new men from our lunch programs to take initiation from Hamsaduta instead of from our GBC leader. As petty as it seems now, that was their program.

 

This uncomfortable situation didn’t last long, though, as Hamsaduta was on his way to Mayapur to hear from His Divine Grace Srila Sridhar Maharaj, who at that time was assisting and giving advice to the whole GBC body. Srila Sridhar Maharaj told the GBC that they could not change what Srila Prabhupada had put in place, namely allowing Hamsaduta to initiate disciples. So he was reinstated.

 

When our leader heard this news, he also went running off to Mayapur hoping to be reinstated as well. He returned to Hong Kong not long afterward with his whole USA zone back, saying that Srila Sridhar Maharaj was the greatest living Vaishnava on the planet. “The men Sridhar Maharaj is giving sannyas to are bona fide sannyasis,” he said, “and our Society has to learn to understand how to accomodate this.”

 

Just before he left for Mayapur, he asked me to go with him to the printers where the Bhagavad Gita in Chinese was about to go to press. I had no idea of why I had been asked to accompany him and wasn’t really paying much attention to the discussion he was having with the printer. On the day he left Hong Kong for Mayapur, however, he told me that I had to oversee the printing. I did so and on the appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada, I spent the entire day watching the Gita’s pages roll off the press. I was only told that if I wasn’t there, they would speed up the presses and the quality of the printing would suffer. So I sat and watched and sometimes checked the pages to see if the registration was clear in the color work of the printing.

 

Our next goal was how to get the Bhagavad Gita into China. The printer told us he could us help with this task, but warned us that it was almost impossible, which in those days was quite true.

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by Jagat (edited 01-22-2002).]

[Jagat]

 

<h2>Adjusting to life in Hong Kong</h2>

 

Our main difficulty in adjusting to life in Hong Kong was the noise. At the time, it seemed that major construction was taking place almost everywhere. A new railway line was being put in next to the old one directly behind the building that housed our temple. A new bridge also being built almost directly behind the temple apartment, for which many pilings were being put into the ground with huge machines that hammered them into the earth. Bam! and the ground would shake for a few seconds. Then bam! again and then bam! once more, all day every day from seven in the morning till dark.

As soon as the bridge was completed, another construction site began, and then another, with the same noise. Sometimes it seemed that many of them were all going on at the same time. We had to take recourse to earplugs to help us tolerate the situation.

Then there were the smells. Each day at noon, pigs being

transported by train from China would pass underneath our windows.The smell of one of these trains would knock you out. All of a sudden, a blast of contaminated air would come rushing into the temple and we would run to close up all the windows until the odour passed. Sometimes we managed to get our timing right and close the windows before the damage was done, but since we kep them open all the time because of the heat, we usually got a dose of pig perfume each day.

Then there were the smells in the street of the vendors cooking their products. Grilled squid, cho dou fu, which is translated as “stinky tofu,” smelled almost as bad as the pig manure. It was fried in rancid oil and sold to people “addicted to its fine taste,” as I was told by the Chinese.

When our leader returned from Mayapur, he was very pleased to hear that Jayatirtha Prabhu had donated ten thousand dollars to cover some of the cost of printing the Chinese Bhagavad Gita. One day, he suddenly ordered us to learn Chinese at once. “The Mormon preachers who come here learn Chinese in three months and so can you,” he declared to us. He told us that he would also begin Chinese lessons, but though this was often stated, it never happened.

I had also heard him tell the devotees in Bombay that he would be learning Marathi (the local language of Maharastra state in which Bombay was a part) as well as Hindi, the national language. That made the whole temple then cheer, but I never saw him make any effort to learn those languages.

This time, however, Ram and I didn’t cheer. Rather, we gave him a kind of “dah” look, as we doubted that we could ever learn Chinese, especially not the local Cantonese variety, which is spoken in nine different tones.

Our leader next informed us that one of us would be appointed temple president. Since he usually spoke with Ramasuran on the phone in order to get up to date on happenings while he was outside of Hong Kong, he was given this post.

One new devotee, an older, middle-aged Indian gentleman named Rasaporna Prabhu, had just arrived from Calcutta temple. So now there were three of us living in the temple. I was made temple teasurer and Rasaporna put in charge of making lifemenbers in the Indian community.

 

I remember our leader saying, "This temple president thing actually means nothing. There only three of you, so don’t let it go to your head." But as soon as he left, Ram became a completely different person.

 

Ram refused to wash dishes or do any of the other less desirable duties. He seemed to become an island unto himself, which began a little storm in a teacup. We were very immature and quarreled over very petty things. Ram wouldn’t allow me to count the money, and I was supposed to be the temple treasurer!

 

Then, when the leader returned, Ram told him that I refused to act as the treasurer. I was called into his room and he said, "I hear you refused to act as the teasurer while I was away!"

 

When I began to tell my side of the story, he just said, "I don’t want to hear it. You refused, and I refuse to hear your explanation." He was very strict he told me. “I will never be criticized for being a lax devotee. They may criticise me for being too strict, but never for being lax.”

When Hamsaduta was in Hong Kong, he would refer to our leader as "Hot Tamali" and he was hot, most always hot. He was also very funny at times, in his very own kind of wry humor. But this side he didn’t often show.

He also was in exile or just out of it, but had this new weight which he had tried to resist for such a long while, this preaching in China Mission which, if one takes seriously, is certainly an endeavor that could take many lifetimes.

Our leader had become friendly with an Indian gentleman named Mr Arjun, who had started coming daily to our lunch programs. He had been in Hong Kong since the partition of India and Pakistan and was from the portion that is now Pakistan. He was in the textile business and had factories producing knit shirts. He was about to investigate opening a factory in mainland China, in Guangzhou, the city where Jagat Guru had lived. Mr Arjun invited our leader to go with him to China on this trip, which was to be the first time our leader would visit the People’s Republic.

