Thursday, February 28th, 2013

Sell It!

 

Mayapur, West Bengal

 

"Sell it immediately!" were the emphatic words. It was said about four decades ago where Mayapur community was at the embryonic stage, just beginning. "Sell it!" was the service message of our guru, Srila Prabhupada, in relatIon to the motor scooter that was being driven by one of his disciples, Bhavananda. It was quite clear coming from the top that Mayapura was to reflect the flavour of a pedestrian-friendly pilgrimage site. Bicycles were tolerated.

 

I was walking with a group of brahmacari monks this morning when I met Bhavananda. A resident on a scooter skyrocketed by, which compelled me to ask the early pioneer of Mayapur if he would share his take on this high speed phenomenon which is to some extent, to some areas, free from the nauseous machines. It just so happened that we were not in the restricted area.

 

So Bhavananda was frank. He mentioned that he was bombing down the edge of the field on the property when Prabhupada asked him what he was doing. His rational behind using the machine was unacceptable to the guru who was disturbed. At that time he said very firmly to sell the machine. It was done and Bhavananda took to walking from there on.

 

It appears that it might be important to re-visit the case of Bhavananda as a short term biker and apply it to those original wishes of our master.

 

I was actually content to hear the story about the vision of a peaceful, safe and eco-friendly environment in Mayapura. It is important to preserve the pilgrim peace in order for visitors from all over the world to experience the serenity of the times of Chaitanya. At present, pilgrims do converge here from all over the world and they deserve to be relieved of the lifestyles hectic assault of machinery where they all hail from. May Krishna help me to restore the spirit of a real retreat

 

8 Km