Recently from 29th Sept – 1st Oct, the devotees of ISKCON PUNE, NVCC were highly privileged by the divine association of illustrious disciples of Srila Prabhupada – HG Haripad Pr and HG Phalini Mataji.
HG Haripad Pr joined ISKCON in 1973 and served as a Sankirtan Leader and also the leader for the bus party for 7 years. Prabhuji joined after reading the Bhagavad-gita in just 3 days!!! He is currently based in Udupi in Karnataka. HG Phalini Mataji is a very dedicated devotee of Lord Rama and is famous for her Ramakatha. She did the service of proofreading for Srila Prabhupada’s books, esp. Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. Additionally, she is an expert cook and a musician. Both of them travel all over India by train visiting places like Bangalore, Mumbai, Baroda, Kharaghar, Surat, Bharuch, etc. and also Sri Lanka spreading the message of Lord Chaitanya and teachings of Srila Prabhupada. They are out for almost 11 months a year and are especially known for their devotional, meticulous and enlivening Kirtans.
They gave series of programs in a period of 3 days. On 29th, they visited Mithila Yoga and DY Patil student center. On 30th, they gave consecutive programs in Jejuri and Barsana Yoga in Hinjewadi. Finally, 1st Oct was a happening day for NVCC. HG Haripad Pr gave a wonderful Bhagavatam class in the morning focusing on the importance of giving up the flickering pleasures of this world for the service of the Lord. He explained it by his own example describing how both of them live very simply in their home, without even a refrigerator!!! He described his home in Udupi as ‘opulent’ because of the worship of the Gaur Nitai Deities and performance of Sankirtan. Prabhuji also explained that whatever we do, its purpose should be to gain the favor of the Lord. In the class, he also narrated his story of coming to Krsna Consciousness in the United States.
The next powerful session was the Kirtan Reform seminar in the Bhaktivedanta Hall and was well attended by the local Kirtan leaders in congregation and Brahmacharis and other interested devotees. In the seminar, they focused that the most important part of Kirtan is the call and response without being distracted by the fanciful playing of the instruments. Everyone should be sincerely chanting in the Kirtan because in Kirtan, they emphasized: we are glorifying the Lord, associating with the Lord and begging the Lord to engage us in His service.
The final and most exciting part of the day and the practical demo of what they taught, was the 3 hours special Kirtan in the temple hall. The temple was bustling with activity because of the Sunday. To make it even more auspicious, it was the day of Ekadashi when 24 hour Kirtan goes on in the temple. They uplifted the spirits of one and all, devotees and common people alike, by their simple yet devotionally surcharged Kirtan. They were very happy with the attendance and response of the devotees and expressed to come regularly to NVCC temple.
Harinam Sankirtan Ki Jay!! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jay!!
Source: http://www.iskconpune.com/hg-haripad-prabhus-visit-iskcon-pune-nvcc/
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