Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Salt Lake And ‘Hare Krishna’ Group

Posted : February 17, 2006 at 6:21 pm [IST]

This is one thing which I have been seeing since the time I came to Salt Lake to live and started going to Central Park for walking or to show it to my guests. I used to walk past Jyoti Babu residence with awe and pride in those. Awe was for the security guards of all types present all around. Pride was for being a resident in neighbourhood.

Since many years, some enthusiasts of Hare Krishna gather in early the morning on the footpath near the entrance of Central Park, Salt Lake. They have Krishna and their gurus in a small transferable temple. They decorate, worship, and start chanting ‘naam kirtans’-mainly with name of Krishna, Radha and Gauranga Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu, their guru. Many of them may be the permanent visitors to this morning chanting. But many like me also join the group and love to hear them. If you like folk music and kirtan, you will like the ambience. For a change, you can spend some minutes watching these dedicated people. They sing. They dance. After distributing some ‘prasad’ to all present there at that time, they disperse around 7.30 AM to come again on the next day.

The place they have chosen is very near to the residence of Jyoti Basu, the former chief minister of West Bengal. Once I heard that as he is atheist, these people would have to move out. It disturbs him. Someone even talked of security issues. Jyoti Babu’s residence will ultimately become a memorial in his name for his contributions-good or bad for the state. But these simple devotees have remained here and are carrying on the task of sharing some joy through the songs of Krishna -the god famous for love, besides being the Almighty. I wish they carry on like this for years to come in the same way.

Hare Krishna or for that matter all music-based songs in rustic rural style provides a lot of shoothing for stressed humans. So it is there everywhere, all over the world in some form or the other.

- Indra

Category: Religious/Social issues |