Remembering Sankirtana Prabhu
Giridhari Swami

As reforms took place in the former Soviet Union in the late 1980's, Kirtiraja Prabhu, who was GBC at the time, encouraged Tamal Krishna Goswami and I to venture into Mainland China. China was just beginning to open it's doors to foreign tourists in 1988, and he told us to "strike when the iron is hot."

Being the brilliant preaching strategist that he was, Tamal Krishna Goswami made a plan. It was simple, but very effective. We would enter China on tourist visas, garbed in "civilian dress", then change into devotional clothing and chant in the parks, which in those days were visited by many thousands of people.

There were just four of us on that original party: Tamal Krishna Goswami, Ekachakra Prabhu, a young Bhakta Stefen (who had just been recently recruited by Goswami Maharaja) and myself.

When that historic day came in spring of 1988, we spread out our mat on the grass of a large park in the middle of Shanghai, took up the mrdanga and kartals, and started a kirtan, unsure of what would happen next. (Of course, getting arrested and being thrown out of the country was high on the list!)

Amazingly, perhaps out of curiosity more than anything else, one person stood nearby watching and listening, then five, ten, twenty, fifty and finally two hundred people gathered around us. Goswami Maharaja then turned to me and whispered, "what do we do now?" I told him to give a extemporaneous talk, those talks he was so expert at.

Through our translator, Ekachakra Prabhu, who had quite a good command of Chinese, Goswami Maharaja explained our basic philosophy in a simple way that all could understand. As many nodded their heads in approval, he explained that we were practioners of yoga, and that "mantra-yoga" was the essence of that practice.

Then he came up with a creative way to distribute books. He taught everyone the maha-mantra, and told them to compete for a prize by chanting loudly. The loudest chanter would win that prize. And they really chanted loudly, with a lot of enthusiasm!

The loudest chanter was chosen, and the gift (of course) was one of Srila Prabhupada's books in Chinese. This is where I first saw young Bhakta Stefen spring into action. He fearlessly grabbed the book and offered it to that enthusiastic chanter. The problem was that, as the winner reached forward to grab his book, two hundred other hands reached for it at the same time and torn it to pieces! Bhakta Stefen was unfazed, and even though he was almost mobbed, somehow or other he was able to get a book to the person who earned it and later into the hands of the many others that followed.