Video Discription |
Please join us Saturday, July 13, 2024 at at 3pm PST/6pm EST.
Live on Facebook & You tube as we continue our A Bond of Love Interview Series with Her Grace Chintamani devi dasi
HG Chintamani dd was studying at Ohio University in Athens Ohio, she met the devotees in the winter around December 1968 or January 1969. A devotee (Pradyumna das) came to her university, he made a vegetarian feast, and she had just become a vegetarian, she was very impressed. It was just in a house with a few people and he talked to us for a few hours, they ended up talking to 4:00 in the morning.
The devotees started a preaching center in Columbus, Ohio, she started going to the preaching center a few times a week. With the urging of the Pradyumna prabhu, she wrote to Srila Prabhupada and asked him questions about Jesus because she had been a Christian. She also was studying yoga under a couple of Dr. Mishra’s disciples and was planning to go to his ashram in New York. Srila Prabhupada kindly replied to her letter. She got the first Bhagavad-gita, the periwinkle blue covered one, and that really convinced her of Lord Krishna.
At this time there were not any Deities, she had never seen a picture of Deities or even temples in India, but she was attracted to yoga and meditation. She was there when Srila Prabhupada came to Columbus, Ohio to join in the program with Allan Ginsburg at a university hall. She got initiated on May 13, 1969! There was no test or waiting. She was with Srila Prabhupada in Columbus and then in New Vrindavana for a total of around 6 weeks. It was the best time of her life and she gets strength from just remembering those times. From there, she went to the largest temple on La Cienega in Los Angeles, where they all went out on Hari Nama sankirtan twice a day.
HG Chintamani, husband Sudama and Bali Mardan went to Kyoto, Japan. The most difficult thing for her was to go out by herself on Hari Nama sankirtan in Japan when she was a very shy person. She memorized a few lines of Japanese, so after chanting with kartals and a crowd would gather, she would try to sell the BTGs they had printed in Japanese. Then the people would start talking to her and she would say she don’t speak Japanese in Japanese.
So, after two-and-a-half years in Japan, she was sent to Hong Kong with the Lord Jagannatha Deities that had been the first Deities worshipped in Japan. She ended up with those Deities, which she still worships, Srila Prabhupada gave her instructions on taking care of Them.
From Hong Kong two devotees came through who were going to start the first temple in Manilla, Philippines and they asked if she wanted to join them. She now had Deities, and knew how to cook. It was fantastic because the local Ananda Marga devotees, who were vegetarian and didn’t eat onions and garlic, loved our feasts.
In the 70s, many were going to different temples for different reasons, she ended up back in New Vrindavana, then went to India in 1974 and 1975, then to many other temples and finally Detroit since 1984. Her main services have been cooking. She cooked the Raja Bhoga offering in the original temple in Mumbai for one year. Her Deities were on the altar on all the temples she lived in when Srila Prabhupada sanctioned it. This included Japan, Manilla, New Vrindavana (Bahulaban), Toronto (Gerard St.), Cleveland, Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit.
She dressed Lord Jagannatha in Detroit for a few couple of years. Her service included pujari service, cooking, sankirtana, and now that her health has declined and she can’t do these things anymore, her main service is chanting japa and simple Deity worship at home, plus writing a book on her experiences with Srila Prabhupada and being in Iskcon in the early days.
This Interview will be simultaneously broadcast on:
Youtube:
Vaishnavi Ministry NA
Facebook:
ISKCON Vaishnavi Ministry
Vaishnavi Ministry North America
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