Preparations

Preparations drums.jpg (30626 bytes)

Chapter One Continued

As we reached the river we noticed many different boats all of them old river boats. Scanning those in front of us, we began to speculate as to which boat it was she could be offering us. At the end of the line we noticed a beautiful vessel. I nudged the temple president and said jokingly, "wouldn't it be funny if that was the boat?" Everyone had a good laugh. Just then, from that very boat, Mrs Mendez popped her head out of one of the portholes and called "Swamiji! Swamiji! Come come! Here's your boat!"

We walked along the gangplank onto the thirty meter long boat. It was a sight to behold. The railings were made of brass. The interior was furnished with mahogany and teak wood. The dinnerware and chandeliers were made of crystal. Oynx and marble beautified different parts of the walls and floor.

"This is my husband's boat," she told us, "He uses it to show the Amazon River to important visitors to Brazil. A Middle Eastern sheik gave it to him. Now my husband is letting you have it for two months to go and preach to the Indians." "This is very nice," I was thinking. But I spoke aloud, "We don't know how to drive this boat." "Do not worry about that," assured Mrs Mendez. "My husband is arranging for the military to send six men to drive the boat for you." Six men! Incredible! As it turned out, the boat's captain had twenty years experience sailing the Amazon River. To have such a veteran guiding us was quite a comfort. Since this problem was very easily solved I thought I may as well voice my next concern.

"How will we run this boat? It obviously can't run on nothing and we can't possibly afford two months' worth of petrol." At this point that good lady pulled from her wallet ten one hundred dollar bills and said, "This is a donation from my husband."

A mild tremor shook my foundations as I realised I was witnessing Krsna organising this entire preaching venture through a certain Governess. "Who is this woman?" I found myself asking again. "Maybe she's empowered by the goddess of fortune." I thought that I may as well ask all of my questions.

"What are we going to eat?" We followed her to the hold. She opened the door to reveal one ton of grains inside. There was rice, barley, corn and more. "This is for prasadam distribution." "Now for the devotees...." She took us to the kitchen which was complete with electrical appliances and walk-in-cooler stacked to the ceiling with milk, cheese, yogurt and more. "This is enough for six weeks," she told us. We could barely believe that such a kitchen was going to take us up the Amazon River!

When the crew arrived the next day we had a meeting with them. We explained that since the deities of Gaura Nitai, Laksmi Nrsimhadeva and Govardhana Sila would be on board, there was to be no meat-eating on the boat. They didn't like that at all. The captain said, "What do you expect? I've been eating fish from the river for the last twenty years. You want me to stop now? What am I going to eat? I refuse to go." The rest of the crew agreed that they also would not go if they could not eat fish from the river.

Not knowing what to do I called up the Governess and said, "Mrs Mendez, I have a problem. I don't know if we will be able to go on this trip." To my surprise she was angry. "What do you mean you can't go? You have to go. You have to preach and distribute prasadam!" "But Ma'm," I interrupted, "the crew doesn't want to be vegetarian." "What nonsense! I'll be there in twenty minutes!"

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, Mrs Mendez arrived in a jeep, complete with guards with shotguns. At this point, the crew got a little nervous. A guard accompanying her, she alighted from the jeep and ran up the gangplank. Without saying a word to anyone she produced from her bag a sheet of paper which read, "I Mr Mendez, the Governor of the State of Amazon, hereby decree that the crew of the Piraiba taking the Hare Krishna devotees into the Amazon Jungle for six weeks, will be vegetarian."

They had nothing to say. As they looked sheepishly at the floor it seemed they had accepted their lot in life for the next six weeks. In the course of our journey, however, they became completely addicted to the offerings the deities would receive each day and were just like little children waiting for the plate to be washed as they could take prasadam. To coin a phrase, we "ran a tight ship"; we were in a very dangerous area. Everything was very suci and organised. Every day we made seven offerings of food to the deities. The crew` quickly became attached to the Lord's maha. One of them would wake up very early in the morning so he could get all the mangala-arati sweets. Then along came another one for the eight-thirty breakfast offering. Some of the crew members liked the lunch offering. One of them was completely addicted to the cake which we offered at four o'clock.

They became very respectful to prasadam. This they learnt from association with devotees. We saw it as our duty to teach them about various aspects of our cultural heritage. The captain had brought his wife along and they also became enthusiastic recipients of maha-prasadam. The captains wife was quite a character. She ran the ship actually. The captain thought he was in charge. I thought I was in charge, but actually his wife ran the whole ship - including the sankirtana.