Hare Krishna Poland Interview with Indradyumna Swami & Sri Prahlad 1997

This is the third year for the Polish Woodstock Festival. And the first year, from what we heard, there was quite a lot of violence, a lot of kids coming and engaging in different activities. So last year, Mr. Jurek Owszak, who's the organizer of the Woodstock Festival, he contacted us, specifically our Hare Krishna Festival program, and he asked if we could come to the festival.

And when I asked him why, because for us it was a golden opportunity, when I asked him why he would like us there he said that he'd been in contact with our movement before he'd seen us chanting on the streets and he knew about our food distribution so he thought that by having the devotees here would add a very peaceful element a calming element to the festival so we eagerly accepted his invitation and we worked closely with him last year actually this is how we got to know him and we helped him set up the whole festival program we were working in all different you know advertising and you know ordering the different parts of the festival the big stage and he was engaging us and he was even taking us when he was doing television interviews and radio interviews and newspaper interviews he was taking us along and he was introducing us as the co-organizers of the festival so it was a wonderful opportunity we got to know each other from that and he he liked us from the very beginning he's a very pious man actually he's from a poll that was taken in the country it was seen that he's the second most popular person in poland the first of course is the pope because this is a polish gun this is a catholic country but he's very popular because of the charity work that he does every year he raises how much uh three to four million three to four million dollars every year he raises in charity and he actually puts this woodstock festival on um it's a sign of appreciation to all the people who help him raise that money most of the people who raise that money for his charity drive which goes to increasing medical facilities and hospitals around the country for children they're young people they're teenagers from you know 14 up to 19 20 years of age. So he wanted to put on a big festival for them to kind of thank them.

So he appreciated our contribution like that. And this is how we got to know him. So the first year was very successful. Even he was amazed when he came to our...

I came up with the idea. I said, let's call it Krishna's Village of Peace. He said, that's a good idea. He said, what will you do there?

I said, we'll chant, we'll distribute prasad and we'll keep the the kids engaged. That's what I want. I want you to keep the kids engaged at the festival. And when I showed him a video of what we do, a little bit of our festival program, he was watching that video.

Kirtan, puppet show, drama, our reggae band, Village of Peace. When he was seeing that video, he was looking and he said, that's the mood I want at my festival. I haven't been able to create that. I said, what is it that you have that creates It's that wonderful dynamic motive at your festival, and I said, Krishna, Supreme Personality of Godhead.

There are 75,000 people at this festival now, and last night when we were on the stage I asked how many of you have been to Krishna's Village of Peace, and I think 70% of the people in the audience raised their hands. So everyone is very, very happy with, you know, what's taking place here, especially it's fulfilling this purpose of Eurek bringing us to this festival to make it more peaceful. Last year when we were at the festival, the media kept emphasizing how this year there's no violence. That was like one of the main emphases that the media, the television, radio and newspaper commenting about the festival how there was absolutely no violence and also this year we're seeing that there's no violence um york has made the theme the motto for this year's festival stop violence so we have been telling the people how food for life and this distribution of free vegetarian food is a real contribution to stopping violence because we are seeing how the animals and the human beings and all creatures are equal and we're trying to show people how to really stop violence is not just amongst human beings but among all species of life and how they can actually have a very nutritional very healthy very tasty meal and just through vegetarian food so that's another contribution we're making we have 60 devotees working in the kitchen Yesterday we distributed 12,000 plates of prasadam.

Our goal was 10,000 plates a day, but we've been able to reach our goal and go beyond. Another thing is that there's a lot of people walking around with bead bags. They came to last year's festival, they bought some books, they bought some beads, and through the year they've been chanting one or two rounds and keeping contact with the devotees either through mail, like personally, or visiting temples. And you just walk through the grounds and there's people there with beer bags and they, Hare Krishna.

