24 February
I arrive at Dum Dum Park, an area of Kolkata (Calcutta), in the early afternoon and it is 31 degrees Celsius. Kolkata is the capital city of West Bengal, a deceptive name because this state is on the East side of India (naturally!). Presumably, Bangladesh would be 'East Bengal' – they even speak the same language.
Here in Dum Dum Park is a branch of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, an ashram (place for spiritual development) focused on Bhakti Yoga – the path of devotion. The ashram is a simple four-storey corner building opposite a huge water tank where people are bathing. Other than the little wisdoms painted in Bengali and English along the boundary wall and the small temple-domes peeking over it, there is little to identify the nature of the place.
The guru (spiritual master) is away due to the imminent festival in Nabadwip Dham, about 100 kilometres due north, but some of the guru's disciples are there. Mangal Maharaj – a monk wearing saffron (a colour ranging from orange to pink!) robes denoting renunciation of material life – welcomes me profusely. He shows me to a room, allows me to take bath then brings me a huge plate of prasadam (blessed temple-food) consisting of rice, two vegetable preparations, lentils and rice-pudding. His manner is sweet and concerned as though he were welcoming a family member home, with a sincere smile and twinkling eyes adding to my comfort.
25 February – 'Vaishanava Seva' Sunday Feast
I am woken at 8am. Mangal Maharaj is at the door wearing a worried expression. Why was I not up yet? I did not realise I had 'slept in' – in the ashram most people are up before dawn! I explain I am tired from travelling, and he smiles, presenting me with another plate of prasadam: puffed rice, milk and bananas.
Today is something they call 'Vaishnava Seva'. In memory of a departed loved one, the family members offer a donation to the Vaishnavas (worshippers of Krishna or Vishnu) so an opulent feast is served to all the visitors to the temple. The temple is packed with people during noon arati – there is one at daybreak, one at noon and one at sun-set. A pujari performs an elaborate puja (worship) offering incense, flowers and a ghee-lamp among other things to the deities of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna and Radha in the temple (see sidebar for information). Meanwhile the devotees sing songs of praise to the accompaniment of a mrdanga drum and karatals (cymbals) in the Nat Mandir, a separate building directly opposite the temple aptly named the 'Dance Hall'.
The worship-songs are merry with a fast-tempo climax and jubilant dancing towards the end. Afterwards we are served some twenty preparations of vegetables, rice, deep-fried items, chutney and sweets. If my stomach does not burst today it never will. It is so delicious I cannot stop eating despite being full – they keep bringing more varieties and I cannot refuse!
26 February
At Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Nabadwip, the World Headquarters of this organisation, somebody is waiting to welcome me and I feel privileged to be allocated a corner of a small room shared between three people, considering that every nook and cranny in the temple-compound is a make-shift shelter for thousands of pilgrims come for Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's appearance festival.
I am guided to see the guru: Srila BS Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, or Govinda Maharaj for short, although his disciples call him simply Gurudev. He receives me with such affection that I can only compare it to that of a parent towards his child. In fact, as I sit on his verandah among his disciples while he is giving darshan, I get a momentary vision of children at the feet of their respected and beloved grandfather during a story-telling session....
Govinda Maharaj is also wearing saffron robes and has a shaven head except for a tuft (sika) on the crown – most of the men don that hairstyle actually. His eyes are soft, his manner precise and gentle, and he smiles playfully as he speaks words of wisdom in a simple way and with an attractive voice. I have a strange feeling inside me that he is not an ordinary human being, and can certainly appreciate why he is considered a living saint, a sage... an agent of god! Despite my previous scepticism I am awestruck by him, yet he appears so humble!
27 February
The megaphone is screaming something in Bengali at 3.30am – I am slow to realise many people are up and about already. Here are four different temples requiring puja within the same compound so an earlier start is necessary.
Furthermore these four days building up to the festival called Gaura Purnima or 'Golden Full-Moon', are days of pilgrimage to holy places in the area – this is the birth-land of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. By 5am the pilgrims are following the megaphone out through the gate, chanting, “Nitai Gauranga, Gaura Nitai” – nicknames of Chaitanya (the golden avatar) and one of his associates, Nityananda. The line includes 3,000 Bengalis and 300 Westerners dancing and chanting the lord's names in congregation in what is known as sankirttan – precisely what Chaitanya propagated 500 years ago.
Several holy sites are visited, with a lecture given in Bengali, English, Spanish and Russian for the benefit of all to appreciate the significance of the place. Devotional songs are also sung quietly before the address, but a wild kirttan usually ensues... and the megaphone continues to lead the way along a scenic route of exquisite simple beauty: coconut palms, rice-fields, the Ganges river, rural mud-dwellings and banana trees.
