Inside Britain's first Hindu state-funded faith school

The pupils do yoga, eat vegetarian food and are calm and alert.
But critics say the rise in religious education is divisive and wrong.

By Emily Dugan

"I like the tree position best," says five-year-old Sadhana, standing perfectly still on one leg, hands clasped in prayer. She is one of a row of children perched like stalks on miniature yoga mats as calming music tinkles in the background. Half an hour earlier, when a crocodile of 21 four- and five-year-olds filed into the room, this had looked like any other school. But after they had launched into a Hare Krishna prayer, singing, patting a mrdanga drum and touching the floor in a low bow, it was clear that things are different here.

Sadhana attends the Krishna-Avanti Primary School in Harrow, Britain's first state-funded Hindu faith school, which opened its doors last September. Last week, The Independent on Sunday became the first newspaper to see the school at work.

It is one of the latest in a growing number of non-Christian faith schools. And its opening coincides with unprecedented levels of government funding for faith-based education, despite polls suggesting that public support for state-funded faith education is dwindling. A YouGov poll this month found that more than half of Britons think faith schools damage community cohesion, and 72 per cent want state schools to be forbidden from discriminating on religious grounds. Nevertheless, there are now 6,867 faith schools in England, with 395 in Scotland and 263 in Wales.

Until 1959, the state paid for only half the capital costs of religious schools, but over the past half-century the cost borne by the Government has soared, finally rising from 85 to 90 per cent under Tony Blair in 2001. Since Labour came to power, faith schools have broadened from being almost exclusively Christian to include Muslim, Sikh and now Hindu institutions.

Increasingly, the 10 per cent of capital costs that religious foundations are supposed to pay is slipping. Schools are claiming "exceptional circumstances" so often that the average contribution made by the foundations behind faith schools is just 7.5 per cent, resulting in additional costs to the taxpayer of more than £18m this year.

Critics say the bill to the taxpayer is all the more galling because faith schools are likely to be dominated by privileged and able children. Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of the Accord Coalition, a body opposed to faith schools, says this is unacceptable: "The number of young people from low-income families attending both primary and secondary faith schools is lower than the number attending non-faith schools. As someone who values faith enormously, I find it immoral that they're using taxpayers' money to act in this way. If faith schools have any raison d'etre it should be to support those others ignore, but it seems the opposite happens."

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, says the decision is one of principle: "Most church schools proselytise. It is wrong in principle for the state to fund proselytisation – whatever state or religion."

Staff at the Krishna-Avanti stressed that indoctrination is not the school's aim. Naina Parmar, the headmistress, said: "We're certainly not here to proselytise the Hindu faith" – despite morning prayers and yoga being followed by a reading of the Bhagavad Gita.

From the children's point of view, however, school is school. After a session on the history of Krishna, one child could barely contain his boredom. "Can't we go out and play now?" he asked, squirming on the floor.

The children here have a vegetarian diet with plenty of yoga and outdoor play. The mid-morning snack is a piece of fruit or raw vegetable – in fact, this may well be the healthiest class in Britain. The effect is impressive: all of the children seem calm and alert beyond their years, listening intently to their teacher.

The school, which has only one class, is renting a room in Little Stanmore primary school as its £11m purpose-built site opposite is finished. Facilities will include a meditation garden, an amphitheatre for outside teaching and eco-friendly innovations such as a grass roof.

Officially, applications are open to all but priority is given to vegetarians and Hindus; there are currently no non-Hindus on the register. It is clearly intended as a resource for the 40,000-strong Hindu community in Harrow. The teacher, Mrs Clark, grew up in an Amish family in Canada and came to Hinduism after living in ashrams. "I'm a very open-minded person and I believe Krishna is the same god as Jehovah, Allah or any other. Our supply teacher is Muslim and I want to keep it that way. We want the children to be open-minded, which is what Hinduism is all about."

By Madhava Smullen on 28 Jun 2009

Despite proposed changes and fees, London’s 41st Ratha Yatra (Chariot Festival) will be held this June 28 on the streets of the British capital without any modifications from previous years, after extensive negotiations with government and police.

Police have offered their traffic management and security services free to the parade for the past forty years. However, due to the current economic climate new Mayor Boris Johnson decided to make cutbacks in the police department, resulting in police having to charge all protest marches, carnivals and rallies for their services.

