By Nityananda Chandra Das
100,000 cheer on the Hare Krishna devotees as we Parade down Greenville Ave. Our 3 year participation in Dallas’ annual St. Patrick’s day parade was fantastic. The amount of devotees participating had multiplied each year. This year by the grace of the Lord and many of his dear devotees, such as Chaitanya Chandra Prabhu every one was graced with a beautiful float of Lord Jagannatha. 
All the youth headed by GopiKrishna’s crew baked up together about 4000 cookies to be distributed along with Gaura Purnima Flyers.
She also purchased 7000 Krishna.com St. Patrick’s Day magnets for distribution.
Here we see Gopal Prabhu with Mathuranatha carrying one the buckets of prasadam candy to be packaged and passed out.
As you can see Mathuranatha Prabhu is a real “Texas Krishna” 
Meanwhile Dharma Prabhu fuels up for afternoon’s event,
Dharma Prabhu every year organizes the devotees participation in this annual city parade.
Bhaktine Angela, Radha Kunda, and GopiKrishna along with many other ladies prepare their baskets of prasadam to be passed out.
and Sakshi Gopal warms up on his mridanga 
Our party consists of 2 cars, our brand new rental truck which was decorated with an elephant by Bhaktine Heather Simpson. 
which is to pull Caitanya Candra cart
Followed by another truck and trailer, Ragava Caitanya Prabhu’s, full of prasadam candy, Krishna.com magnets, and Gaura Purnima flyers.
But as per the theme of the morning class, Jagannatha is in control and if he likes, he sometimes makes it so that the cart will not budge.
Our new rental truck that has practically no milage on it would not start. This major problem for the parade was already on the move and we may not be even able to participate. Help comes as some other paraders drive over to give us a jump start, but no success. Caitanya Chandra Prabhu immediately organizes the removal of the truck and brings his van, attaches the float, and all are ready to go. Everyone saw that this turn of events only took place at the arrival of our two sanyassi guests, His Holiness Gunagrahi Das Goswami, and His Holiness Giriraja Swami.
Krishna would not allow the float to move without their arrival. We then quickly zoomed across the Sam’s parking lot in our float. The crowd is great and early into the parade our elephante headed truck returns on the scene after getting TWO battery changes. We a very impressive party with 3 cars. Rupa with all the gurukulis of Dallas along with the gurukulis of Houston share a wonderful kirtan sung by His Grace Urjevat and Edhani Prabhus, Then new and upcoming famous bhajaneer from Houston, Anish, lead some amazing bhajans (who by the way just came out a new CD with all the Dallas and Houston Kulis) followed by the standard ecstasy given His Holiness Gunagrahi Das Goswami. 
As seen the video, the crowd chanted Hare Krishna along with the devotees, many whom were already familiar with the timeless mantra and while other who chanted “Jesus Christ” were enthusiastically surprised to be accompanied in their chanting with the devotees chanting “Jesus Christ” as well. His Holiness Giriraja Swami walked and danced most the way. At the end of the parade the kirtan did not stop for quite some time. Devotees were immersed in the ecstasy holy name and further enthused by the thousands of flyers, magnets, and cookies that were distributed
What was the reason behind having devotees wearing those green hats and garlands? I understand that it was the St Patrick’s day, but what was the reason for aligning themselves with this aspect of american/irish culture? From my perspective it just looks quite silly and out of place that devotees are trying to integrate themselves with one of the lowest aspects of modern christian/american culture… These two (Ratha yatra and St Patricks day) do not seem to belong together at all.
ys,
Rasasthali
Srila Prabhupada once asked his disciples what is the most important of all verses. He was satisfied when the devotees answered, “yare dekha tara kaha ‘krsna’ upadesa, amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desa — Instruct everyone in the science of Krishna” or as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says, the Lord has ordered, “By My command be a Guru and save this land.”
Under these instructions devotees will use any excuse to glorify the holy names of the Lord. Recently a Hindu doctor who comes to our temple every once in a while ran into the circumstance that his dog died. He asked the devotees to come to his house and give blessings. We could have refuse stating that “Why should we align ourselves with this aspect of american dog culture? From my perspective it just looks quite silly and out of place that devotees are trying to integrate themselves with one of the lowest aspects of modern dog culture…” So instead of giving such a response we took the opportunity to have 2 hours of bhajan and a short katha at this mans house. This is the instruction given, one should use any excuse to glorify the holy names. We must be weary of the miserly mentality, that upon seeing 100,000 people welcome the holy names with great enthusiasm we see nothing but fault.
