Srila Gour Govinda Swami Thakura, 1978 visit to Jaggnathpura We set out from Bhubaneswara early, taking bicycle rickshaw to the bus station. While waiting to board, Gour Govinda Swami explained to me the qualities of certain round white sweet balls which I had noted, displayed behind glass cases there. "These are a specialty of Bhubaneswara", he explained, "They cook sugar with cardamon, camphor, ghee, and black pepper, until it is well done and very hard. Very tasty, very sweet !" He smiled with an exclamation. Maharajah did not eat many sweets, or very rarely, neither did we have them about the ashrama much, and we had no taste for sweets shopping that early. When I moved into the ashrama from Canada, after a while, I started to purchase occasional white-cardboard boxes of milk-sweets, in town. I discovered the milk cake and misti dahi consequently, also. It was too much to ask to live so frugally, active very young man, eating dahlma once a day with capatis and rice and very little oil or ghee, every so often some milk in evening, and not spend any money on at least some occasional supplementary milk products. I had lost a lot of weight. For a Western devotee, though used to Iskcon austerity, this was too much like the old days in New Vrndavana, in fact, more austere, if that was possible ! Soon, we started offering some pieces to Gour Nitai almost every day, at Gaura artik, and/or some hot milk. That prasadam helped us with better bodily strength. That is another story, how the milkman gradually daily waterred down the milk until it was virtualy grey water. We would complain, then the cycle would start over again, at first real milk and good, then getting waterry with time. Next time through the Bus station though, I tried these odd local specialities, and later prepared them for Lord Jaggannatha in Montreal Radha Manohara mandira. Apparently, it is somewhat of an acquired taste! - though I liked them well enough. "Milk cake" is more the healthy Bhubaneswara local specialty, and sweet dahi, yogurt, in brown clay cups. The buses were old style, wooden slat bound the windows, some with glass in them. They audibly revved up when they set out, and the exhaust was dark gray and less than saintly smelling. The wooden benches were adequate, for about an hour, after which one starts to shift around, and after a day on such a bus, one is ready to sprawl out on the floor even just to get away from holding one's neck up against the constant shaking and bumping. ITC, India Transit Corp. did their best. But they were on time, and often packed with travellers, with so many trunks piled on the roof rack, tossed up or off by off-white-attired dark skinned wiry men with the strength of country farm-hands. Luggage was then tied against unforeseen holes or humps in the holy pot-holed hi-ways. We quietly chanted our rounds as the bus set off for Jagannathpur, not the famous Shankha-ksetra, Jagannatha Puri, but a much smaller village, still within the limits of the dhama, as is Bhubaneswara, gateway of the dhama. Maharajaha's home town is there, and his Deity. As a rule, devotees of Bhubaneswara temple were seen and heard to be chanting when not otherwise engaged. We constantly chanted, or worked towards that. Anyway, this was Maharajah's home Deity's village, an old village of kirtaniyas and Caitanya bhaktas. This rural village turned out to be Maharajah's home town, as I learned later. continued; onsite puredevoteeseva.ning.com
Will be the Best center in the world, this shows all the efforts done by all the devotees for this centre was not out of their free will, it was destined, so spritual endeavour is also predestined and as bhavishya Purana and shreeman bhagwatam says that material world will be degraded with time in this way or that way, this shows all tha paap done by all the badha jivas is also predestined and they are bound to act in such a way that with time material world could degrad with time, so conclusion is for material and spiritual progress and degradation we are not responsible, we are just puppets and everything is predestined and we don't have free will
They had no proper inquiries. Just regular talks. Such a shame. You put questions such as how to get out of Maya and how to get Krishna? How to love Krishna. These calibre of questions. Not how many people are here? Etc 😅
The questions here are regarding the temple constrction work, site ,place , but see how Maharaj linked his answers with Krsna and Srila Prabhupada. Maharaj was not allowed to accept disciples until 1985 ithink, so how can the inquirer devotee know about Maharaj's purity and devotion. Its after 1985 and when some devoteees come to know about Maharaj transcendental symptoms in Mayapura 1977.