“Ratha Yatra was registered in 1969 as a protest march, since the Lord Mayor’s procession is the only official procession the city allows,” explains festival co-ordinator Titikshu Dasa.

The total charges for hiring police escorts and traffic wardens? £25,000 on top of the already large amount of funds required for the festival.

Springing into action, Titikshu formed a Ratha Yatra task force, who arranged a meeting with the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Presenting a strong case that there had been no consultation process or community impact assessment regarding the prospective change, devotees explained that this meant effectively killing an event which was now celebrating its 40th anniversary.

“After listening to our case, the police top brass were very understanding and helpful,” Titikshu says. “Almost immediately, they took full responsibility and decided not to charge at all for this year's Ratha Yatra."

Ten thousand members of the public and ISKCON devotees from all over the world are expected at the parade, where three 40-foot high colourful chariots carrying Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra will be pulled from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square.

Organizers expect twenty thousand to attend the after-festival at Trafalgar Square, where they will be able to sample music, food, and literature, participate in lively workshops, and try sari-draping and face-painting. The stage show will treat festival-goers to traditional temple dance, drama, and music, and free sumptuous Indian vegetarian cuisine will top off the experience.

"Each year, we aim to create a more vibrant and colourful festival for London," Titikshu says. "Now forty years since the first Ratha Yatra in the city, it’s amazing to see yet another generation of Londoners enjoying the Ratha Yatra celebrations here.”

Following this year’s parade, Titikshu and other organizers will enter into a dialogue with the police about next year’s arrangements. Judging by recent negotiations, they expect to pay a fee, but one significantly lowered from the originally proposed £25,000.

22 Jun 2009, 2328 hrs IST, TNN

VADODARA: Lord Jagannath along with Lord Balram and Devi Subhadra are set to make their gala
journey in the city on their chariot on Wednesday
that marks the auspicious day of aashadh sud bij' as per Gujarati calendar. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) that has been holding the annual rath yatra since last 27 years, has once again started massive preparations to celebrate the 28th annual rath yatra this year as the festival of joy.

The rath yatra will start from railway station at 2.30 pm when city mayor Balkrishna Shukla will emulate the ancient ritual enacted ever year by Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, in which he will symbolically sweep the road in front of Lord Jagannath's cart to inaugurate this august event.

From railway station, the procession will move throughout the main roads of city, first passing through Sayajigunj, then to Salatwada Naka, Kothi, Jubilee Baug, Sursagar, Dandia Bazaar, Khanderao market, Lal Court, Madan Jhampa, R V Desai Road, Kevda Baug and will end at around 8 pm in front of Baroda High School, opposite Polo Ground.

"City police, too, have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that the Bhagwan Jagannath Rath Yatra Mahotsav' continues its record as the festival of joy and peace," said president of ISKCON, Vadodara, Basu Ghosh Das. The Lord's chariot will pass through the bylanes of city amid divine chants of Jay Jagannath' and Hare Rama, Hare Krishna'.

"There will be bands, children in traditional dress, bhajan mandalis, both on bullock carts, chariots, horses, camels, youth in costumes portraying various scenes from mythological literatures and ISKCON devotees from around the world engaging in continuous harinam sankirtan' in the procession that will move in front of the rath," said senior disciple Jasomati Nandan Das. He along with other senior disciples Deenabandhu Das from Vrundavan and Bhakti Vinod Das, who looks after ISKCON in Chandigarh and Kanpur, is looking after the preparations.

Trucks carrying more than 10 tonnes of sheera' as prasad will be distributed to lakhs of devotes who will join the rath yatra.

By Basu Ghosh Das on 28 Jun 2009

On Wednesday, June 24, 2009, ISKCON Baroda's 28th annual Jagannath Rathayatra Mahotsav, aka “Festival of the Chariots”, was observed in the usual grand manner.

Baroda Mayor and recently elected Member of Parliament, Sri Balkrishna Shukla, inaugurated the procession by sweeping the road in front of the Lord's Rath (Chariot) with a golden handled broom, following the age old tradition of the Maharajah of Puri, at the Baroda Railway Station at 2:30 PM, on Wednesday, June 24, 2009, which corresponds to the auspicious day of “Aashadh shukla dvitiyaa” (the second day of the fortnight of the waxing moon in the month of “Aashadh” on the Hindu calendar).

