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A small team of four members of ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministy [IDVM] participated in a festival known as “Bharatiya Samkrti Utsav (Indian Cultural Festival) at Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. This festival was the fourth one of its kind and is organized every fourth year on a very massive scale for a period of a week. This time it started from 19th of January 2015 to last till 25th of January 2015.
This four member team was led by Srila Bhakti Raghava Swami, Minister for ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry (IDVM- India). The chief festival organizer, Acharya Sri Kadi Siddheswar Maharaj displaying true traditional Indian hospitality received every guest with utmost honour, including our group, especially maharaj. There were many more VVIPs like Baba Ramdev, Shri Govindrajan and some senior parliamentarians were also present at the festival.
The festival gave an opportunity to all the participants have a view of the rich cultural heritage of India in a wholesome manner beginning from its educational structure, methodology, curriculum (Vedic Mathematics, Languages, Aeronautical Engineering, Science etc), the scriptures, variegated landscape, attire, food habits (local seasonal vegetables, cereals, grains etc), sustainable life style (housing, weaving, dyeing etc), agricultural methods (seeds, tools, village technology), cows (different local breeds of cows and their role), health concerns (traditional methods of treatment including Unani, Ayurveda, Homeopathy etc), local methods of house-building with locally available material, economy, self-sustainable solutions in the present conditions, traditional arts (including even the tribal ones), yoga etc. Complete encyclopedia of culture was unraveled in front of the participants, who numbered in some lakhs every day! Simultaneously, there were seminars, workshops, presentations on various subjects related to the theme were being conducted and well attended by thousands in different tents. No wonder, the festival was organised in an area of 300 hundred acres of land. Everywhere, one could see an ocean of people moving around in the area. The festival management body shared that they had a daily traffic of nearly 6 to 8 lakhs people.
The spirit and the enthusiasm of participants was infectious and simply humbling; their simplicity, just disarming. I have been to several festivals but the unique feature of this festival was not just its magnitude but also the general participation of the people. Every person of Kohlapur played the role of a host and contributed their bit towards supplying food and shelter to all the attendees. One could simply enter any house and would be well received just as he reveals himself to be a participant in the festival. We ourselves went to one house to take bath and food; though they were total strangers to us till then but their gesture was simply adorable. I feel fortunate to be one of the participants though I feel limited in sharing the whole experience in words. I can still hear the music they played there. It was mesmerizing to see some 10,000 mrdanga players, nearly 6,000 karatal players entering the festival singing & dancing to the local tune of prayers to Lord Panduranga Vittala. What an enthusiasm they were carrying!
One more incident which made had melt my heart: After attending all the events in the festival, we [along with HH Bhakti Raghava Swami] returning home in a vehicle arranged by our ISKCON devotee. We had almost come close to our places of staying which was about 14 kms from the festival area. All of a sudden we noticed a SUV car overtake our vehicle and block our path. Four people came out of that car and straight way fell flat at the lotus feet of His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj. To my surprise, one of them was the chief organiser of that huge festival and also the head of the Kaneri Math. He presented some gifts to Maharaj and took blessings from Maharaj. I could also hear him saying “please forgive us Maharaj for any difficulty or any mistakes during your visit to the festival”. He was such a busy person, organizing the festival single handedly, but still he could come driving for 14 kms just to present some gifts and to take His blessings! – Trnad api sunicena live.
Later at night, just before going to bed I was thinking that, I have been reciting Lord Chaitanya’s Shikshastakam from my childhood, but could hardly follow even one stanza, especially the third verse where the Lord says, “One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.” These people showed us how to follow the Lord’s instruction.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container backgroundcolor=”” backgroundimage=”” backgroundrepeat=”no-repeat” backgroundposition=”left top” backgroundattachment=”scroll” video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” bordersize=”0px” bordercolor=”” borderstyle=”” paddingtop=”20px” paddingbottom=”20px” paddingleft=”0px” paddingright=”0px” menu_anchor=”” equal_height_columns=”no” hundred_percent=”no” class=”” id=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_text]Photos:
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