Harinam and Book Distribution, the right and left hand of ISKCON
On the last morning of the festival after mangal aroti Hari Sauri Prabhu introduced everyone to the main person who manages the Mayapur festival, his holiness Bhakti Purusotama Swami, a disciple of Jayapataka Swami. He recived a loud round of applause.
One addition to the Mayapura festival is a harinam in Kolcutta the day after Gaura Purnima. This year they decided to start it at the birth place of Srila Prabhupada. I had never been to his birth place so I was really looking forward to it. As we were driving to the house in a bus I turned to ask Hauri Sauri if he had ever been to the birth place of Prabhupada, to my surprise he said he hadn't, and that half the reason for his going to the Harinam was to visit this great tirtha. We looked for it for a hour, the drivers didnt' seem to know where it was and no one else did either. Then Maha Visnu Swami (Britsih) said, "Were not finding it because were not going with the proper mood, we should have guru puja." He led a very nice guru puja, and as if Prabhupada was confirming his realiztion, right after the guru puja we found ourselves at the janma tirtha of Prabhupada. There was a thousand devotees slowly going through the house, decorated flower arrangements were seen throughout the house, along with a kirtan being lead by Maha Visnu Swami. Then I went outside to breath.
Along with the thousand devotee harinam was the person responsible for such a wonderful event, Srila Prabhupada, he was on a chariot that had ropes which was pulled by the devotees. The harinam was big, because there about a thousand devotees, it was split in to two kirtans. One was being led by the main kirtan leader in Russia, Aditi Dukaha Prabhu and the other by one of the Maypura devotees. It was two hours of concentrated bliss. Srila Prabhupada said in one letter that, "Harinam and book distribution is the right and left hand of this society."
The harinam ended at a stadium where we all honored prasad. After prasad as I was walking around I saw Tat Par Swami, one of the early pioneers to the Mayapura yatra, Maharaja introduced me to a devotee sitting next to him. To my surprise this devotee was the great nephew of Prabhupada. He was born in the same house as Prabhupada and it was he that donated the house to ISKCON. He was also initiated by Prabhupada in 1973 receiving the name Sankarsan das.
Your Servant,
Vijaya Das