 

As Mr Arjun was quite a rich businessman, our leader felt he needed to get nice clothes for the trip. He went and had two suits made, one in dark blue and one in light tan. He also bought two pairs of very expensive shoes, one of which I remember was made of alligator skin. As he dressed up, he asked me, “How do I look?”

"The dark suit is for the serious business and the light one is for casual dress," he said. He was wearing the light tan suit as he said this. "So what do you think? Is this casual enough?"

To me he looked like a Calvin Kline model and I told him, "Casual? A casual tycoon maybe."

 

He just laughed and repeated, “casual tycoon.”

Mr Arjun and our leader then went on the train to China, which is no more than a three hour journey from our door. When he got back, he told us stories that seemed beyond the outer limits of our small realities.

It was 1981, when China was just coming out of the Cultural Revoultion, but all of the resrictions of the Mao regime were still firmly in place. When you took the train into Guangzhou, you could see endless fields of rice and fruit and vegetables being grown, but when you arrived at the train station, there was nothing to eat for sale. We didn’t know at the time that all the people ate at their place of work and private business didn’t exist. These fruits were for the leaders and for export, mostly to Hong Kong.

When our leader returned, he told us that the party officals had used their visit to their own benefit to prepare big feasts for themselves, which he and Mr Arjun had to attend. These feasts took place three times a day and it was quite impossible to refuse them. Our two ISKCON representatives were fully introduced to the Cantonese manner of eating.

 

All these meals were non-vegetarian and many varieties of meats were served. As both Mr Arjun and of course our GBC man were vegetarians, some purely vegetarian dishes were prepared for them, but they hardly dared eat any of it.

He told us, "The only safe thing to eat was bowls and bowls of steamed rice. As we ate our rice, they stuffed tiny song birds into their mouths and spit out the bones." Song bird is a delicacy in China, as are bear claws, old cats, young dogs, and poisonous snakes. And of all the Chinese, the Cantonese will eat anything.

There is a Chinese saying:

<center>"The Pekinese (Beijing) people will say anything;

People from Shanghai will wear anything;

The Cantonese will eat anything."</center>

At these meals it is also the custom to drink mao tai, a fire-like liquor. To show its quality, it is poured onto a glass table and set on fire, burning with a blue flame. Then they will tell you the alcohol content, which is about 60% at its highest finest degree.

Our GBC man told us that their hosts got very drunk.

 

Mr Arjun set up some arrangements to have a factory built and they looked at land in a park where they were told a vegetarian restaurant could also be built. Despite getting authorization, Mr Arjun’s subsequent business operation ultimately failed. He imported bulldozers and other heavy equipment to build his factory, but they were all taken by the goverment and never returned. He retired from business soon afterwards. It was still too early for such things to be done in China.

Another thing our leader and Mr Arjun did while in Guangzhou was to visit a Buddhist temple of Maitreya, “the Buddha to come.” Many Westerns will have seen figurines or pictures of this Buddha,

who is the fat, seated one with a huge, exposed belly. It is interesting to note that in the Buddhist religion there is mention of this coming Buddha Maitreya, who when he appears will change the Dharma that was set down by Sakya Muni.

 

As our leader and Mr Arjun approached the Buddha, the old lady in charge of the temple yelled at them to leave because they were disturbing the Buddha. Mr Arjun was fluent in Cantonese so he translated. “Here, though, were the first two representatives of Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu entering his temple, so we weren’t really disturbing him,” our leader declared.

 

[makhanmisri]

 

"We need not say his name, as it is too sweet to use in relationship to himself,"

 

Sweet it is and I disagree. That his high class admirers are practically innumerable may be intolerable for some, but not for negligible reasons; how many truly jewel-like Vaisnavas have chosen to worship you or I instead? Please, let's give some careful reflection to Bhagavata 10.4.46, or at least 11.28.1 (which you may find most relevent), if not also 10.14.8 and 11.26.31-34, etc. Thanks for your understanding, sensitivity, "sama-darsana," and charitable spirit. Hare Krsna!

 

Your servant,

 

MDd

 

[Pita das]

Dear Makhanmisra

Please acceapt my humble respects. Goswami Maharaja has now been taken by Krishna we pray to Srila Prabhupada place him as an atom at His Divine Graces Lotus Feet.

My story is factual and acurate as any of Goswmai Maharajas god brothers know well.

The way Maharaja related to his godbrothers and male discilps whom were within his close range were very doffrent that they way his may of treated a say Indian gentlemen or lady comming to hear him

speak .

There is a very good chance that Maharaja has gone Back to where Ever Srila Prabhupada is at present We sencerly hope this for him

We also can never agree with some of his plocies of removeing many of the last insruction of Srila prabhupada he recorded while being His Divine Graces secertary.

This was not service to the Acarya but a dis service .

No one may decide to step over the head of Shri Guru without reprecussions

Despite what ever faults Maharaja had I was very upset at hearing of his depature in such a way as it happened I senicerly pray that he left in a painless quick way with the Holy Name on His toungue.

Because my assoication with Maharaja was always at a close distance I have many statements and remenberences Im not so sure that the assembled devottees may be intrested to hear.'

What is good for devotional service we should reveal what is an obstalce and doesnt

draw closer to Krishna we should be expert enough to not to reveal even it may be the truth ,we must see the long staying effects

This Goswami Maharaja was very expert at speaking words which he felt would produce certian currents he felt the society need to move in.

Even we as his godbrothers could see that they were contradiction of what Srila Prabhupadas intructions were.

I am refering to over a hundred tapes from 1977 which Maharaj had in his possession and distrubted as the frist tapes of the Radha Dammodar tape minstry from 1978 untill about 1984 at which time I still have not been able to trace what happen to them from that point?

