Skip to main content

Chanting Haribolo Part 1

There are times when I try to think of ways to somehow get my students to chant the holy names. One sure way to get them all ears is to tell them ghost stories.
But this is no ordinary ghost story. It involves Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, who was a little boy at that time. It's the story of the temple ghost, where Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur chanted the whole night and delivered the ghost at the abandoned temple.
This is how I got Darren, my 9 year old student to chant, "Haribolo!"
At first I told him to raise both his arms and jump while chanting "Haribolo!"
He did just that.
So now, each time I chant "Haribolo!" Darren would also jump with upraised arms and chant "Haribolo!!"
Sometimes even "Radhe Radhe!"
The power of the holy name is simply unimaginable. Darren has no Indian or Vedic cultural background. He is an innocent child that simply listened to his teacher to chant. Most importantly without questioning.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Life & Times of Sripad Bhakti Prakash Hrishikesh Maharaja in Malaysia

When I heard about the passing away of Sripad Bhakti Prakash Hrishikesh Maharaja, I was a little numb at first. My feelings were not completely settled to his passing. But after looking at his pictures, it finally dawned upon me that His Holiness was no more in this planet. Maharaja reminded me of someone so dynamic in serving Sri Hari, Guru & Vaishnavas. Nothing was impossible for him. Maharaja used to go heads on without thinking of any consequences. He did not believe much in meetings and talking about how to do a seva because he was an action man. He always said to me, “Let’s just do it. Krsna will take care of everything!!!” Maharaja was the first person to assist me in printing the book “Shower of Love.” When Srila Gurudeva ordered me to always write, I was totally lost as what to do. With whatever little knowledge I had, the compilation of lectures took place. But it was Maharaja who showed me the ropes of how to put in the footnotes, headings, sub-headings, titles etc. I re...

Telling Children Stories (Harikatha)

The other day I told my 9 year old student about the story of the "Talking Pot." Sometimes I try to inject in a very "tricky" manner about our Krsna conscious philosophy after a lesson. I usually start by asking my students whether they would love to hear a story or not. They would always say "Y - E - S!!!" in a cheerful manner. These children have no idea who Krsna is. Besides they are not devotees' children either. So story telling is the best way to get the message across. OK coming back to the "Talking Pot." It's a story about how a disciple felt he could do better if he left his Guru's ashram. His service was to fetch water from the Yamuna daily. The disciple thought he would be better off if he found a job and got married. But the pot talked him out of it and he ran back to his Guru. For the full story click here: h ttp://shukasari.blogspot.com/2009/04/talking-water-pot.html After the story I asked my student, Darren, about the ...

What is Success?

 What is success? Many times we view success, even in devotional life, as having multiple temples, many devotees, loads of amazing festivities and the list goes on. Well, nothing is wrong in that. But the success in spiritual life must be in accordance to what Sri Guru wants and not what we want.  If a temple is small and has a very small congregation, does that mean they are not successful? We tender to measure everything with mundane vision and with extremely limited foresight even in our spiritual path.  Whether big or small, as long as Sri Guru and Krsna is pleased, that is all it takes to move forward in the path of devotion. At the end of the day, each and every soul has their own unique journey and realizations to finally go back home, back to Godhead. One can be like Sabari, residing all by herself in the forest but very firmly holding on to her guru-seva in plucking berries which eventually led her to have darshan of Lord Rama or even having many association in a...