A place for like minded people.
Prachar Post
You all have seen the pictures, but what exactly is going on? Who are these people? And were exactly are they? I hope to clear up some questions and also I would like to just give a little information on whats happening.
Every year around Feb. or Mar. there is a festival called “Gaura Purnima” as many of you know and for the some of you who don't you now know ;) At this time thousands of people come from all over the world and it seems to be growing every year. The year before last there was five thousand and just this last year it nearly doubled at eight thousand. We are building and expanding quite fast to facilitate the pilgrims, but what about the food? That is were we and about another 40-60 devotees come in, we go and beg and preach village to village and house to house and we ask them to please join us at this special time(if you have not been invited already then consider this your formal invitation) and to give some rice to help feed all these pilgrims. Our spiritual master or Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Gosvami Maharaj(you think that is a long name? But didn't you know all great people have long names) has separated the prior mentioned 40-60 devotees into different groups to preach in different places in Bengal there is about four or five groups to my knowledge that are preaching in different fields with Sripad Bhaktivedanta Tirtha Maharaj as the number one conqueror of the place called south 24 parkans which is quite a huge preaching field.
The party I am on this year consists of B.V. Sruvak Maharaj the man with the magic wand who shouts orders and ancient Bengali saying... who everyone seems to ignore, Sivananda who is our Bengali link, Gokula-chandra prabhu the one man seva machine, Chandra-shakar prabhu our all around music man, Jivapriya Bramachari the group leader/coordinator, Ramani-shiromani dasi as the “Besdeshi Girl”(if you don't understand the term don't worry about it), myself also known as Krsna das the annoying little tech man, and finally our precious little Srivasa prabhu who is our singer. We are preaching in the north of were B.V. Tirtha Maharaj is preaching. I have only been on two groups B.V. Tirtha Maharaj's group and this one this year. The differences that I have noticed are the following(left side is when I was with Maharaj and the right is this years):
1. We stayed only max of 2 to 3 days in a house, we been in the same house the whole time except 3-6 days.
2. No technology/lights, yay god said “let there be light”!
3. Mud houses and brick roads, brick houses and most of the time pavement roads.
4. Bathroom = field, bathroom = shed :)
5. “Can I goto the bathroom without someone following me?”, people only stare not follow and stare.
6. No Internet :(, very SLOW Internet.
7. Walk to destination, drive to destination.
8. Pond(pukur) = shower, toilet paper, washing machine, and kitchen water supply, Pond = nasty green water on the side of the road.... all glories to the pumps.
9. Million teenage girls begging to be married, only a few thousand.
10. Not married, married.
11. Two foreigners the rest Bengali, two Bengalis the rest foreigners.
12. Chili as the main course, chili appears to be extinct.
13. Rice, puffed rice (husk included).
14. Insanity, half sanity.
That about sums up the differences of the experience I have had these two years so far.
Every year around Feb. or Mar. there is a festival called “Gaura Purnima” as many of you know and for the some of you who don't you now know ;) At this time thousands of people come from all over the world and it seems to be growing every year. The year before last there was five thousand and just this last year it nearly doubled at eight thousand. We are building and expanding quite fast to facilitate the pilgrims, but what about the food? That is were we and about another 40-60 devotees come in, we go and beg and preach village to village and house to house and we ask them to please join us at this special time(if you have not been invited already then consider this your formal invitation) and to give some rice to help feed all these pilgrims. Our spiritual master or Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Gosvami Maharaj(you think that is a long name? But didn't you know all great people have long names) has separated the prior mentioned 40-60 devotees into different groups to preach in different places in Bengal there is about four or five groups to my knowledge that are preaching in different fields with Sripad Bhaktivedanta Tirtha Maharaj as the number one conqueror of the place called south 24 parkans which is quite a huge preaching field.
The party I am on this year consists of B.V. Sruvak Maharaj the man with the magic wand who shouts orders and ancient Bengali saying... who everyone seems to ignore, Sivananda who is our Bengali link, Gokula-chandra prabhu the one man seva machine, Chandra-shakar prabhu our all around music man, Jivapriya Bramachari the group leader/coordinator, Ramani-shiromani dasi as the “Besdeshi Girl”(if you don't understand the term don't worry about it), myself also known as Krsna das the annoying little tech man, and finally our precious little Srivasa prabhu who is our singer. We are preaching in the north of were B.V. Tirtha Maharaj is preaching. I have only been on two groups B.V. Tirtha Maharaj's group and this one this year. The differences that I have noticed are the following(left side is when I was with Maharaj and the right is this years):
1. We stayed only max of 2 to 3 days in a house, we been in the same house the whole time except 3-6 days.
2. No technology/lights, yay god said “let there be light”!
3. Mud houses and brick roads, brick houses and most of the time pavement roads.
4. Bathroom = field, bathroom = shed :)
5. “Can I goto the bathroom without someone following me?”, people only stare not follow and stare.
6. No Internet :(, very SLOW Internet.
7. Walk to destination, drive to destination.
8. Pond(pukur) = shower, toilet paper, washing machine, and kitchen water supply, Pond = nasty green water on the side of the road.... all glories to the pumps.
9. Million teenage girls begging to be married, only a few thousand.
10. Not married, married.
11. Two foreigners the rest Bengali, two Bengalis the rest foreigners.
12. Chili as the main course, chili appears to be extinct.
13. Rice, puffed rice (husk included).
14. Insanity, half sanity.
That about sums up the differences of the experience I have had these two years so far.
1 Comment
-
Comment by Gadadhara das on March 4, 2008 at 8:45pm
- Can't imagine what it's gonna b like for U next years...!
Add a Comment
© 2009 Created by Krsna Das on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of Kul Sanga to add comments!
Join this social network