Sankarshan Das the Austin Temple Presidentwho was in charge and distrubting these tapes , we would now like to see placed back into the BBT Achvives where they should of been sent to afew weeks after being recorded.

As I have also related in the story this tapes of 1977 were being heard by many of the devottee brahmacaris of Huston Temple 1978 which has been confroimed to me by Ramasuran Prabhu recently as he was also hearing them then,

Others that were hearing then being played in the summer 1978 were Janardan das who is now with HH Naryana Maharaj,Mukunda Dutt,Kailki Das,Bhubaneswar Prabhu now in Shri Dham Vrindaban,Padubja Prabhu,Mahadeva Prabhu now in New Dwarka ,Radhanath Prabhu Now in San Deigo ,Sankaya Pundit Prabhu

and many others

We will have to encourge the information of how these tapes were lost or how they can be recovered I am now in the process of Contacting Sankarsan Prabhu as It seems to me he is the only living witness to thier actual whereabouts

 

[makhanmisri]

"The way Maharaja related to his godbrothers and male discilps whom were within his close range were very diffrent that they way his may of treated a say Indian gentlemen or lady comming to hear him speak."

 

He probably learned this from Srila Prabhupada, who was like this too. Keen discrimination is the key characteristic of anyone who functions as a madhyama adhikari, just as utility, or strategy if you will, is the principle.

 

 

"We also can never agree with some of his plocies of removeing many of the last insruction of Srila prabhupada he recorded while being His Divine Graces secertary."

 

From what you've described (and I won't argue about it), this sounds to me a bit like a conspiracy theory.

 

"No one may decide to step over the head of Shri Guru without reprecussions."

 

Yes, many of us can see this.

 

"What is good for devotional service we should reveal what is an obstalce and doesnt

draw closer to Krishna we should be expert enough to not to reveal even it may be the truth ,we must see the long staying effects"

 

This is in fact why I responded to your post in which you made some very harsh, needless, and in my view injurious comments.

Frankly, I think you should aplogize, but it's your choice.

 

"This Goswami Maharaja was very expert at speaking words which he felt would produce certian currents he felt the society need to move in."

 

The word for this is prerogative, also known as "adhikara." Some people have it and others don't. Let he who is without worse faults cast stones. I would rather try to regard his holiness just as Rupa Gosvami regarded his elder brother--or at least the way Prahlada regarded even Sanda and Amarka. I can't see that Vaisnava tradition teaches anyone to do otherwise.

 

"We will have to encourge the information of how these tapes were lost or how they can be recovered I am now in the process of Contacting Sankarsan Prabhu"

 

Good luck; I wish you the best,

 

MDd

[Pita das]

Theroies are based on assumtions Reality is based on facts.

Therioes are replaced by other theroies

facts eventually rise up .

I pray that Goswami Maharaja has entered into Radha Krishna Nitya Leela .

I lament loseing him I Love him deeply

The lost of the recorded tapes is not my lost prabhuji it is the lost of Human society

[makhanmisri]

 

Originally posted by Pita das:

"Theroies are based on assumtions Reality is based on facts."

 

Agreed; if we factually speak ill of the vaisnavas so dear to Srila Prabhupada, we will certainly experience the consequent reality (Bhagavata 10.4.46):

 

"“When one mistreats great souls, his life span, opulence, reputation, religion, possessions and good fortune are all destroyed.”

 

MDd

[Guest guest]

As life in Hong Kong yatra progressed we found there were liminted ways to serve the mission as say there were in the western countries.

While visiting the Hindu temple in Happy Vally area of HK I spoke with the pujari ji a VrajaVarsi devottee and he told me the story of bailing one our first devottees ever to arrive in HK out of jail

This devottee was Bail Mardan.

Bail Mardan prabhu had in the early 70S come to HK and was single handedly prefroming Hari Nam Sankirtian and was at once arrested.

As he was alone he was allowed to make one phone call from jail and called this sweet devottee of the Hindu temple who came and got Bail out of jail and gave him shelter in the Hindu Temple

This temple has very sweet dietes of Shree Shree Radha Krishna and Lord Siva and Goddess Pravati .

Bail Mardan then left HK and Burijana and his wife soon came and established ISKCON and regestering the society there.

Latter another devottee couple Sevananda Prabhu and his wife Sravaniya Devi Prabhbu ji took thier place.

 

When these two devottees left ISKCON HK no real temple exsited untill His Holiness Tamal Krishna Maharaja arrived

in late 1980

 

Because there were problems for westerners speicifically americans to stay on in HK on a long term basics it was agreed apon that the american devottees shouldnt go on any kind of Hari Nam Sankirtian or street book distrubtion actitiities then.

 

After the first 6 months ISKCON was again re-regestered by the goverment but our numbers were certianly being curtialed and no permant visas were being granted.

 

Which made us constantly have to go out of HK and back again and soon made us apparent to immirgations.

 

The first kinds of book distrubution was tho in the forms of bible paper printings of Shree Isopisad

This was printed on such thin paper that the complelte Isopanisad was able to be printed into a small tract like pamplet.

And at the time of the Chinese New Years all the devottees were able to hand out Sri Isopanosad to thousands of people going into to China on the trains

 

Soon as the lunch programs produced new devottees the new Chinese devottees began full on book distrubution going from shop to shop all over HK

 

The temple also starting classes in hatha yoga exercise

and many intrestted person also became the first Chinese devottees in ISKCON HK.

 

These devottees were named Santana das ,Hari Nam dasi,Naranyan das,Ram das,Pudma devi,and many more

 

The Chinese lady devottees became expert in cooking both very nice Indian and Chinese preparations and ISKCON HK prepared very wonderful feasts 2 each Sunday one in the afternoon for the Chinese devottees and one in the evening for the Indian devottees and guests

 

After about 9 months in HK it was very difficult for me to stay on because of visa reasons and I left HK for India

not returning back to HK to serve there for the next few yrs.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

After 9 months in Hong Kong and going in and out for new extentions to my vistor visas it had become harder and harder to stay in Hong Kong.