District Collector Vijay Nehera also participated in the inauguration of the the Rathayatra.

A huge crowd, including many political and social leaders of Baroda, were present at the Baroda Railway station for the inaugural function. Due to rain on the previous day, the summer temperatures had reduced. The procession followed the traditional route from the Baroda Railway Station throughout the main streets of the town. Some of the places that came on the route: Sayaji Bagh (garden), Kala Ghoda (statue of the black horse), Salatwada naka, Kothi, Raopura Main Road, Jubilee Bagh (garden), Sur Sagar (lake), Dandia Bazar, Khanderao Market, Nyaya Mandir, Madan Zampa, R.V. Desai Cross Road, Kevda Bagh (garden), and the procession end point, opposite the Polo Ground.

A number of senior ISKCON devotees attended Baroda Rathayatra including H.H. Bhakti Vikas Swami, Deena Bandhu Prabhu, Haripada Prabhu, Phalini Mataji, Isvara Prabhu and Govinda Kund Das from Estonia. Also ISKCON temple presidents Bhaktivinod Prabhu of Chandigarh /Kanpur, Murli Mohan Prabhu of Vijayawada, Sachidananda Prabhu of Vallabh Vidyanagar (Anand), and Surapati Prabhu of Lucknow.

ISKCON New Delhi Vice President and ISKCON IRGB all India Communications Director Vrajendranandan Prabhu, was also present along with ISKCON New Delhi “pracharak” Sachisuta Prabhu. Radha Ranjan Prabhu from Lucknow, Raghuveer Prabhu from ISKCON Allahabad, Nityananda Prabhu (Lativa) from Bhagavat Vidyapith, Govardhan also were present. Prema Bhakti Dasa came all the way from Chicago, USA, to attend the Baroda Rathayatra.

A number of “kirtaneers” from Chandigarh and Vrindavan attended the Rathayatra as well. ISKCON Baroda IYF devotees, headed by Nartaka Gauranga Prabhu and Dr. Damodar Chaitanya Das distributed books throughout the procession.

One of the features of Rathayatra was the distribution of ten tons of halava prasad, cooked in “deshi ghee” (pure ghee) to the crowds lining the roads.

At various places along the route, devoted citizens of Baroda offered fruits, flowers, incense, donations, and “deep arati” to Lord Jagannath! At two places, members of the Muslim community organized receptions with these very same offerings to Lord Jagannath as well.

Almost four hundred pictures of the procession can be seen here.

West Virginia Sanctuary Faces Lean Times; Feed 'Rama' for $51 a Month, Get a Photo, Too

By SUDEEP REDDY

NEW VRINDABAN, W.Va. -- Saving cows, the Hare Krishnas in this village have learned, is a lot easier in India.

Created four decades ago, New Vrindaban was the first cattle sanctuary in the U.S. At its peak, it had 434 bovine refugees. Today, the cattle population is down to 80 because there's not enough money to support more. So the Hare Krishna community is borrowing a tactic more commonly used by charities that try to save people.

In New Vrindaban, Hare Krishnas have built a sanctuary for cows, which they consider sacred. The 80 beloved bovines here are treated by their Hindu caretakers like members of the family.

For $51, you can feed a cow for a month, while $108 would "provide special care for retired cows who can no longer breed or give milk," the group says in one appeal. "In one selfless stroke, you are sending a valuable message to our children and to a troubled world which sees today's gentle cow as tomorrow's dinner."

The adopt-a-cow effort promises bovine photographs and updates for donors, along with an open invitation to visit the cows in this village, near Moundsville, W.Va. The village is modeled after the childhood home of the Hindu deity Krishna, who taught his followers to revere cows.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, a Hindu group that grew out of a movement to ban the slaughtering of cows, has joined the Hare Krishna effort with its own appeals to help raise the roughly $1,000 needed to support each cow for a year. "It is needless to mention that by taking special care of Lord Krishna's cows you and your family will definitely receive His special blessings," reads another appeal, targeting the estimated 1.5 million Hindus in the U.S., recently posted on the group's Web site.

'Party Animal'

Other Hare Krishna groups in the U.S. also offer adoption programs, including one just up the road, called the International Society for Cow Protection. It posts names and profiles of cattle available for adoption on its Web site, calling one a "party animal and break-out artist" and another "Mister Handsome Heartbreaker."

