Chicago Rathayatra, '75
It was a warm humid summer in Chicago in Evanston at the Hare Krsna Temple, 1975. It was a wonderful temple, with Sri Sri Kishor-Kishori, Gour Nitai, and Lord Jagannatha Swami and his Brother Baladeva, and Their beautiful and sometimes ksatriya-like sister Subhadra devi, resplendent inside.
There were many devotees' vehicles, including the bus party, lining streets all around the mandira. There was to be Rathayatara, initiations including a babaji sannyasa initiation for Audolomi Prabhu, Deity installations, and Srila Prabhupada would lecture on Ajamila from Srimad Bhagavatam.
Srila Prabhupad met Illinois state officials and spoke on the topic of "Crime, What to do", from the Times headlines of the month, and offered them a real solution. He asked for use of buildings, and cooperation. Although the official was respectful and attentive, he seemed fixed to a "non-secular" agenda, or was doubtful of our acceptance by the public or government, or doubted our abilites, as no further interaction with them was forthcoming. Ironically, years later, our prison preaching program is reaching some of those fallen into the dark. Still, our Movement was being taken more and more seriously, then. We were strongly on the increase. The world controllers were becoming aware of our successes.
Srila Prabhupada, in a discussion with a Chicago Police Lieutenant named Lt. Mozzee , is found in the Science of Self Realization.
Addressing this issue of crime and how to minimize and even eliminate it, he spoke with great confidence in the process of Krsna Consciousness as the real and indeed only means to accomplish that.
Lieutenant Mozee: I understand you have some ideas that could help us in our efforts to prevent crime. I'd be very interested to hear them.
Srila Prabhupada: The difference between a pious man and a criminal is that one is pure in heart and the other is dirty. This dirt is like a disease in the form of uncontrollable lust and greed in the heart of the criminal. Today people in general are in this diseased condition, and thus crime is very widespread. When the people become purified of these dirty things, crime will disappear. The simplest process of purification is to assemble in congregation and chant the holy names of God. This is called sankirtana and is the basis of our Krsna consciousness movement. So, if you want to stop crime, then you must gather as many people as possible for mass sankirtana. This congregational chanting of the holy name of God will dissipate all the dirty things in everyone's heart. Then there will be no more crime.
Lieutenant Mozee: If I could return to my original purpose for coming, might I ask what advice you could give to assist us in reducing crime? I recognize that the first and foremost way would be a return to God, as you say--there's no doubt about that--but is there something that we could immediately do to diminish this spreading criminal mentality?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. As I've already outlined in the beginning of our talk, you should give us the facility to chant the holy name of God and distribute prasada. Then there will be a tremendous change in the population. I came alone from India, and now I have many followers. What did I do? I asked them to sit down and chant the Hare Krsna mantra, and afterward I distributed a little prasadam. If this is done on a mass scale, the entire society will become very pleasing. This is a fact.
Some dozen or more Sri Sri Gour-Nitai Deities were gorgeously installed on the Radha Damodara buses at the great festival of sankirtana. Advaita Prabhu headed up the pujaris. It was truly glorious and great great fun to see their many golden Forms bathed in the pancha-gavya/amrta, and water. There were many pairs of Nitai Gauranga's captivating arms-raised Forms, smiling and shining as the fresh water rinsed them, and nice clothes were brought, and kirtana vibrated.
The devotees were of all ashramas, but mostly brahmacaries, who had special affection towards Gour Nitai, Whose daily book distribution services we were predominantly engaged in, and Whose Deities often graced our travelling buses and vans. It would of course never do to forget Sri Sri Radha Damodara Themselves, even for a moment. They were in attendance and gorgeosuly dressed and catered to by Visnujana Swami personally, as well as other brahmana devotees. I was allowed to do an arati for Them!! They are infinitely attractive. The heart was satisfied and excited just to see Them! And They always smiled so nicely, Radha with long black hair and braids, Krsna with His magic flute in hands.
