Venugopal & Padmini
BV Diary 2014-
Brazil
Tuesday 29th April 2014
I took an early morning flight from Bangalore to Sao Paulo via Abu Dhabi. From Abu Dhabi was a Business class flight as kindly arranged by Manohar Shyam das from Argentina through some influence with the airlines. So the fourteen hour flight was very comfortable. The immigration at Brazil was very slow. It was almost an hour to go through. HG Yamunacharya das, the head of Congregational development in Brazil and sannyasi-in-waiting, as well as HG Prananatha das - the Temple President of Sao Paulo, were waiting at the airport to receive me at 7.30 pm. He tells me that Sao Paulo looks like Delhi and it did –the buildings and greenery reminded me of Delhi. Prananatha prabhu is widely travelled and told me he will visit Bangalore as well!
Yamunacharya prabhu is tall and white. Brazil is the biggest melting pot of so many races, so it is a highly mixed country, and intermarriage between races never has been a problem. But the population has 5 categories based on skin color of white (the majority), black, brown and mixed (the next largest), east Asian and the local Amerindians. HG Prananatha prabhu also is a white. As Yamunacharya prabhu speaks only Portuguese, Prananatha prabhu was the main speaker and translator as we drove to the Temple. I got to know that there had a been a big Temple at Sao Paulo which has a population of about 10 million and which had been closed for the last two years due to some misunderstandings and break-ups and now they had just recently started functioning as a Temple in a rented villa.
The Temple is in a very posh neighbourhood. They have a big Pancatattva photo in the altar. I get a nice room for my stay. I am very well taken care of by an Argentinian mataji, and Rama Shakti mataji who is a Brazilian married to a Gujarathi Indian and lives at Ahmedabad is to be my constant companion for translation. She is gregarious, talking nineteen to the dozen, enthusiastic and looks like an Indian- can pass off for a Gujarathi or Punjabi!
Wednesday 30th April
As I had jet lag, I was up by 2 am to chant my japa. I was asked to lead the Mangala Arathi kirtan and give the morning class on the verse CC Adi verse 14.1 . I described to them about Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mood of elevating us in Krishna Prema and about developing loving relationships between devotees. How by His mercy everything becomes easy and successful and how without His mercy even easy things become difficult. Around 10 devotees attend. They are very enthused by the topic.
The Temple President had arranged for a TV interview. The Topic - “Destiny or Free will” which was going to be a serial. HG Yamunacharya spoke about his journey in this movement and about sex and celibacy. I was asked questions on Karma, Destiny and free will. I took the opportunity to give some God Consciousness- I spoke about how so many things can be predicted in life- if you sow a mango seed, you can predict that a mango tree will appear, similarly seasons and their occurrence, movement of the sun, etc. So predictability means that there is an intelligent design, plan and plan- maker- God. He asked me to define Karma and then asked me to speak something about myself. The Temple President was asked some questions on the Structure of the Universe.
Yamunacharya prabhu, Rama Shakti mataji and I went out to the restaurant Madhava Gopal in down town Sao Paolo about 2 Kms from the Temple. It is run by a devotee Madhava lila mataji who has been in the movement for more than 20 years. The restaurant can seat about 60 to 70 guests at a time and has 3 or 4 small rooms, was packed even on a week-day afternoon. The restaurant had been around for 18 years. They used to have serpentine queues leading upto the next street, but now her business partner, another devotee mataji has opened up another restaurant called Gopal’s just 3, 4 shops away from this restaurant and that is packed as well! It is very inspiring to see the popularity of vegetarianism in Brazil! We had lentil soup, lasagnia, baked rice, finger- shaped cutlets, salad, carrot halwa etc. It was a combo meal. It was quite expensive- about 600 Rupees. Madhava lila came and spoke to us for a while and she is eager to support the Bhakti Vriksha program.
In the evening the Congregation of more than 50
devotees attend my lecture on what they can expect to get from a Vaishnava
Community. It is well received. All of them express their desire for close
relationships here. They welcomed Bhakti Vriksha and 20 of them signed up
straight away to receive training to be Bhakti Vriksha leaders. There are more
senior devotees who are estranged and need to be contacted. Keshava Kashmiri
das, a Peruvian god-brother, living in Sao Paulo for many years and with a vast
experience in Congregational preaching agrees to take up responsibility to
train the leaders.
Nova Gokula farm!
After breakfast, Madhava lila mataji drove us to the world famous (in ISKCON circles) Nova Gokula farm, sprawling around 11 acres of forested land. It is the biggest ISKCON property in Soth America. It was established in 1978 and there is a Pushpa Samadhi of Srila Prabhupada on a raised land to the left as we arrive in the farm. Next to the Samadhi is a moderate sized Temple of the beautiful Deities of Radha Gokulananda, Sita Ram Lakshman Hanuman and Gaura Nitai. There are hills all around and all verdant with greenery.
On the right side are a row of shops - Gift shop, massage shop, Ayurveda shop, etc all run by the families living in the farm. Around 15 families live here at present. There are a few devotee-run restaurants for the visitors. We drive up to the villa built with so much love for HH Hridayananda Maharaja by his disciples who were hoping he will make it his residence. Though Maharaja has not been here for some years due to ill health, they are hopeful that he will come soon. Many other Sannyasis have stayed in this beautiful and comfortable villa and we feel very privileged to stay and also conduct seminars here in a big hall.
