they desperately wanted the association of the devotees

"They desperately wanted the association of the devotees" drums.jpg (30626 bytes)

Chapter Eight - Part Two

We had turned around and five days had gone by. On the evening of that fifth day, we heard a familiar sound "ding boom tic a tic boom boom... ding boom tic a tic boom boom.." We were approaching the village we had most recently visited, where they had asked us to join them.

These drums reminded us of mrdangas. Bhaktivinode Thakur said that whenever he heard the sound of the mrdanga he felt transcendental bliss. Now as I looked upon the faces of these devotees, or seasoned soldiers, I saw expressions of eagerness to preach. They were strong expressions, fearless faces. For one and a half hours we heard those drums and finally as we rounded a hair pin bend, we saw almost the whole village standing on the banks of the river. When they saw us, they broke into a loud kirtana.

The devotees were stunned. At first the villagers kept their singing together. They had no melody, but they were chanting, "Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare." In their enthusiasm they got all mixed up. Then they put their arms up in the air like we had taught them one week before. They desperately wanted the association of the devotees.

And they had their best clothes on. They didn't have suits and ties of course, but they had washed and were wearing whatever they had that was nice. The women had adorned their hair with beautiful jungle flowers; the men wore garlands of Brazil nuts, signifying a great occasion. But the captain did not look at any of this. He was heading home.

I said, "Captain look as these people!"
He said, "I don't want to lose my job. I've got to get back on time. I won't turn this boat around for anything."

And the boat chugged on. Again I implored him. "Captain, look at these people! Can't you hear them?"
"I don't hear anything," came the response.

We started to pass the bank. They were about fifty feet away. Their chanting was deafening. When they saw we weren't going to stop they became anxious, extremely anxious, almost frantic.

In desperation I turned to the captain and said, "Captain, look! Will you?"

Slowly then he turned his head and looked in the direction of the shore. There is a phrase used by the devotees here to describe the sankirtana devotees. They are called sankirtanerius. I had never heard the captain say this before, but he looked at the villagers, he looked straight ahead, then he cried, "Sankirtanerius ki jaya!" And he turned the boat around.

As we turned, you couldn't imagine how those Indians responded. They reminded me of little children. All heaven broke loose. As we headed toward the shore the devotees started to cry. The excitement was such that the devotees didn't even wait for the gang plank to be let down. Jumping down into the knee deep water they ran to join the villagers in their kirtana. The villagers embraced the devotees, and the inclusion of mrdangas and karatalas made this kirtana one of the most ecstatic of the journey.