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WORLD  Comment on this storyAbout the AuthorOther Stories by this Author Commencement Of Twelfth World Tour BY SRILA BHAKTIVEDANTA NARAYAN GOSVAMI MAHARAJA  INDIA, Jan 15 (VNN) — A Report on Srila Narayana Maharaja's Visits to Germany and San Diego Dec.11-23, 2001After the successful completion of his Jagannatha Puri and Vraja Mandala Parikramas, both attended by over six hundred pilgrims from various countries around the world, Tridandi Gosvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja began his twelfth world tour. Although eighty-three years old, for the past seven years he has been vigorously travelling around the world on his preaching tours, twice each year. His visits this tour include Germany, California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and he will be returning to India in time to participate in the Gaura Mandala parikrama in Navadvipa Dhama, beginning March 20, 2002. Srila Maharaja's first stop, from Dec.11th to Dec.16th, was in a village near Paderborn, Germany. There, although the weather was quite icy and the solar orb declined its presence late each afternoon, 200 devotees gathered from different parts of Europe, with wide-open eyes and ears, to hear his five days of hari-katha. Srila Maharaja usually gave classes in the evenings and, under his direction, senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja gave them in the mornings and afternoons. When others were giving classes in the temple room, Srila Maharaja was engaged in giving his darsana to individual and small groups of devotees, and he was especially absorbed in dictating his Hindi translation of Srila Rupa Gosvami's Sri Ujjvala-nilamani. The theme of most of Srila Maharaja's classes in Germany was Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Jaiva Dharma, and he introduced this theme by telling his audience, "I have already discussed Caitanya-caritamrita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and the sweet pastimes of Krsna from the Bhagavatam. I have recently explained Raya Ramananda Samvad during Jagannatha Puri and Vraja Mandala parikramas, and I have explained so many other topics. Now I want to explain Jaiva Dharma, because it is very essential. If you hear and understand it, you can very easily make rapidly progress, but you will have to read it again and again. I think that in four days we will not be able to complete the topics in this book. We can only complete its managala-caranam (auspicious invocation). From this outline, however, an idea about how to read and go very deep may come to you. Srila Rupa Gosvami inspired in the heart of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, the Saptam Gosvami (seventh Gosvami), the essence of all the teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and that is Jaiva Dharma. In this book you can very easily have the essence of all Indian literature; that is, Veda, Upanisad, Srimad Bhagavatam and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita." It was interesting to see Srila Maharaja coming all the way from Vrndavana to descend upon the variety of International airports. He sometimes sat alone within the rows of connected seats in the lobby of the ticket reservations. He sometimes gracefully walked down the crowded corridors and escalators. He sometimes waited on line to show his passport and visas at the customs counter. He sometimes stood just outside the baggage claim area and waited for his baggage to be ushered through the x-ray machine. And he sometimes sat, as a regular person of this world, on regular seats aboard the airplanes. Seated amidst an array of non-devotees in the lobby at the Frankfort, Germany international airport, he shared with the few disciples present the same message he has been distributing on all his preaching tours. He requested them to immediately begin spending more time in devotional activities, and less time earning money. He explained that there is also no need to concentrate on money-making to pay off debts, because their only debt is to Guru and Krsna. He said, "They've given you the opportunity to be free from birth and death and enter Goloka Vrndavana. When you've paid that debt, all other debts are paid automatically." He encouraged them to have the faith that if they spend their valuable time doing bhakti instead of maintaining the body made of stool and urine, Krsna would personally maintain them. Quoting from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, he gave the evidence: "Sraddha sabde visvasa kahe sudrdha niscaya, krsna-bhakti kaile sarva karma krta haya. Faith means the firm belief that by rendering loving service to Krsna, one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. When you engage in Krsna's devotional service, you have already performed all your responsibilities in the material world." Srila Maharaja told them, "There is no need spending the entire day making money, just to maintain these bodies made of puss and blood. We are eternal souls. We are not these bodies. We cannot even bring one hair of this body with us when we die." He chastised them coming from far away to