The devotees had built a bigger building which we pass by but Maharaja had requested for a smaller one for himself.
Huge French windows and big glass windows allow us to always keep viewing the beautiful greenery outside which is breath taking- so peaceful and quiet as well.
In the evening I was asked to give a class on Bhagavad-gita or a topic of my choice at the Temple. I chose to speak on an introduction to Bhakti Vriksha and explain about Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mood and instructions. First we had a very lively and inspiring evening arathi kirtan led by HH Paramartha Maharaja one of the senior Brazilian Gurus and Sannyasi. HH Chandramukha Swami, Guru and Sannyasi was also there. After the kirtan, many Temple presidents and the GBCs attending the CGB meetings of Brazil that was also going on there, attended my lecture. They gave a feed-back that they were very moved by it!
Friday 2nd June 2014
We walk down in pitch darkness to the Temple for Mangala Arathi. Only the light shining from the smart phone guided our path. Yamunacharya prabhu and a young devotee boy accompanying him and staying at the basement rooms accompanied myself and also Rama Shakti mataji and Devahuti mataji another devotee from South Brazil who knew English and very interested to start BV programs with her husband.
At Mangala Arathi, I was asked to lead the Tulasi Arathi.
Seminar at 10 am
Around 30 devotees from different parts of Brazil and especially from the south, attended. The presentation was on the mood of the Bhakti Vriksha. It a touched a chord in their hearts. Actually as we were scheduled for a presentation to the CGB for the afternoon which could extend up to late evening. Yamunacharya prabhu had not scheduled for any seminars for the evening. But the devotees were eager and insistent that we meet in the late evening!
Presentation to the CGB members
Around 30 leaders seated in chairs lining the walls of the room. They were all looking very serious after day long meetings.
I spoke about how communities developed in Oman, Russia, UK, Bangladesh, Indian cities, etc. what is the mood in these communities, appreciation of Bhakti Vriksha in the rest of ISKCON, and the mood of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada in caring for his devotees.
Then Yamunacharya prabhu presented a PPT describing his plans to get the BV program together through 3 Cs- Contact, Cultivation and Care. Contacts would be got through the various ISKCON programs, cultivation would happen through various “Bridge” or cultural programs like yoga, dance, singing, cooking, photography classes and talks on stress management etc for which there was a great demand from the public and the devotees were very talented to meet the needs of these bridge programs. These contacts would be cultivated in these bridge programs and sent to different types of groups according to their preference like Bhakti Vriksha, Nama Hatta, Shraddha kutir, Temple programs,etc. He had created a website in which the contacts would be sent initially and they would send out mail to the contacts on the available bridge programs in the local areas. The website was centralized for whole of Brazil.
There was a long question and answer session after that. One question to me was about when to introduce japa in the program as sometimes people resist it. I said that you can delay introducing japa. Rama Shakti mataji translated it as “you can delete it”. One of the leaders clarified with me if I meant delay or delete! There was great laughter when I was shocked that she had translated as delete japa! The ice was broken! Everyone relaxed and became very connected from then on.
One of the leaders mentioned that I shook their hearts! Many said that Bhakti Vriksha was the need of the hour in Brazil.
Back to seminars
After a quick bite of Pizza at the Jagannatha restaurant, we rushed to our villa to continue with the seminar for the eagerly waiting devotees. Some of the CGB leaders also came for the seminars and were questioning about the training and implementation of BV including a Srila Prabhupada disciple Raga Bhumi mataji from Rio de Janiero. She was the lone woman leader in the CGB meetings and was eager to start doing BV!
Saturday 3rd June 2014
A very busy and packed day! Had all matajis dance enthusiastically for Guru Puja. The TP requested me to give the SB class. The verse was on Parikshit Maharaja’s enquiry on why people keep committing sins even after atonement. I took this opportunity to talk about what our attitude should be towards helping devotees to keep away from Maya - how we should be supportive and not condemning. If we give love and help for people to progress in Krishna Consciousness, we can avoid fall downs. The class was attended by all the national leaders and they told me that they really appreciated my class.
Seminars
The morning session was dedicated to describing the method of the BV. Yagna Chaitanya das and his wife from the south of Brazil had some experience of conducting a BV for 3 months. Though he was making his members, all ladies, write down the answers to the questions for discussion, he has the right mood of humility, care and love for their members. I requested them to share some experiences and that was enlivening for the audience. Yagna Chaitanya prabhu and his wife felt very happy to be enlightened on the correct way of conducting the BV. They agreed to train the prospective leaders of the southern region. Their sweet and naughty son Haridas drew a picture of Krishna with a flute, colored it and gave it to me at the end of the class. They told me that he loves to do this during BV programs as well and gift them to the devotees!
In the evening session, I did a demonstration of a Bhakti Vriksha session. Yamunacharya prabhu followed it up with discussing plans with the leaders to implement the BV in the region.
to be continued.......
Here are some pictures I have uploaded on Dropbox ....
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqm2iju15px78fk/20140501_214716.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eb0m5cq8ibwllk2/20140501_214725.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kp8e44qpsk1jns2/20140502_190322.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/te9sshk60cypjjp/20140503_153053.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tg4ntixxnzvtie7/20140504_033210.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e5c3opb4qe42nsu/20140504_160811.jpg