Episode 4: Getting to Calcutta
(Vidyananda Prabhu took this photo of me in 1976 at the Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindaban when I got initiated. I had completely forgotten I asked him to take a photo of me when Srila Prabhupada handed me my beads. I was stunned with appreciation two years later when he finally gave it to me at some festival when our paths crossed again at an unplanned time! )
“Actually, one should undergo severe austerities and penances only to achieve spiritual happiness. In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is recommended that tapasya, or austerity, should be accepted for realizing the Supreme Lord. By accepting austerity in devotional service, one regains his spiritual life, and as soon as one regains his spiritual life, he enjoys unlimited spiritual bliss. But if someone undertakes austerities and penances for some material gain, it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that the results are temporary and that they are desired by persons of less intelligence.” -Krishna Book 20: Description of Autumn
This was actually going to be my second trip to India. My first trip was In 1976 when the Radha Damodara bus program was at it's peak. After dropping out of University I was immediately thrown into intense regime of book distribution. It was a routine filled with severe austerities because our focus was to sell books whatever way we dreamed up. We did really surreptitious things like jump the fence at Drive-In theaters to sell books to the moviegoers and even tried to surreptitious into casinos in Las Vegas to hit up the gamblers. If we got back to the mother bus too late we had to wait for the next morning to take prasadam again. We lived out of a suitcase, slept on a different patch of raw earth every night, sometimes-bathed in cold lakes. We were always dodging police and security officers but not always successfully at eluding them, which meant occasional evenings at the local jail. Yet all of it was worth it to me because I had the good fortune of being initiated by Srila Prabhupada in the courtyard of the Krishna Balaram mandir two years earlier when I went attended the 1976 Mayapur festival.
Tamal Krishna reciprocated with our eccentric efforts by sending nearly 100 devotees from the Radha Damodara party to the last big GaurPurnima festival before Prabhupadas health began to fail. When all other devotees traveling from north America were added to that list there were well over 200plus Vaishnavas traveling at the same time. The BBT accountant Mahendra took advantage of this fact and determined it would be more cost effective for ISKCON to charter our own 747 jet instead of purchase 300 individual tickets to fill the plane.
The Radha Damodara party was the behemoth of all the other temples represented and our deities were accustomed to always traveling so they came with us. Vishnu Jhana made a a makeshift altar to put them on at the front of the 2nd class passenger section of the plane because it was more spacious than the 1st class section. That way we could get everyone together for our usual deity worship programs. It all felt very much at home to those of us who had spent months worshiping deities in the confinement of a converted bus with very low ceilings. So as this flying bus transported us to mother India, we did what we usually did and proceeded to chant and dance with abandon at 40,000 feet over the Alantic ocean for the pleasure of the deities. However all of this was to the chagrin of the jumbo jet captain. The stewardesses who were there by aviation laws to attend to our needs really didn’t know what to do with all our saffron exuberance. However when the plane started to bounce in the sky with our chanting and dancing, the captain instructed them to tell us we had to be less enthusiastic about flying the friendly skies. At that point we had to be satisfied with the less raucous “Swami Step.”
On route to Mayapur I did attend the Bombay opening and it was glorious. Once again Srila Prabhupad triumphed and despite all the difficulties he had to overcome, the opening of the Bombay mandir was another firm testimony to the extraordinary vision of His Divine Grace’s mission.
Eventually I arrived in Mayapur and continued my natural affinity and love affair with everything Indian. I set out to learn Bengali as much as I could and eventually got to where I could communicate by linking words together albeit without grammar in very primitive bundled syntax like: “Going now I temple.” I am sure I sounded like an alien creature, but for the most part the Bengali people were humored by my efforts and seemed to understand what I was attempting to say.
(This is a photo of Anadi Dasa Prabhu doing arati. He was the head pujari for Gaura-Nitai on the Radha Damodara traveling temple program. This was the bus party led by Sudama Maharaja and Dhristadyumna that I dropped out of College to join October 10, 2005. Anadi is a bit hunched over here because the altar was tightly fit into the inside of an old greyhound bus. That was why the devotees on the Radha-Damodara bus party felt so at home having kirtan on a jet as we flew to India the in the spring of 2006 when I had the good fortune to get initiated!)
For more details E-mail at : mdjagdasa@gmail.com
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