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“To my surprise, as I was mentioning various local individuals who had immediately pledged at my place of business upon hearing these reports, various hands started to raise from the audience, pledging 10, 50, 100, 200 dollars. One person even pledged 500 dollars! Devotees’ hearts were touched!” |
Particularly moved by the various reports given on
CHAKRA by Bhima, Basu Gosh, and Mukunda Madhava Prabhus, I contacted Jaya
Govinda, our previous temple president but current temple authority, about what
I thought would be a way to gather some funds to help the situation there.
The goal would be to contribute towards the “food
for life” endeavor in Bhubanesvara, thus helping the devastating aftermath of
the powerful cyclone which destroyed lives, homes, basic supply of food and
drinking water to over 20,000 people on the coastal area of Orissa.
At first I thought that presenting the above
mentioned reports on Prabhupada disappearance day would be a good start.
On that special day, I first quoted the pastimes of
Srila Prabhupada and Srutakirti when he felt that so many devotees were in
ecstasy picking up Srila Prabhupada at the airports but felt that he didn’t
experience such intense feelings as all those devotees jumping up and down in
ecstasy. Later, however, Srila Prabhupada asked Srutakirti if he liked serving
him personally and of course Srutakirti prabhu expressed that he certainly liked
serving Prabhupada very much!! Then Srila Prabhupada responded: that is love,
explaining that singing, dancing, jumping up and down... so many things can be
done, but that he, Srutakirti, was actually doing something tangible, isn’t
that real love !
The point is that love means doing something, doing
service; that is what love means.
The idea was that we could all offer some
contribution to this very dear food for life program of Srila Prabhupada,
especially after hearing of the emergency help required right at about the time
we are gathering for Prabhupada ‘s disappearance day.
However, on that particular day I was advised to keep
it on a personal level, and to canvass at the following Sunday feast program.
So I did just that, right after the Sunday feast
lecture, I quoted specific passages of the reports from Bhubanesvara,.
particularly the stories where the devotees got down from the big trucks
distributing prasadam to villagers who thanked them with tears in their eyes.
Also, there was the testimony of the old mataji who, for three days, was stuck
holding tree branches after being tossed 30 feet above the ground by a tidal
wave. She was so happy to finally receive Krsna prasadam from the devotees.
To my surprise, as I was mentioning various local
individuals who had immediately pledged at my place of business upon hearing
these reports, various hands started to raise from the audience, pledging 10,
50, 100, 200 dollars. One person even pledged 500 dollars! Devotees’ hearts
were touched!
I also mentioned this year’s three major
consecutive floods in Mayapura, for which I also wanted to contribute with
whoever else would like to participate.
About 2500.00 dollars has been sent so far through
the Mumbai foreign contribution fund and soon something will be sent to Mayapura
as well.
Hoping that this report will inspire more temples and
individuals in the western hemisphere to join forces for this important and
emergency situation as our Vancouver yatra has attempted to do.
your servant in Srila Prabhupada’s service,
Krsna Kanta devi dasi
© CHAKRA 27-Nov-1999
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