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December 2000

Two thousand years of Christmas

If you could step into a time machine and watch all the Christmases that had ever been - all 2000 of them - you would see something like one of those stop-action films of a flower growing, an entire season of growth flashing by in under two minutes. If you could view 2000 Christmases in under two minutes you would see, just like a flower, something changing shape rapidly.

There would be a dizzying montage of different people in different costumes from different cultures speaking different languages, all coming on and off stage with lightning rapidity, each making their own unique contribution to a celebration which gradually swirled, changed shape, some parts growing and staying, some parts fading and dying. Observances, ceremonies, customs would be added on throughout our speedy two minutes, some features would be expunged forever. Eventually, breathless, we would arrive at Christmas this year.

If you then went through it all again, this time a little slower, it would dawn on you that the quite complex celebration we now know as Christmas, with its multitude of observances, has been created by centuries of adoption and adaptation, leaving us this year with a multicoloured hybrid of a religious occasion.

You would see the first Christmas, a child born in humble surroundings with wise men finding him through following a star. You'd see the birthday of this child celebrated years later by followers living under threat of death by Roman persecutors, meeting in caves for secrecy; generations later you'd view those same Romans, now missionaries, coming to Britain, discovering the pagans and Druidic shamans who lived here. Finding that they enjoyed their major annual solar festival on December 25th, just three days after the sun began to make their days long again, the Romans cleverly moved the birthday of Christ from March 28th to December 25th, thus turning the midwinter festival into a Christian one. The Druids, however, managed to preserve their sacred mistletoe.

Sometime later you'd see the adoption of St. Nicholas, 4th century archbishop of Myra, in Lycia, Asia Minor as a symbol of Christian charity. As the twelfth century flashed by you would see St. Francis making the first miniature nativity scene, in the process creating the carol as we now know it. You'll now begin to see even more localised customs added to the celebration, which is now taking on an almost recognisable form: the yule log, the Christmas stocking, Boxing Day; Christmas puddings are introduced as cupboards are emptied of a year's accumulation of rich dried fruit from exotic foreign climates. Christmas is then banned as a festival, but it reappears only seconds later.

As we've been watching this all take shape before our very eyes, another old pagan custom, honouring the Scandinavian goddess Freia, who took the form of a fir tree, becomes a Christmas custom in nearby Germany. Prince Albert, dear husband of Queen Victoria and of German descent, brings the first Christmas tree to England in 1834. After the royals are pictured standing by their tree suddenly every family wants one. Through colonialism the idea takes root in the United States. Somebody sends the first Christmas card shortly after the postal service is created in 1840. Someone called Charles Dickens writes about a Christmas so wonderful that forever afterwards people will think: 'this is how Christmas used to be - and how it should be'.

An American department store, in a brilliant commercial move, further embellishes the character of St. Nicholas, now known also as the much more European Santa Claus, turning him forever into 'Father Christmas' who now, it seems, lives not in Turkey, or even in central Europe, but at the North Pole. In 1935 he is given a sleigh, six reindeer, elfin helpers, and the imposing task of delivering presents to all the children of the world in one night. Appropriately, milk and biscuits are left out for him to refresh himself after climbing down the chimney. And right at the end of our fast forward viewing Christmas grows from a three-day festival to become an entire season starting sometime in November.You relax, breathless at what you've just seen.

Christmas, it seems, has never been static. It has changed each year since the night Jesus Christ was born. That being so, I think it is high time the Vaishnavas adopted Christmas officially, adding their own unique contribution to what is patently a cultural and religious melting pot. We can honour Jesus as a Vaishnava, a devotee of God; there is growing evidence that he actually did go to India in his missing years, and that many of his famous parables are borrowed from existing analogies in India via the Essenes. To acknowledge this does not detract from our estimation of his contribution to western civilisation, it helps us to honour him even more. Like the wise men did, we can offer him at least some incense; it is his birthday after all. And let us also remember the cardinal ingredients of any Vaishnava festival: singing and prayer, decorations, gift-giving to God and the devotees of God including our family, philosophy and feasting; all done in a spirit of furthering our relationship with the sublime source of all good cheer - Lord Sri Krishna.

