Continuing Our Photographic Journey Through the FOI
Continuing with our photographic journey through the 2007 Festival of Inspiration, today we gaze upon some of the sweetly expressive faces and deeds of the transcendental personalities whose dust we were all lucky to walk upon throughout the entire Festival weekend.
DEVOTEES PAR EXCELLENCE
Did I say sweetly expressive faces?…As I have said, in the week leading up to the Festival, our New Vrindaban Brahmacari Action Team works very hard, and Caitanya Prabhu certainly leads by the best example. He is very very verrrry enthusiastic to serve the lotus feet of the Brijabasis, so much so that he often loses control of limbs and logic and has any variety of unfortunate accident. Here, Jagadish Caitanya points out just such a mishap during our clearing of the overgrowth from the main driveway leading to the Temple.
Throughout the weekend, there was one constant…our dear kuli-bhakta Dave dancing in many ways and forms, often with a cup of mango ice cream in his hand, around the continuous kirtan going on under the gazebo. Here, Dave takes on his alter-ego Bhajan Dave, and becomes the show. It’s a gas to hear and play alongside him, seeing the progress he and all his comrades (like Rupi and Prahlada) are making on the kirtan front. The future looks very bright.
At large gatherings of devotees, there is always one personality that absolutely blows me away. At this year’s Festival, it was His Grace Sgt. Partha Sartha Prabhu, seen here worshiping his awesome, battle-tested collection of silas. His ferocious Nrshima sila, seen below, has joined Partha Sartha for three previous tours of duty in Iraq, and will be protecting him for his upcoming fourth tour of duty. While in Iraq, Partha Sartha engages his charges in chanting the maha-mantra, reading Prabhupada’s books, and even engaging in Ratha-Yatra for the benefit of all those who are certainly suffering from the most intense material pangs of Kali-Yuga. His endeavor, austerity, and humility are an immense inspiration, and we should all pray for his safe return to a lifetime of further devotional bliss.
This is the one-and-only Calvin Prabhu from Orlando, whose fancy, rapid-fire footwork during the weekend’s ecstatic kirtans dazzled the senses of all those in attendance into submission. I look forward to spending the twilight years of my devotional life in parikrama in Vrndavana with dear Calvin, speaking sweet katha and remembering these salad days of youthful adventures driving into backwoods West Virginia towns just to find an ATM.
Who is this masked super-devotee? Rumor has it this may be the legendary Yugal Kishore Prabhu, the very life-and-soul of the New Vrindaban Brahmacari Ashram and of so many devotees across the greater 48 of the U.S.A. If this is true, and this is actually Yugal, then no doubt he ushered hundreds of hungry devotees all at once to partake of the sumptuous feasts being offered all weekend. If there was a hungry devotee on the grounds, Yugal instantly expanded himself to find this hungry devotee and offer them a plateful of the finest Prasad. Yugal is truly a man of mystery, and there is no one like him in all the three worlds.
And to top it all off, our dear Radha-Vrindaban Chandra were decorated to the nines, surrounded by a beautiful floral display put together by our expert Deity worship team. I do pray this vision of nectar transports you to Goloka as easily as it did and does for all of us Brijabasis.
The final installment of this photo essay is coming in the next few days. Stay tuned!
