Friday, February 23rd, 2024
Mayapura, West Bengal
There is definitely an increase of pilgrims, visiting Mayapura. Mind you the weekends are obviously more full. The place is very attractive with its gardens, architecturally fine buildings and there's darshan, deity viewing, bullock cart rides, walking trails, good food, chanting sessions, workshops and clashes etc. There's so many attractions.
Some of the more devoted bathe in the Holy Ganges River.
For someone like me, well, I like meeting my old buddies I haven't seen for a while. Ambarish is one of them. It was his 74th birthday and he has faced physical challenges but he is here, looking quite good. There is a mystical history between the two of us.
He is a Detroit boy and as many may know, he is Alfred Brush Ford, Henry Ford's great grandson. The Ford family had a duck hunting lodge in Canada, one mile from our family county home. My Dad did some regular maintenance at that lodge. Alfred used to go there. So did I, to accompany and help my Dad. Over all these years we never met. And yet we both got connected to our guru Prabhupada.
It is a small world indeed.
I offered Ambarish (Alfred) a copy of my book, "The Saffron Path" pointed out that I more than mentioned him in Chapter 2 of the book, lovingly, of course. Anyways, it's great to see him and many others who did so much for the mission. One thing Ambarish said about Krishna Consciousness is that he is very hopeful for the movement of bhakti and ISKCON.
MAY THE SOURCEÂ BE WITH YOU!
5 km