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Living in Mayapur

Srila Prabhupada Said!

Living in Mayapur

Mayapur was quiet when I arrived, compared with festival time. So few devotees lived there: a few brahmacaris, about two dozen Westerners and several families, most refugees from Bangladesh. All the men -- even grhasthas -- occupied rooms along the boundary wall. Homes for the Bengali ladies and their daughters and pre-school sons were in the boundary-wall rooms nearest the Big Kitchen; their older sons lived in the gurukula rooms, also in the boundary wall, near the front gate. The school included a few local nondevotee boys, and classes took place outdoors on the grass.

Living above the Big Kitchen were the Western ladies: Vrindaban Biharini dasi, from South Africa; Krishna-rupa dasi, from Australia; Svati dasi and her three-year-old son Sivajvara, from England; Kamadhuk dasi, from Scotland; Khandabasi dasi, with her eight-year-old daughter Susasita, from Germany; and Australian Rasamandala and her two-year-old son Damodara. A round bathroom building accommodated everyone: men in the outer ring and ladies in the inner circle. Two hand-pumps provided water.

The Deities -- Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Lord Caitanya and a saligram-sila (a stone Deity of Krishna) -- were nicely looked after by only three pujaris: Jananivasa dasa brahmacari, from England, the dedicated head pujari since Day One of ISKCON Mayapur; Pankajanghri dasa brahmacari, his identical twin brother; and Anakadundubhi dasa, another Englishman, whose wife was Vrindaban Biharini prabhu. The Bengali men maintained a twenty-four-hour kirtan in the temple room, and many of them sang like Gandharvas (angels).

The Lotus Building rooms were reserved for guests. Huge tulasi bushes, some nearly five feet high, grew at the back of the building, and more distant was a small vegetable garden. The Deities' flower gardens, all along one side of the path from the front gate, provided many fragrant varieties and even imported American roses.

Muslim guards played sahnai music in a small room above the front gate during every sunrise. No shops or rickshaws, except one or two, were outside the front gate, and guests were rare.

The weather was hot and humid most of the year, with perhaps eight weeks of cold in mid-winter. The storm season was most exciting. The cyclones approached so fast that, if I was in my room, I had only enough time to close the wooden shutters before the high winds blasted. The incredible beauty of the rainy-season skies proved that Krishna is the supreme artist. At every sunrise and sunset there was a twenty-minute light show.

Bhavananda Maharaja told us that once he asked Srila Prabhupada: "Is it wrong to enjoy the beauty of Mayapur?"

"No," Srila Prabhupada said. "I've given you Mayapur to enjoy."

And we did enjoy Mayapur. Here we could appreciate the wonderful sunrises and sunsets and not be in maya -- Srila Prabhupada said! Mayapur only seemed to be in the material world, but actually it was entirely spiritual.

Communication with the outside world practically didn't exist. Letters delivered through the Muslim-run post office near the Yogapitha -- if they did arrive -- were already opened. Mayapur had one telephone in the Lotus Building, on the back veranda behind the stairs. If someone phoned, everyone in the vicinity could hear the person on our end yelling into the receiver. Hardly anyone called.

The lack of communication really didn't matter, because we were in the holy dhama, Lord Caitanya's home, and He is especially merciful to fallen souls. I could feel His presence often. Even the banana trees reminded me of Him. Our real, important business was chanting Hare Krishna. Although quiet, Mayapur was the world headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The sankirtan movement started here, which made it the centre of the universe.

I noted that when large groups of pilgrims came, they invariably consisted of all women, with two or three men chaperones. So I understood that women formed the bulk of the Krishna devotees in India. Even though to stay in India we Western women were more or less forced to accept being treated as lower-class citizens, I understood that having a woman's body was conducive to spiritual life. Women were naturally in a subservient position, which is necessary for maintaining a proper, humble relationship with guru and Lord Krishna.

The back veranda of the Lotus Building was my outdoor office. To type, I sat cross-legged on the floor and perched my typewriter on its hard case. Jayapataka Maharaja dictated letters on tapes, but I didn't have a transcriber; so I nearly wore out my tape player transcribing his tapes.

As the temple secretary, I had a few other duties, such as keeping a current list of the foreign devotees' names and passport numbers, for the Foreign Registration Office (FRO), in nearby Krishnanagar.

I also helped Krishna-rupa dasi sew for the Deities. Navadvipa was the nearest town. I hardly ever went shopping there. However, a few times I travelled by train to Calcutta with Krishna-rupa to shop for cloth, trims and decorations for Radha-Madhava's outfits.

Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada-Srila Prabhupada is Coming-Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur-Mayapur---November, 1975---March, 1976-Living in Mayapur-Mahamaya devi dasi

The silence of the holy name
is a quietness that is loud
it takes the breath of one who chants
it is the quiet strength of a crowd

It moves within to cover the sound
of the marching band of the mind
it ends the talk of the chattering birds
of cares and anxieties we find

The silence of the holy name
is a sound that makes us still
so that nothing of the outer world
can try our hearts to fill

It is silent to the world of names,
of designation and of roles
It is quiet still to the bustling sounds
of ambitious material goals

The silence of the holy name
as we quietly chant a round
Or loudly sing with dancing beat
is no ordinary material sound

It is silent just as if
we keep our voice from the world
renouncing all and being quiet
seeking spiritual life to unfurl

Chant! Chant! the sages say
Chant with your heart and mind
Chant with an eager spirit of love
This silence we must find

Chant, chant the teachings teach
Chant to the silence strong
Break the grip of loneliness and pain
Chant until despair is gone

And when we do we will see
a whole new life unfold
The silence of the holy name
is loud, and big and bold.