My husband and I like to spend Karttika in Vrndavana and Mayapur. So last winter, we decided to go to Vrndavana first. We were especially excited to be there, because our dear friend Shreyas took diksha from His Grace Sankarsana dasa Adhikari right in the temple room of Sri Sri Krsna-Balarama Mandir! His name is now Sridhara dasa.
We got a room in Bhakti Dhama, which is fairly clean and close to the temple. We were happy to be able to attend mangala-arati every day while we were there. I love how in Vrndavana us old Srila Prabhupada disciples get to stand up at the railing in front of the Deities. We are so fortunate! Sri Sri Radha-Shyamasundara ki jai! After mangala-arati, I like to go to Balarama Hall for Tulasi-puja, then to Srila Prabhupada's house for japa. My good friend Karuna and I often chant together upstairs in Srila Prabhupada's bedroom.
After the morning program, the Srimad-Bhagavatam class is very relishable. We heard an amazing class given by His Holiness Lokanatha Swami one morning. He knows so many detailed stories, and tells them so sweetly, I scribbled notes throughout the hour, then emailed them to my daughter in the US.
One of the most memorable experiences in Vrndavana was hearing the pastimes of Srila Prabhupada narrated by his disciples. Thanks to the determination of our dear Godsister Parvati, who put it all together and got all the speakers to come to Srila Prabhupada's house on time, we were blessed to hear nectar almost every day while we were there.
After Vrndavana, we traveled to Panipat. There we met friends and enjoyed the kirtan of Lord Sri Krsna's holy names both indoors and outdoors (nagar-sankirtana). We also took a little excursion bus-ride with about thirty devotees to Kurukshetra for an unforgettable tirtha-yatra experience. Kurukshetra is such a holy place and it is well-maintained, so it is a pleasant and inspiring place to visit.
We headed back to Delhi after our intense five-day kirtan and preaching marathon in Panipat, and from Delhi, we hopped on a super-fast train to Sealdah Station in Kolkata. From the train station, we caught a cab and drove to Mayapur for a relaxing 2 1/2 week stay. By Krsna's grace, we were able to get a room in Isodhyan, which is a snazzy new building just around the corner from Vamsi-bhavan. Luckily, we were close enough to be able to walk to the temple every morning for mangala-arati. I love standing up close to Panca-tattva's altar, gazing at Their golden beauty and praying to Them from the core of my heart. It's hard to tear myself away from Their beautiful Lordships to go see Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, but usually I manage to get over there to Radha-Madhava's altar before arati is over. Such an experience is indescribably unforgettable. Every devotee should have the chance to attend mangala-arati in Sri Mayapur-dhama before he or she leaves the body.
On December 4th, we left Mayapur and headed west on a train to Bangalore, then on to Udupi. Udupi is a humid place, but in December, it's lovely. So upon returning to our home, we found that it was not too moldy (mildew is a perennial problem in our house) so it was easy to clean the house and get settled back in to our daily routine at home. Pita is really good about getting up early, even when he's tired. I had bronchitis (I guess I haven't learned yet to protect myself from getting chilled in Mayapur), so I had a much harder time getting up early, but eventually I started feeling better and eased into my home-routine.
At home, we get up at 4:00 a.m. We bathe, wake up the Deities, and chant our japa. Then my husband reads Srimad-Bhagavatam to me while I cook. During the day, we go about our various duties, singing the holy names of Krsna while we work. We wash our clothes in a bucket and hang them on ropes that are hung across the roof upstairs. Great place for drying laundry and also for chanting japa! Often in the evening, we have kirtan, and as soon as we start singing, our neighbors come in, sit down and start chanting with us! There's just nothing like devotee association.
On December 10, we took a short train ride to Karwar, where Atul Krsna Prabhu had invited us to come for a Jagannatha Ratha-yatra Festival. We were happy to attend, saw familiar faces and met new friends as well. The kirtans, of course, were ecstatic and the parade was a coconut-smashing success!
After the Karwar Ratha-yatra, we returned to Udupi for an almost unprecedented 28-day break from traveling. While we are home in Udupi, we attend programs sponsored by devotees--temple programs, home programs, and Saturday nights at Bhaktivedanta Youth Services in Manipal. So we're busy but at least we're sleeping in our own beds, as my husband says.
Nanda Maharaja's house is always a treat for us. We go there to recuperate, to honor Lakshmi Mataji's famous cooking, and to enjoy kirtan and krsna-katha with the salt-of-the-earth Shimoga devotees. On the 8th of January, 2016 we arrived at Nanda Maharaja's home for our umpteenth visit. The stately old two-storey mansion sports a plethora of guest rooms and a squeaky porch swing on the balcony above the front entrance. The home is nestled between the Jagannatha Nursing Home and the famous Jewel Rock Hotel in Shimoga. Nanda Maharaja, the man who built the house, is 89 years old. He practiced medicine for sixty years before joining ISKCON seven years ago, and has been a sold-out surrendered soul ever since. He has read Srila Prabhupada's Krsna Book dozens of times, and is almost constantly reading Srila Prabhupada's books when he's not chanting japa or doing Deity seva. His whole life is Krsna, Krsna, Krsna. Singing bhajans with devotion, he performs amazingly sweet, heartfelt aratis to his Deities every day. Daily he prays to his beloved Lord Giridhari, "My Dear Lord Giridhari, please let me remember You when I leave this body. And if I can't remember You, because of being too much afflicted by the condition of this body at the time of death, You please force Yourself into my mind." This is his daily prayer. His wife Lakshmi is an itsy-bitsy teeny-tiny woman of about seventy-five with a big heart and a no-nonsense mood in the kitchen. Her kitchen is her temple, and she spends her life there, cooking, cooking, cooking and then relentlessly serving the devotees so much prasadam that they invariably have to roll out of the dining room to lie down and recuperate. It was there that I first met my eternal soul-sister Aparabhakti devi dasi, whose association is my life-blood, and my soft-as-a-rose girlfriend Sauraseni dasi. Out of fairness to all the jewel-like Shimoga devotees, whose names I can't list in full, I will leave it at this. May they all be blessed to continue enlivening and encouraging weary travelers like us with their inspiring association.
After a week of being back in Udupi, we headed over to Mysore for a blissful weekend of nectarean kirtans and krsna-katha with Radha-Krsnacandra Prabhu, his family, and friends. Radha-Krsnacandra Prabhu and his good wife Divya are old-time friends of Nanda Maharaja's family, so that's how we happened to connect with them. They built a beautiful, big house in Mysore and installed gorgeous Radha-Krsna Deities in their impressive home temple room. That installation ceremony was attended by many stalwart devotees, including His Holiness Bhakti Rasamrta Swami, beloved of all the Vaisnavas. We also were blessed at that time to meet Govinda-charana Prabhu, his lovely wife Sudha Madhavi and their jolly son Sandeep, whom my husband affectionately calls "Nataraja" because he loves to dance in kirtan. We had met them through our dear friend Jaya Vraja dasi of Bangalore, the daughter of Govinda Prabhu and Mother Sudha, and sister of Sandeep Prabhu. We were happy as always to see them again.
The next segment must wait till another time, because it wears me out just thinking about it. My husband calls it "Six Trains in Nine Days" so that should give you an idea. To be continued...
