Puri, con'td. part 4 Bhaktipurusottama Swami joins Iskcon.
We were on a bus, and behind us a young Orissan lad, Mahesh Candra Pattanaik, was looking at us with much polite curiosity. Padmapani Prabhu and I started talking to him ; Padma said, "We're with Swami Prabhupada, Krishna Movement." I asked him if he was a student, and he explained that he was, but also very interested in spiritual life and bhakti. We shared some details, and were invited to his home at 55 ? Hate Gurudeve Lane, there in Puri, that evening.
We went that evening, and met his very nice devotee father and family, shared Jagannatha prasada, did a little kirtan, gave a book or two. They were all quite fascinated by us, lol, hare krsnas, and we with them. They were a nice Vaisnava traditional family, humble, clean, simple, devotional sevatas of Lord Jagannatha. We were actually very blessed to have this association with the residents of the holy dhama, and a chance to serve them and serve with them.
A year later, back in Montreal, I wrote and sent him a Srimad Bhagavatam, couple of them, also some small books, letters exchange three or four times over a year or so.
Also a nice Radha Manohara photo from Iskcon Montreal and book was mailed to the brahmanas of the Ghambira Sri Sri Radha Kanta Temple. We corresponded two or three times. they were thrilled to see Sri Sri Radha Manohara so gorgeously decorated, Iskcon style ! Padmapani and I, Tamohara dasa, had been visiting their mandira to watcth the pujari do his acamana and services decorating Sri Sri Radha Kanta. They were wonderful, expert, and we liked to sit and chant japa there. They were very suprised at our Iskcon standard in Montreal, Canada Iskcon, Sri Sri Radha Manohara Temple. Jaya Srila Prabhupada, who taught us the best Deity service in the world !
Again in India, maybe a year or two later, who should appear but that same young man, come to visit us in Bhubaneswara, now in traditional dhoti kurta, in Vaisnava dress, with his bead bag and tilaka ! It was Bhakta Mahesh Chandra! We talked, enjoyed seeing each other after that year. He spent a little time with Srila Gour Govinda Swami. He asked where he should go to do service?, and not being too keen on our Bhubaneswara digs, I sent him to Sridhama Mayapura to surrrender to Jayapataka Swami, GBC of our zone.
That he did, and i did not hear from him again for decades now. I understand he is now an Itsacon Gooroo. He refuses to reply to any message to him, because I know Jayapataka poisoned Srila Prabhupada, etc.
That is how HH Bhaktipurrusottama Swami, Iskcon Guru, joined Iskcon.
Part 3; Jagannatha Puri; Coming from the Padayatra to Varanasi and the Mahakumbha mela before that, and after visiting the temple of Lord Visvanatha in Varanasi, HG Padmapani and I, hometown friends high school associates, now joined Hare Krsna Movement, were out very early that morning, chanting our japa. Puri is very sweet early in the day, when the spiritually devout are up and doing their service before the crowd rises later in the day. We walked north of Tota Gopinatha temple from the beach and water tower, heading north-west along a back-route toward Jagannatha Temple..
We were delighted to spot Lokanatha Mandira, just upon the left side, an ancient much-honored Shiva temple, sometimes visited by Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Himself, situated over a low stone wall, below the sandy path, with a surrounding courtyard area. The mandira is not overly large, but traditional style, made of carved Orissa stone. (see photo) It was very quiet there that early, looked mystical and safe, and so, today being Siva Ratri, Padmapani and I decided to visit.
" Wikipedia ; Lokanatha Temple is a Hindu temple in the town of Puri, Odisha, India. It is dedicated to the god Shiva as Lokanatha. As per legend, linga, the symbol of Shiva was established as the central icon by the god Rama. The unique feature is that the linga is always under water which substantiates the legend that the Ganges river flows through the top of the linga as a stream.
The festival of Sankranti Somavar is celebrated with great fervor in the temple. A fair is held. Devotees believe that the darshan (holy sight) of the linga can cure disease.
The utsava murti (festival icon) of Lokanatha is kept inside the Jagannath temple, Puri. He is the guardian deity of all the treasures and jewelry of the god Jagannath, presiding deity of the temple complex. This temple is one of the five famous Shiva temple of Puri. Others are Markandeswara Temple, Jambeswar Temple, Banambara Temple and Kapalamochana Temple.[1]"
There was not much there, a stair descended darkly into the inner sanctum and Shiva linga, we assumed. We felt reluctant to go down, so we chanted some japa. After a short while, local young people came out and started throwing dirt at us. Orissa is famous for being racsist and caste-conscious and abusive of foreign devotees. The locals decided we were impure demons, and so came to chase us away, calling us names and tthrowing mud at us.
It mattered not to them that were were tilak-wearing neck-beaded saffron-wearing skinny brahmcaries. We had white -skin , and so were lower than dogs.
Padma left, and I shortly after.
That evening, after taking Jagannatha prasadam on the library roof across from Nrsmha dvara gate, avoiding monkeys we were done for the day and heading back to our residence, walking west towards Haridasa Thakur's samadhi and the Puri Beach, where our hotel was. It was very crowded, the street packed with devotees honoring Lord Shiva. Every meter was filled with happy devoteess, musioc, banners, colorfully dressed people. We had walked this same path for several days in a row now, thought we knew it quite well enough, but still, somehow or other, we got lost, and ended up on a side-street we did not know.
