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Monday, February 28, 2011

Our Journey back home starts here....

Hare Krishna Everybody,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

This is a humble start to recount our journey back Home! Back to Godhead. This is also a place for us to add all the wonderful verses and teachings we come across so we don't lose them.

It was Dec 2010 when Shilpa and I were talking about reading the Bhagavad Gita and other holy scriptures. I remembered that Hari had also offered that we could start something like that at Roanoke temple. I spoke to Hari saying that we should start a Bhagavad Gita class so we can read the Gita and have a medium where we could all discuss. Little did I know that was the point our lives would change, change for the better. Hari, had had the association of devotees for 10 years and he had been planning to start something like this for quite some time. We started a small group and our first meeting was the 2nd sunday of December in 2010. The plan was to meet every couple of weeks. We met at 3p at the Roanoke temple and had an agenda of doing the following:
  1. Kirtan
  2. Chanting the holy name
  3. Reading 4 verses from the Gita
  4. Science of Self Realization
  5. Vaisnava etiquette
  6. Narsimha Bhagavan prayers
  7. Bhoga and Prasad
The first class was an eye opener while chanting as I got flashes of my childhood, my parents and then started getting questions about life and future. 

Hari explained the importance of chanting and what does the Krishna bead mean. It was really nice. I came home and wanted more, I couldn't wait for the next time we planned to meet. As our classes were progressing, it was time for Gaur poornima. 

This was my second time attending the festival and didn't know much at this time. We went to Praphupada village in Sandy Ridge NC and got to witness the abhisheka of Nitai and Gauranga. They had a wonderful play and a feast in the end. It was a great program and was nice to see so many devotees.

The real turning point in our journey was going to New Vrindavan for Festival of Inspiration. Hari had told us about it, but after looking into the program we weren't eager to go. Only after Hari sold us the program telling us we should really go we made a plan to go. Shilpa was carrying Vivaan at that time and we decided to take frequent stops during our drive.

The three days were complete bliss. The three of us (Vivaan included) got to associate ourselves with pure devotees, have wonderful prasad, get to attend wonderful lectures, witness daily aartis, hear from other devotees on their journey, see dramas, participate in kirtans, see the gowshala, walk by the lake in the morning seeing the mist rise while we chanted to the big statues of Gaura Nitai, hear the peacocks coo! It was bliss. We felt like we were transported to a different planet. We were so happy being in the midst of everybody there. We didn't want to leave when it was time for us to leave.

As soon as we sat in the car to drive back, Shilpa said we should amend our lives. I was thinking the same. She said we should give us meat, liquor, chant at least 2 rounds everyday and I completely agreed. Just like that we were on our path of liberation.

Since that day in May of 2011, we haven't touched meat or liquor or even had the urge for it. We are doing our daily rounds and associating with great pure devotees like - Hari prabhu, Neelmani prabhu, Mitra das prabhu, Sarva-drik prabhu, Kratu prabhu, Radhika Raman prabhu, Shyamsundar dasa, Alok prabhu, Ketan prabhu, Vasisika das prabhu, reading about prabhupada, reading about Radhanath swami.

Another turning point was listening to Radhika Raman prabhuji who came to visit us from Richmond. He was so peaceful and gave some really great examples which were so real and easy to relate. The one which stuck with me was the person running from the mad elephant, jumping off the cliff, hung on a branch, crocodiles below, honey falling....sums up our life!

And after a whole year of chanting (now trying 16 rounds everyday), association and reading the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam we are again at the same time to go to New Vrindavan. Looking forward to our journey and going back to our beloved Radha Krishna!

HariBol!