Jaya Gaur!
I've received information from a friend in Sri Mayapur that Prabhupad Prem Gopal Gosvami's recent tour of Cologne was a success and Prabhu plans his next European tour around the same time period of next year. I have been asked if I can offer my services in making it possible for him to do a tour in England.
To be honest, I feel both ecstatic and mortified as I have virtually no material facilities at my disposal to make this trip a success or even to make it happen. So I will be the first to admit that I cannot do this without a lot of help and commitment from fellow Vaishnavas.
Are there any devotees in England who would be willing to commit themselves to making this tour happen next year? A provisional date has been given as 1st August 2006. The basic requirements are an apartment for him to stay where he can sleep and also receive visitors and perhaps give lectures from there. Or of course he can stay in someone's house if possible. I envision
perhaps a public talk or two to Indian communities such as at the Sindhi Mandir in Cricklewood (website unavailable at present), which is frequented by many visiting gurus from India from a variety of traditions. Assuming that he will be staying around the London area of course.
And I've just received an email giving a provisional date for Prem Prabhu's next tour of Germany around 1st July, 2006.
I basically need to know if there are enough devotees in England who can work together to make this possible, so that I can send a reply back and they can make plans from their side. It will obviously require committment and enhthusiasm, but the reward of Vaisnava-sanga will be great.
Prem Gopal Gosvami is a direct descendant of Sri Nityananda Prabhu.
Any ideas, comments, suggestions?
Well flights from Helsinki with Ryanair are around 20 euros one way at cheapest, so if I have enough advance warning, I'd love to pop over for a darshan and some programs. Summertime should be more peaceful work-wise as well, so I'd imagine I could also help out a few days before the occasion -- depending on how long he'll be staying there, of course.
I could certainly take care of filming and recording whatever is necessary. Since I'm not local, I don't know how much I could help in the practical stuff that needs to be done.
I unfortunately have never had the priviledge of meeting him, but I am much looking forward to it.
Jay Radhe!
Gaurasundar- I am sure that the large Vaisnava population in California and the west would be forever indebted to whomever could get Goswami-ji to come here in the future!
Please tell your friend in Mayapur.
Thanks very much Madhavaji.
If all goes well, I will be looking very forward to seeing you here.
I was actually thinking of suggesting to you today that you might like to take care of the technical side of filming and recording, haha.
The thought did cross my mind about how to deal with foreign visitors and so on. It's very likely that people may fly here from the closest European countries to take darshan and all. More specifically I'm concerned about where Prem Prabhu will be staying. It seems that the usual custom everywhere is for some devotee to accomodate gurus in their residence, so that they are guaranteed prasadam facility and proper association, as well as personal seva. This is what happens when any guru visits anywhere, isn't it? I'll (We'll?) need to figure out who is interested in volunteering for what, etc. I'm envisioning evening programs; lectures, kirtans and perhaps prasad.
This definitely needs a lot of organisation and committment. We should be thankful that we have around 11 months to prepare.
IBCvisnudasji, thanks! I'll pass the word on.
Just to clarify though; the Vaishnavas you refer to are traditionalist or IGM?