Amul: Ujjain!

September 15th-19th

   

Friday, 11:00 PM

It felt weird to wear pants after two months of wearing dhotis every day.  Rupanuga prabhu, recommended I do so, because it would be more comfortable overnight.  As I put on the pants, I lamented that I would have to one day put on pants again and leave my dhotis and Vrindavan, for a long time.  I quickly stopped thinking of it.

   

    We were on our way to Ujjain, for H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami's vyasa puja.  Me, Chaitanya, Rupanuga, Dhanurdhar, Kuntibhoj, Somnath, and Bhaja Gauranga.  Although I am not a direct disciple, I consider him my siksa guru.  He is my parents' guru, and has known my family for many years.  I also thought it would be nice to go on behalf of them.

    I felt excited to leave Vrindavan for a few days, I wanted to experience something new, something different.  Routine had set in very firmly with class, prasadam, and other things, so to change that was intriguing. 

    I won't bore you with the whole travel description.  Yes, there were the funny garam chai wallas and lassi wallas.  And the train was really loud, and there were smells I've never smelled before.  It was comfortable though, we went to sleep and in the morning we were in Ujjain after a 9 1/2 hour ride. 

   

    Some devotees picked us up with 2 Qualis jeeps and brought us to the temple.  The temple is in the outskirts of Ujjain, in a quiet part of the city.  It is made completely out of beautiful white marble and three huge gopurams that you can see from far away.  Minor construction was still going on, but most of the temple was done.  We showered and headed down to the temple room.  A seminar was finishing up, and it was almost time for prasadam.  Prasadam!  That's one thing we were all looking forward to, the taste of prasadam from somewhere else.  But before prasadam I saw many friends, such as Sandipan Krishna prabhu, Dina Krishna prabhu, and Chiranjeev Krishna das, who we all remember as Babai.  I just noticed that all of those devotees I just mentioned are "______ Krishna das", haha. 

   

    Later that day there was talk with Maharaj with all the devotees in his quarters.  It was not a preaching talk, but more of a talk with people who have been in the movement for a while.  The topic was about the future of ISKCON.  Maharaj was telling us about one disciple he has who bought a big part of a lucrative company, and was employing other devotees.  Sandipan Krishna and Dina Krishna prabhus were a part of this.  Basically they were performing their job for Krishna and guru, and not only providing financial stability for ISKCON, but also preaching too.  It was very interesting, and Maharaj encouraged devotees to start doing this.  He also talked about how preaching is changing in ISKCON and there are so many innovative ways to preach these days.  He mentioned the youth of ISKCON too and during that part coincidently, he saw me.  He kind of stopped the class and asked when I had come, then he introduced me and Chaitanya as examples of youth and future of ISKCON , it was so embarrassing!

   

    The next day we attended the morning program (almost all of it ;) ) and there was a ceremony to install Srila Prabhupada on his new vyasasan that was huge, magnificent, gold and wood colored.  Oh man, I forgot to mention the deities!  They are so beautiful!  There is Gaura Nitai, Radha Madan-Mohan, and Krishna Balaram.  All the deities are very beatiful, but Srimati Radharani is extra nice, one of the most beautiful deities I have ever seen! 

   

    Maharaj gave class and in the class he mentioned to everyone why he was reluctant to have such a big festival for his vyasa puja because of the whole sannyasis falling down in the past from being worshipped too heavily. He was very sincere when he said this, and when I thought of it, it is indeed a very important point. 

    He also told us to never leave ISKCON because within ISKCON we are protected.  "And as soon as you leave ISKCON," Maharaj said, "your devotional life is in danger."  What a bold point! He didn't mean that whoever is not in ISKCON is devotionally weak, but he was saying that for people who are in ISKCON then leave to go somewhere else, they are putting their devotional life in jeopardy.  Maharaj was also telling the glories of Srila Prabhupada along with a few godbrothers, whos names I don't remember. 

   

    The temple bramhacharis of Ujjain are such nice, caring devotees.  One very touching story I want to share was when I went to the bramhachari ashram to take a nap.  I went to the second floor, where the bramhacharis stay, and laid down on the bear marble floor.  It was comfortable because it was cold, but I did not have a pillow, but I didn't really mind because it was just a nap.  I quickly fell asleep, but was awoken by a gentle bramhachari who was trying to put a pillow under my head and at the same time trying not to wake me up.  I saw his smiling face for a few seconds, until my eyes closed and I fell asleep again. 

   

    When I woke up a few hours later, I quickly remembered what the bramhachari had done for me.  Such a small act of kindness brought about so much emotion and realization in me.  That is what a real devotee is, so caring and eager to perform service for another.  Man, I wished I could be like that!  He didn't even know me, a puffed-up kid from America, and I didn't know him!  But I remembered his face.  I saw that devotee only once again, during prasadam time from afar, he was....serving. 

vancha-kalpatarubhyas ca
kripa-sindhubhya eva ca
patitanam pavanebhyo
vaisnavebhyo namo namah
I offer my respectful obeisances unto all the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord. They can fulfill the desires of everyone, just like desire trees, and they are full of compassion for the fallen souls.

   

    That night was the actual Vyasa Puja ceremony.  It was held in a huge hall in the guesthouse, that was still being built.  Maharaj sat on a large vyasasan decorated by flowers and accepted all the worship by his disciples with his head down and hands folded.  Devotees made lines to offer flowers to Maharaj, and Maharaj reciprocated by giving devotees garlands.  The atmosphere was very sweet.  It made me imagine what it might have been like during Srila Prabhupada's time, worshipping the guru with great opulence. 

   

    The next day, Monday, we went to go visit holy places in Ujjain.  Holy places? I never knew Ujjain had holy places.  We visited a few Lord Shiva Temples, the places where Krishna studied, a Nrsimhadev temple (awesome), a river where Lord Rama came, and a few ghats.  It was great!

   

    I forgot to mention the bhajans and kirtans.  They were so fired up! "There is no such thing as a mellow kirtan here" -Sandipan. He's right, everything is really heavy with wompers and loud speakers.  One time, after Maharaj led, he requested me to sing.  I did for a little while, it was nice to for Radha Madan-Mohan.  There were some nice kirtaniyas there, like Bhagavat Tattva from Mumbai and a few local devotees who could really rock it.

   

     Anyways, it was an amazing trip, I had a lot of fun.  Please, if you ever have a chance go to Ujjain, go.  You will have a wonderful time with some really advanced and downright cool devotees!  I'm back in Vrindavan now, with a month left of VIHE, miss you all.

 

A.S.