(Rainbow Gathering, Slovakia 2012)
Part 4 – Śri Krishna Janmastami and more
Oh, Krishna, what a cold night it was! I couldn’t believe that just in couple of days the temperature could drop so dramatically. I went to sleep in my underwear, but soon I was wearing everything I owned including four pairs of socks and a hat. And still I was freezing.
Since I had my private small tent, I couldn’t cuddle up for warmth with Saragrahi. Eventually at 2 AM I took my half-broken torchlight and I went to the forest to collect wood for a bonfire. It took me some time, specially that my torch was going off and on, but ultimately I managed.
Pretty soon I was falling asleep nicely warmed up, looking at the thousand of stars.
When I opened my eyes the sun was already high up. Saragrahi was sleeping next to me, she must have a tough night too. And there was this guy with a turban and lots of tattoos, sitting next to us (actually sitting almost on my head).
“Good morning” he said with a slight German accent. “You don’t mind that I’m using your fire to make chapatis?”
I looked at him somewhat vacantly, still half asleep.
“Yes… Of course. No problem”
Actually I remembered the guy from before. He was doing an improvisation with a guitar, making up a song about the proper and responsible use of shit pits. I remember that I liked his sense of humor, and also fact that he was always helping with food serving.
I got up and took quick bottle shower behind the tent. Saragrahi and Ania were up too.
We decided to do a morning program. It was Janmastami day. For that purpose I had even brought my mrdanga. It looked kind od funny – since I didn’t have a mrdanga cover I improvised something using an old bathrob and piece of string. It resembled some fury, weird animal.
Saragrahi created a spontaneous altar with Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra, and Guru Maharaja’s picture. We set together and sang Gurvastakam and Hare Krishna.
I could see that we gained some respect in Walter’s (the chapati guy) eyes. He looked with an interest at Deties and Guru Maharaja. When we got to maha-mantra he joined us, not interrupting the chapatis making process.
When he got his first chapati made, he produced a small, silver plate, put the chapati on it and placed before the Jagannatha deities. Then bent his head low and chanted some mantras I didn’t recognize.
That was a nice surprise.
At that moment another guy came.
“Haribol!” he said with a smile. “So nice to meet devotees here!”
“Gauranga!”
We shook hands. His name was Thomas. He looked at our altar, trying to recognize who was on the picture. We talked for a moment. He was affilated with Iskcon, actually he was planning that day to go to a temple for a festival. There was a Hungarian farm near Balaton, not too far away.
Walter handed him a piece of a chapati.
“Take some prasad” – he said.
“I’m fasting today, it’s Janmastami…” – Thomas said. (I held my breath - when I woke up this morning, I devoured, without thinking, a chocolate bar, dammit!)
Walter looked at him.
“But this is prasadam. It’s like fasting” – he said with a big smile.
Needless to say, I was speechless.
Thomas was persuaded by that sound, irrefutable and bona fide argument.
After the morning program, we got into our Janmastami cooking project. We had brought from Poland butter, powdered milk, icing sugar and dry fruits. Simply Wanderful time!
Saragrahi mixed everything in a plastic bag, Ania and me, we cut nuts, dates and raisins, and soon we had maybe hundred or more sweet balls. We offered them and started bhajan. Saragrahi on caratals, me, mrdanga.
In a little while we gathered a small crowd. Some of them were attracted by chanting and some definitely by a sight of the beautiful sweets.
“Ania, distribute the Simply Wanderful” – I said between the maha mantras. She was little bit shy, but soon she was dancing and walking all over the place, giving prasadam to everyone around.
People were charmed. They asked for a recipe, chanted with us, smiled, waved, danced. It was really cool. I felt like in old Iskcon days, during festivals.
At one point, someone grabbed a full plate and went away with it. I was little bit worried, particularly because guy who took it, didn’t look very normal, he was either high or very off. I looked at him doubtfully, but he just started to distribute prasadam himself. Talk about ajnata sukrti, man. That’s how it starts.
* * *
Next day I was woken up by Krsna’s names.
I was sleeping next to the bonfire again (I was smart and the day before I prepared wood for the morning).
I looked around. The camp was completely asleep, except for a small group by the big fire down the valley. They sang some mantras, playing guitar and drums.
I grabbed the mrdanga and almost run down there.
The people assembled around the fire looked very weary. Some of them were naked, cover with ashes, with red eyes. A sad girl with a guitar was leading bhajan. When I joined gently with mrdanga, they greeted me with smiles and made a space in a circle.
They looked at the rising sun and sang to a soft and sweet tune:
“Govinda, Gopala, Narayana
Govinda, Gopala, Narayana”
I didn’t mind very much that they confused the rasa, at least they stayed on the tattva tracks and kept Visnu-tattva in one mantra (few days before I heard someone singing: „Krishna, Govinda, Durga, Ganesha”).
So we chanted and we swayed and we crooned and we smiled and someone even cried nostalgically, and I thought, it was a very magical morning.
* * *
There were more pastimes and stories to tell, but I think I’ll end it here. A good story-teller knows when to stop. I think I’ve already overdone it with a length or comedy, but once I start I very easily cross all possible lines.
In the end I was bit tired, we all were, but still, it was worth it.
I’m not a sentimentalist – I wasn’t blind to pretentiousness of some, to two hippy girls looking for an attention of a handsome and esoteric guitar-player, to a bunch of ganja smokers who were stoned 24/7, to spoiled kids, or overtly zealous environmentalists. I saw all these things. But I was thinking about something that Guru Maharaja said: “We don’t judge others by who they are, but by the ideal they strive for”.
I tried that and I think it worked. I think I met some beautiful people there and some of that beauty dribbled on me, making me... just better.
You would like it there.
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