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January 24, 2002 VNN7118 Comment on this story
Philippines News
BY RADHANATH DAS
PHILLIPINES, Jan 24 (VNN) All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga, Dandavat pranams.
This is Radhanath Brahmacari reporting from Paradise, have burnt my passport and will see you in Kartik 2025 ad.
No seriously, my respected God brothers and sisters. Srila Gurudeva has blessed these islands twice with his lotus feet, and his mission is struggling onwards here.
The devotees have established 2 Gaudiya Maths here in the Philippines, one in Manilla, the capital city, and one here in Cebu (check your atlases ).
There in Manilla there is one brahmacari who single handedly has constructed his own temple for the purpose of benidicting (my spelling is shocking) the suffering souls with the message of our Sri Chaitanya deva. Maybe you remember him from Kartika as the Jolly Chinese looking devotee who was always massaging everyone? Sriman Krishna Chandra Prabhuji.
To maintain the Sunday feast and to facilitate the ongoing construction, he is going out collecting 6 days a week into the hellish heat and pollution of Manilla.
This despite suffering a partial heart attack and paralysis of his body.
Now I can understand how one can attain the mercy of the spiritual master not so much as by always staying near him, like the proverbial bed bug, but rather by following his instructions in a non dupliscious manner. I feel blessed to have witnessed his dedication and service mood.
We were quite busy here, and our activities have included a 1 hour radio program on Philippine armed forces radio, and a feeding program at the infamous smoky mountain, the worlds largest, and obviously smokiest, garbage dump.
It really was a mountain, and the residents maintain there existence by sifting through the refuse to recycle the useful refuse. The kids went nuts.
There were literally hundreds of the little monsters, but after threatening them with violence, and bribing them with coconut porridge, we had them all chanting the maha mantra with gusto.
Srila Prabhupad, that is Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur stated that there is only one lacking, that is the derth of Hari Katha and Hari nam sankirtan, one can realize it by paying a visit to Smoky mountain.
The harinam was enthusiastic, especially with some transvestites who joined with enthusiasm and brought out smiles from even the most jaded born again resident of the mountain.
The program apparently was placed in a news paper the next day.
The Sunday feast is packed into the tiny temple room, and then fed a sumptuous feast of Maha prasad from the mercy of Sri Gouranga, Radha Vinode Bihari. Last week 70 people attended, this in a 4m by 4m temple room, a mathematical impossibility, but a devotional reality.
I am now here in the other temple here in Cebu, and will give a report on the conditions here as the preaching develops.
I am asking our kind hearted Vaisnava readers to remember the struggling yatras down here by either visiting here to encourage the preaching, and or sparing some of your hard earned dollars to help bring Krishna Chandra Prabhu to India for either this upcoming Gour Purnima celebrations or at least for Kartick month.
Begging the mercy of the vaisnavas, asking them to forgive my offenses, performed knowingly or unknowingly at your lotus feet.
Yours in the service of the vaisnavas Radhanath das brahmacari
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