Adventures in Humility

News, Views, and Chews on spiritual issues.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Temple Visit

As I was shopping in London today, I decided to pop into the local Hare Krishna temple. Yes, there is a Krishna temple smack dab in the middle of London! It's been quite a while since I've been there; I used to be a regular visitor but my interest seems to have waned sorta, none of my friends are around anymore and they seem to be selling the same old books. Although I did pop in because I am interested in buying the final part of the Caitanya-bhagavata series and I wanted to see if they have it.

Unfortunately they didn't, but I ended up buying a VCD of Srimad Gour Govinda Swami's lecture instead. I was surprised to see it there - and on sale too! - because despite my reading of his books and my deep admiration for him, I had never seen him "live" on video and I thought this would be a good opportunity to see it. They also had the Vishnu Purana by H.H. Wilson there. I had seen it before and I found the reference to Kalki last time but I couldn't find it today. It was incredibly hot today and sweat was pouring off my face. I would like to keep that Kalki reference on record, but I am specifically interested in Wilson's translation of the Padma Purana. I haven't seen that yet.

It is unlikely that I would have bought the CB if I was there because of their unnecessarily high prices, but I thought I'd just go and take a look at it anyway. I might have bought it if the mood had taken me, but I guess I can wait. I have enough of the previous volumes to read anyway!

Good thing that I had arrived shortly before the curtains closed for darshan in preparation for the 7pm arati, so I quickly rushed in, paid my respects and took a few photos. Today the Deities there were wearing tartan! I had to laugh to myself and I wondered if a Scottish devotee had been behind that idea, but it was definitely unusual. Here are some of the shots that I took:





















































And I was so engrossed in this as well as trying to take these pics as quickly as possible before the curtains closed, I forgot to take a pic of my beloved Gaura-Nitai! :-( Would have been nice to have a pic of Them wearing tartan.

And also I met my dear friend Monica there. I have known her for years and she is like a sister to me, I love her very much. Such a soft and sweet person she is, almost as if she's stepped out of a fairytale book. People like her are very rare these days. She owned a complete video set of Prabhupada's lectures of which I borrowed a couple of installments. Actually I still have them and haven't given them back! Argh! Anyway so I guess she became influenced by those videos and she joined ISKCON. Now she has become one of the top book distributors and was recently initiated by H.H. Radhanatha Swami during a six-week trip to the New Vrindavan temple in West Virginia. Her new name is Mana-biharini devi-dasi.

It was good to catch up with her. Here is a picture of her, my dear sweet sister:

5 Comments:

  • At 30 July, 2006 07:09, Blogger advaitadas said…

    Tartans are absolutely off as far as entering the Vraja bhaava is concerned!!

     
  • At 31 July, 2006 01:19, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I knew a devotee who used to make the clothes for her Gaura-Nitai deities. She stitched baseball clothes for Them! Can you imagine Gaura-Nitai wearing baseball caps and hitting home runs?? :-)

     
  • At 31 July, 2006 06:24, Blogger advaitadas said…

    Why not leather pants or Hells Angels outfits?

     
  • At 20 September, 2006 23:05, Blogger labyris said…

    I suspect They will look at the intentions behind any outfits They are offered and if they are offered in sincere love or even a spirit of playfulness (Isn't Krsna quite the Trickster Himself?) They may very well accept the offering in that spirit. Perhaps They like an amusing change once in awhile.--Tapati

     
  • At 24 September, 2006 05:34, Blogger "Gaurasundara das" said…

    Hi Tapati, nice to see you around! :-)

    I agree, there is a saying: bhava-grahi janardana, Krishna considers the feeling behind the act. Even if the clothes were tartan then at least it was in Krishna's "style". Tartan jeans or shorts would look out of place certainly! :)

     

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