At mealtimes, rows upon rows of people seated in a large field (or where it happens) are served tonnes of food from metal buckets onto leaf-plates, which are then left in a heap to be eaten by goats, or decompose. The food is collected from neighbouring villages prior to the festival – impressive generosity considering the simple living-conditions of these people. The pilgrims need not pay a rupee, but can give a donation to the temple according to their capacity.
Impressively, most pilgrims walk 15 hours barefoot today (although cycle-rickshaws can give some assistance to the needy). They return with sweaty clothes.
3 March– Gaura Purnima Festival
Moon-rise will mark the end of a full day's fast. The day is quiet within the temple-compound, where devotees are resting after four days of intense pilgrimage. Outside, green buffaloes and pink cows roam the streets and kids' laughter rings in your ears: most of India celebrates Holi festival today – the festival of colour. Until noon, it is obligatory to splash anything that moves in dye which will not wash off entirely for at least a week.
At 5pm Srila Govinda Maharaj comes to the Nat Mandir to commence the programme – he gives a speech in mixed English and Bengali, and then sings slokas (verses) from the holy scriptures, which in turn give rise to a kirttan that goes on for hours. I have never seen anything so wild – even at psychedelic-trance parties! They don't seem to ever want to stop jumping up and down, dancing 'full-power' while singing the mahamantra “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!”
Outside the sound of fire-crackers creates some distraction. At Govinda Kund, the lake within the temple-compound, mini-hot-air-balloons are setting off into the night sky as the moon is rising, and colourful fireworks create a sense of awe in the spectators. The kirttan moves to Govinda Kund and then returns... it is about 11pm by the time they have calmed down!
5 March
It is peaceful – the Bengalis have gone home! Yesterday several visitors came to take prasadam but now only a few people linger....
It is 5.30am, straight after morning arati. Srila Govinda Maharaj is not giving darshan this morning, so I sit at Govinda Kund observing the deer, peacocks and the geese as the sun floats slowly over the Ganges river and the palm trees. Devotees pace around the lake with their japa-mala (prayer beads) silently chanting the mahamantra in meditation.
There is a peculiar sense of peace which is interrupted only by the loud chanting of the same mantra by one devotee – a small man (all Bengalis are small!) carrying a brass vase with a large flower attached to the handle. His beautiful song comes straight from the heart so I am moved by his devotional mood as he approaches where I am sitting. Looking intently at the deity in the small temple at the centre of the Kund, he offers some Ganges water and a smaller flower to his lord....
9 March - Happaniya festival
This appears to me the ultimate party lifestyle. The occasion today is the anniversary of the installation of the deities in Happaniya, the birth-place of Govinda Maharaj's guru, Srila BR Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, founder of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. Two crammed bus-loads head there for more devotional chanting, dancing and feasting on delicious vegetarian 'holy food' – what more can you want in life?
14 March
Now only about 30 Westerners remain apart from the temple-residents, and the atmosphere is intimate and sweet. My schedule has adjusted to a bed-time of about 9.30pm. Rising at 4am for Mangal Arati (morning programme) is an invigorating way to start the day, and I am relishing the morning talks given by guru to his disciples on his veranda before everybody heads off to perform their voluntary service. More lectures are given by the sannyasis (senior monks) every morning and evening, along with more chanting of various songs, while prasadam is served at 8am, 1pm and 8pm. Birds sing and monkeys play in the holy Dham... all I can say it is hard to leave this little piece of heaven, so far removed from the mechanics of the outside world!
Episode 6 due: 9 April
Episodes 1-4 were published on 22 January, 5 and 19 February, and 5 March.
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Sri Sri Radha-Krishna are considered the female and male portions of the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, inseparable by pure love. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is considered the latest avatar (incarnation) who appeared in West Bengal half a century ago in the guise of a pure devotee experiencing that divine love.
Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj (nicknamed Prabhupada) brought Mahaprabhu's philosophy and sankirttan movement to the West in the late 1960s. Today Westerners engage in sankirttan in hundreds of temples world-wide.
From Kolkata to Nabadwip Dham:
By Jeep (Tata Sumo) – 3 hours – Rs 1700.
By Train from Howrah Station:
Fast train – 2 hours – Rs 67 – daily and requires a reservation, same-day possible.
Local train – 3 hours – Rs 22– regular trips but only for the hardy traveller!
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math: www.scsmath.com