Meetings, Resolutions… and Chanting: Boston City Council Hears the Mahamantra!
Chatamayi Devi Dasi (center, playing harmonium) leads kirtan before the May 13, 2015 Boston City Council meeting, accompanied by ISKCON devotees (left to right) Pyari Mohan Dasa, ISKCON Boston’s Temple President, Bhaktin Elle Mitchell, Parama Rupa Dasa and Bhaktin Karuna Randolph. City Council President Bill Linehan and Council Member Michelle Wu, both wearing garlands, look on in the background.
By Bhaktin Elle Mitchell
“Yes, everywhere,” Srila Prabhupada said. “This chanting should go on. Instead of meetings, resolutions, dissolutions, revolutions, and no solution, there should be chanting.”
Due to the efforts of ISKCON Boston well-wishers Michelle Wu, Boston City Councilor At-Large, and Amit Dixit, Executive Director of Boston’s South Asian Arts Council, devotees recently had the opportunity to take one more step toward fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s desire to infect the halls of government with the “disease” of Krishna consciousness.
Greater Boston is home to one of the United States’ largest populations of Nepalese. At the same time, ISKCON Boston is a spiritual home to a small but growing number of devout members of that ethnic community. These two threads converged when Mr. Dixit, a mover and shaker across the many cultures comprising Boston’s South Asian community, swiftly and spontaneously organized a rally and candlelight vigil in Downtown Boston to heighten awareness of the urgent plight of the Nepalese people after the devastating April earthquake.
While shocked and saddened by the earthquake’s destruction and loss of life, Dixit, a long-time member of the Boston congregation, recognized the opportunity for the Mahamantra to sooth the pain of a Nepalese community temporarily powerless to aid relatives half a world away.
Amongst the dignitaries at the vigil was Michelle Wu. Ms. Wu is Boston’s first Chinese-American and first Asian-American woman to serve on Boston City Council. An ally of Boston’s diverse South Asian communities, she is able to take advantage of a unique opportunity available to the city’s council members. According to council rules, a councilor “shall have the honor of recognizing persons, groups, and events of significant importance to the City of Boston”.
Ms. Wu thus decided to honor ISKCON Boston with verbal accolades and also to make an unprecedented request that devotees offer an opening prayer — chanted, not simply recited — at the beginning of a session. Not only would devotees’ presence, words and voices remind onlookers of the pressing needs of Nepal in the wake of the tragic earthquake, but the appearance would also initiate municipal focus on ISKCON’s upcoming 50th Anniversary celebrations.
The meeting, conducted in council chambers with full attendance of council members and the presence of small galleries of municipal aides, local journalists and community members, was called to order by Council President Bill Linehan, who promptly turned the meeting over to Michelle Wu. She read a brief description of the ISKCON Boston temple, then introduced the invocation speaker, Partha Biswas (Parama Rupa Dasa). Parama Rupa and Bhaktin Karuna Randolph each presented a councilor with a beautiful and fragrant garland, after which Temple President Pyari Mohan Dasa gifted each with a copy of “Bhagavad-Gita As It Is”.
While attendees stood, listening attentively, some bowing their heads respectfully, Parama Rupa offered a succinct yet powerful invocation that touched upon tragedy, renewal, the interconnectedness of humanity, and Srila Prabhupada’s compassion. He then joined devotees in front of the speaker’s dais for a brief kirtan. As their voices filled the council chamber onlookers were seen smiling and nodding, or heard tentatively singing along. When the chanting ended, constrained by predetermined time limits, the devotees quickly saluted their audience with pranams, collected their belongings and went on their way, leaving officials to get back to what they know best — attempting to administer for the ultimate welfare of their constituents.
Yet, “Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.” [Bg 3.21] As one leader picks up this process of Krishna consciousness, so will another, and another, and another. Moreover, as the leaders do, so will their dependents.
As our kings, presidents, religious leaders, local politicians, teachers and parents are reminded of their original constitutional position and propagate their knowledge, society comes closer to fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s declaration of one of the principles of real spiritual leadership — “Instead of meetings, resolutions, dissolutions, revolutions, and no solution, there should be chanting.” May the devotees always continue chanting and showering Srila Prabhupada’s mercy in every town and village.
Parama Rupa Dasa (on dais) opens the Boston City Council meeting with an invocation as (left to right) Pyari Mohan Dasa, ISKCON Boston’s Temple President, Bhaktin Elle Mitchell, Council President Bill Linehan, and Council Member Michelle Wu listen attentively.
LINKS:
Gallery: Video and Photographs by Ganga Dasa
Video: ISKCON Boston Devotees at Boston City Council Meeting – May 13, 2015
Video: Prayers for Nepal Earthquake Victims – Boston, 4/27/2015
—————————————————-
Full text of the invocation spoken by Partha Biswas (Parama Rupa Dasa) at the Boston City Council meeting, City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, May 13, 2015:
“I am very grateful and honored to be present in this august assembly.
Recently, we have all heard about the massive earthquake that has hit Nepal and has taken away many precious lives and many monuments of national importance. The Food for Life branch of ISKCON has extended their support and help in different ways, particularly erecting different relief centers and reaching out to remote parts of the country. However, it is indeed very difficult to compensate for the amount of losses the country has gone through.
So now I would like draw your attention to a beautiful prayer from our sacred texts. Hopefully this will define a better future for all of us and I hope that the message will resonate with all of you.
The prayer has three parts. The first part states the mission statement. It goes as follows:
svasty astu visvasya khalah prasidatam
dhyayantu bhutani sivam mitho dhiya
Let there be auspiciousness all around the universe.
Let the forces of envy be completely vanquished from the core of our hearts
so that we can genuinely consider the welfare of all living entities.
How is this going to be possible? The next part of the prayer points out the secret:
Manas ca bhadram bhajatad adhoksaje
It is going to be possible by the purification of the heart and the mind,
which is most effectively done in this age by the chanting of the holy names.
I’ll invite you in a short while to experience the purification that can be possible through the chanting of the holy names.
The concluding part of the prayer points to a brighter future:
Avesyatam no matir apy ahaituki
Let the value of our life be evaluated not by the amount of money that we accumulate
or by the amount of power we have over others,
but let the value of life be evaluated by the extent to which we are able to add value to the lives of others
by becoming an unconditional instrument of compassion in the hands of God.
Let that be our absorption.
This was the absorption, in fact, the constant absorption of Srila Prabhupada, who was the founder of ISKCON society, who landed in Boston fifty years ago, exactly fifty years ago. This year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of that historic moment. On behalf of ISKCON I would like to invite all of you to kindly come and join us during the month of September.
At this time I would invite all you to enter into the spirit of this prayer and join us for this spiritual experience through the chanting of the holy name in a call-and-response type.
Thank you very much!”
Amit Dixit (foreground), a spokesperson for ISKCON Boston and Executive Director of Boston’s South Asian Arts Council, listens along with meeting attendees to kirtan chanted by temple devotees at the May 13, 2015 Boston City Council meeting.
Comments