Sri Lanka – One month preaching tour report

By Radhanath Krishna das

A team of 15 devotees from ISKCON Batticaloa and guests from abroad voyaged from the east coast of Sri Lanka till the capital city of Colombo covering all major cities and towns of the island bringing Vaikuntha atmosphere at each location. We mainly targeted youths in schools and colleges by performing drama, distributing books, holding harinama sankirtana, distributing prasadam and follow-up. Every school program had an attendance of 500 to 900 students.

This year we were fortunate to have with us Srila Prabhupada’s disciples – HG Haripada Prabhu and his wife HG Phalini Mataji from USA. By their enthusiastic speech and bhajans they made all the students to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and dance in ecstasy. If at the beginning the students would be little shy to repeat the maha-mantra, Haripada Prabhu would ask Vasudeva Datta Prabhu to entice the audience. Vasudeva Prabhu would amusingly tease them in Tamil by saying “It seems you don’t have strength today. Are you hungry?” or “What is this? You are mumming like a fish! Chant with enthusiasm!”. The kids would then very loudly repeat the maha-mantra. Prabhuji would encourage them further – “Paravaa illai, ippo migavum urchaagamaaga sollunga… (That was ok, but now chant with full enthusiasm).” And then the kids would actually scream their lungs out.

The special feature of this year’s tour was definitely the drama – “Who is a Fool” directed by Damodar Gauranga Prabhu (a.k.a Danush), TV serial director and actor from Chennai. The story of the drama revolved around a proud king who engaged in vain materialistic endeavours and social welfare without any higher goal in life. The king ordered to find the biggest fool in his kingdom and hand over him a stick. At the end of his life the king understood that he had wasted his valuable human life and realised that he is actually the biggest fool and the “fool’s stick” should actually be given to him. He then became repentant and took complete shelter of the holy name of Krishna. This drama was full of spiritual instructions emphasising the precious knowledge of Bhagavad-gita and the importance of the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. It thus conveyed strong spiritual message in a very amusing and humorous way. Many of the students and staff were very grateful. Some of them came up to us and would tell us that they had never seen such a program in their whole life.

At the end of the drama Haripada Prabhu would ask everyone to rise from their seats and dance in the kirtan. All drama actors would then come back to the stage and join the tumultuous kirtan. Some of the students would be pulled up to the stage and sometimes the drama actors would enter the crowd and make them completely wild. If inspite of this anyone would not open his mouth, the King would gesture to handover the “fool’s stick” to that student. Thus even the most shy students would be made to chant the holy names.

At the end of the kirtan Srutakirti Prabhu would ask everyone to take at least one of Srila Prabhupada’s books. For the students we would give a special discount offer on the book “Krishna Consciousness – The Topmost Yoga System”. The response at Thalawakalle Maha Vidyalayam school was so overwhelming that the muslim vice-principal instructed that everyone should take the book. He commented that such spiritual programs are very valuable and required for today’s misguided youth. In Colombo, the principal of Hindu Girls school commented that this Harinama Sankirtana should be introduced everywhere. She then quoted that by Nama Sankirtana all the sins will fly away just like birds flying away by hearing the clapping sound. She invited all devotees to her office and ordered full set of Srila Prabhupada’s books for the school library, including the Srimad Bhagavatam set and writing a cheque of 17,000 rupees. In this way, at every program hundreds of books would go out.

We did not want to leave these seeds of bhakti unharvested, thus in every book we have put a seal with our contacts for further cultivation and follow-up. In one of the schools the principal agreed to have a six session course on “Science of Self Realisation” for all senior students. Srutakirti Prabhu is now conducting weekly programs and thus cultivating more than 50 boys in that school.

Another great fortune was that in the same period HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami had came to Sri Lanka for a two month writing service. Maharaja stayed in a remote hilly area near Kandy with a waterfall and greeneries all around which was an ideal serene atmosphere for absorption in writing. On weekends Maharaja would join us at large public programs and during the weekdays we would continue with our youth programs with Haripada Prabhu. The principal of the school nearby Maharaja’s residence got so inspired that he allowed two day Shravan Kirtan camp to be held in his school. Devotees from all over Sri Lanka came for the camp and took advantage of divine sanga in the beautiful mountain area. Maharaja delivered the main lectures and the highlight of the program was ‘Prabhupada memories’ shared by Maharaja, Haripada Prabhu and Phalini Mataji. They all remembered the revolutionary preaching spirit which Srila Prabhupada infused to his disciples in the early days of the movement. They encouraged us to revive that same spirit by selflessly pushing on the Sankirtan mission.

All the devotees who participated in this one month preaching tour said that this was one of the most memorable and adventurous experience in their lives. Haripada Prabhu and Phalini Mataji would charm everyone by their friendly dealings and devotional kirtans. Prabhuji would be like our spiritual uncle and Mataji would be treat us as most loving mother and they promised to visit Sri Lanka at least twice a year. Every evening, after the preaching events were completed, Haripada Prabhu would read from Sri Caitanya Caritamrta and share his personal realisations. In this way our minds would become completely pacified and absorbed in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes.

Krishna consciousness in Sri Lanka is gradually expanding. We are humbly requesting devotees to bless us so that we can have sufficient spiritual strength and manpower to take forward the mission of Lord Caitanya and thus please Srila Prabhupada and our Gurus. Thank you very much!

Please see the pictures and videos of this tour at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1671194229766032.1073741834.1639909306227858&type=1&l=96f5fff987