His Holiness Jayapataka Swami’s UK trip Diary
Written by Aravinda Krsna Das
London, UK
June 15th 2016 – Wednesday
Guru Maharaja BA216 flight landed before the scheduled arrival time morning around 6.30am. Many disciples waited there eagerly with garlands, prasadam, welcome home banners etc. As soon as Guru Maharaja came out, disciples garlanded guru maharaja, there was group photos taken, prasadam distributed, guru maharaja received “thank you dear guru maharaja” pluck cards and there was buzz of devotees around guru maharaja for few minutes. Then after all the welcoming, Guru Maharaja was taken to first floor first class lounge for taking bath and have his breakfast. Till then devotees in the ground floor were greeting each other and many devotees were slowly coming late to find out Guru Maharaja is getting ready to travel to Birmingham straight. So all of them talking about Guru Maharaja Reception and eagerly waiting for an hour or so. Then we immediately saw Guru Maharaja coming down the lift and he was swiftly moved to the car park lift outside the arrivals building very quickly. All the devotees were running behind Guru Maharaja to get a glimpse of his darshan and blessings. Guru Maharaja waited for the lift and as soon as lift came down, Guru Maharaja got in with all the other devotees, by this some of the servants were left out at the back to get in the next lift. Then in the 2nd trip all the other servants and devotees came up to Zone 3 car park. Guru Maharaja was waiting just nearby the lift for his car to come, then during that time all the devotees one by one started to garland Guru Maharaja and exchange gifts with him by taking photos too. As that exchange of love was happening, car arrived and Mahavaraha prabhu announced “Guru Maharaja has to leave now to reach Birmingham by 1pm for lunch”. Guru Maharaja slowly started moving towards the car and all the devotees gathered around the car and in the meantime Guru Maharaja and servant luggages were getting loaded in the car. Guru Maharaja sitting in his wheel chair distributed biscuit prasadam for 10mins and during that time one of the Car park security guard was bit amazed on who this person is attracting so many people around him. Looks like he was bit threatened due to security measures, so he just went around in a circle to see from distance who is this person and he was bit calmed down to find out he is a peace loving hindu saint in a wheel chair with many garlands on him and his loving students trying to get blessings by getting biscuits. Then the security guard walked away, during this time one of the Bhakti Vriksha leader matajis was running and coming from quite a distance to somehow be blessed by Guru Maharaja, as he almost got into his car and about to leave with his car windows slowly closing. This mataji just about reached near the car and Guru Maharaja saw her.. as soon as Guru Maharaja saw her, with his hands he was raising his hand to bless her and he had this curious look who is this new face… then Yamunesvari understanding that, introduced her “She is one of our new bhakti vriksha leaders Guru Maharaja. Please bless her”… after that, Guru Maharaja put his hands together and said “Thank you very much for your service” and Guru Maharaja gave biscuit prasadam to her and Jagannath stick blessing. By this exchange, that mataji was so touched, she mentioned later on that she was crying continuously for 5 hours and she just couldn’t figure out why this is happening. This is the magic touch of Guru Maharaja’s mercy. After all this sweet exchange, Guru Maharaja and his servants cars started for Birmingham at around 11am from the airport.
Guru Maharaja reached Birmingham just before 1pm and there was nice reception by the Birmingham devotees with colourful banner “ISKCON 50 – Welcome Home with love”. Guru Maharaja stayed in Nitaicharan prabhu’s house (Birmingham temple president) and that’s pretty much Guru Maharaja’s home in UK during all these years of Guru Maharaja visit to UK. So in one sense Guru Maharaja knows all the corners of Nitai Charan prabhu’s house. As soon as Guru Maharaja arrived, he gave quick darshan to devotees and went to his room for taking rest. He had quick tour of his new bathroom facilities and his new electronic hospital bed to accommodate his special needs for nice comfortable sleep. Guru Maharaja then took his lunch and went straight to bed for few hours of sound sleep.
Guru Maharaja woke around 7.30pm and was bit disappointed that no one woke him earlier to give darshan to devotees, who were waiting down stairs. Mahavaraha prabhu voluntarily made no one to wake up Guru Maharaja since he would be really tired after long travel. So we actually almost told everyone to please leave since Guru Maharaja is taking rest BUT as soon as guru Maharaja woke up he said “I have to go down and give darshan to devotees”. No one could stop him!!!.. Guru Maharaja quickly freshened up and went down stairs in 30mins, it was a pleasant surprise to all !!!.. everyone loudly chanted “Jai Guru Maharaja!!!” and loud kirtan started.. Guru Maharaja moved to the hall and sat in his big cushion. Guru Maharaja then mercifully accepted Guru Puja, Pada Puja and Pushpanjali from all his disciples. After 30minutes of kirtan and Guru puja, Guru Maharaja gave an enlivening heart touching class. Guru Maharaja spoke on how important it is we understand the value of Srila Prabhupada’s gift to all of us and how merciful is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Guru Maharaja was in absolute Ecstasy sharing all pastimes related to that and Guru Maharaja was crying, laughing as he literally vision those pastimes & explained to all of us. Devotees actually made a very nice foam based globe with many number of small cup cakes placed all over the globe with a flag on top saying “Gauranga” and “Nitai”. This globe of cup cakes with the flag denotes that the whole world will be singing the glories of Gauranga and Nityananda… so they presented this as a token of love to Guru Maharaja saying the day is coming where the whole world will be singing the glories of Gauranga and Nityananda.. So after the class, Guru Maharaja had a casual darshan of all the disciples present there by giving Jagannath Stick blessings, giving out the cup cakes too… and then he had his dinner in another dining room. After dinner prasadam, Guru Maharaja left to his room to go to bed and perform his night bed time pastime which I will explain in the next day’s episode.
Even though it was a very tiring day for Guru Maharaja due to continuous long travels but his desire to preach and see all devotees just couldn’t stop him. His unconditional love to see devotees and inspire them with Krishna Prema, is so contagious for all of us!