The dairy cows at New Vrindaban eat grain while they're milked twice a day.

Cows are sacred to Hindus, a status allowing them to roam the streets of India untouched. Most Indian states prohibit their slaughter, although an illegal beef trade thrives. Krishna is believed to have encouraged the people of Vrindaban, India, to worship the land and animals that support them, preaching the power of cows to provide everything from milk for children to manure for farming.

The cows at New Vrindaban -- from the oldest of the herd to the youngest calf, 6-month-old Rama - are doted on, often getting hugs and kisses. Devotees offer the cows' milk to Krishna in religious ceremonies and use it to make butter, yogurt and sweets.

"We look at them like our own mothers," says Ranaka Das, 54 years old, a cow caretaker. Once known as Doug Fintel, he worked at a Coors brewery in Colorado before joining the Hare Krishna movement and moving to New Vrindaban in 1977. "You take care of them like your own family," he said. "In a regular dairy operation, cows are like any piece of machinery."

Milind Bharambe, a Pittsburgh software analyst who immigrated from India nine years ago, initially sought a reward of sorts for helping to save the animals. "Cows are very dear to Krishna," he says. "If I help someone very dear to Krishna, maybe I might benefit," he thought.

But today, Mr. Bharambe -- who donates about $800 a year to New Vrindaban, half earmarked for the cows -- says his motivation is more spiritual. "I'm supporting someone very dear to Krishna. That thought itself gives so many things. You feel happiness. You feel better."

Many of New Vrindaban's cows were born on site. Devotees occasionally rescue doomed cows from slaughterhouses and bring them to the sanctuary.

"Slaughtering an animal is not natural for human beings," said Rishi Shinde, a Dallas businessman who donates about $360 a year to sponsor one cow. "It affects one's consciousness, makes one violent and makes one lose contact with the emotional self."

New Vrindaban's cow farm, or goshala, includes a giant barn for the cattle - as many as 200 - which spend most of their day grazing on the pasture. Only half a dozen of the 80 cows still produce milk, about 50 pounds of it a day. The rest of the cattle are left to carry out their natural lives - as long as 20 years - far longer than the life span for many U.S. cattle raised for slaughter.

Seventies Devotees

At the top of a winding West Virginia road, New Vrindaban was established in a small farmhouse in 1968 with 100 acres by two American disciples of Swami Prabhupada, an Indian who moved to New York City to spread his love for Krishna. As the Hare Krishna movement expanded with hippies-turned-devotees in the 1970s, hundreds of Americans -- 700 at one point, the group says -- moved to New Vrindaban, took up robes and Sanskrit names and assumed a mission of protecting cows, growing their own food and building temples.

They raised money selling wares at street corners and airports nationwide, pouring their funds into materials to build, by hand, an ornate temple for Prabhupada on the site of a former trash dump. Completed in 1979, two years after his death, Prabhupada's Palace of Gold became a shrine. Tourists came by the busload, drawing more publicity, devotees and money -- millions of dollars a year. New Vrindaban grew to 3,000 acres.

A 1986 murder of a former devotee sent the community into turmoil. Authorities raided the community, sparking years of investigations into allegations of murder, racketeering and child abuse. The New Vrindaban founder who was alleged to have ordered the murder eventually went to prison for racketeering. He received a 20-year prison sentence, which was then reduced to 12 years due to poor health. He served eight years.

New Vrindaban's cow sanctuary sits alongside communities that raise cattle for other purposes.

Today, the New Vrindaban area has fewer than 200 resident devotees, about a quarter of them of Indian descent. The site still draws about 25,000 visitors a year, the group says. A donation of $6 is sought from those who visit the Palace of Gold. Visitors of Indian descent take special interest in the cows, often bringing their children to pet the animals.

That doesn't produce the $100,000 a year needed to pay for hay, the barn, workers and property taxes. Hence the adopt-a-cow fund raising. The leaders of the community say only a few of the cows are sponsored in full for life by the donations, which are tax-deductible. But they are clear about one thing: None of these cows ever leave for the slaughterhouse.

"We've kept that promise to Pradhupada and the cows since we first came here," says Nityodita Das, one of the community's current leaders.

