Ravindra Svarupa dasa at 9/11 Remembrance Service

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Ravindra Svarupa dasa at 9/11 Remembrance Service

From Lavanga-manjari dd

 

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On September 11, 2002, His Grace Ravindra Svarupa Dasa took part in a special Interfaith Service of Remembrance at the Washington National Cathedral. As a national leader in ISKCON, Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu was invited to participate in the one-and-a-half-hour-long program as the representative of the Hindu tradition. The ceremony, which featured other prominent speakers, most notably Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, commemorated the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

 

In the service, the opening hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," was followed by readings from the holy writings of world faiths. The five readings— from Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian traditions— were initiated by Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, who offered the following verse in Sanskrit, then in English:

 

"This is a reading from Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 5, Chapter 18, Verse 9:

 

"svasty astu vishvasya khalah prasidatam

"dhyayantu bhutani shivam mitho dhiya

"manash ca bhadram bhajatad adhokshaje

"aveshyatam no matir apy ahaituki

 

"May the entire universe be blessed with peace and hope. May everyone driven by envy and enmity become pacified and reconciled. May all living beings develop abiding concern for the welfare of others. May our own hearts and minds be filled with purity and serenity. May all these blessings flow naturally from this supreme benediction: May our attention become spontaneously absorbed in the rapture of pure love unto the transcendent Lord."

 

Speaking afterwards to some devotees, Ravindra Svarupa explained his choice of this text: "This is Prahlada Maharaja's prayer to Lord Narasimhadeva for universal peace. It is extremely potent. I became especially devoted to this prayer in 2000. That year, I was GBC chairman, and I decided to perform, especially for the welfare of ISKCON, a vrata of chanting sixty-four rounds a day during the month of Karttika. During that vrata, before beginning each set of sixteen rounds, I recited this prayer. I also recited the Upanishadic prayer to Narasimhadeva that precedes it. I realized more and more that this is an especially wonderful and potent prayer, filled with powerful benedictions.

 

"Then, on the Sunday directly following September 11, 2001, when everyone was still in shock, I passed out the same prayer to our congregation in Philadelphia and led everyone in the chanting of this prayer.

 

"So when I got the opportunity to participate in the service at the National Cathedral, I knew immediately which text I would recite.

 

"There was, for me, a great sense of fulfillment in being able to utter this verse, this mantra, at this place on this occasion. The ceremony was in every way a state occasion. It overflowed with aishvarya, quite befitting the United States of America, I felt. From the height of the pulpit I could look all the way down the vast nave of the cathedral, packed with the Washington establishment. I recognized the Attorney General John Ashcroft sitting with his family in the first pew.

 

"I said the prayer first in Sanskrit. It felt wonderful to send Prahlada Maharaja's words, beginning with the auspicious word ‘svasti’ out into the enormous volume of sculptured cathedral space. I followed with an English translation. To suit the demands of the place, the occasion, and the audience, I made my own translation, but based it scrupulously on Prabhupada's own."

 

The program later included prayers of faith, described like this: "Prayers are now offered by national leaders of world faiths." (There were eleven prayers, supposed to be each no more than one hundred words.) Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu offered this:

 

"The Vedas proclaim, ‘isavasyam idam sarvam yat kinca jagatyam jagat.’ Everything in this universe animate and inanimate is owned and cared for by the Lord. O Lord, please reveal the import of this. Then we shall know: In Your care for Your creatures, You have provided sufficiently for each one. Insufficiency arises when someone, insufficiently aware of You, encroaches upon another's share. Inspire us with remembrance of You, so we care for one another as You care for all. Then we shall see Your fullness mirrored everywhere. The shattered image of this world will be repaired. Loving You wholly, our love will include everyone and everything. Please bestow that supreme devotion upon us. Hare Krishna."

 

Video footage, photos and a downloadable pdf of the interfaith service program booklet can be found at the cathedral's website http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/worship/020911.shtml.

 

For more information about His Grace Ravindra Svarupa dasa's preaching efforts, including lectures and seminars, please visit, www.rsdml.com.

