By Deva Madhava Das
They wear special cloth, prepare foods only eaten on these rare days, and congregate in mass around a few exceptional people that are taking part in a ceremony lasting over 3 hours. All the while they chant two and three word phrases together in cadence, which creates and encourages a collectively desired experience.
I remember 4 years ago, when we first began regular harinama’s at the football games. A rag/tag group of us led by me, a 2 year old bhakta at the time, were chanting with some regularity on campus with little regard from the ‘local’s.’ Ann Arbor Michigan, home of the University of Michigan, is considered the ‘smartest town in America’ according to recent studies on such useless things. So smart these folks were, that they had no regard or respect for the sankirtan party we would feebly and yet faithfully assemble.
Our party would look even more pathetic amid the wash of Maize and Blue on Saturdays outside ‘The Big House’, the temple where pig skin is worshipped by 100,000+ of America’s best and brightest on fall Saturdays in Ann Arbor. The only reciprocation, or more like reaction, our party might receive from these folks was the occasional glare with a ‘what the hell are you doing here?!’ gleam in the persons eye. It was sometimes discouraging, sometimes disheartening, and always draining to do harinama at the games in those early days. But our little rag tag group did the mercy math, and 100,000+ people packed into 3 square blocks was too good for us to pass up… so the regular harinama’s continued.
Since those early and difficult days, things have steadily improved by the mercy of Sri Nama Prabhu. Now its common to hear students screaming ‘Hare Krishna!’ with a big smile as we dance and stroll around the stadium with them before kick off. Our smiles are greeted in turn by thousands of appreciative fans whose faith in the Holy Name has increased from seeing the devotees on harinama year after year. These days, I can tell who is a freshman coming to their first or second game ever just by the look on their face… ‘you’re allowed to be here?’ is the innocent look the newbies have, while the upperclassmen are saying ‘You’re HERE!!!’ with a grin from ear to ear.
Enthusiasm for us also depends a lot on enthusiasm for the game that day. This last saturday, a perfect storm of fan-atisism and faith brewed up a harinama for the ages.
It was the 108th meeting (Krishna is God) of the UM Wolverines with their in state arch enemies, the Michigan State Spartans. Straight out of the Mahabharata, its a battle of neighbors, family and friends with bragging rights for the year on the line. Students from both schools were out en-masse, ticket or no ticket for the actual game, and throngs of green and white, blue and gold were buzzing about as we began to chant.
What happened the next 4 hours are only fit to be described by Arjuna Prabhu’s wonderful photos, the timely video by Bhaktin Kelly, and a beautiful verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam 3.2.15
The Personality of Godhead, the all-compassionate controller of both the spiritual and material creations, is unborn, but when there is friction between His peaceful devotees and persons who are in the material modes of nature, He takes birth just like fire, accompanied by the mahat-tattva.
Album Link (79 Photographs):
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208080802836522.1073741880.1193273794&type=1&l=ea9080527e
Thanks for all your support.
For you,
Deva Madhava Das
President: The Harmony Collective
Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA
Source... www.dandavats.com
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