On first arriving His Holiness Tamal Krishna Maharaja had warned us of how materially contaminating Hong Kong was.

He would say

"Oh there are so many things being offered for sale on the streets that one could surely start to eat boga"

His suggestion was that we needed to take 2 trips aleast to India for purification each year.

If I was to fly out of Hong Kong and stay outside for a certian period there would be no problem in returning for a new series of entries and exits .

The devottees were fastly becomming expert in Hong Kong in the ways the immirgations were dealing with us.

These police would allways ask us the same questions with the last question being "how long will you be staying in HK?"

We allways knew that this would be the last in a long series of questions and when they finally asked this question and we would say a week the next sound would be that officer stamping our passports in for one months time

 

Actually Hare Krishna devottees in those days were banned form entering Hong Kong and if there was any clue to immrigrations you were Hare Krishna you wouldnt be able to enter Hong Kong.

I think it must be the same today as least for non residence of Hong Kong.

while at the Hong Kong temple we would often get calls from the airport of devottees in detention at the airport.

 

His Holiness Bhakti Su dira Krishna Maharaja and His Holiness Giridhari Maharaja have had the pleasure of being refused landing on serval of thier first attempts .

 

So immrigations was a big obstacle for the non British Non Hong Kong Chinese or Non Commonwealth devottees in those days.

So I was wondering at the time just how was going to be able to stay on in those days and remenbering Tamal Krishna Maharajas words I began preparations for travel to India 2 times a year.

It was just at that time when one very sweet god brother of mine SatyaNaryana Prabhu arrived in Hong Kong from Shree Dham Mayapur

Staya Naryana was there to print a new magazine about Shree Dham Mayapur and I assited him to going to the printers there.

After the printing was finished I also applied with Satya Naranya for entry visa to India and as we were old friends from the the BBT Indian Libary party he invited me to come to Shree ham Mayapur to help him with the work at the Bhaktivedanta Chairty trust.

The Bhaktivedanta Chairty Trust was a trust started by Srila Prabhupada himself .

His Divine Grace about one week before his Maha Sadamhi

told his disclips that he wanted one million dollars placed into an account where the money could never be withdrawn and the intrest use to repair and rebuild the holy places of Lord Chaitanyas pastimes.

I was forgentate enough to be present in Vrindaban at the moment Srila Prabhupada had made this request and so I told Satya Naranya Prabhu I really would love to join him there to assit in any way I could then.

About that time Tamal Krishna Maharaja returned to Hong Kong and he hiumself had a very difficult time passing through the immigrations because he arrived not wearing a wig over his shaved head.

When the immgrations asked him if he was a monk he said "why yes" and then they asked him what kind of monk are you and he told them "a monk of Lord Shiva" and he was allowed in.

I remenber Maharaja saying "if I had said Krishna there was no way they were going to let me in,so I said Lord Shiva and Lord Shiva protected me"

When Maharaja heard that I had gotten an entry visa for India he exploded

To him I was trying to run away from the China Mission he seemed to forget his suggestion before that we should all go to India 2 times a year because Hong Kong was so materialistic but beceause it really was impossible to just walk accross the boarders of Hong Kong to China and come back in any longer for me he also new I had to leave Hong Kong.

In those first few months looseing even one member of the temple was hard to replace as the Chinese devottees hadnt really started to join us yet

 

 

[Guest guest]

Leaving Hong Kong I flew to Bangkok Thailand with my god brother Anuttama Prabhuji.

 

Anuttama kindly paid for my airfare if I agreed to carry for him a tape dupication machine which the temple needed for their use.

 

In those days we would hand carry these items and while techinically againist the law the customer official in India were not very strick about it.

 

We flew into Bangkok flying in over seemly endless rice paddies dotted with Golden domed Temples of Lord Buddha.

 

and proceeded to a cheap hotel in the post vietnam infulenced city of Bangkok.

 

After the first day there Annutama Prabhu and myself found where our temple was located run by His Grace Atmavidya Prabhu.

 

Our ISKCON temple there was a rented house way out side the main city center down a gravel road planted within fields of rice and lotus fields off Ram Kam Heng Road.

 

A road named for a former Thai King and very near the Univeristy which the devottees would often to go on preaching missions.

 

The temple was a teak house and it had very nice grounds filled with Tusli growing mango trees and durian an very spiecal fruit loved or hated by most people because of its wonderful taste and horrible aroma.

 

Atmavidya Prabhu was busy printing Srila Prabhupadas books into the Thai lanuage and he had just printed Sri Isopansad which he had painted a Thai style Lord Vishnu on the cover of which he was very proud of.

 

The temple was a very nice atmosphere very heavenly and relaxed the weather tho was extremly hot and humid .

 

We prerpared moring prasada and one of the temple brahmacaris invited me to go with him into the City and we went to see the wonderful temples in Bangkok all dedicated to Lord Buddha.

 

One very wonderful temple is the Golden Buddha temple a diety of Lord Buddha which has been formed out of solid Gold 22 tons of Gold Lord Buddha is seated and seats at least 25 feet high .

 

When one enters the small wooden temple which houses the Lord one is struck with awe and reverence for the beautiful form of Lord Buddha.

 

This temple one can still see today but unforgentaly there are now hords of Chinese tourists visiting there

 

THe Buddha in the temple wasnt known to be Golden as the story of the temples goes.

 

When the Burmese invaded Bangkok afew hundred years ago the monks of this temple covered the Buddha in Paster Paris making the Buddha appear to be of no real monetarty vaule .