Merry Christmas! -Kripamoya das

Group News

Southampton: In Southampton, Rhiannon Williams and Faz Aishar have been working hard to establish Krishna consciousness at the university. Rhiannon is doing a PhD in Astrophysics and Faz is in his second year of medicine. Ever since this year's Freshers' Fair they've been advertising their regular meetings promoting Vedic culture and Science, and now have around ten members. They started introducing Krishna very gradually to their fellow students, first explaining subjects such as Ayurveda. Every week now there's a philosophy discussion with chanting, a yoga session conducted by Mike Howson who drives down from Fleet in Hampshire, and there's a full feast in the Students Union every month, very popular with all who come.

London: There are five Krishna Consciousness Societies in London universities and they all met up at the end of October for a big 'Spiritual Warrior' festival at the Bloomsbury Theatre, just round the corner from Euston station. The normally very expensive theatre was made available at short notice, and at no charge, due to a last minute cancellation. Around 250 members and their friends attended a mixed show. Along with some devotee festival standards such as a rousing kirtan and a play, the students had put together an arty video on mind/matter/spirit, an energetic rap, and had organised a professional dance group to come along to do a specially-choreographed piece entitled Vishnu sahasra-nam (The thousand names of Vishnu) during which the dancers portrayed the different incarnations.

Seventies stars in benefit concert

Flared trousers and bright woolly tank tops were essentials for a star-studded fund-raising event on November 24th. Chart-toppers Alvin Stardust, The Tremeloes, Dave Dee (without Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch) and The Rubettes came together for a night of entertainment, proceeds of which would go towards the preservation of an ancient holy spot in eastern India.

About a thousand pop fans bought tickets for £12 and £15 a time and thronged into the Walthamstow Assembly Hall. From eight until eleven they relived the seventies, danced and sang along to the hits. First on was Dave Dee, then the Rubettes, featuring a sponsored drum solo from John Richardson (alias devotee Jayadeva das) during which the crowd threw money into buckets being passed around the hall.

A raffle was held and a Rubettes golden disc auctioned off. The Rubettes then backed Alvin Stardust who was followed by the top act for the evening, The Tremeloes. Fans packed the green room backstage after the show to meet the artists. Prasadam sandwiches and veggie sausage rolls were served, prepared by devotee bakers Derek and Shannon.

Organiser of the event, Jayadeva das, said: "This was an enjoyable and successful event. Everyone had a good time and the proceeds will go towards preserving a very special place for future generations of devotees".

He explained the significance of the sacred spot: "When Lord Chaitanya first adopted the outward dress of a sanyasi monk he travelled down the east coast of India to the holy town of Puri, accompanied by Nityananda Prabhu, who broke his bamboo sanyasi staff and threw it into a nearby river, protesting that God Himself should not have to carry a staff of renunciation. There is a prediction written hundreds of years ago that the wooded island where this pastime took place would be a source of spiritual strength for multitudes of devotees and that Jaganath would come to live there.

A holy man living on the island recently had a dream of a specific tree in a distant village from which Jagannatha would be carved. Upon reaching this village the holy man and his group saw that this tree was being worshipped by the villagers. On enquiring he was informed that the tree had been planted hundreds of years ago by an associate of Lord Chaitanya who predicted that one day in hundreds of years time someone would come and ask if the tree could be used to carve deities of Jagannatha. The villagers had been waiting for this day for generations! As if to further confirm that this tree was actually for Jaganath, a golden cobra was discovered sleeping on the tree the morning after it was ceremonially felled. A golden cobra is said to appear very near a 'Jaganath tree' that is seen in a dream". The link between seventies pop stars and a sacred spot in India may seem tenuous, but the plan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for the worldwide spreading of the sankirtan movement can involve every single man, woman and child - each of us in our own special way.

