The
Lotus Room @ Earth Garden
The Malta Centre
of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math at Green Festival
10-11 May 2008
by Malini Devi Dasi
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2
 For
its second edition, Earth Garden invited The Lotus Room, a comprehensive
yoga centre which is also the Malta seat of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math,
Nabadwip, to operate its entire holistic area.
Earth
Garden was
the most popular family event the previous year in Malta, with over 10,000
people attending throughout the weekend festival (from a population of
400,000). Earth Garden's theme is environmental
awareness and protection.
(From
left) Indurekha Devi Dasi, her daughter Jahnavi Devi Dasi and I, Malini
Devi Dasi, had been planning for this festival since January. Especially
during the two weeks leading up to it, we met for several hours daily
to prepare an interesting experience for the attendees and to entice people
to our area during the event.
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The
second edition of Earth Garden was again held at Ta' Qali
National Park, in the central part of the island of Malta.
The festival opened to the public from 2pm till midnight
on Saturday and Sunday.
Malta
is such a small country that even if you live on the coast,
the longest drive to the island's centre may be just 30-40
minutes! Nonetheless, some people camped over just because
it was a fun excuse to do so.
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On the first day, Indurekha Didi (left) and her husband,
John, were on-site from 6am to set up. Jahnavi Didi, with
her baby daughter Jayanti, and I joined them later in the
morning. Lisa (right), a regular at the Lotus Room and a
good friend, came to help us throughout the event.
Unfortunately,
the weather was not favourable, with gale-force winds blowing
at force 8. It necessitated tying objects and weighing
things down with stones!
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With
so few people attending the festival this first day, we were
pleased that some readily joined the seated bhajan sessions. |
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Determined,
we proceeded with our programme despite the grey sky and extremely
strong wind. |
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 The
Lotus Room had prepared a simple Kirttan Guide including the songs especially
selected for the event. It contained the Invocation, Arunodaya Kirttan
II (Jiv Jago), Bhajahu Re Mana, Atma Nivedana and Nama Sankirttana (Hari
Haraye).
These
particular songs were intended to convey the uselessness of this life
if not pursuing the devotional service of the Lord's lotus feet, and
the great joy to be found there.
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Meanwhile
in the market area, Jahnavi Didi's husband, Manuel, set up
the fund-raising stall of the Lotus Room. |
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One
of Manuel's friends, Stefano, assisted him, while Lisa infected
everyone with her high spirits! |
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Malini
Didi's sister and nephew, Lesley and Gabriel, joined forces
in the market stall just as the influx of customers began. |
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Considering
the sparse attendance on this first day, the fund-raising
stall received constant interest and did well. |
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By
8pm, it began to drizzle, but it looked like the rain would become heavier.
We packed away both the market stall and the holistic area and called
it an early night. We wondered whether the weather would be better the
next day - it had been sunny and warm for several weeks - but we were
determined that, unless it was absolutely terrible, we would set up again
for the Sunday, the second and last day of the festival.
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Next
day we saw a ray of sunshine. Manuel tried extra-hard with
his market stall set-up and made it bigger and better. |
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From
early in the afternoon one could see that several more people
were about... it promised to be a good day! |
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The
festival was crowded with people and spirits were high. Everybody
wanted to make up for lost time and the atmosphere was really
great! |
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The fund-raising team were kept busy all day. Ten-year-old
Gabriel turned out to be a gifted salesman, just what we needed
for our venture! |
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Next
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Sri
Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Nabadwip