 

The real nature of this Buddha was kept a secret to everyone untill a crack appeared in the paster as the Lord was about to be moved for some renivations on this tiny temple revealing that the diety was solid gold.

 

This Brahmacari ji also took me to the Temple of the Emeral Buddha which is the temple of the King of Thailand

 

around the walls of the temple the whole story of Ramayana is painted as the Thai Kings are inspiried by the Leela of Ram Raja and Lord Ramas rule which many of the kings have taken the Name of Lord Rama.

 

As we were dressed in devottee dress the people accepted us as monks and they refuse payment to enter these temple and even on the buses we took.

 

I very much liked Bangkok and the pious sweet Thai people and hoped to return one day again, soon tho I was off to Calcutta the birth place of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.

 

Apon arriving in Calcutta we at once went to our Radha Govinda Mondir on 5 Albert Road.

 

This temple is very dear to every disclip of Srila Prabhupada altrough it is just a rented flat .

 

Srila Prabhupada himself has spent so much time at Radha Govinda Mondir ISKCON Calcutta .

 

Temple is right accross from a beatuiful lake which Srila Prabhupada had allways wanted to build the peramant Calcutta temple within a floating temple.

 

Although this was the vision of Srila Prabhupada that temple has yet to appear to this day.

 

On the altar there are the superexcellant dieties Of Shree Shree Radha Govinda and Lord Chaitanya at thier lotus feet.

 

In our Calcutta temple the altar appears diffrent than in any other ISKCON temple in this temple Srila Prabhupada has arranged the temple in the same mood of His Guru Maharajas temples the mood in Calcutta ISKCON is allways very intamate as it is so small.

 

All the devottees were welcome to visit in the room Srila Prabhupada would stay in to the left side of the temple room and even rest in the afternoons on the marble floors then.

 

There was allways a very close feeling of love amongst all the devottees there and when I arrived My god brother Adridaran Prabhu had welcomed me very kindly.

 

Adridrana had joined ISKCON in the Miami Temple although he is from India it was in Miami that he entered the temple and this also was the temple I had entered ISKCON in

as that is the place of my birth.

 

At once Adridrana gave service to do and life was very wonderful there.

 

I would go on Life membership awaiting SatyaNaranya Prabhu to come from Shree Dham Mayapur to meet me.

 

I found life in the Calcutta temple wonderful the present Bhakti Su Dira Krishna Maharaja now of Srila Sridhara Maharajas Shree Chaitanya Sarawati Math was there then serving as a humble brahmacari.

 

He met me in the tiny Brahmacari Ashram which was just a tiny room on the roof of the temple flat and he told me of the old days of Calcutta temple ,how life then was serving Srila Prabhupada there.

 

How Gargamuni Swami would push them so much to collect for the temple and how one day when he and another Prabhuji were sick unable to get off the floor they had locked the doors to that room.

 

Because they couldnt get off the floor to open the door Gargamuni sprayed maze under the door to get them going .

 

All the sudden Dira Kirshna told me he was envoloped in a chemical burn which made them get off the floors and open up the doors right away.

 

Wow I throught that must of been really intense ???

 

I remenber Calcutta temple as very wonderful.

 

Very wonderful Prasadam was served on the long verandas outside the temple room and Srila Prabhupadas room and there was allways a pleasant breeze of the lake accross from the temple.

 

When the Indian Bengali devottees heard I had just come from Hong Kong they asked me if I had brought soya sauce with me?

 

Oh prabhuji its so nice to flavor the prasad with???

 

Really i throught kinda seems like rasa basa to me???

 

Then they asked me if Chinese people really ate with sticks?

 

And I told them yes they really do and the Chinese allways asked me if the Indians really ate with thier hands???

 

As I was new in the temple with no real fixed service after morning prasada I would be given diffrent services to do .

 

One morning Satyadunya Swami asked me to go with the devottees to the home of Lalitta Bose the daughter of SuBash Chandra Bose as she had requested us to go to her home for Kirtiana.

 

Subash Chandra Bose was the real reason of India's indepentance .

 

It was Subash Chandra Bose who fought against the Britsh durning world war 2 and formed an oppostion army against British rule .

 

Bacisally by the Britsh infulence his name has almost complely been written out of history in the west but not in India.

 

The British like to attrubute Gandhi as the main force which stopped thier rule but it was Srila Prabhupadas opinion that actually Subash Chandra Bose who force the Britsh to understand that they had to leave India.

 

Srila Prabhupada was a classmate of Subash Chandra Bose althrough he was older than Srila Prabhupada.

 

It was Boses infulence that got Srila Prabhupada intrested in the Indian indepentence movement and I also think Srila Prabhupada worked in a labatory of Dr Bose when he was very young.

 

Subash Chandra Bose becamne a revotionary and allied himeslf with the Japanese and the Germans to force out the Britsh in India.

 

While in Hong Kong I saw an article about him in the press there of how the Japenese had made a temple in is honor and memory in Osaka after the war.

 

No one actually knows what became of Subash Chandra Bose

What happend to him and he was never capitured by the British .

 

But it was Srila Prabhupadas opinion that he one day took sanyasa and went into the himalayas

 

Srila Prabhupada tells a story of when he did this he blended in as one of many such sadhus .

 

But was still being followed by the British .

 

One day Srila Prabhupada told us the British spies had followed a sadhu whom they throught was Subash Chandra Bose and called out his name.

 

But that sadhu never responded to the name and he wasnt harmed left to disappear and to never be caught by them

 

Knowing all these stories I was ofcourse very happy to be able to meet this famous persons daughter Latita Bose who was a life member of ISKCON Calcutta and an admireer of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya

 

When we got to her house tho Latita was very sweet and kind .

 

She seemed to live alone in a very western kind of house for Calcutta a home behind huge walls

 

She actually wanted to just speak to us about Srila Prabhupada and about how she had arranged a meeting with Srila Prabhupada and Indira Gandhi who was her personal friend.

