Shillong, April 10: Followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), from across 31 countries marched in procession through the streets of Meghalaya during their good-will visit to the state on Wednesday.
Marching along the way, the devotees clang symbals, beating drums and sang hymns into the night in their quest of spiritual enlightenment and to spread the message of universal peace and brotherhood.
ISKCON is a religious movement that also identifies itself as The Hare Krishna Movement and embraces the chanting of the holy name of Krishna as a primary practice. It accepts the concepts of transmigration, karma, vegetarianism (ahimsa), worship of the deity (Shri Vigraha), and the preceptor-disciple (guru-sishya) relationship. Initiated members vow to refrain from gambling, illicit sex, intoxicants (including coffee, tea, and cigarettes), and non vegetarian food.
Dressed in Indian robes with a (tilak) on their forehead and chanting ‘Hare Krishna’ the foreign devotees along with the locals sang and danced through the city streets as the procession marched ahead. Women danced in a circular movement while the men followed the musicians.
“Bliss is the feeling,” opined an ISKCON member from Mexico in a cowboy hat beating the drums at the procession.
Informing about the event member of the organising committee, Central Puja Committee (CPI), Naba Bhattacharjee said, “ It is a get-together, a glorification and celebration of mankind and existence.”
As the procession came to an end, a delightful cultural musical evening began.
An amalgamation of western rock and Indian Kirtan (adoration of praising of the divine), took the members into a frenzy as they sang along with the members from foreign countries performing the fusion besides plays and songs based on Ramayana and Rabindranath Tagore.
As the evening drew closer to the end the ecstatic crowd grew even louder craving for more of it.
“Being a part of the event is in itself enlightenment. It is beyond material world, something much more precious,” said KD.Singh an employee of Food Cooperation of India, Shillong.(SP News)
