Panihati/Sonaspura, India
Departing from Mayapur
I received an e-mail from a friend asking
how I liked the “Swami tossing.” The
other night I snuck into the Kirtan Mela and
a crowd of young men, knowing I go along with a little frivolity at times,
pulled me in and tossed me up repeatedly, only to be caught in a human
trampoline.
I saw it as good clean fun. Everyone was chanting at the time.
An assistant and I left for the Kolkata
area today. Suta Goswami Das, a very good
and caring young monk, arranged for our transport to a place called
Panihati. This is the place where, five
centuries ago, the monk who inaugurated kirtan
to the world, Chaitanya, with associate, Nityananda, honoured a huge, chipped rice
feast. The contents are of dahi (yogurt), rice—of course—some fruit
and a moderate dash of camphor.
Panihati was a simple village at the
time. Situated along the Ganges, the
massive food feast occurred under a large banyan tree, which is still
there. A modest temple and additional
buildings form the foundation of a lively community. Raghava Pandit, and his sister, Damayanti—two
very devout contemporaries of Chaitanya—became masters at food combinations
that sometimes spun out of this festival.
I sampled the prep with the camphor. Loved it, but I am still watching my purine
diet—low protein for gout.
Panihati is visited by monks, colleagues of
mine, who are my go-bros (god-brothers) but it was at Sonaspura, after our
seven hour drive, where I found out that no swamis have ever come to this
village community. I was treated like a
superstar. It was not necessary, and I
asked the crowd to tone down in as diplomatic a way as possible.
Good hearts!
May the Source be with you!
6 km
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