To our astonishment, the crowd thinned and we found ourselves in front of a peacefull looking beautiful light blue stone temple, similar to the Lokanatha mandir, highly decorated with flowers and coconuts and banners. We wandered towards it, got called to come in by a Shaivaite brahmana there, and were delighted to find a full sitting Deity of blue Lord Shiva sitting smiling peacefully within! He was delightful, smiling mildly and glowing. A priest greeted us kindly, and we were more than compensated for the racist attacks this morning.. We happily chanted there for a while
Lord Shiva had seen fit to allow us his darshan, bringing us there to see him, off the beaten path, for darshan of his full Deity Form, appropriate for Western Vaisnavas, despite the abuse of the morning. He had seen fit to be kind after the abuse of the morning. I will never forget this consideration and mercy extended by Lingarajah, Lokanatha Mahadeva, to we two insignificant young western brahmacaries. It made me aware that Lord Shiva was not some imaginary being in the sky, unware of us, but an all -cognizant and merciful Maha-deva Vaisnava Acarya.
After a while, we set out for our place, astonished at the mercy shown us. Before this time, we may have doubted Lord Shiva, but he had shown us that not only was He there, but he was aware and merciful to Radha Govinda's aspiring westerner devotees. You will not find anyone kinder and more considerate of the well-being of Lord Caitanya's devotees, anywhere.
Varanasi (Benares) , Ventakesvara Temple., 500th Gaura Festival in Varanasi, January, 1977. North India.
ie 2 0f ---
Varanasi! The holiest City according to the Shankarites. Lokanatha Swami, Padmapani Brahmacari, Bhakta Jon Kay, six brahmcaries of India, and myself Tamohara dasa, had just walked across a good section of northern India with bullock carts, doing sankirtana, after observing the '76-77 Mahakumbhamela with Srila Prabhupada. Lokanath's Padayatra was in full service mode, and we had joined them for a few weeks.
My impression of Varanasi was that is was a big place, with a lot of very old roads! , with many built-up older places, temple spires on the horizons. Within an hour of arrival, we were stopped as we proceeded along to the Ganga, by a wonderful rathayatra before us, of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaparabhu and Associates. They carried a very big Deity on a palanquin, pulled by devotees and a truck, and Bengali-style kirtan going on. How nice for us, the Caitanya's sankirtana bullock cart men ! Many local devotees were following the procession.
It was explained to us that this was in commemoration of the 500th anniversay of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu visiting the Visvanatha Mahadeva Temple, perhaps the most famous of the Temples of Benares, a Temple of Lord Siva, with his lingaraja deity there for Lord knows how many centuries.
We found our staying place; a Rama Baba invited us to stay at his Temple of Sita Rama near Rama ghat on the Ganga. This was an historic, very old stone architecture place, managed by Rama Babas, looking quite beautiful there, and so old India.
We proceeded doing kirtana, Sannyasi and brahmacaries, three white people among them, upwards towards Visvanatha Temple. As we went, the shops got richer and more opulent, there were more deocrative lights, it felt kind of electric, really. no pun. Riches of Lord Shiva were everywhere now, incense, flowers, bright lighting.
When we reached the Visvanatha Temple, we were allowed to pass freely, and a nice Priest Brahmana came to greet us. We were ushered into Lord Siva's sanctum, and had some very nice kirtan; " "hari haraya nama krsna yadavaya namah", and hare krsna maha mantra. The priests were in divine ecstasy. They bad us touch the Deity, and gave us prasdam, and put their tilak on our foreheads, and smiled vey happily, a lot !
This was quite unplanned. We had no idea of this anniversary date. but Lord arranged we should be there precoisely on the day.Of course also Lord Shiva was very pleased, we were amazed and deeply pleased, also. It was a perfection of life. I should have just died then and there, gone back to Godhead. Lord Krsna is content to see His devotees such as Lord Mahadeva praised and worshipped.
We spent the evening observing a full lunar eclipse on Rama ghat, the Moon shining on the rippling Ganga, then it wasn't shining for a while, then it came back again. Gayatris, maha mantra, it was all very good, a Great Blessing on us all we would not fully realize even for many years even.
Anyway, that evening in the Rama Temple, darshana, and all night,
"Stia Rama Sita Rama Sita rama jaya site rama. sita rama, sita rama, sita rama jaya sita rama. jaya sita ram jaya jay hanuman, raghupati raghava sita rama, patitia pavana sita rama" etc. I remember it well to this day. Every night they had kirtan most of the evening.
There was a kerfuffle third day there. . We failed to invite the hosts to our cooking at the temple, and they noticed and were offended and asked us toleave, so we dd That was uncool and unnecessary, and we assumed Lokanatha knew hot to maturely handle Indian road conditions. Oh well.. Hare Krsna.