 

She laughed that Indira Gandhi throught we were the CIA

and how because of this Mrs Gandhi was abit concerned about meeting Srila Prabhupada.

 

She told Mrs Gandhi that she would herself gaurenteee that Srila Prabupada had nothing to do with the CIA and that she please meet His Divine Grace.

 

At that Mrs Gandhi said "ok I will meet him and if he is CIA we will have Laittas head."

 

Lilita then told us, Mrs Gandhi would of killed her if she had found out Srila Prabhupada wasnt who he said he was

 

"She is my friend and I have known her my whole life but I dont doubt she would have killed me."

 

In Laitas home there were pitures of her with her father with Mohandas Gandhi and many other famous people it was a very culttered home ,a home of an older person surrounded by her memeroies

 

Finally She asked us to have Kirtian which she wanted to amptafiy on to speakers for all in the neighborhood to hear

 

I want all my neighbors to know what I stand for Litita told us Hare Krishna

 

 

 

 

 

[atma]

Thank you Pita dasji for your nice memories. I also had nice experiences in Bangkok and Calcutta was my home for many years.By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Adridharan I was pujari of Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Lord Caitanya, little Radha-Gopinath and Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra Maharani. I dressed Them in the mornings, did aratiks, offerings, put Them to rest at night. I think Calcutta was the only temple in India were women were allowed to to be full time pujaris.

 

Another thing I have to say here, I saw a comment about Adri the other day and one thing is sure, for Adri was better politically to remain in Iskcon, Harikesa offered him to be GBC but Adri didn't compromise in his beliefs just to get a position and situation. Materially speaking his family is very wealthy so he didn't need Iskcon's laxmi.

He fought so hard to have the temple on the lake as Srila Prabhupada wanted but most of the GBC's went against him and told him many times that was something impossible.

I didn't agree with Adri in many issues but I really think he is a devotee of Srila Prabhupada and his motives weren't political because if he wanted name, fame and glory he would easily be quiet and just suck up to the big guys.

 

I loved the verandah in the temple and every day I sat there to get the breeze coming from the lake. Every day we sat there listening Bhagavatam class while we cut sabzi for the morning prasada. Life was very austere and simple but somehow we were happy.

 

Pita Dasji, Adridharan bought the property, upstairs and downstairs and even constructed a Guest House in the back with nice kitchen,prasadam hall and offices. He made Srila Prabhupada's room very nice with original items from Srila Prabhupada.

 

Now the temple is run by Mayapur and I don't have much contact but I do miss the Deities and my service to Them.

 

One evening I was lost in Burra Bazar, the largest wholesale market in Asia (at least that is what Pancharatna told me) and walking through the streets I heard ringing of bells and I walked right into the temple of Radha-Govindaji that Srila Prabhupada used to visit as a child. It was very easy to be Prabhupada conscious in Calcutta.

Every time I saw the Victoria Memorial I remembered Srila Prabhupada because there are pictures of him walking there with his disciples and in his biography said that he bicycled from his house towards the Maidan many times.

Nice memories.

[Guest guest]

Yes Calcutta temple is very sweet .Please feel free to add any details I have forgotten about temple life there

Like I was sure of weither Lord Jaganatha was then on the altar? So I didnt include this now ofcourse I can see Him there with all His glory.

ys

pita das

[Guest guest]

After a few days time Satya Naranya Prabhuji came to Callcutta Radha Govinda Mondir to meet me.

 

Satya Naranya Prabhu was intent on first visiting afew temples in side Calcutta which being maintained by some of Srila Prabhupadas god brothers and we visited together one then.

 

Im very sorry that I cant remenber which godbrother of Srila Prabhupada this was ?

.

What I do remenber was when we got to this temple Srila Prabhupadas god brother was very near death lieing on a bed inside the nath mondira of the temple.

 

Satya Naranya Prabhu had come to offer assitance from the charity trust for this temple.

 

There was only Srila Prabhupadas godbrother and a very young girl there takeing care of him

 

Satya Naranya told me that the young girl had been raised by Srila Prabhupadas god brother sence she was an infant.

 

This young lady was extermly beautiful.

 

As Satya Naranya Prabhu explained our service then was very simply ,all that was needed was for us to visit the holy places of Lord Chaitanya's pastimes and record what was there.

 

What is lupa still there and what is gupta now gone or almost gone.

 

Was there any worship going on and did the temples need any repair or maintance money.?

 

We were to just report back

 

I was authorized to inform the temples that 10,000 rupees could be given at once to any temples that needed the money.

 

This money tho was only advailble to according to Srila Parbhupadas insructions

 

First to Srila Sridhar Maharajas Shree Chaintanya Sarawati Math in Nanbadipa and then to the lost or hidden holy places in Bengal of Lord Chaitanya and his direct assoicates.

 

After a few days while reading Shree Chaitanya Charitum Rita I understood that there was a temple of Shree Shree Radha Krishna just outside of Calcutta in the town of Dukaneshwara which Lord Nityananda had performed pastimes.

 

At this temple to the left side back on the temple grounds are two small ponds with bathing ghats.

 

These ponds were dug directly by the hands of Lord Nityananda Prabhu himself and the temple was established by Lord Nitayanandas direct disclip.

 

Unforgentaly I dont have Shree Chaintaya Charitum Rita with me now to say which dislip this was but it is my feeling that maybe the disclips name was Symananda.?

 

The best way to this temple in Dukaneswarah was by bus so I went to the bus stand in Calcutta one afternoon to go there.

 

I went into the bus station and found the bus empty waiting for service and being the first person on choose whatever seat I wanted within the mens section of the bus.

 

Soon tho this bus filled to overflowing and still did not move.

