Visit to Iskcon Mayapur

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare..

Every Indian understands at the very mention of the above mantra,if not the meaning but the effect it has in getting the mind elevated to the divine state of happiness..but when the same mantra in English accent reaches the ears ,we start admiring the  Doppler’s effect because in our “modern” world things which gets you tagged  as “happening or hep” includes talking slang,wearing things oglers are comfortable looking at ,saying I am an atheist etc..

It was a warm evening and I had the opportunity to visit Iskcon Mayapur .Although the roads leading to it made my mind go through different thoughts about why “marketing skills” are required in any state to represent the heritage it posseses,but when we just entered Mayapur ,the sight of  pretty firangi ladies dressed in cotton saris having tea buying something from a wrecked shop selling groceries really amazed me…when we entered the temple premises my face reacted with a smile to the visual simplicity of a cute little foreigner girl sitting on a Neelkamal chair tied on the backseat of a cycle driven by what I assume was her mom who to my astonishment was dressed in kind of Radha’s attire..

It was time for formal ablution and visting the temple …Sight of Lord Krishna standing with his Gopis in bright coloured Ghagaras was just Beautiful….After the Aaarti the Aarti plate with the lamp was circulated by the priest who again was a foreigner and was being followed by his Dhoti-Kurta-Tikki wala son which meant his entire family was in there …Later I got to know my assumption was correct as they had been accommodated well there….Sandhya Aarati was followed by a crowd of foreigners dancing and doing kirtan and Dandiya  which really tempt you to just jump into the style of dancing ,really amazing experience..

…later while strolling through the entire campus I stopped by a shop to have tea which made me meet a firangi girl dressed again in Radha style attire…I initiated the conversation with her and asked what made her come here and she replied that she is  from Australia where she runs a parlour and came here  to get introduced to Krishna conciousness and when I asked her why she wanted that the reply came she wanted to get rid of the materialistic life…however she had Tattoos all over and Jewelleries all around her to make me realize she might be taking advantage of the fact that we Indians get amazed and attracted to whatever they say or do..I just put a Indian “samjhi” smile and bid her goodbye….

“Ghar ki Murgi Daal barabar”  is actually the attitude of many of us,wherein we need the foreigners to give us a glimpse of what our culture  possess,be it be wearing the Sari,the simplicity  of dancing or even knowing the term Krishna consciousness.

Its not about being religious but its about being spiritual and admiring the culture we posses..