Episode 10: Excitement & Anticipation
“When one is sufficiently eager to achieve success in devotional service, that eagerness is called samutkantha. This means "complete eagerness." Actually this eagerness is the price for achieving success in Krsna consciousness. Everything has some value, and one has to pay the value before obtaining or possessing it. It is stated in the Vedic literature that to purchase the most valuable thing, Krsna consciousness, one has to develop intense eagerness for achieving success. - “The Nectar of Devotion”, Chapter 18, “Eagerness of Achieving Desired Success”
The Canopy was being completed in a large room that had a very high ceiling and windows but was also damp, moldy and had a dark eerie ambiance probably because of the water and smells that evaporated from the Hugli river right outside. This time when I got there the bright red and yellow canopy was laid across the wooden floor and it transformed that dingy corner of sweaty Calcutta with the sanctification of Lord Jagannatha’s presence. The worker who had been laboring at this maha tailoring project was also happy to see it and me was clear that he felt very blessed to be the one to sew the top of the new ISKCON chariot for Lord Jagannath. I had similar experiences with the men contracted to make the Paper-Mache spire.
Sporadically Jayapataka Maharaja would make a completely unexpected surprise visit to Lord Jagannatha’s chariot construction site and when he did I felt like I had just met the transcendental equivalent of one of Americas greatest WWII war hero’s General Patton. Jayapataka Maharaj would come with his entourage, maha sweets and so many numerous enlivening expressions of Hari bolo, and Jai Jagannatha that I am sure the Demigods could hear him. It was hard work but it was rewarding.
One morning while on my japa walk I came around a corner and to my glee I discovered right in front of me a larger than life ten foot high recreation of one of the small billboard sketches I had given to the temple management. Sure enough several of these hand painted billboards had been stratigically located at major intersections throughout the city to invite everyone to participate in Lord Jagannath's historic journey on His new Jumbo-Ratha as he rode right thru the middle of one of Indias biggest cities!
It seemed like everyone was talking about the ISKCON parade! The devotees had been telling me all along that tens of thousands of people would show up but I kept dismissing it as exaggeration. They were trying to tell me what to expect, but my conservative nature just couldn’t believe what I was certain was a lot of hypnotic hyperbole cranked up by the fever of over expected enthusiasm.
The following week the canopy, paper-mache Kailash (spire), steel wheels, telescope and three-foot tall deck winch were delivered to the site on hand pushed flatbed rickshaws, which was the most common way much of the daily commerce moved through Calcutta. What didn’t show up was the life member who had repeatedly promised to come install the brakes. Now I was really concerned. Everything else was coming together nicely but the cart still didn’t have any brakes and neither had I made any effort to install the “Just-for-looks” model of levered brakes like we had used in New York. Here we were a week before the big parade and there was still no way to stop the rath cart once it got rolling. I took my concerns to the temple management and stressed upon them that they somehow needed to get the life member to come to the Rath site immediately. He was crutially needed to install the brakes he had repeatedly reassured me would be “No Problem” and custom designed to stop the huge rath chariot with 7ft wheels.
For more details E-mail at : mdjagdasa@gmail.com
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