New CD

If you haven't heard it yet, do try and get an earful of Bhakti, a new CD by Havi das. Initiated by Srila Prabhupada, Havi is an extremely talented singer, musician and composer who was once temple president of the Caracas temple in Venezuela, famed in ISKCON for its lively and Latin-influenced kirtans. Havi resumed his musical career in the early eighties and almost immediately shot to number one in many Latin-American countries with his ballads. Known as 'the Spanish Billy Joel' he recorded fifteen albums and put on hundreds of shows. Since 1996 he has re-dedicated himself to the presentation of Vedic knowledge.

This album of bhajans is a collection of his favourite devotee songs in Sanskrit and Bengali. Available from temple shops and the BTG magazine.

South India Pilgrimage a success

You can't always judge the success of a spiritual pilgrimage by the number of mystical experiences you have while you're there. Devotees know that they often experience the benefits of pilgrimage after coming home. But the members of this year's trip to India had lots of heart-opening moments to talk about while they were still over there. 'India Pilgrimage 2000' was different than those previously undertaken. Normally devotees go to Mayapura and Vrindavan, in the east and north of India. This year, a smaller group than normal took the plunge and headed south. The plan was to visit the places associated with the great vaishnava preceptors of eight hundred to a thousand years ago. In the temple towns they established, life has gone on the same way ever since then, and visiting these places was an opportunity to step into the pages of vaishnava history, experiencing devotional culture unchanged for an entire millennium.

ISKCON also has many temples and small branches in India, so our tour was also to take in some of these along the way. Flying comfortably on GulfAir to Bombay, we stayed for three days as guests of Radhanath Swami in the Chowpatty district. The devotees there are very warm and welcoming. They have around 1000 devotees who meet in groups across the sprawling city and pack out the temple on a Sunday for an extremely lively programme of kirtans and classes. Taking the overnight sleeper train down through Goa we arrived in the town of Udupi, just north of Mangalore in the state of Karnataka. It was three in the morning and the town was asleep when our auto-rickshaws brought us noisily from the train station. Only the cows and calves in the town square seemed to be interested in our arrival. In Udupi Madhvacaharya (1238-1317) had established a Krishna temple. The Deity of the Lord had arrived on the nearby beach hidden inside a big block of tilaka on a ship from Lord Krishna's city of Dwaraka.

We waited, watched and listened in the darkness as the town slowly woke up. Four o' clock came and a drum began slowly beating in an upstairs balcony, reverberating through the empty streets. The rhythms developed over an hour, other drummers joining in and finally a chorus of nadesvarams began to play a morning raga.

Finally a cannon exploded at six and people began arriving for morning darshan in the temple. No less than eight Vishnu temples surround the town square, each one attracting visitors during the early morning, with bells ringing and music playing in each. Our stop in Udupi was hot, temperatures reaching 115 degrees during the day, and even by bedtime only going down to 96! The highlight of our four days was the evening of the laksha-deep festival when 100,000 candles are lit around the town square and the Deity is taken out on an intricately carved wooden chariot. A second chariot carries Garuda and Hanuman. The Lord's vehicles are pulled enthusiastically through the streets accompanied by decorated elephants, fireworks and a cacophony of two brass and drum bands, kirtan and bhajan groups and shouting pilgrims.

By minibus through some breathtakingingly beautiful countryside- the mountains of the Western Ghats- to Bangalore, where we stay in the magnificent new ISKCON temple, a fusion of ancient and modern architecture, and visited by an unprecedented 7,000 people every day. As we arrive, a national government minister, flanked by assorted dignitaries and reporters is opening a new kitchen and a fleet of buses which will continue to deliver one of the biggest daily Food for Life services in the world. When operating at optimum level in two months time, sixteen tons of prasadam will be reaching 10,000 rural schoolchildren every day in districts around Bangalore.