The Hare Krishnas' cow-protection campaign doesn't seem to be getting much traction with some neighbors. "There's not much of a push around here to save cattle," says Allen Hendershot, Moundsville city manager. "Cattle are raised for a reason."

Indeed, drivers exiting Interstate 470 in Bethlehem, W.Va., to reach New Vrindaban recently were greeted by a giant sign in the median featuring a bovine cartoon, promoting a nearby event. It read: "Bethlehem Steak Fry."

Write to Sudeep Reddy at sudeep.reddy@wsj.com

By Varaha Dasa on 28 Jun 2009

On May 22 this year, devotees in the West African city of Lome, Togo, inaugurated their new vegetarian restaurant with a celebration and feast.

The restaurant’s origins go back five years ago when devotees, encouraged by their late guru Bhakti-Tirtha Swami’s directions on simple living and high thinking, established an active Food For Life program in Lome and surrounding areas.

It became a curious yet common sight to see people rushing to form a long line for Hare Krishna food aid on Lome street corners and road-sides. Food For Life became so popular that Lome University soon requested the program to extend its charity to their students, who often had to abandon their schooling due to hunger.

As awareness of Food for Life and its delicious meals continued to rise, members of the public who preferred a vegetarian diet but found it difficult due to the lack of appropriate eateries began to come out of the woodwork. The demand grew for Food For Life-style vegetarian meals that could be bought at any time of the day. So in 2007, Lome devotees began constructing a restaurant as an offering to the memory of Bhakti Tirtha Swami.

With the help of generous donors from the local Indian Community, the dream was realized, and the restaurant began operating in June 2008.

The official inauguration was delayed until May 22 this year, when the restaurant held a feast in honor of the father-in-law of Mr. Sunny, a prominent donor to the project. All donors were invited, and expressed their satisfaction after enjoying the delicious subji, curry soup, puri, vegetarian kebabs, samosa, lassi drinks, and a host of other dishes.

Devotees now have the option to buy the town lots on which the restaurant and nearby temple are situated for $200,000 US dollars. Local donors have already raised $40,000, and have promised to finalize the deal once the temple has raised an equal amount.

For more information or to offer assistance, contact Varaha Dasa at Varaha108@hotmail.com

By ISKCON News Weekly Staff on 28 Jun 2009

Govinda-Prema Dasa, an ISKCON devotee from Nairobi, gifted Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga with a copy of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita this May.

The opportunity arose when devotees attended the same Sikh community college opening that the Prime Minister had been invited to speak at. After Odinga’s speech promoting higher education as the way to a peaceful and happy country, Govinda-Prema approached him.

“Most honourable Prime Minister, I am from the Hare Krishna temple,” he explained simply. “I would like to present to you this holy book that teaches how to make the world peaceful.”

Odinga took the Bhagavad-gita and looked at it respectfully. When Govinda-Prema told him that ISKCON was feeding three thousand people daily in Nairobi, he was impressed and shook the devotee’s hand, saying, “Thank you very much for all your good work.”

Diary of a Traveling Preacher - Volume 10, Chapter 8 - June 4 - 6, 2009
By Indradyumna Swami

