Sat. Aug. 9/08 - Berlin, Germany
Since the fall of the Berlin wall the residents of this once divided city have made many adjustments socially and it emerges as a powerful city of a population of diversity of 4 million people. The British and allies bombed the city and a great war memorial, ( the remains of a handsome steepled structure, was the site of Berlin’s Festival of Chariots. I was informed by my monk friend, Kavichandra Swami, that young men and women join the mission mostly from East Berlin not West. He credits communism over capitalism for preserving a sense of culture, discipline and a thirst for knowing. Unfortunaltely it is so that capitalism molds people into independent extremists while communism often does the reverse.
The kirtan (chanting) procession was conducted in a prime tourist location. Many onlookers looked with intense interest at swamis, of which there were five of us, and the other saffron clothed monks (brahmancaris) singing and dancing in abandon.
The stage program at the end of the procession allowed me a chance to stretch my legs when German-born Sacinandan Swami, monk with cool charisma, asked me to put a finale to it. What evolved, very spontaneously, was a type of mystic aerobics. I gave the crowd some lessons in movement, an elaboration on the swami step, a common sway that our guru, Srila Prabhupada taught us. The response was phenomenal. Equipment that was rented had to be returned and our permit time terminated so the crowd was in a tiff when it was announced.
Gazing at the towering steeple of the war memorial as it’s mighty bell resounded for miles around I stood there wondering that 60 years ago at the time when Berlin challenged the world under Hitler’s regime would anyone believe that such freedom could be expressed by monks from different places.
5 Km
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