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DHARM: Has it impacted the Houston street scene?
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To: alt-hindu@cis.ohio-state.edu
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Subject: DHARM: Has it impacted the Houston street scene?
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From: vijaypai@kachori.rice.edu (Vijay Sadananda Pai)
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Date: 10 Apr 1995 18:05:16 GMT
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From news@larry.rice.edu Mon Apr 10 13: 54:45 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Rice University
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References: <3mbrpj$mkm@larry.rice.edu>
Rama Navami
April 9, 1995
Houston, TX
Westheimer Arts Festival. The one time of the year when the city of
Houston takes to the streets, filling up tens of thousands of people
onto a few blocks in the Montrose area of town. The festival is noted
for bringing out the "weird" side of the city, like cross-dressers,
body piercers, gays, the NRA, skinheads, wiccans, snake tamers, drug
users, etc. [and that was just the first person I met that day!]. Such
a strange assortment has led more than one person to assert, "The only
normal people there were the Hare Krishnas!"
Although ISKCON of Houston normally isn't known for book distribution
stalls and nagar-sankirtan, this one event has drawn the local Hare
Krishna temple for years. With help from friends in Dallas and Austin,
the congregation here in Houston has distributed thousands of plates
of free prasadam (pulao, samosas, papads, and world-famous
peanut-butter fudge) to all who've come by over the
years. Enthusiastic book distributors (mostly from Dallas) sold crates
of copies of _Bhagavad Gita As It Is_, _Yoga for the 21st Century_,
_Science of Self Realization_ and other transcendental Vedic
literature. Musicians from the traveling KrishnaFest band (headed by
Gunagrahi Goswami Maharaj, on drums, and featuring Mahatma Dasa on
keyboards) entertained the crowd with -- what else but -- the Hare
Krishna maha-mantra, arranged to rock, reggae, and traditional
beats. If volume meant power at Westheimer, the way it so often does
in India, then the Hare Krishnas had definitely set up a pretty strong
sphere of influence on the 800 block of Westheimer.
The "traveling temple" set up at the festival two days, April 8 and 9.
All who stopped by received free Hare Krishna pamphlets and
prasadam. People were really impressed by the efficient service and
setup of the booth (not to mention the free meal!). Many were so
pleased by the meal that they immediately purchased vegetarian
cookbooks; others just wanted to ask some questions about the Hare
Krishna way of life, and they also got the books they needed. And
though people were milling up and down the street throughout the
duration of the festival, passersby were so attracted to the non-stop
Hare Krishna kirtan that dozens would just sit there or stand in the
street (maybe dance) and listen for half an hour or more.
The second day of the festival was also the all-auspicious day of Rama
Navami. This, of course, meant divided effort, since many people were
needed at the temple in order to run the temple festival properly,
while many more were also needed at Westheimer since Sunday is the
more crowded day for that festival. But, by the grace of Lord Rama,
both events went well, drawing vastly different crowds (needless to
say!). Mahatma Prabhu, Gunagrahi Maharaj, and others continued the
non-stop Hare Krishna kirtan, attracting people to the stand just as
they did the day before.
I had to show up late that afternoon, so I didn't get to talk to too
many passersby then; I did meet one fellow who came by for a meal and
asked him, "So, have you ever heard of us before?" To which he
responded "Everybody in the world's heard of Hare Krishnas!" To which
I added "Well, occasionally somebody doesn't know about us." He
responded "You've gotta be from the backwoods not to know about Hare
Krishna." Apparently, he'd been seeing the devotees at the festival
every year for many years. He wanted to know more about the Hare
Krishnas, so I presented him with a pamphlet "Hare Krishna: Questions
people ask" (which, in USENET lingo, would be the ISKCON FAQ, I
guess).
"So, you got all these books; are they about Eastern philosophy or
something?"
"Yeah, these are. These over here are vegetarian cookbooks. We also
have a pretty good Spanish selection"
"Oh, so y'all are vegetarians"
"Yup. Are you interested in vegetarian cooking? We have a couple of
books here, The Higher Taste and also !Que Sabroso!, the Spanish
edition."
"No, I just want to know why you're vegetarian."
So, I made sure he left with a "Good Health vs. Meat" pamphlet,
written with consultation from some medical professionals in the Hare
Krishna community [incidentally, the coordinator of the temple's role
in the festival was Dr. Guru Bhakti devi, a practicing physician].
By 3:30 or 4, the festival at the temple had concluded, and many
people, including the temple president Syamasundara Das, drifted to
Westheimer from Rama Navami. Within minutes of showing up,
Syamasundara Prabhu walked into the street with karatals and shouted
that the devotees should start harinam. Houston is one of those cities
with no street life normally, so a rare opportunity for harinam cannot
be passed up at any cost. Maharaj came out with a mridangam, about a
dozen or more others joined, and even some of the little kids came
along to dance and do back-flips in the street. One devotee from a
South Indian family carried over his head a heavy wooden placard
painted with the Hare Krishna mahamantra and an image of Lord
Caitanya's sankirtan.
As the harinam procession moved on, many outsiders joined in the
chanting and dancing, waving their hands in the air and experiencing a
much needed taste of transcendental bliss. Some gawked in awe, and
some took video. Most were people normally considered strange or
low-class, yet all of them, including their dogs, snakes, and geckos,
benefitted from either/or hearing, dancing, and chanting, erasing much
past karma through the transcendental sound vibration. Many of those
outsiders were intoxicated on lower substances, but all the ones doing
the chanting and dancing got to experience the greatest high of all --
"sarva-loke matta kailA Apana-samAna, preme matta loka vinA nAhi dekhi
Ana" (CC Adi 9.22) -- Lord Caitanya's sankirtan movement.
At the corner of Taft and Westheimer, I saw a young man looking at us
weirdly and urged him to join in. He asked, "Who are you??" I said
"We're the Hare Krishnas!!" He asked "What's that??" Remembering my
conversation with the other man at the book table, I was tempted to
answer "What, are you from Iowa or Idaho or something?", but I
didn't. I walked up to him, and he started asking questions about what
we were, what we do, etc., and I explained them to the best of my
ability. I then passed him a Hare Krishna FAQ pamphlet and once again
encouraged him to join us in chanting. He wasn't very enthusiastic, so
I offered him a free meal; "Just go by 811 Westheimer, on the left
side of the street, opposite Plant House; there'll be a band playing
there". He was glad for the offer, and I indeed did see him come to
the stand later and get some prasadam. Count one more lost soul on the
progressive march to Nabadwip.
All in all, the festival went well. The next time ISKCON of Houston
will take to the streets will probably be the International Festival
in May, then maybe on Janmastami day, and then (if we manage to get a
spot) in the downtown Houston Thanksgiving day parade, which 300,000
people head downtown to watch and hundreds of thousands more watch on
TV.
Jaya Sri Sri Radha-Nilamadhava, Sri Sri Nitai-Gauracandra, Sri Sri
Giri Govardhan!
Yours,
Vijay
