How Attractive is Krishna!

From a devotee friend in Oxford:

"We've been holding monthly kirtan sessions at the Quaker Meeting House in Oxford for just over a year. Last Sunday, we started up again after a summer break and were pleased to see several new faces there, including three young school-girls.

We all chanted with gusto, and after the session, I sat next to one of the girls and asked how she came to be there. "Well" she said; "I went to see the Mahabharata in June, and became extremely attracted to Krishna."

That was interesting; extremely attracted! After chatting for a bit, I went and spoke to an older lady, also there for the first time. As we talked, it came out that she too was there because of the Mahabharata production, which played in Oxford in June. "I went to see it and had an overwhelming experience; I had to go and see it again the next night! Then I took down the unread Bhagavad-Gita which had been on my shelf for years, and read it; I went to the Soho St. temple in London, and bought lots of books in their bookshop; and I found out about the kirtan here, and came along".

That was astonishing!

I had just been reading a chapter of Krishna Book in which some of Krishna's queens described how they came to their good fortune to have such an intimate relationship with Krishna. Rukmini had never seen Krishna, but became attracted to Him as she heard about Him, from sages who visited her father's palace. Another had heard about Krishna from Narada Muni and decided that she would marry no-one but Him.

And here, now, in 21st century Oxford the same process is at work. Eternally it will be so: people attracted to Krishna just by hearing about Him. We already know Krishna; we've merely temporarily forgotten Him - and by seeing a play, or reading a book, or hearing a kirtan - it will set off a spark of remembrance, which will blaze into pure love of God, if we fan it carefully.

The dance-drama production of the Mahabharata which toured England in the summer was conceived by Gaura-lila from Switzerland. The result of eight years work. I bet he'd be pleased to know what an impact it is having!

You can read about it here: Mahabharata at Sadlers Wells.

In Search of God - But Where Was Krishna?

Did anyone here listen to the recent three-part series In Search of God on BBC Radio 4? News-presenter John Humphrys met with a leader from each of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions and asked them to help him with his enquiries into the nature of God. Although I didn't hear the actual conversations which ensued, I caught this series being discussed on the Feedback programme afterwards.

It seems it was a roaring success! Mr Humphrys described himself as 'gobsmacked' at the response the series has received - almost all of it positive. As well as thousands of letters, there were e-mails and telephone messages from listeners all over the world who had appreciated or been inspired by these talks. It was good to hear that the topic of God is still of such interest to so many people, and that listeners were open-minded enough to appreciate the view-points of all three speakers, regardless of their faith. Theists, atheists and agnostics - all were among those who found food for thought here.

But although this is very encouraging, can we be surprised that Mr Humphrys failed to find God? After all, where was the representative from the most ancient monotheistic tradition of all - Hinduism?! Why did he choose three leaders from the Abrahamic religions, which are so similar in their understanding of God, and completely ignore the Eastern tradition with its very different perspectives and clearly defined philosophy of the soul, the difference between matter and spirit, the concepts of reincarnation and karma, of a God who is not a 'creator' but from whom everything emanates, who is 'ever fresh and youthful' and what's more plays a flute? Humph, Mr Humphrys!

It would have been wonderful to have had a representative of the Gaudiya-Vaishnava tradition on his programme to explain these points, especially a follower of Srila Prabhupada - who so expertly and thoroughly taught and wrote about them for a Western audience. Of course our pool of erudite Gaudiya representatives may not yet be as full as we would like. But I hope that in the future we can look forward to hearing articulate Gaudiya spokespersons on programmes such as this.

Some of us have written to the BBC to express our dissatisfaction about this. If you would like to do the same, you can write to them here and also listen to the series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/feedback.shtml

Picture: God taking measurements for His creation - medieval.