Volume 9, Chapter 1

Diary of a Traveling Preacher Volume 9, Chapter 1 January 19 - 28, 2008 By Indradyumna Swami "A Perfect Ending"The devotees on our tour were tired from seven weeks of festivals throughoutAustralia and New Zealand, but they looked forward to the final twoprograms, to be held in Hong Kong.But we almost didn't make it. The day before our departure from Auckland,our Russian and Ukrainian devotees had not yet been granted visas for HongKong. That night I called Chandrasekhar das, one of the leaders in thetemple there."It's 9 PM," I said. "We're due to fly out in nine hours. Have the visascome through?""Not yet," he said, "and the situation doesn't look good. We've been tryingto contact the immigration office all week, but it's impossible to getthrough. Our lawyer is trying to reach them through special channels. I'llcall you if something happens."I understood Chandrasekhar's anxiety. He and a team of local devotees hadbeen organizing the festival for six months. At great cost they had rentedan auditorium with 1,000 seats for two evenings at a prestigious universityin downtown Hong Kong. Never before had the small yatra attempted such abold preaching program. A number of special dignitaries, including theConsul General of India would be attending."We have to start making alternative plans now," I said to Santi Parayanadas after the call with Chandrasekhar. "Our visas to New Zealand arefinished tomorrow morning. Either we fly to Hong Kong tomorrow or back toEurope. Call our travel agent at her home and see if our flights can beredirected to London."I told the rest of the devotees to go to bed.Hours passed. I fell asleep. At 2:30 am my cell phone rang. I grabbed it."The visas have been granted!" said Chandrasekhar excitedly. "It's amiracle.""Wow!" I said, instantly awake. "How did it happen?""Somehow our lawyer got through to an immigration official in Hong Kong," hereplied. "It was after hours and the official just happened to be in hisoffice. She impressed upon him the importance of the event. He replied hewould need time to think about it. She called him back three times in anhour and kept repeating the urgency of the situation. Finally he agreed.They'll have someone waiting for you with the visas when you get off theplane.""That's as close as they come," I replied. "Three and a half hours beforedeparture."I ran into the room where the men were sleeping."Everybody up!" I said loudly as I turned on the light.The men slowly opened their eyes and sat up."Where are we going?" said Gaura Hari das, rubbing his eyes. "London or HongKong?""Hong Kong," I said with a smile. "And we're out of here in 45 minutes."We made it to the airport with no time to spare. As we were on severaldifferent flights, I gave the devotees final instructions on how to fill outimmigration cards when they arrived.One girl spoke up. "Guru Maharaja," she said, "is the Hong Kong harbor stillfull of those boats they call junks, the ones with the big sails?""Maybe there's a few for the tourists," I laughed. "But Hong Kong is amodern city. It's one of the business capitals of the world."I had also had had a romantic idea of Hong Kong before visiting the citylast year, but on my arrival I found an ultra-modern, efficient, andsurprisingly clean city. China had ceded Hong Kong to the British after theOpium Wars in the late 19th century, and got it back in 1997. Although muchof the old Chinese culture disappeared under British rule, many aspects ofit are still present, and as my troupe of devotees soon discovered, thereremains a blend of old and new even today.The day after our arrival we split up into two Harinama groups to advertisethe festivals. One hundred and twenty devotees from various places joinedus. I took out one party and my Godbrother Bhakti Bringa Govinda Maharaja,who was also visiting, took out the other.As my group chanted and danced blissfully down the crowded streets, westopped to chant in front of a large convenience store. Our devotees wereshocked when they read the signs advertising the products inside:"On special today: Dried gizzards, snakehead soup, and Chinese caterpillarfungus."The streets were crowded, and it was hard to move along, but people kindlyaccepted our invitations. After several hours I saw very few on the ground."It's a hopeful sign," I thought.That evening Govinda Maharaja led a long bhajan in the small temple. Many ofthe Chinese devotees had never experienced such a blissful kirtan before,and they chanted and danced with great pleasure. As the kirtan continued, Iwent to speak to Chandrasekhar in his office."It's an ambitious plan to try and fill a thousand seats two nights in arow," I said."I'm hoping we can do it," Chandrasekhar replied. "Nowadays a number ofpeople in Hong Kong are expressing an interest in Indian culture. Since2004, over 