Diary of a spiritual journey 1
Date: 15.7.2002
Dear Vaisnavas,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila
Prabhupada.
Durban, July 12, 2002
Never before in my life have I maintained a diary, especially not a public
one. I am following in the footsteps of many senior vaisnavas, who have also
taken up this proces. My aim is to communicate with many people at once in a
personal way, I am receiving more e-mails than I can handle. It's not that my
diary is meant to replace personal correspondence, but since I can not manage
to write so many letters,this is at least a way to communicate. I hope you will
like it.
Another reason to write is for my own purification, which is most needed.
I am here in Durban at the eve of a three day Ratha Yatra festival. I am well
prepared, I have rested, shaved my head, listened to lectures of Prabhupada
and chanted some extra rounds beyond sixteen.
Actually I was forced to rest a lot during the last period, since 12 days ago
somehow or other unexpectedly a collision took place between the head of another
devotee and mine. It has take almost 2 weeks to recover from the consequent
concussion, I am ok now
In South Africa it is winter at the moment, but in Durban it's quite mild only
after dark it becomes cold.
I am at home here, because I get a lot of appreciation from the devotees. I
have been regularly coming to South Africa since 1995. Appreciation is important,
I may be a sannyasi but also still a human being.
We had some very nice programs here. In Pretoria with a large group of African
students, before the program we just spoke informally, they were intelligent
and very interested in Krishna consciousness. Then we had a real nice, long,
intense bhajan, with a very happy exchange during class and finally a big kirtan
where every black had his own dance, everybody loved it. Africa is ready for
Krishna.
Durban July 15th.
This weekend we had the day Ratha Yatra festival in Phoenix, Durban with many
Indian- and some African devotees, big, long kirtanas it was very nice and I
also I liked the question and answer sessions for which they have a seperate
tent during the festival. There are so many devotees here and in Phoenix they're
building a big temple. Lord Caitanya's movement touches the life of many new
people everyday and some actually take up regular devotional service. The world
is being flooded in love of God.
In 1987 I was a grhasta and we were living in Mayapur somewhere on the ground
floor. One night suddenly we heard people calling the bear, the bear is loose.
They had a zoo with a bear in Mayapur during those days. Next people began to
call out flood, flood! We got up and saw that the land was covered in 10 cm
of water just like after a big rain, but now the water was rising and rising.
We also saw the bear, they let him out of the cage and were trying to bring
him to high ground. The water was steadily getting higher and higher and we
barely had the time to move our most important belongings out of the room to
the first floor before the water came inside the house. By the time the morning
arrived the whole area was covered in 2 meters of water. Prabhupada writes in
the Caitanya Caritamrta that these floods in Mayapur mean that the whole world
will be flooded with love of God by Lord Caitanya's movement and by traveling
around the world, we can see it happening everywhere. First it may not look
like so much, but the level of Krishna consciousness is steadily rising without
a doubt!
Now it's time to rest, read and chant!
More news soon, hari bol,
Your servant,
Kadamba Kanana Swami
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