Chapter Six - Part Two

A few days after Govardhana Puja was Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance Day. During the morning class, I spoke about the importance of accepting a spiritual master. I related some of my own experiences with Srila Prabhupada. The devotees were transfixed and I realised that talking of Srila Prabhupada was as potent as having physical association with him. So many times I had been with him, but talking about him was like having his association again.

Later that afternoon we went on sankirtana in the village we had been docked at since morning. "Docked" is not really the right word. There were no ports or landing places along the Amazon. The boat just comes to the bank of the river and lets down the plank. Then we descend into the mud and walk up on to the shore.

This village was wonderful. It reminded me of Bengal, with palm trees everywhere. On the outskirts we noticed many cows, Indian looking cows. As we chanted down the dirt trails leading to the heart of the village, I thought that this is how it must have been when Lord Caitanya introduced the chanting of the holy names to the streets of Bengal. It was ecstatic. We passed mango trees, jackfruit trees, vanilla trees, cashew nut trees, and coconut tress. There was so much opulence.

Upon our arrival, the whole town came out to receive us. They all followed us down the winding trail as we passed house after house. We chanted for one and a half hours. When we stopped to rest for a moment, the leader of the community came over. He requested that we address the whole community that evening on the purpose of our visit.
He said, "We are a small village, but very concerned with ideals."
Many of the village elders came back to the boat with us. Spontaneously they followed us, asking us questions, finally sitting with us on the front deck of the boat.

We discussed many basic aspects of Krsna conscious philosophy. In the course of conversation, the talk turned to the politicians in Rio de Janeiro. They saw we had come in the Governor's boat, the same boat he had campaigned in the year before. Some of the elders present said they had voted for him but afterwards he had forgotten about them. They had requested some medical facilities at the time he had come, but nothing had arrived, not even a word. In recent weeks, a number of children had died from various diseases and accidents. They desperately needed some medical facility. I asked them what they did when there was an emergency. They said that they take the person by boat to the next village, five hours away, and try to obtain help. If there isn't any, then the person could easily die.

They acknowledged that this simple life was better than life in the big cities, but after further discussion I realised that they didn't even know what a big city was. Most of them had never left the village itself. When I mentioned the sense gratification in America, I saw that many of them didn't even know what America was. But still their simple life, cultivating the land and living off the river, showed in their features. They were healthy and not in anxiety. Life was slow here and everyone worked only for the basics of life.

That evening on the way to address the town at the local school, I was wondering what to say to these people. I couldn't give my usual presentation: "Life is not meant for sense gratification" There was hardly any sense gratification here - at least not in the way we know it. And I didn't have to remind them of the miseries of material life. They knew better than I. And how could I have told them not to eat meat? For generations they have been living off the river, eating fish. They weren't about to stop just because I told them to.

I decided to speak about the maha-mantra. "Just chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. And your lives will become sublime."

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Last modified: August 04, 2000