Mayapura, India
Places of Real Sound
In the mornings, there is a mist that people walk through on their way to the temples. As early as 4 AM you have pilgrims in stride moving to one of three outlets for chanting—at the samadhi of our guru, Srila Prabhupada, the kutir, or meditative hut, where he first resided in the early seventies when there was only an open plot of land, and finally, the main mandir, or temple, which accommodates thousands.
It is definitely a busy beehive at predawn. Now, being Saturday, pilgrims pour into the Mayapura area from the city of Kolkata and other surrounding areas. Busses of people park in the wide expanse of future development areas, buses with screeching horns of prolonged sounds. Once you step out of the ISKCON compound, you are sure to be in the throes of passion with traffic and noise.
While in the haven of the dhama (sacred place), the atmosphere becomes more relaxed, but not without excitement. By 5 PM there is a hati (elephant) procession on the grounds. Drummers, cymbals, turbaned players, priests, and of course, the large mammals themselves, decorated with draped cloth and coloured pigments, circle the area of thruway, transforming it into much more than Disney could offer.
Teachers of the bhakti school say that wherever there is reverential love, that is the spiritual realm. And that holds true, they say, especially where the ether is surcharged with sound, mantra, from another world.
When the sun meets the Ganges in Mayapura, only a few metres away from my accommodation (five minutes only), a repeat of the morning fog dynamic occurs. The number of pilgrims has quadrupled and the option for places to hear kirtan and release karma are also increased. It’s all so much devotion.
I will declare that I am not missing the mundane sounds of the West, not even the East when it has no connection to the parama dhama, the supreme abode.
May the Source be with you!
4 km
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