© 1999 VNN
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WORLD July 8, 1999 VNN4255 Comment on this story Festival At Saranagati Community BY SATYAHIT DAS BRITISH COLUMBIA, Jul 8 (VNN) — A fantastic three-day festival was had by all!! One of the most outstanding things I noticed was the quantity of younger devotees sincerely interested in Krishna consciousness. They practically outnumbered the older devotees! Partha prabhu, who lives at Saranagati with his wife Uttama devi dasi (who supervises the community), told me he was returning home expecting that the twelve or so teens there would be messing up the house. Instead, he was happily surprised to see them all engaged in kirtan !! The second most astonishing item was the Saranagati landscape. I had not visited the community for five years and remembered the countryside being depressingly dry and thereby visually dead. This time the rains had been plentiful and the countryside was green and filled with varieties of wild flowers. I saw bear, deer and the lamas owned by Jai Gaur along with woodpeckers and other birds. The years of sacrifice have paid off in that this whole area is becoming more opulent. Due to Krishna's mercy, they are getting the proper rainfall instead of the floods and baseball-sized hail storms derived from sinful activities, etc. (all of which the karmis refuse to understand or accept). Gopal Krishna prabhu gave a very normal SB class. He added his style of humor and left after class. However, the following morning with Hridayananda Maharaj's class, things were dramatically different! Maharaj first gave an intellectual and scholarly desertation on the background and philosophy of the Mahabharata which lasted for two hours. Then the guru issue surfaced and some senior devotees began to show hostile feelings toward him. At one point Yamal Arjuna spoke out saying, "You're doing all the talking, why not allow everyone equal time?" To which Kripanidhi Prabhu answered, "You're being offenssive!" Mother Uttama anounced abruptly that "all this bantering about the old guru issue was not supposed to be the subject of this class. We should stop immediately. Mother Yamuna is soon coming to cook and surely doesn't want to hear this!" Hridayananda countered that this was not bantering. Emotions ran high and Bala Krsna Prabhu, another supervisor, called for an istagosti the following day. The istagosti began around 10:30am and continued until 1:30 pm. Bala Krsna was elected moderator with Shakuntala devi dasi and his daughter also assisting as moderators. The format was that everyone be given a chance to speak for two minutes or so. Even so, the three hours were quickly finished, even though more discussion was wanted. Bala Krsna told the devotees that they could visit with Hridayananda at his home on the morrow. Certainly Hridayananda was put on the HOT seat and he handled it very well and sincerely. He appears to be a gentleman and a scholar as the old saying goes. Personally I felt that he came off as a very likeable and sincere sort of person who speaks with a gread deal of neat humor. The most emotional speaker was Vijeta Prabhu who simply shouted that Hridayananda is a rascal, as he continued shouting and blamed him for many wrong doings in ISKCON. In response to this, Hridayananda's smile simply increased with pleasure at the sight of such an emotional opponent. Again the accusations of offensiveness were bandied about. Bala Krsna commented that everyone should be able to speak their mind or in other words to get it off their chest. Bala Krsna's daughter said that in this year's GBC meetings in Mayapur, most sadly, not one Srila Prabhupada disciple was present except for those with official ISKCON positions. Young Partha, Vijeta's son, told that in 1992 as a gurukuli in Mayapur, he was forced to spend time unwanted in worshipping the ISKCON gurus under threat of physical and mental punishment from the older boys. Hridayananda asked, "Is this practice still current?" Partha answered, "Yes." Hridayananda Maharaj was noticeably softer in his defense on the second day after hearing from so many distressed devotees. His one main point was that Srila Prabhupada said 200 times that his disciples should all become guru. So when this was exaamined in light of the "Final Order," in which Srila Prabhupada said finally to "initiate on his behalf," Hridayananda mentioned that he didn't think Srila Prabhupada would contradict himself. My personal opinion is that he did not contradict himself and that there never was anyone qualified to be a fully bonafide guru in ISKCON except Srila Prabhupada. So, yes they were to initiate on his behalf and thereby follow Srila Prabhupadas final instructions, which sadly they have not done. And this has been the cause of so many problems in ISKCON. Generally the istagosti was very positive and more were called for by Bala Krsna and others. I did not attend the following day's seminar given by Visoka devi dasi and Mother Yamuna. As a part of the festival, Madhu Pandit, the Vaishnava actor, performed Ramayana, supported by Satyahit (vocals percussion), Sthanur (percussion), and Jane, who painted the big Rama Yamtra backdrop. The performance was enjoyed immensely by all, including Hridayananda Maharaj, who had an immediate animated discussion with Madhu Pandit after the performance. Pacific TheatreRama Society plans in the near future, hopefully, to contribute to the Saranagati comunity through Madhu Pandit's training of youth in Krsna conscious drama and kirtan in general of various types, to further inspire and encourage their youthful musical and singing abilities. Please contact us at chaitanya@ampsc.com for further info. Our telephone number is 205-382-5460 at the moment. Comment on this story | Contact VNN about this story | Send this story to a friend
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