On we press to Tiruchipalli or Trichy for short, where Sri Ramanujacharya (1017-1137) lived and taught for many years. Set on an island within the Kaveri river, the seven-walled city of Sri Rangam spreads over 60 acres making it the largest temple complex in India. The black Deity of Ranganath, a reclining Vishnu nearly twenty feet long, was given by Lord Ramachandra to Ravana's brother Vibhisana after the fall of Lanka. We arrive at the temple before six in the morning, passing beneath seven huge gopurams or pyramid-like gate-towers.

It is like stepping through a magical gate to another planet. Queueing up with other pilgrims, the sound of furiously pounding drums announces the temple elephant carrying a golden pot of river water for the Lord's ceremonial bathing. We all make space for her to pass! Minutes later she raises her trunk and a few trumpeting blasts signal the opening of the Deity curtains. We feel extremely privileged to gain a sight that is a true blessing. Tulasi leaves, flowers, turmeric paste, and the touch of the Deity's shoes on our heads perfect our visit, the first of several during our stay there.

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed here for four months during the rainy season of 1510 and we are taken by local ISKCON devotees to the house of Vyenkatta Bhatta, father of Gopal, later to join Lord Chaitanya and to become Gopal Bhatta Goswami. We also get a very intimate darshan of the wooden Jaganath deities carved by Lord Chaitanya himself because he missed Jaganath so much.

A brief visit to Madurai, almost at the southernmost point of India, where the country's tallest temple is dedicated to Meenakshi Devi, Lord Shiva's wife, is followed by a train journey to the seaside resort of Mamallapuram, where we stay on the ocean for three days, reflecting on all we've seen and heard throughout the three weeks of our tour. A one-day visit to Kancheepuram, where we see a powerful Nrsimhadeva, an enormous black Vamanadeva (the dwarf Brahmin incarnation who strode the universe) and are allowed to shoulder the palanquin during a small festival, is followed by a visit to the hardworking devotees of the small Madras ISKCON temple, home to Krishna-Rukmini-Satyabhama. In addition to the many souvenirs, pictures, photos and prasadam that filled our bags at the end, we know we've had many experiences the memories of which we can call upon for inspiration the rest of our lives.

Members of the party: Gerald and Ann Corlett, Peter Hayes, Tony Chambers, Vivien Verney, and Kripamoya das.

Other News

While we were in India the news came of George Harrison's shouting out "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" in an attempt to confuse his attacker last year. It was featured on the satellite programme BBC 24 world news and in the newspapers throughout India. For all of us on a pilgrimage it was gratifying to note that the holy names were being widely broadcast.

On returning to England I found George's Hare Krishna connection had made the papers here too. Just a week ago the news came that George was to leave his home in Henley-on-Thames because there was 'too much bad karma there now'. Across thirty years, and through all that has happened to him, George has kept a place in his heart for Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.

Three weeks ago, our scouts confidently report, Stephen Spielburg purchased a copy of the new Bhagavad-gita CD-Rom from a devotee selling them on the streets of New Orleans. This comes just a few months after the famous film director spoke to a Russian devotee at Los Angeles airport for around fifteen minutes, buying a Srimad Bhagavatam in the process. Apparently Spielburg's wife had met the devotee first and pointing out her husband standing some distance away asked: "Do you know who that man is?" to which the devotee honestly replied that he did not. When even being told his name failed to provoke any recognition, he was introduced to Spielburg who listened with interest to the Russian devotee.

The director's knowledge of the movement goes back to at least 1982 when devotees from the Manor took part in his film 'Young Sherlock' made at nearby Elstree Studios. Despite his acquaintance with the wisdom of the Vedas however, the Gita-inspired golf movie just released by his company Dreamworks does not appear to be as spiritually obvious or informative as hoped.

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