Vraja Mandala Parikrama
so you guys want to know everything right?.....let's see how much I am able to give.
The trip to India went very smooth. The flights were ok so was the ride to Vrindavan from Delhi. One thing I immediately noticed upon arriving was how much I feel at home.
I know people that have freaked out just by getting out of the airport and seeing India what to speak of smelling it. But all these things do not cross my mind anymore. It has become home.
I really like it. I stayed with Sadhu Maharaja for the whole the party stayed in Vrindavan which was for about 12 or 14 days I guess. My friend Mangala from Switzerland was already there.
When you enter Mungir Mandir you'll see Maharaja's room on the right and the door is always open. As I was walking in I could already hear him call out " Radhe Radhe!"......He is so welcoming and loving. But you all know that. So I stayed for 4 days with a nice swiss devotee and the room we shared was nice too. Simple and actually clean.
When the parikrama started we all went to Mother Yamuna to make our vows. Gurudeva was there too. His hari-katha was mainly about Damodarastakam in the morning and Madhurya Kadambini in the evening. Very sweet and powerfull katha. The only thing that turned to be quiet difficult for most western to handle at some point was the fact that about 400 devotees from Bengal showed up without notice. And let me tell you Bengalis are really heavy characters. And they demand chilly in their prasad which made it difficult to eat sometimes.
For about 5 days I got some fever and streams of yellow nectar running from my nose, so I didn't really take part in the parikrama. But it is better to rest when you are in India. Unless your faith is strong then you might be able to overcome this bodily misconception.
Every night after class Gurudeva was walking through the crowd and I would always wait for him so I could touch his feet and hoping that he would touch me and bless me. I love to feel his hand on my head. It worked out almost every night ;)
So I did spent my time doing parikrama or going to some places with Sadhu Maharaja and one of his disciples from Slovenia. He was so much fun to hang out with. Oh and the prasad at Mungir Mandir especially cooked by his daughter was not from this world. ( on a side note) Does anybody know Tirtha Maharaja from our sanga. His is a disciple of Vamana Maharaja. He is a very powerful speaker and it was only this year that I realized one sweet thing about him. For example he would speak at Seva-kunja on the pastimes of Radha-Krsna and at one point he would just cry and cry. He would than pass the mic and let someone else speak. It also happened at Radhakunda. Gurudeva once asked him " Why always crying?" He couldn't answer.
Upps I forgot to mention that we spent 4 days at Mathura. The math is really special. This is a tirtha in itself. The deties were installed by Sriddhar Maharaja if I am not mistaken, someone very famous in our guru-varga. Prabhupada lived there, took sannyasa, what to speak of Gurudeva how served there for so many years. Now there is one devotee named Premananada Prabhu who is a brahmacari and as Gurudeva said his best disciple. There are so many stories about him I will tell you soemday. He is very special.
So first Mathura than Vrindavana than Govardhana.
As some of you know I was living first next door and later for about 6 days with Pradyumna Misra Prabhu. We had a wonderful time and sweet talks about Krsna. I like how natural he is.
He invited me to go to some restaurant on several days. We just needed a break from rice, dahl and potatoe sabji ;)
One thing i totally rememeber about Govardhana was at the Anukuth festival. We were all carrying plates on our head were walking to this on math which is directly at Govardhana hill.
I remember Gurudeva being so happy there. He said we were so fortunated to have come here. Then this one older disciple started singing these Hindi bhajans or kirtans and got up in the middle of all the devotees and just started singing and dancing. I was soooo sweet. I so feel in love with that type of kirtan. He also sang at some other occasion during the festival but I remember this time to be very sweet. Gurudeva was lifting his arm and with his finger im the air , making circles which made this devotee dance even more.
One day we went to Surabhi-kunja were Indra was forgiven his offence to Krsna. Gurudeva was also there and he had prasad with all of us. He just sat there on this wall no fancy vyasasana just a pillow and took prasad from a leaf plate. ( i stole his khir cup after he finished ;)
ok I guess that is it for now let think of more things.......
I have so many pics but I can't post them.any help welcome. should I use photobucket instead of flickr?
I miss you much.