Your servant
Nityananda Chandra Das
ps. Dallas “Ratha Yatra” is on May 4th please come
Dear Nityananda Chandra Das,
Thank you for your response, yet it has not answered my question.
The story you give about the dog does not seem to have anything to do with the St Pats parade. In the dog story, attending the funeral was directly related to chanting for 2 hours. But how did wearing those hats, garlands, etc. directly encourage chanting? From the pictures and videos posted above, I hardly saw 100,000 people welcoming the holy name; I saw some devotees chanting among themselves — maybe that is just because of the photos that were posted?
I do not like you implying that I have ‘the miserly mentality’; my goal was just to help to improve the way Iskcon approaches preaching. I believe that Iskcon should try to concentrate on connecting with the highest aspects of western culture.
ys,
Rasasthali Dasi
Ps. Thanks for the invitation, but I cannot come at this occassion, it would mean flying from another continent. :)
Haribol, hmm. I think the title of the post says it all. How would you expect the city of Dallas to allow the Hare Krishnas participate in their St. Patrick’s day parade if we refused some of the basic requisites? I am not sure if you ever attended a St. Patrick’s day parade, but here in the US there is really no way that the authorities are going to let you on a St. Patricks day parade with out you adorning yourselves with the traditional green attire and paraphernalia. Srila Prabhupada has told the devotees if it suited the purpose of preaching and glorifying Krishna, devotees could wear non-devotional clothing.
“Regarding selling books in Karmic clothes; yes, it may be done, there is no harm. This book distribution and Ratha Yatra Festivals should go on all over the world. I want to introduce this Ratha Yatra Programme all over the world.” SPL to Madhudvisa 7 August 1973
And;
“There is no objection to going in western clothes in order to distribute books. It is not necessary that we simply always wear the robes, but we should
always keep sikha and teelok. However a wig or hat may be worn as you describe. We have to take whatever is the favorable position for executing
Krsna Consciousness. Do not forget our principles, but sometimes we may adapt such means in order to help distribute books. Somehow or other distribute
books and if you can impress people a little to chant then it does not matter about your dress.” SPL to Jagadisa 23 July 1973 Hare Krishna
Your humble servant
Nityananda Chandra Das
Ps. If you see the video you can even see some the non devotees chanted with us. Even if some did not chant, all 10,000 welcomed the Maha Mantra with great appreciation and that is too their eternal benefit.
Dear Rasasthali Prabhvi:
You make an interesting point, and I agree devotees should consider their appearance in the sankirtan party, but I think on this occasion the goofy hats and green garlands probably did more good than harm.
I looked at the videos and I thought the devotees looked happy, neat, blissful and devoted, and they sounded great too. Sankirtan yajna kijaya!
The article says there was a crown of 100,000 at the parade. I do not doubt such a turnout in Dallas for St. Patrick’s Day, lined up along the route. What a nice opportunity to chant in public.
In the Texas sun, devotees should wear some kind of hats anyway.
Sometimes nondevotees feel more comfortable if they see some devotees in the chanting party with whom they can relate as “normal” people with good hearts and a sense of humor.
Wearing green on St. Patrick’s day is so widespread and accepted here in the U.S., it is hardly a statement of allegiance to any nationalist or other ideology. It is a harmless social convention, and nondevotees in a St. Patrick’s day parade probably expect to see some kind of nod to the conventional festivities.
After all, we are kind of shamelessly exploiting their parade as an occasion to perform Lord Caitanya’s sankirtan. I do not think it hurts our presentation to have some of our participants putting on a little “St. Patrick’s Day” festive hat or garland.
I am kind of surprised that the parade organizers would even allow a Hare Krishna party in the parade (a lot of credit surely goes to the devotees who got the permission). Probably showing at least a little outward sympathy to the spirit of the occasion helps keep the devotees in the good graces of whoever lets them participate.
Obviously, the devotees were not supporting any of the drunken or lewd behavior we sometimes associate with St. Patrick’s Day. (I doubt the original St. Patrick would have done so either). Maybe the devotees’ decision to wear something green was a nice way to blend in with the spirit of the occasion while at the same time delivering the real mercy of Lord Caitanya.
Not everyone wore green, and I take it you wouldn’t if you were there, which is fine. But even Giriraja Maharaja did it, so it must be okay.
The Caitanya culture is dominant. It will gobble up the surroundings and stay pure. If St. Patrick’s Day is a day when “everyone’s Irish,” St. Paddy’s Hare Krishna chanters will make everyone devoted to Krishna, too. Haribol!