One thing I appreciate about traveling in Russia is the constant reminders that this world is an unhappy place. I am reminded again and again to become serious and to focus on my devotional service. Russia is a G-8 country, but life is hard there, owing in part to the political situation, the economy, and the weather.
I was again reminded at the airport when I was leaving Moscow. A devotee woman asked me for guidance in her despair: her three-year-old daughter had recently drowned in a river near their house. The little girl would charm everyone with her singing. Even though she had a speech defect and could not talk properly, she sang Hare Krsna perfectly and learned complicated melodies instantly.
Another devotee broke my heart when she told me that her seventeen-year-old daughter, Visakha dasi, had been abducted off the streets of Moscow a few years ago and had not been seen since. The police suspected it was organized crime, which kidnaps and sells young women as sex slaves around the world. I had watched Visakha grow up in the early days of the Moscow gurukula, and I couldn’t imagine a sweeter, more sincere devotee. I consoled her mother, but I was shocked.
I also spoke with a devotee man in his mid-forties who had been disfigured in a car accident.
“My heart goes out to all these devotees,” I said to Uttama-sloka das, as our flight took off for Baku, Azerbaijan.
“I know, Guru Maharaja,” he said. “That’s one reason devotees in Russia appreciate that you and your godbrothers come here despite the many inconveniences you go through.”
“I wish we could do more to help them,” I said.
“You’re doing a lot by giving them transcendental knowledge,” Uttama-sloka said.
“But that won’t help Visakha,” I said. “I still feel shaken by the story. It’s one of the worst things happening to a devotee that I’ve ever heard about.”
“I can see how much it has affected you,” said Uttama-sloka.
“It’s not only that,” I said, “but I’m tired. We’ve been on the road for seven weeks. Before that I was preaching in South Africa and the United States. I haven’t had a real break for a long time. I’d like to go to Vrindavan to read and chant for a while. Maybe we can continue this tour later.”
“Please forgive me, Guru Maharaja,” he said, “but many devotees are waiting in the cities we’re supposed to visit, and many programs have been arranged. We can’t cancel now.”
I thought for a moment. “You’re right,” I said. “We have to keep going.”
“If it’s any consolation,” he said, “Baku is supposed to be where the great sage and prajapati Kasyapa Muni had his asrama on the Caspian Sea. I found this quote from Srila Prabhupada yesterday, and I was looking for a chance to share it with you.”
He handed me his computer, and I started to read: “The Caspian Sea was the place of Kasyapa Muni. From Kasyapa the [word] Caspian has come. Just like formerly the capital of Afghanistan was known as Gandhar, now it has become Kandahar.” [Lecture, Los Angeles, May 7, 1973]
“Guru Maharaja,” Uttama-sloka said gently, “while we’re in Baku you can bathe in the sea and take it easy. For spiritual inspiration we can visit the old Vedic temple in the desert, the Temple of Fire. You wrote about it in your diary after you went there many years ago. Baku devotees have told me that it was a place of pilgrimage in ancient times. Pilgrims used to travel three thousand kilometers from India to visit it.”
“Okay,” I said, “I’ll rest, and we’ll go to the temple on pilgrimage. I’d like to pray for Visakha there.”
When we arrived at Baku Airport I had to wait two hours to get a visa because the man issuing them was having lunch. When he returned I handed him my passport and visa application.
“Where are your two photos?” he asked.
“Photos?” I said. “What photos? There was nothing on your website about needing photos.”
“No photos, no visa,” he said firmly.
“But I don’t have any photos,” I said. “Can’t something be done?”
A little smile came over his face. “Of course,” he said. “In my country there are always ways to sort out these things.”
I could swear I saw dollar signs in his eyes as I handed him a “donation.”
“You see?” he said. “Problem is solved.”
Uttama-sloka and I then waited in the immigration line to have our passports stamped. Behind the immigration window was a woman with a black scarf covering her head. She looked up at me and smiled. “Are you from the Temple of Fire, sir?” she said.
I wasn’t expecting that, and I had to think for a moment. “Why… uh… Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I am connected with the Temple of Fire. It’s part of our tradition, and I’ve come here on pilgrimage.”
“Very nice,” she said, and stamped my passport.
As I stood waiting for Uttama-sloka to be cleared at another window, I overheard his conversation with the immigration officer.
“What organization are you with?” the official asked as he looked at the passport.
“The Hare Krsna Movement,” Uttama-sloka said.
The man looked up and smiled. “Oh?” he said. “Do you have any books?”
Uttama-sloka looked confused.
“Hare Krsna books,” the officer said. “Many years ago I bought one on the street. It was fascinating. I’ve been looking for more ever since.”
“Just give me your address,” said Uttama-sloka. “I’ll mail some to you.”
The officer wrote down his address and stamped the passport.
