© 1999 VNN
|
WORLD December 29, 1999 VNN5175 Comment on this story Gaudiya Vaishnavism At The World Parliament Of Religions BY ATMARAMA DAS JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, Dec 29 (VNN) — The 1999 World Parliament of Religions was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Dec 1st - 8th. There were over 7,000 participants and dozens of lectures, presentations, symposia and exhibits were going on simultaneously in various lecture rooms at three different sites. A number of Gaudiya Vaishnava speakers were present. Although I was not able to attend all their presentations, I would like to give a brief report of the Hare Krishna presence at this significant event. H. H. Bhakti Swarupa Tirtha Maharaja gave two presentations. One was entitled "Concept of God Head" and the other, "Discerning Spirit from Matter." Unfortunately I could not attend these lectures. I managed to catch the end of H. H. Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Maharaja's interesting 45 minute presentation on the "World Vaishnava Association and the Presentation of Monotheism in Hinduism." He illustrated how the various religious practices culminate in Vaishnavism. He also gave a two-hour presentation on "Vrindavan - Land of Krishna" which I missed. H. H. Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Swami spoke on Vedanta and the Role of Humankind in the Cosmos." His one hour presentation focused on the scientific principles of Vedantic Cosmology and the Mission of Humankind as confirmed in the first aphorism of the Vedanta Sutra athato brahma jijnasa. A synthetic view of science and religious traditions was presented in the light of Vedanta. Yasomatinandan Prabhu was also scheduled to give a presentation titled, "The Metaphysics of Sound and Consciousness." He did not attend however and H.H. Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Maharaj spoke in his place. This lecture was also well received. Also Maharaj was part of the 3-day Parliamentary Assembly made up of 500 religious leaders and leaders from the business community and government. Karunamayi Devi Dasi, who serves very nicely as the public relations officer for our ISKCON Cape Town temple, worked closely with the Cape Town organisers of the World Parliament. Bhaktin Deborah, Bhaktin Lynn, Bhaktin Marli, Bhakta Yonel Bziami, Bhakta Jonathan, Bhakta Michael, Syamala Sakhi and other devotees from the Cape Town temple worked very hard during the World Parliament preparing and serving thousands of plates of prasadam from Govinda's Restaurant. The restaurant was made the main restaurant for the Parliament, catering to the over 7,000 participants at the Parliament. It was a great hit as Christians, Sufi Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other groups got the mercy of Lord Krishna's prasadam. During the lunch breaks the queues were so long it looked like a Food for Life program. Amogha Lila Prabhu was also there and he gave a presentation entitled "God is One" and another "Interfaith Perspectives on Religious Freedom: Asian and Middle Eastern Perspectives" which I unfortunately missed. Former President Nelson Mandela addressed an evening plenary session. He mentioned how he gets inspiration "from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Koran and the Bible." I was invited to address an Inter-faith service that included Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Hindu representatives. I spoke for a few minutes on the universal principle of chanting the Holy Names of God and we invited everyone present to chant the maha-mantra with us during a short kirtan. Also I later gave a presentation entitled "An African Theistic Solution to the Leadership Crises of the New Millennium." It was a brief overview of the sociological and ecological situation globally and in Africa at the turn of the milllennium. After offering a glimpse at the Vedic roots of African Traditional Philosophy, the case was made for an urgent application of such Theistic Philosophy (i.e. - varnasrama) in managing modern society in the next millennium. By Krishna's mercy, it was well received. A revered Christian priest who attended the presentation wants me to come and conduct workshops amongst his community in Durban on the same subject. On Dec. 9th, a day after the World Parliament officially ended in Cape Town, there was an International Sacred Music festival held there. Different religious traditions were represented. The Dalai Lama, who had addressed the closing evening plenary session of the Parliament, performed the opening ceremony. H.H. Indrayumna Swami and H.H. B. B. Govinda Maharaj and the devotees from the ISKCON Cape Town temple held a fired-up kirtan before the 4,000 people who were in attendance that night. Atmarama Das (ISKCON Johannesburg) Comment on this story  Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
|
