Aniruddha and Syama dasi
from the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
arrived last night.
They are planning to stay three weeks.
We are very glad to have them at Viraha Bhavan.
They will do many services while here.
We had a brief initial meeting. Syama told me
about her recent pilgrimage to India.
It is the first time she has been there
in twenty-five years.
She said despite the great changes
the building construction and noise and traffic,
she still felt the sweetness and holiness
of the dhama and the people there.
In Calcutta, they went to visit
the Radha-Govinda Temple
that Prabhupada used to go to when
he was a little child. Now the outside
is all boarded up with shops.
When they asked the shopkeepers
where the Radha-Govinda Temple was,
the shopkeepers said they didn’t know.
Either they were lying, or they
actually didn’t know that just on
the other side of their shops
was the beautiful Temple
entry to Radha-Govinda.
I remember when I went there
many years ago, there were no shops.
There were just stout temple pillars,
wide open, and you passed through them
into a direct entrance to Radha-Govinda
in Their temple. Aniruddha told us
she had just recently been teaching
classes on the Upanishads
to students at Radhadesh in Belgium.
While she was there she saw
my art exhibit, which is being featured by
MOSA (Museum of Sacred Art). She had
high praise for the art. She said
there were a group of people who
were discussing the exhibit and some
of them said they didn’t like it and
it confused them, while others said
they loved it. A knowledgeable art critic
arrived. She told the gathered persons
that naïve art was a very big school,
very prestigious and recognized
by artists in the art-knowing public.
This art critic’s remarks squelched
the arguments, and the people became submissive.