As we went to collect our luggage, I looked at Uttama-sloka and started to chuckle. “You know,” I said, “that’s got to be the most unusual clearing of immigration I’ve seen in all my years on the road.”
Outside the terminal we were greeted by a group of devotees who escorted us to our car. On the way into the city I studied the scenery and buildings to get the feel of the country, as I often do when I come to a new place. We were driving on a new highway complete with picturesque barriers and architectural designs along the way, but I noticed there were no signs posting the speed limit.
Just then a police car raced by us, its siren wailing, and signaled to the car in front of us to pull over.
“What’s happening?” I asked our driver.
“The man was speeding,” he said.
I laughed. “How do you know if you’re speeding here?” I said. “There are no signs posting the limit.”
“The limit is ninety kilometers an hour,” the driver said, “but the city purposely doesn’t post it so they can give people tickets and generate revenue.”
Further on, I spoke to another devotee. “The last time I was here,” I said, “we were restricted in our preaching. Has anything changed?”
“Yes,” he said. “We have never gotten permission to do harinama or hold public programs, but we were allowed to distribute books throughout the country. Now we’re still allowed to distribute them, but only in Baku.”
“That’s unusual,” I said.
“It’s not a restriction applying to us alone,” he said. “The government wants to control any propaganda or proselytizing in the villages and towns because of the influence of the mujahideen from Dagestan. They preach a fanatic message that doesn’t sit well with the liberal Muslim community here.”
“Women don’t wear the burka,” he continued, “men and women mingle freely, and women vote. Still, it’s a Muslim country with Muslim customs, so we’re happy that at least we’re allowed to distribute books and preach within our congregation. We have our own temple and about three hundred devotees.”
He smiled and lowered his eyes a bit. “You’re the first senior devotee to visit us in more than a year,” he said. “Do you have anything special you’d like to do apart from the temple programs?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’d like to go on pilgrimage to the Temple of Fire.”
He nodded. “Here we call it Ateshgah, the eternal flame,” he said. “It’s actually a place for demigod worshipers. Yogis would worship Agnideva there and perform austerities. It wasn’t really a Vaisnava tirtha.”
“Actually it was,” I said. “I did some research on it after my last visit. A German geologist named Eichwald visited the temple in the late eighteen hundreds. He wrote that the worship of Lord Ramacandra and Lord Krsna was prominent there. A German poet, Friedrich Bodenstedt, who visited the temple in 1847, wrote that Visnu was the main deity.”
“Besides,” I continued, “Srila Prabhupada said that the sage Kasyapa Muni had his asrama near here. It is stated elsewhere that he washed his hands in the Caspian Sea after conceiving Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksa with his wife, Diti. He’s the father of Upendra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he’s the father of Garuda, the gigantic bird who carries Lord Visnu on his back. He’s also the father of many demigods. I consider the area a sacred place of pilgrimage. I want to go there for inspiration to continue with my preaching and to pray for the soul of a devotee girl whose cruel fate haunts me.”
That evening we had a wonderful program in the temple. It is an ISKCON center, but it has a touch of Muslim culture, with colorful Persian rugs on the floors and walls and Arabic texts inscribed on the flower vases. The women dress in saris made from local cloth, bearing patterns that remind me of Muslim designs I’ve seen in other places. Even the Gaura-Nitai deities had clothes with a Muslim touch.
But there was no mistaking the sound of Krsna’s holy names, coming straight from Goloka Vrindavan, as the devotees chanted and danced with abandon. After the kirtan, devotees came forward, and I distributed baklava, a local sweet made from thin pastry, nuts, and honey.
But despite the wonderful association and the rousing kirtan, I had a terrible dream that night: Four bearded men were bundling a woman into a car in the street.
“Where are you taking her?” I shouted.
“None of your business!” snarled one of the men. “She’s ours now!”
I woke up in a sweat and could not fall asleep again. I went on the internet and learned that human trafficking was the third most profitable crime in the world. Each year more than eight hundred thousand men, women, and children are kidnapped and sold into prostitution and forced labor.
Immediately after breakfast, I asked Uttma-sloka to arrange a car to take us and a small group of devotee men to the Temple of Fire.
“Now?” Uttama-sloka said. “But it’s out in the desert near the oilfields, and you have several programs today.”
“That’s all right,” I said, “but first I want to visit that temple.”
We got into a jeep, and within an hour we were near the oilfields. I was surprised to see the outdated machinery, and I mentioned it to one of the local devotees.
“The Russians began drilling for oil here more than a hundred years ago,” he said. “As a result the natural gas reserves underground gradually dried up. The yogis who still worshiped the fire on the site said the mlecchas had contaminated the area and that Agni had left in disgust. So they went to India.”
