By the grace of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar
Dev-Goswami Maharaj, and especially Srila Acharyyadev, Srila Bhakti Sundar
Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, we went for the first time to Switzerland.
There Prita Krishna arranged the programme. He was so enthusiastic and nice.
From Italy we started by car and went to a place called Porrentruy . On
the drive to Porrentruy the Switzerland scenery was exceptional.
Prita Krishna
Prabhu's family are very nice and they treated Srila Maharaj very well.
They arranged one house for Srila Govinda Maharaj and a few others to stay,
and a nearby hostel for the several accompanying devotees.
Then we went
into the town and did some sankirttan. Porrentruy is a small Swiss town
but very beautiful. But the most beautiful thing I feel was when we went
to the town with sankirttan. We got such a nice response from the people,
everyon4e smiling and laughing and opening their doors and windows to see
and greet us. Many people invited us to their places to do sankirttan, and
we were very happy. Afterwards we had a programme where some friends of
Prita Krishna Prabhu came by and listened to Srila Maharaj's holy talk,
asked questions and attentively heard the answers. It was a very nice meeting.
This was our first time in Switzerland and it showed much promise for the
future.
In this way we were very welcomed everywhere we went. The beauty
of Switzerland is also unbelievable, it is incomparable, like an enhanced
picture. Everywhere we went it felt like some painter, some artist had made
the scene. Switzerland is like that. Also we saw cows there. They are not
so used to humans and will not come so near if you try to touch them, but
they are big, and with big bells around their necks. They are eating the
grass and so much grass; we cannot believe how much and so green and soft.
The cows also look very happy. Switzerland is so clean, naturally clean,
and everything is very special.
ONWARD TO GENEVA
From there we started for Geneva. We went on a very special train from
Porrentruy that rode through the hills and it was all very scenic. Everything
in Switzerland was first class. Srila Maharaj went from Porrentruy to Geneva
by car. In Geneva we actually stayed in France in a very big and very nice
hotel. There in Geneva we also went for sankirttan. One gentlemen told us
not to go and that the people would not like it, but we told that we must
go as we are doing sankirttan all over the world! And we did sankirttan
and everyone was happy to see us.
In Geneva we stayed two nights. There Maharaj also saw some sights
including a very beautiful lake and the town of Geneva. We also met with
an Indian man named Sri Vinod Kumar who has lived in Switzerland for 31
years. He was very friendly and interested in spiritual matters and he was
charmed by Srila Maharaj's Hari-katha. He was surprised to see Srila Maharaj
with so many devotees congregating there from all over the world, but Maharaj
said very humbly that he is from a very small Math. Actually it was small
but now it is not so small! Vinod Kumar then invited Srila Maharaj to give
a lecture at his Vedanta Ashram. The monks staying at the ashram were very
charmed by Maharaj's Hari-katha, and they attentively listened to his lecture
on the greatest necessity of this age, the yuga-dharmma as Harinam-sankirttan.
Being with Srila Govinda Maharaj on this tour has made it all the more clear
to us all that this message of Mahaprabhu is being so grandly taught and
practised by our venerable Sri Acharyyadev at each step. His activities
are very grand indeed.
Humbly
-B.P. Tirtha
URL:
http://www.scsmath.com/worldtour/16/switz_tirtham.html