 

[gHari]

Jaya Prabhupada!

 

Amen

[stonehearted]

I did, and I found his reading and his prayer quite nice.

 

And how cool is that? I sang in the National Cathedral a few times when I was in high school. It would be wonderful to preach there.

[Guest guest]

Very nice from RSD that he did go there and did that.But,i will rather send Bhaktitirtha Swami there.I have read like a million times about his Kartik vrata.Aside from him being a nice devotee and very inspirational religious academic,he should take better care of inspiring and leading his disciples and society in which he is one of leaders.His approach to remembrance service is definitely nice and maybe full of realization,but he is not a right choice to represent all the Gaudiya Vaisnavas there.As we know he doesn't like anything what is not connected to Iskcon,everybody else to him outside of Iskcon is not following Srila Prabhupada properly.That is not correct.So,where are actually his realizations aside from institutional thinking?With all due respect to him like a grihastha,father which have suffered a lot while bringing up his children, and a intellectual and academic.

[Guest guest]

 

As a national leader in ISKCON, Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu was invited to participate in the one-and-a-half-hour- long program as the representative of the Hindu tradition.

 

 

I find it very interesting that ISKCON was selected to represent the Hindhu tradition. Aside from Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami constantly emphasizing that Lord Caitanya's movement and the organization he is founder acharya of are NOT Hindhu, I can't help wondering what the actual Hindhu community themselves had/have to say about this. Where are THEIR representitives?

[theist]

And where were they in 1965 when Prabhupada was trying to get help in his efforts to spread the Holy Name around the world,establishing hundreds of temples in the process?

 

Now you want the stage?

[Guest guest]

Theist, you missed the point of my post. I am not a Hindhu. My background and ISKCON history are similar to yours. I simply don't understand why ISKCON was selected to represent Hindhism and also wanted to point out what Srila Prabhupada had to say. Where indeed were they when he needed them at the beginning and why are so many temples now under their influence in so many ways? Anyway, that's for someone else to discuss elsewhere. No offense intended, prabhu.

[theist]

Yes I did totally misunderstand you.My apologies.

 

I think in the West ISKCON is by far the most visible, so it seems natural they would get the invitation.

 

I think the Indian/Hindu community is having so much influence in ISKCON can be traced back to 1977 and thereafter when many in Prabhupada's institution either got fed up or were driven out leaving a large infrastructure that needed to be maintained.This may have set up a dependence on Hindu donaors to the detrement of some of Prabhupada's mood.

 

But the fault does not lay with the Indians IMO.Without them I wonder if there would be many of those temples still going on.

 

As a side issue I am experiencing a resentment from some old timers about Indians having influence as they do.Not directed to you guestji.We would do well to remember that some of those Indians do not consider themselves Hindu's but rather Vaisnanas.Better then grumbling in the background is stepping up oneself.

 

I truly hope your history in ISKCON was not similar to mine.I could never stay in a temple more than a few months at a time due not being able to handle discipline and various other forms of madness. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

 

Hare Krsna

 

[Guest guest]

In Hari-bhakti-vilasa, verse 2.147, Srila The Hindus are busy hiding their guru, mantra and japamala because Sanatan Goswami quotes Sammohana-tantra:

 

gopayed devatam istam gopayed gurum atmanah

gopayec ca nijam mantram gopayen nija-malikam

 

One should hide one's ista-deva, one should hide one's guru, one should hide one's mantra, and one should hide one's japa-mala.

 

see VNN article HIDING THE GURU

 

 

[Gauracandra]

I think Iskcon is a great vehicle to connect the east and west. It is very nice to see that the Catholic Church is willing to hold these sorts of unity meetings.

[stonehearted]

I'm not sure this was a Roman Catholic-sponsored meeting. What's the evidence of this? The National Cathedral is Episcopalian.

[Gauracandra]

My bad. I just saw the word Cathedral, which to me is associated with Catholicism. But that’s not true. Its very nice nonetheless. I was also looking through it, and maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but did they install a sculpture of the head of Darth Vader into the church (like a gargoyle)?