One Cambodian friend of ours, Mr. Karanie, invited us for the Khmer cultural program with the theme “A Universe for all Gods, Planets and Nature”. The program was held in one corner of the Buddhist Pagoda Preah Teat in Siem Reap. For the event, Mr. Karanie and a group of his young friends placed many Hindu Deities such as Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Hanumanji, Laksmi, Saraswati, Parwati, Indra, Surya, Candra, and many others. He explained that this ceremony was being performed for the purpose of bringing together the Gods and Heros of Cambodia in an effort to promote peace and prosperity in Cambodia.
Alongside the Deities of Gods and Demigods, the organizers also placed the Khmer statues of prominent Heros such as the first king of Cambodia, King Kambu. Originally from India King Kambu married the princess of Naga, and thus developed the land of Angkor that comes from the word Nokor, Nagar or Sagar. According to legend, the ocean was dried up by King Naga and was given to King Kambu and his wife to live.
There was also a statue of King Jayawarman 7, his wife and commander-in-chief. King Jayawarman 7 is known as the greatest ruler of Angkor. He is also famous for having brought both Buddhism and Hinduism to peace, after a long history of conflict.
The function was conducted from morning to mid night. During the ceremony Mr. Karanie explained to those attending how this ceremony was to commemorate the great culture of Cambodian’s illustrious past so that the Khmer people will not forget about it. The main ceremony was centered on the worship of Lord Vishnu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead called in Khmer language as “Preah Adidave”.
After giving such an explanation, Mr. Karanie invited us to perform bhajan and chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. In this way the devotees were able to chant both in the morning after the prayers of the Buddhist Monks and at nighttime before the last prayers.
At nighttime we also held a Go Puja to Mother Surabhi’s photo. In the local Khmer language, Mother Cow is known as Preah Ko and the worship of Preah Ko is one of the most prominent traditions of Cambodia, especially for the people who still follow Hinduism. We chanted the OM Sri Surabhyai Mantra and the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra followed by the Narashimha prayers. The place where we performed the Go Puja was at the site where the organizers had placed all the statues of the demigods.
Devotees then had the opportunity to distribute prasadam, books and pamphlets. Devotees also spent time with some of the people attending who wanted to know more about cows and Hinduism.
We were very happy to see that many people joined the program. Many Khmer people still practice both Buddhism and Hinduism (referred to in Cambodia as Brahmanism).
We could thus witness the tolerance of the local Khmer people: here was a Hindu ceremony being performed in a Buddhist Pagoda, and even Buddhist Monks joined and offered some prayers.
One interesting observation is that Buddhist Monks will only light candles and not incense. However, ordinary people light incense and offer to the Deities. By this we can understand that they were previously Hindus. So this is the fact that in most of the Khmer ceremonies, people still follow Brahmanism or Hindu traditions, without having any problems with those who are Buddhists.
Our Cambodian devotees always try to explain that Buddhism and Hinduism are closely connected since Lord Buddha, Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, and all the demigods originally came from Vishnu, Narayana. And Krishna is the origin of Lord Vishnu.
We pray that Cambodians can maintain this beautiful culture of peace and take up the highest worship of Lord Vishnu/Krishna for this age by the congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.
Reported by Gunaavatara Dasa
