Hare Krishna,
I just got back from Columbus, Ohio where I attended the festival for Radhastami. It was an excellent event. The temple was packed with people and the air was charged with love of Krishna. His Grace Chandrasekhara Prabhu, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and mentor of mine, gave an absolutely incredible class on Srimati Radharani that was transporting me to the spiritual world, right then and there. The backdrop of the gorgeously decorated glowing deities accentuated the class and made it all very transcendentally spectacular.
Some fun moments happened. While I was walking in the misty rain of the cool dark night to my car to fetch my japa beads, some young people from a few stories above in a parking garage started shouting happily down to me, "Hey, what's up! What are you doing?!!" I must have been a spectacle to them, a shaved head, saffron clad young guy in the night. I excitedly shouted back "Hey how's it going! There's a party in there!" I said pointing to the temple, "There's music and a big feast about to happen, come check it out!" So they came down and we all went inside. They were curious and bright eyed, two females and one young man, all fresh in college. I happily showed them the big lifelike drawing of Srila Prabhupada, and explained a bit about this and that and Krishna Consciousness. They were all fascinated. One girl asked me, " So, is this a religion?" I replied, "Well, first to answer that we must understand what religion is. Religion stems from the word "religio" which means in latin, to bind; to connect. Yoga means to unite. So religion and yoga mean the same thing. Religion is meant to connect us to God, the Supreme, as yoga is meant to perfect us spiritually and unite us with God as well. So, yes, this could be called religion, but the goal of real religion is pure love of God." She seemed satisfied with that, so then I took them into the temple where they took darshan (or witnessed) the beautiful deities and they heard some kirtan. But, like most impatient youths they soon decided to leave, so I walked outside with them and made sure they got a portion of the incredible feast that was prepared for the occasion. I told them I thought it was so auspicious that they showed up at the temple on Radhastami, one of the most merciful and compassionate of all Holy Days, and so I gave them my cards and also a Bhagavad Gita as it is and another of Srila Prabhupada's books titled Journey of Self Discovery. They seemed really grateful to get the books and happily and thankfully bid me farewell. I felt thankful as well. I returned to the temple and honored an amazing feast of cauliflower subji with a light cream cheese sauce, fresh puris (puffed fried bread), rice and dal (light bean soup), paneer lasagna (paneer is a simple homemade cheese), cilantro chutney, cake, strawberry chutney and nectar drink. Jai Sri Radhe!
