Timeline of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami's Life - 1991-2000

My dear ones, Please accept my best wishes and blessings. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

As predicted, here I am on the Padmā River in Bangladesh. We've been on this ferry for a couple of hours and there's still one more hour to go. I ran through one computer battery and am on the second. I have a third, so should be able to write through most of the trip.

We were supposed to leave at 6am, but the bus didn't show up on time. Then at 8am we realized it had failed us. Then finally at 10am the bus came, so we began our journey through the hottest part of the day. Preaching in this part of the world means taking the unexpected as expected. When I first came to India, I had a different ethic of punctuality and efficiency. Somewhere along the stay in India, that got broken and I have become more flexible. It is either bend or, like a stiff tree, get broken by the strong stormy winds.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said in Krsna consciousness we need to emulate the coconut or palm trees which can bend under the stormy weather, but after the wind stops, they bounce back upright. Stiff big trees often get blown over. So please tolerate all kinds of difficulties and remain fixed in your Kṛṣṇa consciousness, no matter what kinds of tests come. Always try to serve Guru and Gaurāṅga under all circumstances.

After we get off the ferry, we have some more distance to drive. Our destination is Taraganj Nāmahaṭṭa where some hundreds of devotees are waiting and a festival is planned. More later when we get there - if I get time to write!

Rangpur, Bangladesh

We haven't reached yet. Trying to send this off. Last phone before we reach the village destination. It was supposed to be a 6-7 hour journey but now has gone up to 9 hours and still 30 minutes to go. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chanted a lot of rounds today!!

Spent one hour trying to get connected to Internet from here, calling long distance to Dhaka. Lines really bad. Finally got connected and received mail from Johannesburg, Māyāpur and a few places. Couldn't send any mail. Got cut off. Can't wait here any longer. Must go on to the final destination. Will send this message off later whenever possible.

Taraganj, Bangladesh

We turn off the paved road and go into the dirt road. The driver is apprehensive. Is this the only road? How long is it? We pacify him, it isn't long now. We go a few hundred meters in the village and see hundreds of devotees with turbans, mṛdaṅga, karatalas - chanting Jaya Gurudeva! Jaya Śrī Krsna Caitanya... Hare Kṛṣṇa... Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda!!!!

A 10m brick temple with a tin roof kirtan hall in front of it is the main attraction of this village. It is the ISKCON Nāmahaṭṭa Mandir. Twelve devotees (all brahmacārīs except one house holder family next door) serve here fulltime preaching Nāmahaṭṭa in several districts. It is dark. Can't see much now. Our van pulls up surrounded by dozens of devotees. Everyone is trying to touch my feet. We go off to an aspiring disciple's house. I am asked if I want to start the interviews for the initiation yajña right away. I tell them first thing in the morning. Now some prasāda and take rest.

They had cooked a feast for me. Cheese subji, fries, the works. I can't eat any of it. Against my dietary restrictions. What I could finally accept were two simple vegetables, rice, dal, cucumber pieces, lychee fruits, mango, some puffed rice and gūr balls and some hot milk. The śāstra states that what we will get to eat is already written beforehand. We cannot expect or desire more than what the Supreme Lord has already decided for us. I am satisfied to get a little prasāda after all day travelling

I am in a brick house, maybe the only one in the village, two rooms with a FAN! This village has electricity. The householder has moved out and given his own room for me to stay in. This is Vedic and Vaiṣṇava service attitude and hospitality! To receive a devotee of the Lord, they offer their own room and facility! The room has an informal altar with pictures of Bombay's Rāsa-Vihārī Deities, Pañca-tattva, Jagannātha, Māyāpur Rādhā-Mādhava, Śrīla Prabhupāda and my picture.

The local devotees tell me that interviews and examinations for initiation are ready and ask me if I wanted to complete the interviews and do the ceremony that night. I tell them now the program is rest and after maṅgala-ārati we will begin the other things.

I hope that this finds you in good health and blissful in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

Your ever well-wisher,

Jayapatākā Swami