The Beauty of Harinama!

By Indradyumna Swami

From The Diary of A Traveling Monk,
Volume 3, Chapter 41
June 20 – July 1, 2001

The following morning we went on harinama in Trzebiatow. To the amazement of all the devotees, as we drove into town we passed under a bright orange and green banner proudly advertising the Festival of India. As we descended from the bus into the center of town, several office windows opened and we heard one lady call out to her fellow workers, “They’re here!”

As we started chanting down the street, children suddenly began appearing from everywhere, running toward us from all directions and calling out, “Hare Krsna! Hare Krsna!” Young girls joined the ladies’ part of the harinama and quickly and easily took up the synchronized dance steps they had learned during the past nine years of festivals. At one point they even took over and led a dance step that the devotee ladies had forgotten!

Young boys grabbed karatalas from the brahmacaris’ hands, and twisting the karatala strings around their fingers like veterans, played in perfect tempo with the kirtana. I saw one new brahmacari hand a group of boys an invitation with the maha-mantra written on it as an encouragement for them to chant with us. The boys laughed and without looking at the card loudly chanted the entire maha-mantra in unison, much to the brahmacari’s amazement.

As we wound our way down the streets, shopkeepers and their customers greeted us. Waving and smiling they shouted, “Bravo! Bravo!” On one street, every single shop had a little cluster of people cheering us on. From the apartments above the shops, windows opened and parents and kids smiled at us as we went by. As we paused at one apartment a lady tossed flowers over us.

At one intersection I nodded to an elderly man drinking beer at a sidewalk cafe. In acknowledgment, he stood up and tipped his hat to me in respect. At one point we took a detour through an apartment complex. There was a lawn in a square surrounded by four tall buildings, and we stopped there and held a rousing kirtana. The holy names echoing off the buildings created a tumultuous noise. I thought that it might be too loud, but its effect drew even more kids out of the apartments. Soon we had sixty children dancing in a circle with us, all holding hands and singing Hare Krsna. Each and every one of them knew the maha-mantra. One girl came running up to the kirtana party and asked after two matajis who had led the ladies dancing on harinama in previous years. “Where is Syamalaki? Where is Sri Radhika?”

Absorbed in the blissful scene, I jumped when a chorus of young voices behind me called out, “Maharaja! Welcome back!” I turned and saw seven eight-year-old girls, all smiles, with their hands behind their backs. One by one they came forward and gave me presents in old cardboard boxes with used ribbon around them. One box contained Mickey Mouse, another Goofy, and in another I found Pluto. I also received two lions, one rabbit with a carrot, and a black dog that barked when squeezed. The girls then jumped into the kirtana and began to dance. A devotee offered to take the toys from me and dispose of them, and was a bit taken aback when I responded by saying I was going to keep them.

“What are you going to do with them?” he said.

“I’ll put them on the dashboard of my van. Srila Prabhupada once said that a gift from a Vaisnava is a special thing. It’s an expression of love.”

“Vaisnavas?” he said with an astonished look. “They’re just karmi kids!”

“They’re not karmis anymore,” I smiled. “For one who chants the holy names even once becomes qualified for liberation.”

sakrd uccaritam yena
harir ity aksara-dvayam
baddha-parikaras tena
moksaya gamanam prati

A person who chants the holy name of the Lord, consisting of the two syllables ha-ri, even once, guarantees his path to liberation.
[Skanda Purana]

By the time we took our kirtana party back into the center of town we had an army of kids with us. I was nervous for their safety, as we were going down narrow pathways and crossing intersections. I asked two devotees to monitor them. Enlivened by the response to our kirtana, devotees chanted with great enthusiasm. At one point, when we stopped to chant on a street corner, I crossed to the other side to watch the amazing scene from a distance. A group of drivers waiting at the intersection’s red light honked their horns in appreciation of the kirtana. When the light turned green they remained stationary, enjoying the blissful scene.

People continued shouting and waving from their windows, and the kids in the kirtana party, chanting and dancing so jubilantly, seemed intoxicated with the holy name. I sat down on a bench with some elderly people who were clapping along with the kirtana. Watching the devotees chanting and the people of Trzebiatow reciprocating in so many ways, I thought, “You boys and girls have merited this ‘homecoming.’ You’re fighting the real war against the material energy and the forces of Kali-yuga. You’ve borne insult and injury to spread Lord Caitanya’s message, and you deserve every gesture of affection from these people. Just see! Not only have devotees from around the world shown you support, the ordinary folk of Trzebiatow are now treating you as hometown heroes. I take the dust of your lotus feet upon my head. All glories to your service!”

Let renunciation be multiplied millions of times! Let millions of virtues, beginning with peacefulness, sense control, tolerance, and friendliness be multiplied millions of times! Let there be millions of meditations on the words tat tvam asi! Let there be devotion to Lord Visnu multiplied millions of times! All this taken together does not equal even one millionth part of the multitude of perfect transcendental qualities possessed by the great souls who find transcendental bliss in the splendor of the toenails of the dear devotees of Sriman Caitanyacandra.
[Sri Caitanya-candramrta, Chapter 26]