Last month, on Sept. 6th, as part of YLP an outreach at ISKCON, Mumbai was organized.
What follows is the highlight of the visit which was incorporated in the report.
A group of 30 members arrived around 10:00 am at the temple. After taking quick Darshan of Deities, we visited Srila Prabhupada's quarters. This place is also called museum as it has preserved several items/belongings of Srila Prabhupada, which he was using while he stayed here. The items ranged from cooking utensils, beddings, bathroom buckets, stationeries, spectacles, musical instruments, books/letters, Dictaphone, palanquin, rock chair etc. Members were highly enthralled while watching, touching some of these items. The place was so peaceful that after the tour, they wanted to relax inside the quarters for some time.
Our next program was to interact with a practicing Muslim, Mr. Abdul Rashid, who is serving the temple for nearly 40 years. This interaction in Hindi was highly inspiring for one and all. Mr. Abdul Rashid, is a creative tailor who had been stitching embroidered and designer outfits(sometimes thematic) for the Deities for last forty years. Being from a Muslim background, quite a few questions were asked especially by Muslim youth, many of whom were visiting temple for first time. They were curious to know, the reaction of his family, extended family and that how he continues to practice as a Muslim in the midst of temple environment. They also specifically asked him about his practices during Roza period or fasting month. Abdul from his side was very open and cooperative by the mercy of Lord and Swami Prabhupada. He narrated at length about his humble beginning as a small tailor when he had first met Swami Prabhupada and how Srila Prabhupada encouraged him to sew outfits for the Deities during 70's. Impressed by his stitching seva(aptitude) for the Lord, Srila Prabhupada requested him to continue the seva forever and promised that all his basic needs would be taken care. Srila Prabhupada helped him buy a modest house in the nearby suburb, which he occupies till date. This way, he resolved to follow Srila Prabhupada and serve the Lord through his expert skills. And yes, he did face quite a bit of hurdles and opposition from his family and his community, but by his perseverance, patience and by Lord's grace; one after another they were resolved. He added, still he never failed to practice as a true Muslim by the cooperation of temple community.
Regarding roza fasting, he said, the temple gives him early break, so that he can keep up with all the required rituals to be practiced during Ramadhan period. The youth were so impressed with his dedication to serve the Lord and simultaneously practice as a Muslim, that few asked him, if he had any opportunity to get the darshan of Lord.
To which he replied, 'I have never revealed this to anyone till now, but this is the first time I am speaking about this. When I once visited Vrndavan, a holy place, in my dream I saw the Lord.'
For a moment, all of us became spellbound after hearing this. It is indeed unusual to hear from a humble tailor about his ecstatic vision, but this was very encouraging to all the believers inside the room. As mentioned earlier, this was the first visit for many to ISKCON and Lord had indeed showered His special mercy over all through this brief but significant interaction with Mr. Abdul Rashid, which boosted their faith in Lord.
This paved way naturally to hear something receptively about real Peace through the lens of scriptures.
It was seminar time now.
Dr. Mukunda Madhava Dasa, the Vice President of the temple who extended wonderful cooperation for the whole outreach, sparing his valuable time, gave a short presentation on 'Peace: A Perspective from Krishna Consciousness'.
He highlighted on the urgent need for a Peace model among religions through the powerful quote of William J. Brennan, the American Judge.
The quote: 'Religious conflict can be the bloodiest and cruellest conflicts that can turn people into fanatics.'
Presenting diverse grades of conflict and identity, he could vividly present the application of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam' in the current context. Further he clarified the relation between religion and spirituality through the example of relation between Engineering/Technology and Science. Quoting essential Peace verses from Bhagavat Gita, he gradually raised all to appreciate 'Real Love to God', its characteristics and as a sure panacea to bind all religions together. Subsequently, he introduced Lord Chaitanya as a teacher-student who practiced Real Love and distributed it to all. Through the photographic slide showing Lord's Jharkhand's pastimes with animals, he introduced what it means to awaken consciousness of pure love at spiritual level. Subsequently he drew a brilliant analogy of Srila Prabhupada achieving similar feat through free distribution of pure love among the hippy community who were supposed to be living in lower consciousness at Bowery, New York in 1966. Srila Prabhupada was thus introduced as a true messenger of God and as a result how it was possible to bring together people from diverse religions, culture, traditions, race, countries, and profession all under one umbrella house ISKCON. He added further with the help of photo slides, how ISKCON has also grown to become one of the popular societal group which serves the society through schools, environment protection like organic farming, cow protection, food for life program, hospitals, free health camps to name a few.
The seminar was in English, so for the benefit of those who couldn't follow, Qutub, gave a nice summary in Hindi.
The seminar was followed by sound meditation on holy name. Srila Prabhupada's soft japa chanting was played in the background and for five minutes all closed their eyes to meditate on sound vibration. It was refreshing and had a calming effect.
Finally, dry sweets prasad were distributed to all. Besides, a free book of Srila Prabhupada titled, 'Civilization and Transcendence' was distributed to all in both languages, English and Hindi.
After the seminar, we walked around to see the marvellous architecture around the floor and some of our girls were attracted by the paintings mounted on the wall.
It was aarthi time, so we rushed quickly down to the main temple. All could watch the aarthi(fire) lamp that was offered to the Deities and subsequently receive the aarthi as Lord's blessings.
It was close to 1:00 pm, and time to leave. While parting, every member expressed their intense satisfaction that they had derived after visiting ISKCON temple and thanked us for coordinating the entire visit. From our side, we thanked the Lord for not just making this outreach happen very smoothly, but also for showering His choicest blessings on every member of the team.
As it was for the first time, a youth URI team visited ISKCON, Mumbai, they requested us for a report for their newsletter and their global website. ISKCON, Juhu, Mumbai is one of the major centres of ISKCON in the world, considered as Swami Prabhupada's office. There are several activities going on all the time and to have an outreach inside the complex within a short notice period was not so easy. Also ISKCON was celebrating their world holy name week from Sept. 5th to Sept 15th and inter-faith dialogue was part of the celebrations. Everything fell on place as per Lord's plan and we are grateful to Lord for making this program happen.
