New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Any activity that you begin on Gaura Purnima day becomes very auspicious. There is a special, true story in this regard. On the afternoon of Gaura Purnima, on March 8, a few of us were chanting bhajans in the temple room for the pleasure of their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. As we were doing so, a large group of about twenty-five students came in and Gauranatraj das began to give them a tour of the temple room.

He began his tour in front of Srila Prabhupada and then they visited each altar, as Gauranatraj offered explanations and answered their questions. Meanwhile, our bhajan group sang on. When the student group arrived at the front altar, Gaura politely interrupted our bhajans and asked me to speak a bit about the significance of chanting Hare Krsna.

After I spoke for a few minutes, Gaura declared, “OK, now we’re all going to chant and dance!!”
I thought to myself, “This subdued-looking crowd doesn’t look like they want to start dancing right here and now in some strange Hare Krsna temple. What is Gaura thinking?!”

Gaura threw his arms up into the air and commanded, in a very friendly tone with a big smile on his face, “OK. Everyone do this!” Fifty arms shot up into the air. Then Gaura demonstrated the “Swami Step”, “Now just move your feet like this from side to side in the “Swami Step.” Twenty-five sets of feet imitated him, making the long line of students look like a wheat field swaying in the wind. Gaura shouted, “Lilasuka, Sundari, start a kirtan!”

We started a kirtan and that group of students threw themselves into dancing and chanting Hare Krsna with total enthusiasm and joy for twenty minutes non-stop. We became quickly convinced that each and every one of them had just taken a huge step forward in their spiritual lives.

All glories to Lord Caitanya and His liberating chanting movement!