please stay with us

"Please, stay with us" drums.jpg (30626 bytes)

Chapter Seven - Part Three

We continued on for many weeks in this way, going from village to village. In one of the last villages we visited, the elders came to see us as we were leaving. We had been in that village for about three days. The spokesman for the group implored us,
"Please, stay with us. We have decided as a village that we will adopt your way of life. We will sing the name of God as you are doing."
At first I didn't take him very seriously. But, as the conversation progressed, I could see that he was very sincere. He told me that, by our coming into this village, everything had changed. They really wanted us to stay. He said that they were prepared to do whatever we asked. With much regret I had to explain that this was not possible, and he accepted it with silent submission.

He went to tell the people that we weren't able to stay and as we were leaving, all of the villagers came to stand at the river bank. They were so sad to see us go. We'd had some really ecstatic kirtanas there. The Amazonian Indians love to dance. We would have kirtana for hours and hours. But it wasn't only the kirtana to which they were attracted. They loved prasadam. They loved the Krsna Book stories. They loved everything. Somehow Krsna consciousness had captured their hearts. And at this stage they were ready to change their lives.

They were able to accept Krsna consciousness so readily because their lives were relatively free from sense gratification. Of course sense gratification is everywhere in this material world, but compared to what was available in America or Europe there was very little in the Amazon. We should take a lesson from this. The pure souls see sense gratification as poison because it destroys our determination to become Krsna conscious. It covers our intelligence. It puts us into illusion so that we can not appreciate the most precious gift that we have received from Srila Prabhupada. So we should appreciate that sense gratification is our greatest enemy because it destroys our precious love for Krsna.

As we left that village in the evening I had to literally pull the devotees away. They had formed a very strong bond with these people and were reluctant to leave them.

As we walked up the gangplank, and pulled it up along with the anchor, we started drifting back into the river. All of the devotees were standing on the rail watching the people and all the people were standing on the river bank watching the devotees. We gradually drifted further and further away until the people appeared tiny. No one had moved. As we rounded the bend they disappeared from view.

It reminded me of the story in Krsna Book when Krsna goes off to Mathura. The gopis stood motionless watching Him leave. The last thing they saw was the top flag of His chariot as it went over the horizon.