For the Sydney devotees, chanting on the streets was a way of life, and they did it with full enthusiasm. They were more mobile now. A new blue Volkswagen Kombi van enabled them to travel quickly and efficiently to various city locations.
Upananda: One day a huge crate of musical instruments arrived from India. We were ecstatic! Handsome new clay mrdangas would add power and authenticity to our daily harinamas. Upendra sat us all down and taught us how to play the karatals properly and discussed how we could improve our street presentation.
Upendra had insisted that the devotees not look dishevelled, but rather that they dress in clean neat attire. The men now wore matching brown sweaters and nicely pressed dhotis. The ladies all wore saffron saris. Upendra personally choreographed the dancing — it looked appealing. They would chant, two-by-two, through the city streets, and when standing still, danced the “swami step”. Prabhupada had taught his disciples how to dance like this in the early days at 26 Second Avenue. Holding their arms above their heads they would swing their left foot forward across the right foot, and then bring it back again in a sweeping motion. Then they would swing their right foot across the left, in reverse. At the same time they would swing their bodies from side to side, left foot to right side, right foot to left side, in time with the one-two-three rhythm.
Many office workers would lean out of the windows as the kirtana reverberated off the tall city buildings. The sankirtana party was becoming a regular daily sight in downtown Sydney, and Chris and Christine were amongst the most enthusiastic of the chanters.
Chris: When we moved into the temple, I don’t think we fully realised how much of a missionary movement Krsna consciousness was. I envisioned that what I was turning back to was a monastic, cloistered way of life. I based this assumption on the fact that the temple, chosen by the first missionaries, was far removed from the “madding crowd”. But now we joined in the daily harinama and that involved going back to the very spot where I had met Upendra at the subway station in George Street. We would chant just inside the subway there, getting really good acoustics, distributing Back to Godhead magazines and sometimes little packets of peanuts and raisins.
Our method of book distribution at that time was to hold out an invitation card to the Sunday feast. When someone would take it, then we would say: “Take a magazine too,” and then we would get a donation for the magazine. We didn’t generate a whole lot of income from that, but we sure did a lot of chanting. Every afternoon from two to six, after a fantastic lunch cooked by Upendra, we would go out again and chant and chant and chant. We made a lot of spiritual advancement just by chanting.
Upendra had many ideas. While Christine used her artistic talents to craft hand-puppets, Chris and Tirthapada were excellent actors. Soon, plays and puppet shows were turning the regular Sunday afternoon Domain program into an all-attractive festival.
Each week the devotees staged a different production on the lawns of the Domain and drew bigger crowds than ever. Haridasa and the Prostitute, Liquid Beauty, and The Story of Prahlada Maharaja were favourites. And the feasts! The devotees, who were supposed to eat austerely during the week, would save themselves for Sundays. Upendra would tell them how in the “early days”, Prabhupada had encouraged the devotees to eat to their full satisfaction on feast days. The Sydney devotees eagerly complied. After all, it was spiritual food. It would purify you, and free you from maya. Besides, it was delicious!
The devotees’ enthusiasm was contagious; more and more new guests were attending the feasts. Two young girls in their final year at St Patrick’s Girls School at Church Hill came regularly and put on saris; and more young men and women were committing themselves. “Rukmini”, a young girl who had first met the devotees at the University of New South Wales, came to stay, as did Anne, a young stenographer from Bondi. Alan, a well-built ruddy-cheeked young man from New Zealand had recently moved into the temple; and so had slightly-built Carol, who had been visiting the temple on-and-off since first seeing Bali-mardana in Kings Cross earlier in the year.
Media awareness of the devotees was on the increase. On 17 September, further Vietnam rallies were held in capital cities around Australia, this time ending in numerous arrests. The devotees, however, happily participated by sitting in a park downtown and chanting peacefully. The Sydney Morning Herald picked up the mood:
Members of the Hare Krishna movement chose Wynyard Park in Sydney yesterday as an appropriate place to meditate …
The group, calling themselves Vaisnavas, or Devotees of the Lord, say their aim is to “purify the ever-increasing polluted atmosphere by simple chanting of God’s Holy Name in the public areas …”
Upendra sent this and other recent articles to Srila Prabhupada, who wrote back on 29thSeptember; Srila Prabhupada said:
My Dear Upendra,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your very encouraging letter dated September 21st1970 along with some nice photos of your Sydney activities and some favourable reports from the local newspaper. All this publicity is very nice for our movement and people are beginning to seriously appreciate our work.
I am very glad to know that you are following a strict schedule of devotional service and that will keep you all strong in Krishna consciousness. Please maintain this standard and improve further. It appears that Krishna is giving you nice facilities and nice devotees also for fulfilling His mission in Australia. Please train the new devotees nicely and have them carefully read our literature so they get a fine understanding of our Krishna consciousness.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada-The Great Transcendental Adventure-‘This Novel Idea’– Early Days, 1968–1970-Kurma das
Post view 369 times
Leave a Reply