 

After an hour finally the driver came and the bus left the station but after about 2 hours this bus had hardly gotten afew hundreds yards outside of the station so i got off going back to the temple telling SatyaNaranya Prabhu it was impossible to go to Dukaneswar by bus.

 

"Oh Prabhuji Stayanaranya told me you can only go there by the first bus at 6am" and there was a place near the temple where I could catch this bus the next morning which I did the next day.

 

The bus trip in the morning to this place was very easy

with the bus crowed but not overly so.

 

As we enter Dukaneshwar the famous temple of Goddess Kaili came up on the left side of the bus this is the temple where the folk hero of Bengal Rama Krishna used to serve as a pujari.

 

When I had first come to Calcutta many persons seeing a westerner in devottee dress would often come up to me and say "Ah you must now the name of Rama Krishna Paramahumsa ?"

 

"Yes Rama and Krishna we worship but Rama Krishna Paramahumsa I dont know"???

 

The Bengalli people would then look so confushed that I did not know who Rama Krishna Pramahumsa was?

 

"Rama Krishna and his disclip Vivikananda Have converted the whole west to Hinduism they told me!!!!!!"

 

"No the west is Christian I would tell them"!!!!

 

"No one in the west knows of Rama Krishna Paramahumsa but every one does know HARE KRISHNA"!!!!

 

"Oh where are you from in America they would ask me?

 

Chicago

 

I would say ,knowing very well that Chicago was the place that the Rama Krishna mission had been established.

 

While in Chicago one day myself and Kaili das went and visited that place.

 

We were greeted by older american men in thier 70s who were all lived there running the Vedanta Society as they called it but were complelty western in thier dress and habits all tho they had spiritual names of sanyassis.

 

There were very musty aromas of old things staled air and no veg cooking.

 

There was a book shop and these old men there were just selling these books.

 

Srila Prabhupada had told us that "Because of Rama Krishna and Vivikananda all of Bengal were going to hell"

 

It was widely beleved by the Bengali people Rama Krishna was an incarnation of Lord Chaintaya Mahaprabhu but in his incarnation as Rama Krishna he had a compeltly diffrent philisophy.

 

It seemd that the mission of Rama Krishna was to erase Krishna Bhakti in Bengali and replace it with worship of Ma Kali.

 

There are statements of Rama Krishna of "why should one water the Tusli Plant? Better to water the eggplant.

Then you might have something to eat."

 

Some times Rama Krishna would also try to imatate the mood of Lord Chaitanya and dress like a gopi and then cry he was in misery suffering menstral pains.

 

I knew tho that the people had invested a termenous amount of faith in this folk hero haveing very little real information/understanding in Lord Chaitanya .

 

Srila Prabhupada had told us that before Rama Krishna all of Bengal worshipped Goura Nitai but now tho It was only the effect of Srila Prabhupada that was reversing this

which then and maybe even today still hasnt been reversed in West Bengal compeltly.

 

I got off the bus at the Dukaneshwar temple and started to walk near to the Ganga which was not a very long walk away

 

The next temple I came to on the left side of the road was SRF Self Realization Fellowship the instution of Pramamsha Yoganada.

 

This place I was intrested to see and i went inside this huge compound they have there which was compeltly empty acceapt for a small shrine of Goddress Kaili and a purari serving her.

 

I spoke with this purari asking him what did he ofter to Goddess KailI?

 

All I offer her are these red hibuscus flowers he told me

her favorite flower nothing else."

 

Then I entered these huge mancured grounds with very huge and long 4 or 5 stories building in a semi circle over nicely moaned lawns over looking the Ganga.

 

There was no one else there so I walked out of that temple and down the small road to the temple I had come to visit that day.

 

This temple was also to the side of the Ganga or very near

 

At that time the temple was newly white washed, a white with a blueish tint.

 

Eentering this immaculatley very well preserved temple I was able to take Darshan of Shree Radha Krishna

 

with Shree Krishna appearing in Black Marble and Srimate Radharani in Bronze 5 mentals so nicely taken care of and so clean.

 

Many many salagrams of Lord Nitais assoicates were also being worshipped on the altar.

 

One older and wonderful devottee gentlemen approched me and was so kind to me saying the last ISKCON devottee there was Srila Prabhupada and Achutananda Swami themselves

 

Srila Prabhupada had visited thie temple when His Divine Grace was translating Shri Chaitanya Charitum Rita.

 

So much warm affection this saintly GOSWAMIji offered me that day and such wonderful prasada he filled me with.

 

Goswami ji showed me the ground beside and behind the temple and the two ponds which Lord Nityananda had dug

 

One of these ponds was aleast 100 yards across with a bathing gat and the other to the side of the temple half that size.

 

On going back inside the temple with this saintly Goswamiji he showed a room with a bed and told me His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada took rest in this bed and I would like you to also take rest there also.

 

"Oh no ,if Srila Prabhupada took rest in this bed I can not rest there I can tho lay on the floor beside the bed "!!!

 

As the heat of the day and the effects of being filled with the wonderful Maha Prasada were makeing us sleeply .

 

No Goswami ji told me I insist that you sleep in this bed and not on the floor ,look here "and there was a picture of Rama Krishna also on the wall of this room

 

This is our Guru Rama Krishna Pramahumsa he is Lord Chaitanyas incarnation Goswami ji declared to me"

 

"Please take rest and after the heat of the after noon I will take you accross the Ganga to the temple of Lord Jaganatha and Radha Krishna,we donot need Srila Prabhupadas Charity Trust assitance here at our temple but they may ?"

 

Then Goswami ji told me he hadnt been across the Ganga for al least 20 years.

 

I did take rest in this bed and waited untill Goswamiji came and asked me to come with him to these temples he very much so wanted to show me.

 

As we left the temple Goswami JI showed me a place where there was a raft that took people accross the Ganga and we cross The Ganga there.