There were about twenty sannyasis, about 350 devotees in all, including the prominent local leaders Gurukrpa S., Jayapataka S., Hansadutta, Pradyumna Prabhu, Ravindra Sadrupa, Bhavananada S. Kirtananada S, Rupanuga Prabhu, Paramatma Swami, Adikesava Swami, Jaytirtha, Dhrtsadyumna Swami, Brahmananda Swami, Hrdayananada Prabhu, Hari Sauri parbhu, and many wonderful others, such as Dharmaprana B. , Nandikesvara prabhu, Visvakarma B, Utthamasloka prabhu, Govindadasa prabhu, etc. who attended with their respective temple devotees to see and serve and hear Srila Prabhupada there. Uttama Sloka Prabhu was in charge of the Chicago temple, or was it Sri Govinda dasa at that time?
I was but one of the travelling sankirtana brahmacaries from Winnipeg, come visiting to be part of Prabhupada's arrival pastimes. I was to see him for the first time in my life ! I was a first-initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada, by ritvik through Jagdisa Prabhu in Winnipeg Gour Nitai Temple. Although not brahmana, I was one of the cooks and pujaris there, also. And such a young man, was I ever eagerly looking forward to seeing my spiritual father for the first time! We were assigned various duties finishing the cooking and preparations for the Rathayatra and festival. I remember peeling barrels of apples for chutney. The temple was undergoing reparations, and I was also assigned to completing some hand trimming and painting in one of the halls, when news came that the vans were going to the airport to see Srila Prabhupada arrive at O'Hare airport.
Whomever was in charge told me to stay and finish, not to go. At first, I obeyed. Then, after a couple minutes pause, I cleaned the paint brush quickly, and instead eagerly dashed to the vans.
At the airport, about two hundred devotees held kirtana. The spectators were amazed at the spectacle and the clearly pure ecstatic energy of Srila Prabhupada's front line soldiers, about to greet their mighty undefeatable leader. We were daily pouring out a river of his books. The maha-prasad was opulent and distributed even door to door and on the streets of the world, in those days. Our young men and women went from door to door in most cities and towns of Canada, begging in the name of Sri Krsna Caitanya and Prabhu Nityananda. Srila Prabhupada was blowing them away worldwide with his purity, his acumen, lectures, festivals, recordings, his vivacity, his sheer spirtual heaviness and graceful beauty, and the uncompromising ferocity of his assaults on the empires of maya.
We loved him, he was in our hearts and our deeds and our words, every day, in every way. He was and is and always will be our commanding conquering five-star General ! And suddenly, there he was. He appeared at the immigration section doors, like Soorya himself. We all, at least 2 hundred devotees, all hit the floor like a wave, called out our obeisances loud and raced through, till we burst up smiling ear to ear, some crying, some beaming like lanterns, and kirtana automatically began, and there he stood !! It was a perfect moment never to be exactly repeated in all the history of the universes. I wish I could have died there and then and stayed eternally in that moment. He seemed six feet tall, smiling beautifully, visibly radiant, surrounded with flowers, carrying a cane in his hand, looking regal, with an umbrella over his head and devoted followers all singing the names of Krsna with devotion. It was a living resident of heaven, descended straight from Goloka, arriving in the form of Krsna's Purest Devotee.
We paid no attention whatsoever to the many persons in the airport observing the scene, but from their expressions it appeared that they too were in ecstasy simply from the rolling wave of pure bhakt sakti. They had never seen this sort of intense devotion and joy before. I also noticed some airport book distributors, eagerly delivering the dear books from their hands, written by their spiritual master, the same who was now passing by them as they worked. Kirtana continued unti Srila Prabhupada was in the car and away.
Back in the van, one sannyasi asked out loud to a van (no seats) full of book distributors; "Who wants to help carry Prabhupada's bags up to his room?" to which my hand shot up so fast, even the sannyasi was amazed! It was like Indian wattage and a uncovered lite switch at night! The others were slower by milliseconds, so that was the perfection of my/this body.
I carried the large suitcase up the stairs. Srila Prabhupada was already there discussing, as I later learned, the feud between the sannyasis and the grhastas and temple presidents. I placed the bag, and stood there in the hall. I was told I could go, but instead I kind of tried to appear invisible, and didn't go. Soon, Prabhupada finished his talks, and was preceded by Hari Sauri to go for his afternoon massage and bath. As he passed by, I thought to myself, I might never see him this close again. I might never get another chance. I just had to say something, to get his attention, even just for a moment! I was smiling so wide my head should have fallen off! Srila Prabhupada looked towards me as he passed, and I burst out with "All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!"