hear his classes and then not attending those classes. When one of the devotees humbly objected and said she was certainly attending the classes, he showed his clairvoyance by revealing his inner meaning: "No, you were not there. Your mind was here and there as I spoke." The disciples were elated, grateful that their spiritual father was nourishing them by his love-filled reprimand. Srila Maharaja then called over Sripad Harinamananda dasa Adhikari, one of Srila Prabhupada's senior disciples, and began telling him of his recent experiences during Vraja Mandala parikrama. He said that in practically each sacred pastime place he and the devotees visited, the local leaders, pujaris, and residents had approached him for help. They had begged to him to renovate those pastime places, to save them from disappearing from human sight by dilapidation, decay, and water stagnation. They had told him that because of his connection with so many capable and talented Western devotees, and more importantly because of his transcendental connection with the previous acaryas who had originally re-manifested and preserved Krsna's pastime places, he is the only one they could turn to. Srila Maharaja gave the example of Pavana Sarovara. That sarovara lies north of Nandagaon when coming down from Nandisvara Hill, and is situated on the side of the highway leading towards Kamyavana. When Krsna and His friends would return from cow-grazing, they would take the cows there to drink. The boys would thus satisfy the cows before returning them to their resting-place in the gosala. The Vrajavasis also used to bathe in its fragrant and pure water, and Krsna also used to bathe there and perform water sports with His friends. On the far bank, Srimati Radhika used to bathe and play in the water with Her sakhis. Maharaja Vrsabhanu had a beautiful palace built for Srimati Radhika on its the northern bank. She played many games with Her sakhis in this palace, from which She could very easily have darsana of Her beloved Sri Krsna. The custom is to bathe there before taking darsana of Nanda, Yasoda and the others at the crest of the hill, but now its water had become stagnant and dirty, due to lack of circulation, and was now no longer sweet. Srila Maharaja therefore requested Western devotees qualified that area to help create a system wherein the water can again become fresh. In some cases of renovation, the old waters would have to be replaced with new, and in some cases the temples and other buildings would have to be partly redone. Just as he had done in Durvasa-tila and Bhandiravat, Srila Maharaja was now in the midst of preparing a scheme to fix up and preserve the lands, waters, and buildings of the sacred places of Krsna's pastimes, one by one, even while he was at the airport. Srila Maharaja arrived at the international airport in San Diego, California on Dec. 16th, and he inaugurated the six-day festival on the next day. As in Germany, he gave classes in the evenings, and during the days he continued his darsanas and also translation work of Sri Ujjvala-nilamani. As in Germany, he also gave harinama and diksa initiations to about thirty devotees. There in San Diego, however, the weather and other conditions were quite favorable. He thus arranged for a fire sacrifice to be held for the initiates, and it was performed in grandeur, according to the guidelines set in Srila Sanatana Gosvami's authorized Satkriya-Sar Dipika. An interesting human-interest feature is that one of the many new and enlivened initiates was the manager of the hotel complex that the local temple devotees had rented for Srila Maharaja and the two hundred fifty visiting devotees. She now met Srila Maharaja for the first time, wore a sari for the first time, and wept in happiness as she attended all Srila Maharaja's evening classes. Her name was Alita, and Srila Maharaja gave her the name Lalita. Next door to the hotel was the St. James Hall. Its assembly room was now turned into a beautiful temple room, and its stage now became the opulent abode of several arca-vigrahas of Radha-Krsna, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and Gaura-Nitai. Srila Maharaja's classes, held at the lotus feet of these Deities, were on the theme of sadhya and sadhana, the goal of life and the process to achieve it. The topics within that theme included aropa-siddha bhakti, sanga-siddha bhakti, svarupa-siddha-bhakti, the stages of advancement in bhakti beginning with sraddha, and the various kinds of uttama-bhakti exhibited by the unalloyed associates of Krsna like Arjuna and the gopis. Srila Maharaja left San Diego on Dec. 24th, on route to Hawaii, where he was absorbed mostly in the continuation of his translation work until Jan. 15th, the date of the commencement of the next festival's programs and classes. On the last day of the festival in San Diego, just before Srila Maharaja's departure, the janitor of the hall, an 'ordinary materialistic karmi', saw the large murti of Srila Prabhupada seated on his vyasasana in that assembly hall-turned temple room. That Janitor exclaimed, "He's real! He had his eyes on me!" 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