 

Then we walked to the temple of Lord Jaganatha Baladeva and Subadra.

The temple had become a club house a meeting place of young men and ladies there was no worship going on at all

 

but Lord Jangaanath Lord Baladeva and Lady Subdra were all there on a small altar which was very dusty and unclean.

with boys sleeping around the dieties in the heat of the sun

 

I didnt say a word but Goswamiji was shocked ,why was it like this ?

How had things become so degraded ?

 

Come I will show the temple of Radha Krishna near by

and when we got there there was no Srimate Radharani ???

 

Goswamiji started to cry "I donated this diety of Radharani to this temple in my youth he told me.!!!!"

 

Now thieves have come and stolen her for the price of metal????

 

One last temple Goswami Ji showed me also of Radha Krishna in need of repair and haveing a puari but Goswamji told me Only the temple of Lord Jagganath was ancient

 

before there used to be huge ratha Yatha from this temple

but there was no one looking after the temple when we visited Lord Jagganatha that day only young boys and girls playing within the building.

 

As the Sun went down Goswami ji showed where I could catch the bus back to Calcutta and we parted that day

 

Such a sweet devottee he was.

 

Finally arriving back to Radha Govinda Mondir Satyanayan Prabhu was happy to see me.

 

"Oh we were all afarid you may never get back ."

 

Its so dangerous to ride the busues here !!!!"

 

Why I did'nt think so ??????

 

my day was unforgetable

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Oh, please don't stop posting now! I only recently found this, and if its all right with Pita prabhu, I would like to include some of it in my newsletter. But mostly, I just want to read it! Brings back the old mood of ISKCON! Thank you so much for this!

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[Guest guest]

The temple I was deiscribing visiting was the temple of

Sri Gadadahara Das

Shree Chaitanya Caritam Rita

Adhi Leela chapter 10 text 53

Sri Gadadahara dasa,the twenty thrid branch,was understood to be the topmost,for he induced all the Muslim

Kazis to chant the holy name of Lord Hari

 

In His Divine Graces Bhaktivedanta Purport of this verse

Srila Prabhupada explains.

 

Srila Gadadahara dasa is considered to be the luster of the body of Srimate Radharani Herself just as Srila Gadadhara Pandit is an incarnation of Srimati Radaharani Herself.

 

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is sometimes explained to be radha-bava-dyuti-suvalita,or characaterized by the emotions and the bodily luster of Srimati Radharani.

 

Gadadahara Dasa is this dyuti or luster.

In the Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika he is discribed to be the expansion of the potency of Srimat Radaharani.

Sri Gadadahara dasa also amoung the assoicates od Shri Gaurahari and Nitayananda Prabhu.

As the devottee of Lord Chaitanya he was one of the assioicates of Lord Krishna is conjugal love,and as the devottee of Lord Nitayanada Prabhu is consiodered to be one of the friends of krishna in pure devotional service.

Even tho he is an assoicate of lord Nitanyanada Prabhu he was not among the cowherd boys but was sitiuated in the tansendenal mellow of conjugal love

Srila Gadadahara Dasa is considered to be a united form of

Candrakanti,who is the effulence of Srimati Radharani and Purnananda,who is the foremost of Lord Balaramas very dear girl friends.

Thus srila Gadadahara Dasa Prabhuwas one of the assoicaties of both Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nitayananda Prabhu

 

 

When Gadadahara Pandita was in this village of Endiya he established the worship of Bala Gopala there

Sri Madhava Gosha preformed a drama known as "Dhana-Khanda" with the help of Lord Nitayanada Prabhu and Sri Gadadhara dasa.

This is explained in Shree Chaitanya Bhagavat Antya- leela 5-318-94

Srila Prabhupada in His Divine Graces purports also explains that the Samadhi Tomb of Srila Gadadahara is also present there at this temple along with the Dieties of Shree Shree Radha Kanta and Shree Shree Goura Nitai

 

Jai Alll Glories to the devottees of Lord Chaintanya

Jai Goura Nitai

your servant

Pita das

 

[Jagat]

Just noticed, Pitadasji, that you have decided to continue with your memoirs. If you want me to edit them for you like before, just send them to me at the address. The devotees are saragrahis and will accept them in any shape or form, so you don't really need me.

[Gauracandra]

Yes, I really do enjoy Pitadasji's stories. Keep them coming as you can. Thanks.

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna! Please acceapt my humble obeisances!

All Glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gouranga!

Thank You for your kind assitance I would like to show them to you before posting.

I now have found the CC online and that I need to refer to for the places we visited on the Bhaktivendanta Charity Trust

I hope you are well

Your Servant

Pita das

[Priitaa]

Haribol,

 

Pardon my strong request, but I've posted about this before and I guess no one saw it.

 

I asked to put Pita dasa's writings in my newsletter, and with no answer but such wonderful experiences, for the sake of preaching I put them in there anyway. Hope thats ok, but no one responded. (Actually, made me wonder if I was ignored because I'm not a guy. Hope I'm wrong.)

 

Now here is my most important question: Are all the writings here? I thought someone mentioned they were posted on a web site elsewhere, but I'm not sure. If they are not all here, I'm afraid I will miss out, and my readers (of over 200!) will therefore miss out, as I see sometime they are posted and sometimes there are big gaps so it may be incomplete here? If these writings are on the web any place at all, please, please send me the url. I'm pretty sure you can get my email under my profile if you rather do it that way. Tho really, its ok to post a link here because many people dont click on the url, and those that do only do so a couple of times, then stop. So they will still want to read what is posted here too. Either way is fine with me though, just so long as I get the address.

[Gauracandra]

My impression was that Pita Das was writing these "in the moment" to these forums. I could be wrong but I don't think they have been formally compiled and put on the web anywhere.