That was the only time I spoke with him in this life. It is a great solace. Again brashness and a disregard for social niceties prompted me to burst forth with my obeisance, and as a result, I was seen by the pure devotee.
As he passed me, he said, "All Glories to the Brahmacaris! " Thus he accomplished teaching us that he valued the unflinching servants, the surrendered, in this case the humble brahmacaries, over the arguing sannyasis and grhastas at that time, while at the same time answering me in the same enthusiastic mood of greeting and surrender that I hoped to convey to him.
The reason I got this chance to serve and interact with my spiritual master, as simple as it must seem to outsiders, but profound to me, arose for two reasons; one curious. The first reason, was simple determination and enthusiasm. I immediately wanted to serve, and shot my hand up without hesitation, at the chance. So I got to carry the bag. The second and more curious reason, in my individual case, is that I disobeyed instructions twice; once not to leave the painting, second not to stick around after dropping off the baggage. Because I had refused standard etiquette and the chain of command, in this case it brought me closer to my spiritual master. I was able to serve him directly instead of from a distance, only. This also happened to me on other occasions, to be told in a segment to follow at another time. The "whys" of this are still mysterious to me.
Shortly after his arrival, Srila Prabhupada came to visit the temple. Everyone followed in behind thim, and all the shoes and slippers and sandals got piled in a corner. Many devotees would wear the same type of shoes as Srila Prabhupada, and when it came time to go, we were all jumping and chanting, "Prabhupada! Prabhupada!", but his shoes were undistingusihable from stacks of the same. Later, one of the sannyasis told us that Srila Prabhupada had remarked, " They are chanting 'Prabhupada, Prabhupada', but let someone bring me my shoes ! " This impressed me, that the spiritual master wants not cheap admiration, but is sometimes more satisfied with active and practical thoughtful service. Otherwise, as he said elsewhere, it is "Obeisances class of devotee."
Srila Prabhupada's lectures were about the tale of Ajamila. We were given opportunities to come and fan Srila Prabhupada during those three or four days, and he went into trance on more than one occassion at this time. I also was allowed to do some fanning. I came to one class with a philosophical question specifically in mind, and in the course of the lecture, Srila Prabhupada turned and looked at me, one of hundreds, and answered my specific question, without breaking the natural flow of his cohesive lecture! This happened elsewhere, to other disciples, so it was a common enough phenomenon that we noticed. Srila Prabhupada was connected directly to Supersoul. Srila Prabhupada was nondifferent from Bhagavatam and Supersoul. To be in his presence was to be in the presence of the living Bhagavatam. Again, I tell that Srila Prabhupada and his books are exactly the same.
An initiation ceremony was held, and many devotees took their beads and threads. We all shouted "Haribol!" when one devotee was named Rupa or was it Sanatana dasa? Do I recall a Ragunatha dasa? It was fantastic fun to see Srila Prabhupada hand out the beads. Sometimes he would ask the prospective soul a question or two about the vows, etc. and to hear their answers, sometimes hesitant in excitement, was also relishable.
One day, we distributed magazines at intersections, walking car to car down the boulevard at an Evanston city traffic light. The next day, we accompanied Visnujana Swami to Chicago Beach, for sankirtana. He had arranged a portable flower airplane with electrified instruments and Pippilli-style hand-sewn red and green and blue and yellow decorative hangings, also nice carpets of Eastern falovor, with amplifiers and batteries underneath, of course a speaker and micorphone system, all of which were re-packed beneath his buses at the end of the excursions. Needless to say, we loved every minute of it, and I learned the idea of setting up such a platform for sankirtana. Many people gathered around, took prasad, purchased books, heard the wonderful music and the Holy Names, took darshana of Sri Sri Radha Damodara, and Visnujana's psychedelic harmonium suddha harikirtana.
After the festival, we entered our various land airplanes and set sail back to our respective zones, or off to the next planned Rathayatra, and Srila Prabhupada afterwards flew to his next engagements and preaching services, the international fighter against maya.
