{"id":2791,"date":"2016-10-04T11:41:04","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T06:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=2791"},"modified":"2016-10-04T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T06:11:04","slug":"iceland-residents-and-tourists-get-a-sweet-taste-of-krishna-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/iceland-residents-and-tourists-get-a-sweet-taste-of-krishna-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"ICELAND: RESIDENTS AND TOURISTS GET A SWEET TASTE OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandrabhaga Dasi<\/p>\n

Padayatra<\/em> Iceland was a joint event largely made possible by the efforts of Bhakta Pavel, who had initially traveled to Iceland\u2019s main town of Reykjavik last year on a book distribution mission. Happy with the success of his undertaking, he planned another visit for the summer of 2016 both to the city and to a remote tourist area of northern Iceland called Akureyri. I was inspired to join when I was in Mayapur. I was attending the \u2018Padayatra Ministry\u2019 seminars during the \u2018ISKCON Leadership Sanga\u2019 event. I was thinking of ways to do more padayatras<\/em> so we could reach our goal of 50 padayatras<\/em> to celebrate ISKCON\u2019s 50th<\/sup> anniversary. Being inspired by the stories of worldwide padayatras<\/em>, I returned home to Sweden and inquired from Bhakta Pavel about the opportunity to convert Iceland\u2019s book distribution mission into a padayatra<\/em> program. He agreed and a plan was devised for a one-week padayatra <\/em>. We advertised the padayatra <\/em>far and wide looking for recruits even amongst former padayatris<\/em>. We ended up with a small team consisting of Bhakta Pavel from the Czech Republic, Gaura Bhagavan from Rekjavik and myself from the USA. The three of us set off for the remote villages surrounding Akureyri.<\/p>\n

Akureyri is a bustling outdoor sports and recreation town in Iceland. It has become popular with international tourists who come to hike, bike or watch whales whale watch. It\u2019s also famous for its natural hot springs and volcano guided tours. When we landed at the Akureyri airport I was surprised to see how small it seemed to be: \u00a0it looked like it could accommodate no more than 40 people. After leaving the airport and entering the parking lot we were surprised to see it completely empty. No taxis, no buses or even people to be seen. So, with the address of the campground at hand, we started off on foot, asking the locals we saw along the way for directions. A few hours later \u00a0we were on a steep hike up a mountainous road. A young \u2018alternative[1]<\/a>\u2019 couple driving by saw us and stopped their car. They asked if we wanted a ride and just like that our preaching in Iceland began! As they drove us to the last few kilometers to the campsite, we explained our mission: we were part of an international \u00a0group that travels the world teaching people about bhakti yoga<\/em>. The teenage girl was very interested and took a \u2018Science of Self-realization\u2019 book from us. We left with a hug and good wishes as these fortunate Icelandic youths drove away with the time bomb of Srila Prabhupada\u00b4s book in their four wheel drive SUV.<\/p>\n

The campground was an interesting place that consisted of the camping area, a community kitchen, and a common room. It was packed with international sports enthusiasts \u2013I must have heard people speaking at least 6 different languages. Our small party was also a hit. I received many positive comments on my sarees. One girl was from California in the USA. She shared her experiences with devotees with me while cooking together in the community kitchen. She gave me some olive oil, and I, in turn, shared some prasadam<\/em> with her. Some of the other people there were able to catch a short dars<\/em>ana<\/em> of the Lords while I was making offerings in the common room. The utsava<\/em> deities of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara accompanied us throughout the padayatra.<\/em><\/p>\n

Every day during our short one week program we would leave the camp and walk to the edge of the town for about a distance of 3 kilometers. On our way, we visited different neighborhoods we would then end the day in the town center doing kirtana <\/em>and book distribution for several hours. The atmosphere was very favorable, with many \u2018ISKCON 50th<\/sup> Anniversary\u2019 magazines and books going out, some in the local Icelandic language from the North European Bhaktivedanta Book Trust[2]<\/a> in Sweden. As well as meeting the locals we also met many tourists in the town center. One young German man was looking at the Bhagavada-<\/em>G<\/em>ita<\/em> we were distributing. Soon after, his mother and sister joined him they were surprised to see him looking at the book. The mother exclaimed, “Oh, Bhagavada-<\/em>G<\/em>ita<\/em>. We have that at home. In fact, they have studied it in school.” We were quite shocked apparently there are secondary schools in Germany where Bhagavada-<\/em>G<\/em>ita<\/em> is included in the curriculum. Despite having a copy at home they left with \u2018Bhagavada-Gita<\/em> As It Is<\/em>\u2019 from us. There were also a few tourists from the USA who told us that they had actually been to the Potomac ISKCON temple. We even met a troll-like man with rainbow-colored fingernails and waist-length grey hair and beard who exclaimed, “Hare Krishnas without the orange?!” when he saw us.<\/p>\n

In addition to visiting the town of Akureyri, we visited the nearby town of Hrafnagilshverfi, a small community of approximately 600 people. \u00a0We went door to door distributing books. While there we met a Swedish migrant and former active Jehovah witness. He invited us into his place and showed us his extensive garden. Then, in exchange for a small book he gave us some vegetables. In fact, we begged alms like this from several homes in this village to get supplies because there were no shops anywhere there.<\/p>\n

In general, the local people had no previous contact with anything to do with \u2018Hare Krishna\u2019 or Vedic culture. In the capital city there were several yoga studios and two vegetarian restaurants, but\u00a0in the north, there was little worldly influence on the culture. It was indeed an isolated place where devotees had never, yes never been before. The response was overwhelmingly favorable and with approximately 100 books distributed there is a plan to continue regular preaching in this zone.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/u><\/strong> Devotees interested in contributing to this Iceland mission which, is expected to expand every year, are invited to contact me:<\/p>\n

candrabhagad#hotmail.com (please replace the # with @ before using this email address)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Also known as \u2018hipsters\u2019 or \u2018non-conformists\u2019<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> There are 7 Bhaktivedanta Book Trusts (BBT) worldwide: North American BBT, North European BBT, Chinese BBT, Mediterranean BBT, Indian BBT, Latin American BBT and Western Pacific BBT.<\/p>\n