Love
Amala Krsna das
p.s. You should all get on Skype so we could talk. Yes Vasu even you. ;)
The trip to India went very smooth. The flights were ok so was the ride to Vrindavan from Delhi. One thing I immediately noticed upon arriving was how much I feel at home.
I know people that have freaked out just by getting out of the airport and seeing India what to speak of smelling it. But all these things do not cross my mind anymore. It has become home.
I really like it. I stayed with Sadhu Maharaja for the whole the party stayed in Vrindavan which was for about 12 or 14 days I guess. My friend Mangala from Switzerland was already there.
When you enter Mungir Mandir you'll see Maharaja's room on the right and the door is always open. As I was walking in I could already hear him call out " Radhe Radhe!"......He is so welcoming and loving. But you all know that. So I stayed for 4 days with a nice swiss devotee and the room we shared was nice too. Simple and actually clean.
When the parikrama started we all went to Mother Yamuna to make our vows. Gurudeva was there too. His hari-katha was mainly about Damodarastakam in the morning and Madhurya Kadambini in the evening. Very sweet and powerfull katha. The only thing that turned to be quiet difficult for most western to handle at some point was the fact that about 400 devotees from Bengal showed up without notice. And let me tell you Bengalis are really heavy characters. And they demand chilly in their prasad which made it difficult to eat sometimes.
For about 5 days I got some fever and streams of yellow nectar running from my nose, so I didn't really take part in the parikrama. But it is better to rest when you are in India. Unless your faith is strong then you might be able to overcome this bodily misconception.
Every night after class Gurudeva was walking through the crowd and I would always wait for him so I could touch his feet and hoping that he would touch me and bless me. I love to feel his hand on my head. It worked out almost every night ;)
So I did spent my time doing parikrama or going to some places with Sadhu Maharaja and one of his disciples from Slovenia. He was so much fun to hang out with. Oh and the prasad at Mungir Mandir especially cooked by his daughter was not from this world. ( on a side note) Does anybody know Tirtha Maharaja from our sanga. His is a disciple of Vamana Maharaja. He is a very powerful speaker and it was only this year that I realized one sweet thing about him. For example he would speak at Seva-kunja on the pastimes of Radha-Krsna and at one point he would just cry and cry. He would than pass the mic and let someone else speak. It also happened at Radhakunda. Gurudeva once asked him " Why always crying?" He couldn't answer.
Upps I forgot to mention that we spent 4 days at Mathura. The math is really special. This is a tirtha in itself. The deties were installed by Sriddhar Maharaja if I am not mistaken, someone very famous in our guru-varga. Prabhupada lived there, took sannyasa, what to speak of Gurudeva how served there for so many years. Now there is one devotee named Premananada Prabhu who is a brahmacari and as Gurudeva said his best disciple. There are so many stories about him I will tell you soemday. He is very special.
So first Mathura than Vrindavana than Govardhana.
As some of you know I was living first next door and later for about 6 days with Pradyumna Misra Prabhu. We had a wonderful time and sweet talks about Krsna. I like how natural he is.
He invited me to go to some restaurant on several days. We just needed a break from rice, dahl and potatoe sabji ;)
One thing i totally rememeber about Govardhana was at the Anukuth festival. We were all carrying plates on our head were walking to this on math which is directly at Govardhana hill.
I remember Gurudeva being so happy there. He said we were so fortunated to have come here. Then this one older disciple started singing these Hindi bhajans or kirtans and got up in the middle of all the devotees and just started singing and dancing. I was soooo sweet. I so feel in love with that type of kirtan. He also sang at some other occasion during the festival but I remember this time to be very sweet. Gurudeva was lifting his arm and with his finger im the air , making circles which made this devotee dance even more.
One day we went to Surabhi-kunja were Indra was forgiven his offence to Krsna. Gurudeva was also there and he had prasad with all of us. He just sat there on this wall no fancy vyasasana just a pillow and took prasad from a leaf plate. ( i stole his khir cup after he finished ;)
ok I guess that is it for now let think of more things.......
I have so many pics but I can't post them.any help welcome. should I use photobucket instead of flickr?
I miss you much.
Love
Amala Krsna das
p.s. You should all get on Skype so we could talk. Yes Vasu even you. ;)