{"id":5938,"date":"2008-06-14T09:39:27","date_gmt":"2008-06-14T08:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=5938"},"modified":"2008-06-24T12:05:21","modified_gmt":"2008-06-24T11:05:21","slug":"london-is-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=5938","title":{"rendered":"London is Hell – video"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy Janananda Gosvami<\/strong><\/p>\n

“HELP! LONDON IS HELL\u201d<\/p>\n

1969 Newspapers report \u2013 \u201cSwami calls London hell!\u201d The reporter had asked, “Swamiji, do you have a concept of hell in your religion?” “Yes,” Prabhup\u00e4da replied. “London is hell. <\/p>\n

Times have changed \u2013 is it still Hell? Recently I had a sharp realization, a reminder waking me from my sleep. It\u2019s a crispy Saturday morning in early May as I open the door of the Temple flat in the heart of London. I\u2019m on the way to Mangal arati at the nearby Radha London Isvara temple. I look around to see the result of a night of mayhem in the heart of one of the worlds\u2019 greatest \u201ccivilized\u201d cities.<\/p>\n

A man grovelling on the footpath groaning. A half crazed looking women crying loudly. An intoxicated man pulling a drunken woman half naked in the gutter. . Another pack of shaky, shady night prowlers struggling to keep on their feet – holding on to railings and grasping for some shelter. Someone calling out HELP ME! \u2013 his mates laugh and watch the spectacle. Broken bottles and fag ends strewn everywhere. Beer cans. \u201cSmoking kills\u201d glaring out from empty fag packets lying dead on the floor.! Lost in the world of madness. The sounds of bottles smashing in a distance. Shrieking cries echo in the dark streets and alleys. Vulgar language. Welcome to KALI\u2019S domain. Civilization at it\u2019s \u2026\u2026.A normal scene as we walk to mangal arati in London. The pubs and restaurants are just winding down after another night of revelling. Gays and lesbians of all races loiter around in this part of London \u201cmaking love\u201d. Anything you can think of blends harmoniously with whatever happens around here or does it? This is the centre of western civilization. This is advancement. The city where the paths are paved with gold? Now broken glass, fag butts and broken hearts. Inside shop entrances, down and outs are huddled up in filthy sleeping bags, blankets \u2013 whatever they can get \u2013 right there on Oxford Street. Phew! I made it. The temple, and the oasis of Radha London Isvara. I sit and reflect \u2013 get my breathe back. Was that real or a dream? My mind races back to a moment in Heathrow airport, London.<\/p>\n

I see Srila Prabhupada sitting on the mezzanine floor as his flight is delayed . Thousands of travellers are milling about below \u2013 where are they going? Prabhupada is watching. His eyes brimming with tears. A moment of realization. His mood \u2013 \u201cHow are we going to save them? They are all our brothers and sisters. They are Krishna\u2019s children. We must save them before they are dead and gone\u201d Prabhupada\u2019s heart is flooded with compassion for them. These thoughts flash through my mind. Back to the here and now . How can I walk past them like this every day? Have I no heart.<\/p>\n

People are suffering everywhere. How can I sit and worry about my own problems having been injected by Srila Prabhupada\u2019s mercy. What am I doing? I seem to be caught up in my own little world. How long is this going to go on? Wake up sleeping soul. It is not enough to chant 16 rounds and go through the rituals. Sit in the temple chanting to ourselves. Where has my spirit of preaching gone? Preaching to the converted? A day before I had been flying over the Bay of Bengal when the pilot announce. Ladies and gentlemen we are sorry but due to a strong cyclone building up we will have to change our course and thus we will the flight will be delayed. Oh no I thought \u2013 I might miss my connection. This is terrible. Little did I know that down below a storm was about to hit the coast of Burma and around 60,000 people were about to lose their lives. Oh no they may have missed their connection. Who cares for mine. An earthquake in china knocks out another 70,000. But what about my prasadam. What about me? Time is short and there is no time to waste, make haste, get a taste, and with the mace, of His divine grace, go to every place, with the holy names before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

1 July, 1970 My dear Rupanuga, Yes, that is our main program, this traveling and preaching just as I am doing. Now you have to keep the institution in living condition in the near future, so as such you have to preach vigorously to the right point so that people will appreciate our movement and take to it\u2026.. Just you save the foolish world from going to hell. Everyone has become already animals. They are not interested in morality, religion, or other subject matter of the human form of life. And when one is prepared to become animal, then what this school-college education will do?<\/p>\n

There are 6 billion human wrecks out there. How long will it take before I develop some genuine compassion and as Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura writes: When kindness to all beings will be appearing, with free heart forget myself comforting, Bhaktivinoda in all humility prays, “Now I will set out to preach Your order sublime.” When, oh when will that day be mine?<\/p>\n

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You can see more videos about Iskcon-UK here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Janananda Gosvami<\/strong><\/p>\n

People are suffering everywhere. How can I sit and worry about my own problems having been injected by Srila Prabhupada\u2019s mercy. What am I doing? I seem to be caught up in my own little world. How long is this going to go on?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-janananda-gosvami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938","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=5938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}