The Maha Kumbha Mela
It was the time of the ausipicious astrological conjunction and the Maha-kumbha-mela, 1976, that takes place once every 144 years. The Christmas season was just finished back in Montreal, Canada, where I now served, and many of the temple devotees were heading for the greatest mela of modern history, the maha-mela in Prayaga, Allahabad, India. Srila Prabhupada was to attend.
I arrived in Bombay, and was promptly told by Gopal Krsna Prabhu,GBC, to go straight to Delhi, in order to help with the seva of Radha Partha-sarathi. The pujari there had recently left. Again, having learned something from my Chicago experiences, I ignored his authority and directions, and instead went straight to Prayaga.
The trains were packed coming in from Bombay. The Express was filled to capacity with pilgrims. We pulled into station quite late, and being January, the weather was quite cold, perhaps in the low forties by farenheit scale. Looking out from the train cars as we crossed the bridge, literally hundreds of thousands of tents and huts could be seen covering the broad sandy plains surrounding the confluence of the Sarsvati, Yamuna, and Mother Ganga rivers. Smoke rose from many fires, and we could understand that several million pilgrims were before us there. There were many underdressed yogis tolerating the cold, householders holding kirtan; enough smeared ashes and tilak for about 12 million souls.
For convenience, I was travelling in yoga pants, kurta, white, something I wouldn't do again in the wilds of India, as saffron-wearing renunciants are still shown a minimal amount of respect. Finding a place to stay that late at that time became a problem, and I actually had to defend myself with mantra and knife (!) against robbers and renegade Muslim Indian Army soldiers ! ( Its amazing how dangerous and violent India can be.) It wasn't until early the next morning that I could safely make my way out to the sanga. We were situated near the railway bridge, and our camp was comprised of several tents, a cooking area, a small stage, a large flourescent bulb-lit tent with carpets and a capacity to shelter perhaps two thousand persons, and a straw hut for Srila Prabhupada. There were outdoor water and showering facilities, delivered by pipe. It reminded me of the brahmacary ashrama up in the hills in winter at New Vrndavana back in '73, breaking the ice off the large blue pastic barrels to scoop up water with vinegar plastic bottles with the tops cut off, for our morning snan, in the bare cement temple basement, set high on the whispy blue ridges of Virginia.
Many devotees were there, holding kirtanas, doing some speaking, cooking, serving Prabhupada also. Bhagavata Prabhu, the in-charge, was having troubles finalizing the facilites, especially the lighting, as can be expected at such a huge affair such as the mela. Soon enough, however, the huge ten and carpets and bansk of lights were complete. Nice prasadam was served regularly by Bhagatji and crew, the Mayapura brahmana cooks. I remember one ekadasi preparation of spiced potatoes and what looked like fried tapioca, sagoo. Very nice! Halava and puris were also served to the public and devotees. They had a big wok filled with cooking puris, maybe thirty/forty at at time. The harinama sankirtana parties and books distributing program was very successful, in that many magazines were distributed, and alms collected. On kirtana, one of us would take turns being the sannyasi and holding out the kirpana for mela devotees to put in rice and dahl. It was so timeless.
Lokanatha Swami, Kirtanananda Swami, Bhagavata Brahmacary, HH Gurukrpa S., Jayapataka S, Bhavananada S, and many other sannyasis and leaders were there. Kirtananada displayed his mystic powers again, as I had experienced several times with him in the course of my devotional career, in this case by displaying a limited version of omnisicence or remote sensing. He has had his severe problems, and it is very unfortunate that our leaders have strayed, as they were otherwise inspiring and world-conquering, albeit on account of the collective services of a totally devoted army of disciples, following Srila Prabhupada.
The first day held a wonderful suprise; two friends from high school, who had seperately become devotees, also seperately came to the mela, so suddenly there we were, three same-age chums from Winnipeg, meeting as devotees at an unadvertised fair in India that takes place once every 144 years or so ! Padmapani was a seasoned brahmana, but Bhakta Jon Kay had never been to the Ganga, so that was our first order of business, to dip in Mother Ganges. Jon found it amazingly exhilerating, and became a fan of bathing in sacred rivers. The three of us joined Lokanatha Swami's bullock-cart Padayatra for a walk to Varanasi on our way to Sridhama Mayapura after the mela. Jon later produced the hit TV series, "Walking after Midnite", famous in America for speaking about celebrities who thought they were reincarnated, this in a time when such ideas were still quite new to the Western world.