So there's also part of our crew here that we have working in the kitchen. We have 150 devotees working with us. And a few of them are people that came to last year's festival and have since moved into temples. and now they're helping us to organize this festival here yesterday one of the organizers of this whole Woodstock event came to this Krishna's village of peace and he was asking some of the devotees this is so professional this is so amazing how is it that you're you're able to do this and we explained to him how actually we're practicing all year I mean of course this is the big festival but all year long eight months of the year we have the Lakshmana Sringa tour and we're traveling to every major city in Poland and we set up Krishna's village of peace in a soccer field or in the town square all of these tents these exhibits that you see and we have a wonderful festival we get between three to four to sometimes eight thousand people come into our festivals so for us of course this is a higher level so many people but it um it's done very easily our stage presentation is very very organized very professional the uh everything we have an mc we have a theater we have indian bartender in dancing bajan group the band and everything flows from one thing to the other um in a very natural very well thought out organized manner and so when we come here to woodstock we're just doing the same thing and it is having a wonderful effect the point i'd like to mention is how we've we financed this festival such a big preaching program with this of course costs a lot of money many many thousands of dollars and someone would be thinking well i'd like to do a big festival program like that as well but it'd be too expensive but the point i'd like to make is that this preaching these festival programs, they finance themselves.

Ultimately, of course, it's Krishna, but the idea is that by preaching in this way, people are attracted and they come. I'd say 75% of the finances for this festival come from the prasadam distribution. We just ask a nominal cost, just a little bit above what it costs us to produce the prasadam. But so many thousands and thousands of plates of prasadam going out every day, that generates the income, as well as the different preaching stalls that we have, the gift shop and the book shop.

We distribute so many books. When people come, they see how Krishna consciousness is authentic, it's something bona fide, and it's full of, like Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, real religion is joyfully performed. When people come and get that spiritual experience, they want to keep that with them. So we're always encouraging them from the main stage.

If you like what you see, if you've had a wonderful experience, if you'd like to go deeper into Krishna consciousness then please before you go home visit our book stall and take one of our spiritual masters books and i spend you know at least half my time at this festival simply you know signing people's books it's a tradition in this country so this is the way we finance the program through the distribution of prahapat's books from our tables after they get the experience from the gift shops and from the prashadam distribution so actually you know a big festival like this is possible to finance for anyone around the world if we know this art of presenting Krishna consciousness as it is, this nice cultural experience, and people will be very happy to contribute so the festival can go on. When we're standing on the stage in front of thirty, forty thousand people and getting them all to chant Hare Krishna, it is an overwhelming experience.

Sometimes my whole body starts to shiver just because of what's happening. And I'm constantly praying to Lord Chaitanya, how is this possible? How is this? This is only taking place by your mercy.

This modern music, people are used to dancing to it. But this chanting, when we add the chanting to this music, the chanting has a very, very special potency. And the people love to chant. It's the same music, it's the same beat, the same rhythm.

But this chanting, they can all do. They can learn the words. It's just three words, very simple, Hare Krishna and Rama. They can learn these words very easily and they get into great ecstasy just chanting these words, these names of Krishna over and over again and they love it.

Sometimes we play other songs to satisfy their curiosity and their desire to hear other sounds, also because it's preaching. They get to hear the philosophy. But we find that they most like to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and we also most like to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for them. So when you have something nice, you naturally want to share it with others, and that's the mood of this festival, actually.

I think this is the real reason that the festival is such a success, because of that preaching spirit, that preaching mood. We like to bring the people in, and they feel that warmth, they feel that affection, they feel that enthusiasm. And we'd like to extend that not only to the members of our tour, but we'd like actually other devotees in ISKCON to get that experience. Our Traveling Festival program runs eight months a year.

It's intense. It's a lot of hard work, but it's very, very satisfying. And if there are any devotees out there who would like to develop that preaching mood, or have that preaching mood and would like to come, they can contact myself. My mailing address is Karabakhta Vedanta Manor in England.

So those who would like to come and chant and dance in ecstasy, take prasadam with us and preach to literally hundreds of thousands of people, please contact me and we'll try to make an arrangement. You can come with us and enjoy this wonderful festival program. Hare Krishna.