Durban, South Africa
The temple room in Chatsworth was filled
with devotees. Three monks, Bhakti Caitanya Swami, Kadamba Kanana Swami, and I
sat just 3m away from the havan Kund with 20-25 candidates for diksha,
initiation. The havan kund is a small fire arena where not humans but grains,
spices, veggies and fruits are tossed into the modest fire as an expression of
gratitude to Vishnu.
My contribution to the whole event was
accepting 2 local young men as students. Mervin from Newcastle took on the name
Mathurinath, a name of Krishna. And Theran accepted the name Tamohar. This boy I
knew since he was a little squirt. I mentioned to the crowd, “Before God, we
are always a little squirt.”
More initiations or new memberships were
formally established in the morning of this day. Hurray!
The afternoon brought us to the beach
once again after a great performance of 'Gita Concise'. So there we did some
strolling on the beach barefoot “you have to watch out for blue bottles, a
nascent stinking jelly creature.” There we did bond with a small group and we
arrived back in town to the main marquee to listen to the KwaZulu- Natal Philharmonic
orchestra. They played some classic pieces like Carmen, really delighted the
audience. B.B. Govinda Swami infused maha-mantra during at least 2 numbers along
with the KwaMashu gospel choir. This was a great exposure for our community to
listen to some well trained and disciplined musicians. Sometimes our very own
kirtans get very out of control in terms of quality of sounds and
synchronisation. It is always important to emphasize bhakti or devotion when
delivering a song, but in the same time we should not dismiss quality sound
rather apply devotion to the discipline and then so many more people can listen
and be satisfied and enlightened.
At least 35,000 people sat there taking in
the good sound vibrations.
1 KM
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