30 schools and colleges have visited our temple. And yoga studiosare springing up all around the city."The next day we took a large Harinama to Sai Kung, a town just outside HongKong. Much less commercial than Hong Kong itself, it represented the normalChinese culture outside the cities. But whereas people in Hong Kong showedsome interest in our chanting party, people in Sai Kung busied themselveswith their work and hardly seemed to notice us."It would have been wiser to continue chanting in Hong Kong," I thought.As we were about to finish, we passed an old Chinese temple."Can foreigners go inside?" I asked a local Chinese devotee."Let's see," he replied.With five or six devotees following us, we entered the temple."How old is it?" I asked quietly.The devotees looked at some inscriptions on the wall. "It's 140 years old,"someone whispered.The temple was dimly lit, and I had to squint to see the altar. Finally Icould make out a deity of a tall, bearded man with long hair."Who is that?" I asked a devotee."Guan Gong," he replied, "He's a famous warrior who defended this area fromoutside warlords, centuries ago."There was an abundance of incense burning on the altar. "Do they worshiphim?" I asked."Oh yes," the devotee replied. "People come here to pray to him forprotection. They believe that some special persons attain divinity afterthey die and have supernatural powers."I glanced around the temple and saw old wall hangings, bells, and articlesfor worship. The walls were thick with black soot from 140 years of incensesmoke."Look over here," the devotee continued. "People take these two woodenpieces, the size of your fists, and throw them in front of him. If thepieces both land with the smooth side up, it means he agrees to answer aquestion."You ask a question and then pull a wooden stick from this pile of numberedsticks. You check the number on your stick and then go over there, where yousee a pile of old parchments. You take the parchment with the correspondingnumber on it and read the answer to your question. Do you want to try?""No thank you," I replied respectfully.We walked out of the temple. "Maharaja," said a devotee, "there is nothingthat corresponds to this type of worship in Vedic Culture, is there?""Actually," I replied, "there is for a certain class of men. This is akin toworship of the ancestors. Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita:yanti deva vrata devanpitrn yanti pitr vratahbhutani yanti bhutejyayanti mad yajino'pi mam'Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; thosewho worship the ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship ghosts andspirits will take birth among such beings; and those who worship Me willlive with Me.'"[Bhagavad Gita, 9.25]Just outside the temple, we passed a large furnace where a priest wasoffering different articles made of paper into the fire."What in the world is he doing?" I asked a local devotee."People believe you can send things to your ancestors this way," he replied."For example, if you want to send them a car, you offer a paper car into thefire with certain prayers.""Let's get back to the pure chanting of the holy names," I said. "I can hearthe kirtan party just around the corner."The next day we continued advertising the festivals with a big Harinamaalong a boardwalk near the port. Devotees got tired after some time, but Iwas determined to keep them out as long as possible."I'll be happy if we can fill just half the hall each night," I thought.While chanting down the street we were again reminded of local tastes infood. As we passed a big restaurant we saw a large array of live seafoodswimming in huge aquariums outside the restaurant. There were octopuses,eels, water snakes, huge crabs, and a bizarre assortment of sea fish I hadnever seen before.Customers would stop and indicate to an employee which creature they wanted.The employee would reach in and catch the aquatic and quickly take it backto the kitchen. A half hour later it would be on the customer's table readyto eat.When a large family of 12 people chose a fish almost as big as I am, I toldthe kirtan leader to quickly move on.I turned to Gaura Hari. "It's Lord Caitanya's mercy," I said. "Even peoplewith habits like those can become devotees."I quoted a famous verse from Srimad Bhagavatam:kirata hunandhra pulinda pulkasaabhira sumbha yavanah khasadayahye'nye ca papa yad apasrayasrayahsudhyanti tasmai prabhavisnave namah"Kirata, Huna, Andhra, Pulinda, Pulkasa, Abhira, Sumbha, Yavana, members ofthe Khasa races and even others addicted to sinful acts can be purified bytaking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supremepower. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him."