More photos: https://goo.gl/PhsZhD
By Hari Narayana Das
As we approached the new preaching centre, which looks like some sort of a dainty little villa, a small girl of barely 3 years, comes to greet us in her broken words saying ‘hare krishna’. She is Kalindi, daughter of Gadadhar das and Krishna devi dasi. Her grandparents are Mukunda prabhu and mother Sureshwari devi dasi. We are talking of the Sri Sri Gaura Nitai Mandir at Negara in Bali, Indonesia which was officially inaugurated recently by His Holiness Subhag Swami. This temple is special in the sense that it is serving as a study centre where students or anybody inquisitive to learn about the teachings and philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita can come together and study in an easy and interactive way under the guidance of experienced devotees. The local village authorities were reluctant to extend their support for a ‘hare Krishna’ temple in their village but the hard work and perseverance of the devotees paid off nicely.
The picturesque view of Negara results from a combination of the mountains, the sea with its black sands beaches lined with coconut trees and vast expanses of rice fields in between the two. The landscape is dotted with Balinese Hindu temples as well as mosques and people generally tend to carry a warm attitude. It was in 2011, during a visit to Negara, Srimat Subhag Swami expressed his feelings that a preaching centre there would be very beneficial for the devotees. Gadadhar pabhu and his family members, all initiated disciples of Srimat Subhag Swami, took it a bit seriously and immediately Mother Sureshwari came forward and offered her family land for the new ashram and dedicate it to Srila Prabhupada. Although in her late sixties and struggling with failing eyesight, Mother Sureshwari is more active than most of the younger devotees in Negara. She looks after melon farms which are spread out for hectares upon hectares and the harvested ripe melons gets transported to many parts of Indonesia. Then there are rice fields, banana plantations, tulasi and flower gardens which she looks after and above all she cooks the best prasadam for Gaura Nitai and of course, for the devotees. Almost two years back she completely lost her eyesight and doctors expressed her inability to cure her, she kept crying and when Gadadhar Prabhu went to console her, she revealed a nice prayer. She was praying to her family deities, Gaura Nitai, that … ‘my dear lord, my only means to render some service to the devotees is by cooking some prasadam for them and now that I am unable see I will no longer be able to serve your devotees anymore.’ Within a short time, to the utter amazement of the doctors, she could see again and ever since she hasn’t slowed down in her service for her deities and the devotees.
Having gone through many difficult negotiations, the local authorities finally gave their approval for building the temple, the credit for which goes to the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books, harinam sankirtan and food for life programs which has been going on for the last six years. An interesting aspect of Negara, also known as Jembrana, is that the leaders of the Hindu Parishada there are very open and keen to have open dialogue with the devotees with respect to Bhagavad-gita or Vedic culture. They would eagerly invite our devotees to lead discussions on Bhagavad-gita and express their appreciation of how important a work has been done by Srila Prabhupada… which is practically impossible for any ordinary man to perform. Recently at the official opening of the Gaura Nitai temple at Negara many of the local leaders were invited and all of them spoke very highly of the big family of ISKCON. A Hindu Parishada leader said that in the Vedic literatures the authorized mantras are given to help humanity establish its connection with the Supreme Person, God… such as om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, om namo narayanaya and by the grace of Srila Prabhupada everybody has received the opportunity to chant the mahamantra hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare/ hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare… which is the recommended mantra for the age of Kali.
The same day in the morning devotees organized ‘Cida Dahi’ festival at the beach which was barely 15 minutes by walk from the Gaura Nitai Temple. It was wonderful to see devotees come together and start the preparations a day ahead of the cida dahi festival and the temple opening. When the preparations in temple finished, some devotees went to the beach to prepare the place for the festival, cleaning the area and decorating the temporary altar that would be used for the festival. Early next morning after Mangal arati everybody tried to finish their japa early as it would be a big rush the whole day because of having two big events back to back in one day. All paraphernalia for the festival were carried to the beach and after morning prasadam devotees went to the beach with Lord Gauranga and Lord Nityananda prabhu carried on palanquins. The parade attracted the villagers to see and join the kirtan led by Sridhar prabhu filling the atmosphere with melodious Hare Krishna Mahamantara. Arriving at the beach, The Lords were placed on the altar and the pujaris dressed the deities in appropriate dresses for a bath in the sea. Then the jolly bathing ceremony of Gaura Nitai took place and all devotees sang and danced in bliss.
After the bath, abhiseka for Gaura Nitai was performed and offerings made. Srimat Subhag Swami gave an enlivening lecture on hoe Raghunath das himself has organized the most wonderful Cida dahi festival at Panihati on the banks of the Ganges and thus pleased Sri Nityananda prabhu. Maharaj also expressed his gratitude to all devotees who participated and prepared the festival. Arati was performed by Maharaj himself and Sridhar’s kirtan made the devotees dance more in ecstasy. After prasadam distribution which tasted like nectar, devotees rushed back to the temple for the opening ceremony.
At 04.00 pm the invited guests started to arrive. They were the officers from local authorities. The welcome speech was given by Vrajendra prabhu, head of ISKCON in Indonesia. The local authorities appreciated Srila Prabhupada and expressed their happiness to receive the preaching centre in their area.
Later during the Sandhya arati all the guests were invited to take darshan of the deities and all of them spontaneously started praying to Gaura Nitai. Later they told the devotees that they could sense a strong feeling of spiritual energy when they were standing in front of the altar.
Later in the evening Srimat Subhag Swami officially inaugurated the temple and Maharaja gave the name ‘Sri Sri Gaura Nitai Temple’.
“Whenever there is a new branch of our society for Krsna consciousness I become very, very happy, and my blessings in heart and soul are with you. I went to your country for spreading this information of Krsna consciousness and you are helping me in my mission although I am not physically present there but spiritually I am always with you. Our procedure is very simple and consistent. We chant, we read from Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam and we distribute prasadam.” (SPL to Nandarani, Krsna devi, Subala and Uddhava, 3rd October, 1967)
A warm and heart touching kirtan led by Ananta vijaya prabhu made the opening ceremony complete.