Padmapani and I consulted and we left the part shortly after to visit Puri, as we had only a certain number of months in india and had not intended to permanently jon the Padayatra party. We would encounter their men again in Orissa somewhat later, also at the coming Gaura Purnima., in April. I took my brahminical there that year. -end part 2
Coming Next....tales of Puri, Lord Shiva, Jagannatha Prasadam, Kirtan, drums, and the Beach , Tota Gopinatha, Bhatkipranjanatirtha Maharajah as a young lad.
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Foreign devotees get a lot of mercy in India.
photo is Padmapani left, and Trilokanatha, in Egypt.
Padmapani, Bhakta Jon Kay, myself Tamohara dasa, all from Canada, were all travelling by foot and bullock cart from the Kumbha Mela in February, 1977. Lokanatha Swami led the party, including five or six Indian brahmacaris, doing sankirtan as we set for Varanasi.
"Bhagavat Darshan! (iskcon magazine) Bhagavata Darshan! ek rupiya don!" We called out in small roadside markets across the country, casually mostly, walking by, or in and out of tea stalls, or calling out loudly, with kirtan nearby. We would get rice and dahl, poured into our cloths, as well as rupees given to us. We carried mostly Bhhagavata Darshana magazine boxes in the bottom of our bullock cart. PS; A tip; Don't walk too close to the side of bullocks you don't know, lol.
Sometimes, we were invited to speak at a School or temple, spoke maybe twenty minutes mostly English, then Lokanath Swami would speak for maybe half an hour, at most. We distributed some magazines, got kids and teachers to chant briefly with us, then away we again went. I was not a good preacher back then, but did my best to quote a sloka or two, tell a gulabjamun joke.
We would sleep on mandapas of small temples near the road at night. We didn't eat much ; maybe bananas and cucumber, maybe dahlma and rice now and then. Later, i became the party cook, but that only lasted a few weeks, and happened only a few times. It was too austere a program at that time, we should have arranged for regular prasdam, but we were more than happy. I was not in charge.
Bhakta Jon Kay was somewhere around, with a movie camera. He likely caught a lot of this journey, but i have yet to see any of it. A lot of people found him an interesting character, not dressed in brahamcari clothing, but mod western hippy-like jeans and t-shirts he had tye-died himself. He was a strong but smaller lad, had long dark hair and beard, as well, and a happy smile. everyone liked him, and he chanted just fine !
Lokanatha Maharajah was usually out front chanting and walking his pada-yatra, leading kirtan with mrdanga, and managing our preaching and practical arrangements.
One day, it was warm, travelling the road, and someone brought us a couple of sugar canes, which was delicious. We Canadians never had actual sugar cane before. I wished we had a whole cartful ! Next thing you know, an overloaded transport truck hit a bump, sending ten or twenty more sugar canes falling right onto our bullock cart ! We laugherd and shared it.
Then Padmapani said; "Wish we had a full container with just the juice ! " and laughed. Less than five minutes later, a farmer came up to our party from his fields, with a fresh squeezed big bucket full of raw cane juice, which was tansferred to our containers. LOL! Nectar.
This was old-fashioned religious culture, Vaisnava farmer saw a band of sannyasis and brahmacraies, and so came immediately to feed us.
............................Jaya Mahadeva! Jaya Srila Prabhupada !
Padmapani and I had many adventures in life, due to providence and chance of birth, attendance of the same high school, joined Iskcon in different places and years, me the senior that regards, he the senior being of saintly character versus my own mixed nature. Hence for a while, he was the brahmana, me not, so it gave me an excuse to serve, which he did not like, but which i found a seva delite ! it was kinda humorous. Ex.; I might offer to clean or fetch something needed. hare krsna.
Padmapani Prabhu died alone within 2 days of being put in an old folks home. His books and everything were lost or stolen when he moved back to Manitoba from B.C. He was not enjoying respect or honor for all his preaching work, living simply in our Temples. no. He felt shy and humble, had no money, no Godbrothers etc were in immediate physical touch, and he did not call me here in Winnipeg, either. He was neglected by the Movement he, we, gave our lives for, gave everything. In the end, it was just he and Lord Sri Krsna. He gave up, left this world, despite good care from his brother, Brent.
So many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples are in this situation because of the poisoner gay jew sannyasis who killed our Guru and left us homeless after stealing everything we built. We were kicked out, lied about, abused and thrown out. l, also.
Close lifelong friend Perry McNaughton / Padmapani Prabhu ACBSSP, has gone to Sridhama Mayapura to join Lord Nityananda's eternal kirtans.
Mild, brave, steady, poetic, intelligent, clean, determined, devoted, hard working, tolerant, come to mind of his character.
I went to high school with Padma. We travelled India together. Our mothers were best friends. We distributed books all over Canada and America. He served Srila Prabhupada personally at Kumbha Mela in 1976. He worked for me for over a year, I bought him a car he used to travel to Mexico.
Next to you, and Ramon who doesn't call either, my closest living friend now gone. I was thinking of him tried to find his phone number, like, day before yesterday. I hope he remembers us and prays for us to be freed from maya. Gauranga! He is with Gour Nitai now...
Thanks so much for sharing this news. I will pray. hare krsna!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada ! Padma preached all over the world for Srila Prabhupada !!
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