[Srimad Bhagavatam 2.4.18 ]"Maharaja," said Gaura Hari, "'Khasa' refers to the Chinese. But 'ye 'nye capapa' means 'others addicted to sinful acts.' That would include Westernerssuch as us, wouldn't it? Think of what they serve in the restaurants inAmerica."I felt humbled. "Yes," I replied, "you're correct. We were also addicted tosinful activity before coming to Krsna consciousness. We're not better thanthey are, just more fortunate, that's all. We have already come to KrishnaConsciousness."The next morning, our festival group and a number of local devotees went tothe auditorium to begin setting up the stage. When we walked in we werestunned. One thousand seats cascaded gracefully down towards an immensestage, which was complete with every imaginable lighting, curtain, andfacility needed for a professional show."This dwarfs the Melbourne City Hall we performed in," said a devotee.I couldn't help staring at the impressive stage. "Our show deserves such asetting," I said. "We're presenting the highest culture. With such afacility, people will be able to appreciate our presentation much more. Butlet's hope we get enough people. This place will look empty even if 500people show up.""Maharaja," said a devotee, "Chandrasekhar said ticket sales have been goingwell the last couple of days as a result of the Harinams."The devotees were dressed and ready two hours before the show. Everyone wasexcited. It would be a fitting end to our two months of preaching.Spontaneously I called a meeting with all of them."I'll be leaving the morning after the last program," I began. "I justwanted to thank all of you for the wonderful service you've performed duringthe last two months. I'm sure all of us will cherish memories of this tourfor the rest of our lives.""We worked hard spreading the message of Lord Caitanya," I continued."Sometimes it was like drinking hot sugar-cane juice: so hot it burned thelips, but so sweet we couldn't stop.""And we had so many nice morning programs," said a devotee. "We reallyenjoyed chanting our rounds together and discussing Srimad Bhagavatam.""And great prasadam," added another.Then there was a moment of silence as everyone realized the tour was almostover.Suddenly the devotees looked sad. "The only consolation," I said, "is thatwe'll all be together again in a few months for the summer festival tour inPoland."A big cheer went up."Now let's get ready to go on stage," I said enthusiastically. "The showstarts in a few minutes."The moment we had been waiting for all week was at hand. I decided to take apeek through the giant curtain on the stage and see how many people hadcome. I went before the curtain, paused for a moment, and pulled it slightlyback.What a jolt! The hall was almost full. Row after row of Chinese people weresitting, waiting patiently for the show to begin. In the front row I saw anumber of dignitaries, including the Consul General of India, the ViceChancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a number of professors,and several prominent Hong Kong businessmen.For a moment I felt a tinge of nervousness. "We'll be performing in front ofa number of distinguished guests and a crowd of 900 people," I thought.Then I laughed. "We've performed in front of hundreds of thousands of peoplethrough the years," I thought. "And they almost always appreciate the show.Why should this program be any different? In fact, with a hall like this itcan only be better."And better it was. The program that night was flawless, and the audienceloved every minute of it. The VIPs seemed to applaud the loudest.The next day the hall was just as full and the festival even better. It wasthe last show on the tour, and the devotees gave it everything they had.Early the next morning Chandrasekhar drove me to the airport."So how did you like the festivals?" he asked."A perfect ending to a wonderful tour," I replied."What's next?" he asked."I'm going to Bali, Indonesia," I replied. "The devotees there have invitedme to come and preach for a week.""Oh, that's very nice," he said. "It's a tropical island. Do you plan totake a break as well?"I reflected for a moment."Next life," I said with a laugh. "For now, I'm too happy preaching in theassociation of so many loving devotees of the Lord."As I boarded the plane, I thought of something Srila Prabhupada had written:"Try to remember Krsna always by following the principles as you know them;namely rising early, taking bath, cleansing, attending aratika, readingscriptures at least one hour or two hours daily, chanting sixteen rounds onbeads of Hare Krsna mantra, going for street sankirtana, offering all yourfoodstuffs to Krsna, like that. In this way very quickly you will makeprogress in Krsna Consciousness and become very, very happy in your life."[Srila Prabhupada, letter to Susan Beckam September 29, 1972]Indradyumna.swami@pamho.netwww.traveling-preacher.comAudio lectures: www.narottam.com