Sri Sri Guru-Gaurangau Jayatah!

 

16th World Tour of
Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj

 

 Sitzerland Report

First hand account by
Sripad Bhakti Prapanna Tirtha Maharaj

 


B
y the grace of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, and especially Srila Acharyyadev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, we went for the first time to Switzerland. There Prita Krishna arranged the programme. He was so enthusiastic and nice. From Italy we started by car and went to a place called Porrentruy . On the drive to Porrentruy the Switzerland scenery was exceptional.

Prita Krishna Prabhu's family are very nice and they treated Srila Maharaj very well. They arranged one house for Srila Govinda Maharaj and a few others to stay, and a nearby hostel for the several accompanying devotees.

Then we went into the town and did some sankirttan. Porrentruy is a small Swiss town but very beautiful. But the most beautiful thing I feel was when we went to the town with sankirttan. We got such a nice response from the people, everyon4e smiling and laughing and opening their doors and windows to see and greet us. Many people invited us to their places to do sankirttan, and we were very happy. Afterwards we had a programme where some friends of Prita Krishna Prabhu came by and listened to Srila Maharaj's holy talk, asked questions and attentively heard the answers. It was a very nice meeting. This was our first time in Switzerland and it showed much promise for the future.

In this way we were very welcomed everywhere we went. The beauty of Switzerland is also unbelievable, it is incomparable, like an enhanced picture. Everywhere we went it felt like some painter, some artist had made the scene. Switzerland is like that. Also we saw cows there. They are not so used to humans and will not come so near if you try to touch them, but they are big, and with big bells around their necks. They are eating the grass and so much grass; we cannot believe how much and so green and soft. The cows also look very happy. Switzerland is so clean, naturally clean, and everything is very special.

ONWARD TO GENEVA

F
rom there we started for Geneva. We went on a very special train from Porrentruy that rode through the hills and it was all very scenic. Everything in Switzerland was first class. Srila Maharaj went from Porrentruy to Geneva by car. In Geneva we actually stayed in France in a very big and very nice hotel. There in Geneva we also went for sankirttan. One gentlemen told us not to go and that the people would not like it, but we told that we must go as we are doing sankirttan all over the world! And we did sankirttan and everyone was happy to see us.

In Geneva we stayed two nights. There Maharaj also saw some sights including a very beautiful lake and the town of Geneva. We also met with an Indian man named Sri Vinod Kumar who has lived in Switzerland for 31 years. He was very friendly and interested in spiritual matters and he was charmed by Srila Maharaj's Hari-katha. He was surprised to see Srila Maharaj with so many devotees congregating there from all over the world, but Maharaj said very humbly that he is from a very small Math. Actually it was small but now it is not so small! Vinod Kumar then invited Srila Maharaj to give a lecture at his Vedanta Ashram. The monks staying at the ashram were very charmed by Maharaj's Hari-katha, and they attentively listened to his lecture on the greatest necessity of this age, the yuga-dharmma as Harinam-sankirttan. Being with Srila Govinda Maharaj on this tour has made it all the more clear to us all that this message of Mahaprabhu is being so grandly taught and practised by our venerable Sri Acharyyadev at each step. His activities are very grand indeed.

Humbly
-B.P. Tirtha


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10 October 2000.
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