After driving for another half hour we reached the temple. Although the simple beauty of its design was still visible, I could see that little had been done to develop it as a shrine since my last visit.
I turned to another devotee. “They haven’t done much to develop it,” I said.
“To develop it?” said the devotee. “It’s amazing that it’s still here at all. It was saved only by the intervention of Indira Gandhi. When she was prime minister of India in the early 1980s, she asked then Soviet chairman Leonid Brezhnev to restore the dilapidated site to its original glory. Afterwards it was declared a national heritage, but few foreign tourists visit.
“Because of the temple’s Hindu origins, local Muslims have no interest. That’s ironic because previously we Azerbaijanis were Zoroastrians. We were converted to Islam by the sword. The Zoroastrian religion appeared in the fifth century, and it believes in a universal and transcendental God. Zoroastrians say that God’s greatness can be appreciated in material elements. Worshiping fire, in particular, is seen as a way to develop spiritual insight and wisdom. The site, with its natural gas fires, was important to our forefathers.
“Some scholars say we were originally part of Vedic culture and that Agni had been worshiped here since the beginning of time. There is evidence that this area was called Sura-hani. “Sura” means “of God,” and “Hani” means “kingdom.” Even more interesting is that it was called Rama-ni, which means “the place of Rama.” Nearby is a lake called Gopal.”
Inside the compound, we saw a stone shrine in the center, with a fire burning up from the ground through the middle of the shrine. A small sign said that the gas was now piped from Baku.
We began by visiting the rooms along the boundary wall, where yogis and ascetics performed austerities that were said to give them mystical powers to bless or curse. Merchants traveling on the Silk Road would visit the temple and make offerings to the sadhus to receive their blessings. But the sadhus were renunciants and would cast any gifts they received into the fire. There were originally seven main fires in the compound. One was used for cremating the yogis when they passed away.
We stopped to look at some dioramas showing the yogis in meditation and some manuscripts, hundreds of years old, attesting to the antiquity of the site. A number of them had been added since my last visit:
“One mile from Baku there is a place where fire burns eternally and without torches.” [Ibn Aljas, Arab geographer, sixteenth century]
“There is nowhere [else] in the world where one can find white oil like here. There is a volcano, continuously erupting flame in this oil-rich place.” [Masudy, Arab geographer, tenth century]
“In the suburbs of Baku, in some places the soil was dug out and food was instantly ready from the heat coming out of the ground.” [Evleya Cheleby, Turkish traveler, sixteenth century]
After some time I turned to Uttama-sloka. “These dioramas and manuscripts are all very interesting,” I said, “but I’ve come here for a different purpose. I’d like to spend some time alone.”
As the group of devotees continued their tour, I walked over to the stone shrine where yogis had worshiped the sacred fire. I closed my eyes and chanted on my beads. Then I read from Prema Bhakti Candrika, by Narottam das Thakur.
My thoughts turned to Visakha. I folded my hands and prayed for her for a long time. “My dear Lord,” I concluded, “please look after Your devotee, Visakha. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand Your plan. We can only surrender to Your will, which ultimately brings us back to the refuge of Your lotus feet.”
A while later Uttama-sloka came over. “Guru Maharaja,” he said, “we have to go now.”
“All right,” I said. “Even a short visit here was enough to satisfy the heart.”
As we walked towards the exit, Uttama-sloka turned to me. “Guru Maharaja,” he said, “may I ask if you are thinking of mentioning Visakha in your diary?”
“Maybe,” I said.
“I don’t think you should,” he said. “It’s too tragic a story.”
I stopped. “A devotee can find inspiration even in tragedy,” I said. “It can help us become detached from this world and turn to the Lord for shelter.”
“Yes,” he said, “but your diary chapters are generally full of hope and inspiration. Her abduction won’t fit in.”
“I have a reason,” I said. “My hope is that when others hear of her plight, they’ll be inspired to pray for her.”
“But she was abducted years ago,” he said.
I looked back at the eternal flame. “It’s never too late,” I said. “Praying is a powerful way to solicit the mercy of the Lord. By praying, we can approach Him anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances. Even here in this land of Islam, so far from India, the Lord has provided a place where we can purify ourselves and pray for the welfare of His devotees.”
Srila Prabhupada says:
“If you are in danger, you ask your friends to help you. This is prayer. So our prayer is … ‘My dear Lord Krsna, I am your eternal servant. Somehow or other, I am now fallen in this ocean. Please pick me up and fix me again at the dust of Your lotus feet.’ … Prayer is needed because we are in danger … [That] we are in this material condition of life means we are in danger. Therefore we should pray.” [Lecture, Durban City Hall, October 7, 1975]

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