By Alex de Jong
Eigentijds Festival is the largest New Age spiritual festival in Europe. This year, from june 6th to 9th, about 2000 participants converged on the village of Vierhouten in The Netherlands for a full program of workshops, yoga and meditation sessions, concerts ranging from mantra singing to didgeridoo playing and encounters with like-minded souls.
It is not unlike Burning Man in its appeal to creativity and the imagination. This year’s festival was the twentieth edition, yet for all of that time, Bhakti yoga hadn’t been among its offerings once.
A diverse and enthusiastic group of Dutch devotees was keen to change that and opened an Open Temple for visitors to experience Krishna Consciousness first hand.
“We were busy helping out with the Amsterdam Kirtan Event when we had the vision that it would be a good thing if Vaishnava bhakti yoga were to have a strong presence at the Festival” say two of the organizers, Abhiram Nitai dasa and Alex de Jong: “The main emphasis there is impersonalist, and we wanted to present the personal in every way imaginable. The group chose a practical approach to preaching, emphasizing personal encounter in everything they offered. They transported a capsule version of a temple and kitchen to the festival, showing deity worship and distributing prasadam and books. High quality offerings of kirtan by Radhadesh’s Krishangi Lila devi dasi and by Rati Manjari devi dasi got festival goers dancing on the green, while a breath-taking dance solo by Samadhi Dance Company offered yet another perspective on Krishna Consciousness. The most important however was the personal encounter.
Asta Sakhi devi dasi: “we had a flexible program, so there was a lot of room for personal talks that sometimes went quite deep. Everyone saw that as very precious and valuable.” Marcel Mengewein adds: “People were telling us they were really glad we were here and asked us whether we would be back next year.” Other reactions from Festival participants range from compliments on the excellent Simply Wonderfuls made by Marcel Mengewein and Kerstin Jahn to comments on the emotional impact of seeing deity worship by the group’s pujari, Jagatmohan dasa. Are they returning next year? “Definitely”, says Abhiram Nitai dasa: “This year we were pioneers and we wanted to make contact and get to know people, next year will be like meeting old friends. Already after three days of being at Eigentijds Festival, people started greeting us with “Hare Krishna”!” And on Facebook, festival goers concur: “What a lovely presence you all were at Eigentijds Festival, please come back next year.” The devotees vow they will.
photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rethinkingvisual/sets/72157634121765402/
video:
www.eigentijdsfestival.nl
www.haribol.nl