Jaydip Chakrabarti
Agartala, January 02, 2019: The great Indian Vedic culture as highlighted in The Gita is the only source of ultimate happiness in this era of materialism – glow of the Vedic spirituality is alone capable of correcting imbalance of moral values, opined a group of foreign devotees of ISKCON.
“We – the Western people love India, we like to imitate Indian fashion, we love Indian culture, but it should be purified in the sense that pure Indian is what rooted in and reflective of the Vedic culture, not modern ‘bollywood’ culture”, said Devarupa of ISKCON while attending ‘Hare Krishna Utsav’ at RabindraBhawan in Agartala in Tripura.
Hailing from Ukraine, Debarupa attended her first ever ‘Hare Krishna Utsav’ at her native country when she was a teenager. Attracted to uniqueness of the Indian Vedic culture, Debarupa – baptized at the age of 8 years – joined ISKCON in quest of tranquility and happiness. She is now preaching ‘Krishna Consciousness’ in India as well as in parts of Europe.
A group of around 12 Krishna devotees belonging to foreign countries joined two-day Hare Krishna Utsav, which was held in Agartala on December 29 and 30 last.
While Debarupa talked about attraction of Western people to the Indian Vedic culture and Krishna Consciousness, Mata Bakreswari of Ukraine explained about essence of the Sanatana Dharma and Gop Krishna of Uruguay highlighted serenity of Krishna Consciousness in the era of great strife and monumental social-economic life of individuals across the globe.
“It is pity to see that Indians are running after Western culture while more and more people of Europe and other western countries are becoming increasingly interested about ‘pure’ Indian culture”, Debarupa said.
Urging the young generation not to be carried away by western influences, she asked them to practice Krishna Consciousness – developing and nourishing spiritual relation with Supreme power, Lord Krishna with unconditional love and surrender.
“In fact, the serenity of the Vedic culture has uniquely been manifested in Sanatan Dharma – practicing Sanatana is the only way to enjoy unbridled happiness in trouble torn materialistic world”, commented Mata Brakeswari Devi Dasi and Gop Krishna of ISKCON.
Explaining the Sanatana Dharma, Brakeswari Devi said, “the uniqueness of Sanatana Dharma is that it is a great religion for everyone irrespective of material designations – nationality, religion and cultural divergences. It means we are eternal – we are imperishable”.
“Establishing connection with the Supreme self, Lord Krishna is key to serene world of happiness and it is depending on three pillars – ‘Bolo Krishna, Bhajo Krishna and Karo Krishna’ – it’s so simple”, she said.
Brakeswari Devi said, “Practicing Sanatana Dharma has completely changed her life for good – because now I am engaged in something that is interesting, which is part of our real souls – our essence”.
Pointing out emerging conflicts across the globe, Gop Krishna said, imbalance of values is the root cause of all the conflicts, struggle and unhappiness.
“People are vying to attain top positions in academics, get the best jobs, toiling hard to maintain family – and many of them are successful, but tragedy is that all are unhappy. Here lies the essence of Sanatana Dharma- Bhakti and unless the young generation starts practicing this, miseries will keep on haunting them”, Gop Krishna said and asserted, increasingly young people are joining the Bhakti movement of ISKCON in search of eternal peace and tranquility in strife ridden modern era. (Also published in local Eng daily Newspaper – Tripura Times)
