ISKCON Philadelphia June 15 to 17, 2018
with HH RP Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja
On June 15th, Maharaja arrived at the Philadelphia airport around 3:40 PM. Immediately after freshening up, in the same evening Maharaja attended a program in Bensalem to a group of Bhakti Vriksa members where His Holiness spoke about Lord Krishna’s three gifts of nature: 1) Cows, 2) Land and 3) Knowledge all of whom are sacred and considered in the Vedic culture as our mothers. As parents want quality of food and education for their children, the explanation given by Maharaja touched the hearts of many in the audience. After the session, many devotees purchased various varnasrama books on display. By the time we reached the temple after the program it was late night around 11:30 PM.
The next morning, all the devotees were eager to hear the Srimad-Bhagavatam class given by Maharaja on the continuing verses from the 8th Canto. After the class, there was a devotee who took 3 or 4 books. It was quite surprising to see him buying books in early hours of the day. Then after breakfast the devotees got ready for the next program which took place in Govinda’s Restaurant in downtown Philadelphia. Maharaja shared his personal realisations when he attended the Ratha Yatra in 1975 when His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada was himself physically present. After the program devotees purchased some of the varnasrama books.
Maharaja then came back to the temple and honoured lunch prasadam. Soon after, the devotees were ready for the next program which took place in Central New Jersey where the Global Cow Culture seminar was held. A good number of devotees attended the program. Maharaja gave a wonderful talk based on his recently published book “Modernity is Killing Civilization”,quoting Srila Prabhupada who described modern civilization as a “cats and dogs civilization” because people are always fighting, and as a “vulture civilization” because modern man enjoys eating dead bodies. In this seminar Maharaja gave some nice examples about Indonesia although being a majority Islam country, they still follow Vedic ways to this day. On the island of Java where over 100 million people live, the Javanese language to this day contains some 80% of Sanskrit words and the Ramayana is considered part of their culture.
Maharaja then explained about the 50% of Srila Prabhupada’s unfulfilled mission and how land and cows play a crucial role in society and thus are Inseparable. Maharaja presented the wonderful examples of Sri Sri Krishna Balarama who with Their hundreds and thousands of cows and cowherd boys would go walking in the forests of Vrindavana. Their walking the earth was like a message to Mother Earth and their cow dung and cow urine were building up the soil nutrients, and this proves that without cows the land becomes desert-like because of using too many chemicals. These were some of the touching points in the seminar. The devotees who participate were very much respective and at the end of the sessions there were many good questions and perfect answers given by Maharaja. The interactive part in this session was very good and at the end of the program many varnasrama books were distributed, many devotees taking more than 2 or 3 books.
From New Jersey, we reached the Philadelphia temple late at night and on Sunday morning, we were again ready for the Srimad-Bhagavatam class. After breakfast, we were left for the next program at Krishna Village in Delaware. Their Sunday feast was at 11:30 AM and we could reach on time. The Temple President, His Grace Krishna Kirtan prabhu, had a long conservation with Maharaja where he was expressing his desire to keep cows and have a goshala. Maharaja gave a wonderful presentation showing the main documentary video of the OM Sri Surabhi Campaign. Immediately after the program His Grace Krishna Kirtan prabhu took the vow to bring a cow to their three acres temple premises of Krishna Village. He personally pledged ten thousand dollars and invited the congregational members to also pledge for the proposed Go Seva program. I was surprised to see the spontaneous response from the devotees. At the end of the program, we distributed many varnasrama books.
We returned from Delaware to attend the evening Sunday Feast lecture organized at ISKCON Philadelphia. There were a good number of students visiting with their teacher as part of their interfaith and cross-cultural exchange program. Maharaja spoke on a topic very much related to the students (tad viddhi pranipatena) the well-known verse from the Bhagavad-gita [Bg 4.34]. The word “pranipat” was nicely explained, and how the Vedic culture is primarily an agrarian culture. Maharaja also quoted two of the Founding Fathers of America Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who explained that America will remain glorious if it remains primarily based on agriculture. This was very much a touching point to the American audiences. It was an eye-opening class and many devotees took books after the class.
The total books distributed in the short 2.5 days were 106 Varnasrama books. The team members who supported the programs were as follows:
Book distribution: Kirthiraja dasa and Jayabal das from Detroit
Driving: Pankaj prabhu who came from Pittsburgh
Various services: Somaka das who came from Detroit
Coordinator: Bhaktavatara das
Written by Kirthiraja dasa
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