![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2w734a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Vatsal das<\/strong><\/p>\n Prabhupada Village is located in Sandy Ridge, NC and is home to 25 families, the Bhaktivedanta Archives and the Festival of India and is in the process of constructing a Vedic-style temple designed by Vatsal dasa. <\/p>\n It is a very beautiful rural area. Danbury, the county seat, is around the bend and about 50 miles south of us is Greensboro and 40 miles south is Winston Salem. People are simple-hearted, friendly, helpful and will wave to you while driving whether they know you or not. To give one an idea of the simplicity, every year at the Stokes Stomp in Danbury (where we cook and sell pakoras and chutney to addicted fans), we catch glimpses of the parade with peoples\u2019 vehicles: trucks, tractors, flatbeds, fire engines, etc. And fortunately, by Krsna\u2019s grace, the preaching is incredible.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006, from 12 noon\u20135 p.m., we held our first annual Hare Krishna Fall Festival. (Fall festivals are big around our area.) The theme of the festival was twofold: 1. to present Krsna consciousness through our culture and, 2. to display and sell the devotees\u2019 handmade crafts such as paintings, pottery, sewn items, dolls, homespun wool and articles made from the wool, organically home-grown produce and homemade prasadam. There were also puri-making demonstrations and a yoga and mantra meditation booth. People experienced the natural healing arts, tincture-making, home-made herbal salves and face reading and were able to tour the temple, pet and feed miniature Zebu cows and have wonderful prasadam made with organically, home-grown vegetables. The children had their own booth as well with arts and crafts, puppet shows, face painting and story-telling. Sadhvi, the popular Hare Krsna clown from Hillsborough, entertained the children encouraging all to chant \u2018knee tie\u2019 and \u2018rod hay\u2019! Our award winning Hare Krsna boy scout troop headed by Paramarupa Prabhu also set up their own campsite complete with cooking facilities, outhouse and bookrack. It was quite impressive. <\/p>\n But as with any endeavor for preaching, the tests came. Although the weather was beautiful before the weekend of the festival, the weather reports changed from bad to worse, rain, wind and cold – and lots of country mud puddles, especially a deep one at the top of the stairs leading down to the temple. Fortunately we were able to purchase straw from a neighbor to fill in the flooded areas. Next test: no water! There had been water all morning but when Rucira dasi, our cook, turned on the tap\u2026! Eventually the situation was remedied and many hand-carried buckets later, she had running water. Also, areas under some of the tents were flooded from the heavy rainfall so some devotees had to move their displays into the prasadam room. <\/p>\n Everyone was feverishly working to make it all happen when suddenly 12 noon arrived. (I must say, it seemed to come sooner than usual!) With the rain stopped now cars started coming down the winding, gravel road and as they came in view of the temple, they saw an incredible site: Festival of India with its colorful tents and educational and cultural exhibits! Although the rain was stopped and although it was cold and gloomy with gusts of wind, no one seemed to mind \u2013 there was so much to see and experience. We estimated that 300 people came that afternoon and some from places as far as Hillsborough (2 hours away) and Charlotte (3 hours away). <\/p>\n Bhajans began and our MC, Michael Terry, a recent graduate of Wake Forest Univ. and former announcer for NPR who has been practicing Krsna consciousness, spoke with confidence as he publicized all the goings-on. Jane Priddy-Charleville, the Mayor of Danbury, spoke in praise of Stokes County and its Hare Krsna residents. Actually, over the years, many important persons in the area have stated that they felt we have been an integral part of the community; this has certainly come through the devotees\u2019 friendliness and prasadam distribution. Hearts have melted and many, many friends have been made over the years. Gaurangi-priya dasi did a Bharat Natyam performance followed by 7-year old Krsnaya and 13-year old Ananda and Phanibhusana dasa did some short dramatic performances that inspired all to look more deeply into life\u2019s meaning. A reporter from one of the local newspapers came and printed colored pictures on the front and back pages. Titled in large, bold print? Hare Krishna Festival! Despite the weather, festival-goers had a great time and we received continual appreciations via phone and email. Everyone appreciated the atmosphere, all the homemade items, of course the prasadam, the simplicity and serenity of country life, but most of all, everyone\u2019s working together. As one couple expressed, \u201cIt was obvious that much love and energy was shared by many to make it such a successful event. Congratulations, and we look forward to the next one!\u201d The devotees were enlivened, the guests were happy and 10 minutes before the end of the festival, the sun gloriously crept out from behind the clouds. I felt that Lord Krsna were smiling over everyone\u2019s efforts to co-operate despite all the obstacles.<\/p>\n Everyone in the village had given up some of their very busy schedules to make it all happen and so we can see that through cooperating together, one will receive the blessings of Lord Krsna and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada said, \u201cPreaching is the essence\u201d and it\u2019s through this preaching that we become inspired and enthusiastic and are then able to inspire and enthuse others.<\/p>\n Hare Krsna.<\/p>\n Bhajans began and our MC, Michael Terry, a recent graduate of Wake Forest Univ. and former announcer for NPR who has been practicing Krsna consciousness, spoke with confidence as he publicized all the goings-on. Jane Priddy-Charleville, the Mayor of Danbury, spoke in praise of Stokes County and its Hare Krsna residents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iskcon-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSome weeks before the festival, a friend of the devotees, who is the co-editor of Latitude, a local magazine, wrote a wonderful article where he glorified the community and the Gaura Purnima festival he attended in early spring. He put in pictures of the temple program and of Citra and Mathura, a young, expecting couple, standing in their organic gardens along with their little Zebu cows, sheep, etc. The front cover featured a beautiful picture of Gaurangi-priya as she performed Bharata Natyam that evening. The article was so nice that Saathee, a magazine in Charlotte, asked to reprint it. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2w40a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Hare](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/h3340a.jpg\")
By Vatsal das<\/strong><\/p>\n