Harinam Sankirtan

To party! Nearly everyone likes to celebrate, to be light-hearted, to dance, to sing, to laugh with friends and be immersed in this party mode for hours or better days at a time … but hey, I’m not talking about alcohol or drugs, cause there’s a down side to those. I’m talking about  harinama sankirtan. The mrdanga beat, the karatels, the beautiful melodies and the holy names make us light and happy. We dance and sing and forget our anxieties.

KRSNA is HIS NAME but though I don’t have the realization of that surely we get a glimmer on hari-nama-sankirtana. Singing Hare Krsna over and over we feel our anxieties slip away and peace coming in. The people on the street hear the Hare Krsna Hare Rama and I swear you see in their eyes a flicker of recognition as if they know… “Hey, this is a different dimension to the mundane that I am used to hearing. I belong in that plane not this mundane one”, and they smile.

Surely harinama sankirtan is a glorification of the rasa dance too. In Kaliyuga, musical meditation that is kirtan has been recommended by our parampara as the means to achieve love of God, prema. Harinama-sankirtan will please our Gurudeva. Nityananda Prabhu would go through towns and villages and the harinama party would clean out the town!  Everyone would go with Him on harinama sankirtana.

Hey, lets party like Him.

Gurudeva told me in a letter that our real job is devotional practise. How’s that, our real job is to party! I found the guru-seva I love and the sloka says by serving guru one will transcend the three modes!

One must conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by developing the mode of goodness, and then one must become detached from the mode of goodness by promoting oneself to the platform of suddha sattva (pure goodness). All this can be automatically done if one engages in the service of the spiritual master with faith and devotion. In this way one can conquer the influence of the modes of nature.

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.15.25

This was written by our dear god-sister Jai Sri Didi a few weeks before she left this world. In memory of her beautiful smile, I thank her for her very very worthy contributions to our community of aspiring Vaisnavas here in Murwillumbah, one of which was establishing weekly harinama sankirtana in the streets of Murwillumbah.

At present we are meeting on the corner of Brisbane and Wollumbin streets at 3.30 pm on Fridays to perform this yagna but please call 66795916 to confirm or for extra updates.

~~~

There are also regular very successful sitting harinama sankirtan and book distribution parties every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month, in the park at Burleigh beach. As long as the weather is good, they meet near the footpath between the playground and the surf club at 3pm. Subal Sakha Prabhu, who organises the gathering, can be contacted on (02) 6672 4762 or 0427 746495

Srila Gurudeva ki jaya! Harinama sankirtana ki jaya!