Swami in a Strange Land by Joshua M. Greene

Author:Joshua M. Greene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mandala Publishing

THE SWAMI DID NOT HAVE the strength to attend Rathayatra, but he enjoyed the reports by disciples at its conclusion about the perfect weather, the five hundred people who followed Jagannath’s chariot to the ocean and about Yamuna Devi’s beautiful singing, and how everyone danced and jumped for the flowers devotees threw from the chariot, and the huge feast at the end with thousands of bananas and apples and piles of chapatis.

“That was but the beginning,” the Swami told them. “We will inaugurate many such celebrations all over the world, one by one. I will show you.” Unlike austere monastic traditions, Vaishnavas celebrated their life with Krishna. There were so many occasions in the Vaishnava calendar, he said, that they could hold a celebration every day of the year.

Over the next several days, he awarded initiation at his beachfront retreat, without the formality of a fire ceremony. He held a brief discussion with each candidate, chanted on their beads, and gave them a Sanskrit name.

“Are you going to take initiation and go away?” he asked, for it was not the fire ceremony but the dedication of their hearts that formed the essence of initiation.

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