Preaching with Sripad Bhakti Nirmal Acharyya Maharaj in Dogachia Village

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Programme of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Nabadwip, 7 April 2006

We reached the house and received a warm welcome from Prahlad Prabhu and his family, and soon evening arati began.

The altar worshipped at their house.

Before arati, we were offered some fruit. Acharyya Maharaj kept telling us, "You don't have to take all of it if you don't want," as they gave more and more fruit. "There will be more prasadam later." Krishna Kumar Prabhu from Venezuela, who was attending this kind of preaching programme for the first time, said, "Oh no, this is all I will take." Sadhu Priya Prabhu then asked: "This is the first time you take part in an Indian preaching program isn't? We must initiate you. Just wait until prasadam time...."

The cook devotees from the Math arrive early on in the day, and spent the entire afternoon preparing delicious dishes for offering to the Lord and distributing to the devotees. During these programmes, you are always given so much prasadam.

I was surprised to see so many young kids!
Namo namah Tulasi Maharani, Vrinde Maharani, namo namah....
Photo! Photo! Please take a photo!

After arati and Tulasi Parikrama, Sripad Acharyya Maharaj began singing bhajans.

Bit by bit, more and more people arrived.

Sadhu Priya Prabhu led a few kirttans and expertly played the mrdanga.

After bhajans, Sripad Acharyya Maharaj preached strongly. He mentioned, after the programme was over, that these people are very much interested in farming, and cultivating their land, but not so much in Krishna consciousness. He repeated again and again that service to Krishna is our natural position, and in this way we can receive the most benefit. He also pointed out us Westerners, and talked a little something about our lifestyle. He told them that we have so many accommodations in the West: cars, houses, and so on. There is so much wealth and opportunity for material 'satisfaction,' but we leave all of that to come here for a short time in order to receive the real wealth given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Govinda Maharaj in India.

He told them they are so fortunate to live in the place where we all dream of staying even for just a few days, but they they are very unfortunate if, with such good opportunity, they don't try to cultivate Krishna consciousness. I could not understand what he was saying word for word while he spoke, but I could understand the gist of what he was saying to them, and he explained more afterwards. I watched the people in the audience, some looked very happy about what he was saying and you could see a spark in their eyes, others just listened passively.

I asked Maharaj after the programme had ended, what the result was like. Did these people come to the Ashram afterwards? Did they want to receive initiation? He replied that most of them listen, and then continue with their work, and sometimes a few of them will take some interest and enquire further. Either way, these people are very fortunate to live here and to receive the association of Srila Govinda Maharaj's preaching party.

After the class, Sripad Acharyya Maharaj requested that we begin the slide show presentation. We were a little afraid that the projector might blow up or something due to the electricity issues, but it all turned out okay.

First there was a photo show of pictures from the Soquel Seva Ashram, China, and this year's Gaurapurnima celebration.

After that, we played a video about Srila Govinda Maharaj's Sri Vyasa-Puja 2005.

In the meantime, Sachisuno Prabhu, who had arrived at the house earlier that morning to arrange the prasadam, prepared the bhoga before offering it to the deities.

After the show, prasadam was ready. There were several paneer preparations, channa dahl, alu-subji, roti, misti doi, rasagula....

Sripad Acharyya Maharaj made sure everybody had plenty of prasadam.

The best part was when Maharaj would sneak extra sweets and dahl patties onto my plate.

Jnana Jnanananda Prabhu honouring prasad. Maha Prasad ki jaya!

Before we left, I was asked to take another group photo. The bus ride back to the Ashram was nice. Everybody was content and we asked Sripad Acharyya Maharaj to tell us about the class he had given this evening. The two Venezuelan devotees shared their experience with us, and the young devotees joked at the back of the bus. We returned to the temple at around 11:30pm and went to sleep thinking about the nice preaching program to Dogachia.

Harinam Sankirttan ki jaya!

Nitai Gaura Premanande Haribol!

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