Prabhupada's maroon Vaisnava-mobile, complete with chrome tilaka, was arriving ! We all brought kirtana out to greet him, and a crowd of hundreds followed him from his car to the small very simple straw hutment. I watched carefully as he put his sandals down near the hut entrance. I stood near as he sat, surrounded by hundreds of enthusiastic 'deshis' seeking his darshana. Looking into his eyes from such a small distance, his eyes were like those of a doe or a young boy, innocent and clear, tearing, which I suspect was from seeing the hordes of conditioned souls crowding around trying to escape the pangs of maya by his grace. After a while, most of the many visitors were cleared, for a while, from the tent.
A bit later, one of Srila Prabhupada's servants came out, and was searching intently for something. I asked him, "Prabhu, are you looking for Srila Prabhupada's sandals?" To which he replied, "Yes". I said, " These ones." And then he asked, "How do you know?", as he was surrounded by dozens of near-identical sandals. I replied, "I watched and made sure that I knew." Amazed, he quickly took the sandals and re-entered the hut. Little did he know of the incident in Chicago, or of how, just minutes ago, I had taken those shoes, put them on my head, and scrounged inside them for dust, which I also smeared on my head, and ate some, also ! I understood that this was the perfection of my life, of many many lives.
Because I ignored the authorities, wanting specifically his service, not less, and not mere engagement, and was attentive and used my tiny ability in Srila Prabhupada's practical service, I was able to help him in a tiny way, and consequently got his dust! Otherwise, unobtainable. We all distributed his books, that was a given.
Next morning, purposefully japa-ing around his hut to see if I could do any service, one of his servants, when asked, allowed me to help clean his prasadam plate, and I got a small taste of Prabhupada's medicine prasadam. to which Mataji, who served and travelled with Srila Prabhupada's party and regularly saw the devotion of his disciples, exclaimed to the other brahmana, "Just see! They'll even take the remnants of his medicine ! "
The mela was quite cold, though we slept in our sleeping gear on hay, and many devotees did not rise for artik, though we Canadian brahmacaries did. Consequently, Padamapani Prabhu was deputed, on the most auspicious confluence time of early brahma muhurta hours, to take a shining silvery bucket down to the Tribeni and fetch water for Srila Prabhupada to take his snana. The sandy banks and river bottom enabled us to wade out and dip in those electically purifying waters. I can still recall precisely the thrilling cleansing effect of the cold waters of the auspicious sacred rivers under the early morning stars... It was joyous, and many pilgrims could be seen laughing, chanting, calling haribol, and saying Gayatri in the celestial waters along with the demigods. Padma got his bucket full, and we carried it back to Srila Prabhupada. Reflecting back now, what could possibly be more auspicious. I cannot think of anything.
The last evening, Srila Prabhupada sat alone on the stage, chanting quietly. Although always surrounded by devotees, in this one instance, somehow he was alone. I sat on the sand nearby and chanted also, having more than one ocassion to see him right there before me, chanting Hare Krsna, just like in the temple listening to his japa tape at japa period. Being with Prabhupada was just like being with his living Srimad Bhagavatam.
So this is the "serving the shoes" story, which is the perfection of my meagre existence, now made glorious by the touch of mercy that allowed me to render a tiny service to our perfect spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. I am sinfully proud.
Comments
At 10:31pm on April 28, 2010, Sarvopama dasa ACBSP said… In '74 you were going through some heavy changes at the Boston temple. So was I. At one point I couldn't decide whether or not I would be able to go on the Radha Damodara bus. I was starting to get off and suddenly you were standing there at the foot of the bus entrance looking up at me through thick glasses. I was in big anxiety and my mind was going a mile a minute. You started speaking by memory from Krsna Book about the cowherd boys and Krishna out in the pasture with the cows having a picnic. All my fear and confusion was swept away. I turned back. I laid down on the floor of the bus and somehow everything went fine. There were a few close calls like the time Vishnu Jana Maharaja had to save me from Tamala Krishna Goswami but that's another story and I think Vaiyasaki put it in his Radha-Damodara Vilasa II, so I wouldn't want to be a spoiler. Hare Krishna. Thanks Basu Gopala Prabhu. You saved my life.