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Sripad Bhakti Nandan Narayan Maharaj's
visit to Fiji


Tour report as told by Abhinavasundar Prabhu

Day 1
The Sankirttan party travelling to Fiji from Australia included Sripad Narayan Maharaj, Abhinavasundar Dasa and Murli Krsna Prabhu . When they arrived at Nadi airport, they were picked up by Madhura Narayan who tirelessly supported the sankirttan party by making almost all of the arrangements for preaching programs and also drove us wherever we needed to go. We were received and accommodated very nicely by his brother Jiten Narayan and his family whose house in Drasa, near Lautoka was our base for the entire tour .

Day 2
After visiting the ISKCON Krsna Kaliya Temple to get the blessings of Prabhupada, we started our sankirttan and book distribution in Lautoka. The response was very positive from both the Indian and native Fijian communities. We were also joined for a while by two devotees in the street.

Day 3
Today we again visited the Krsna Kaliya Temple, however we started a lively sankirttan in the Nat Mandir and were enthusiastically joined by two brahmacaris and also an older devotee named Harinam Prabhu, who joined us with a portable sound system for Sankirttan and book distribution through Lautoka . We were then invited back for Mid-day Aarti and Prasadam .
That evening were invited to do some kirttan and accept prasadam at the home of Madhura's eldest sister and her husband, who are devotees initiated through ISKCON.

Day 4
After arranging our tickets to go to the north Island of Fiji, we visited the home of Sunanda Didi's family , where Srila Gurudev stayed when he visited Fiji. They were very happy to see us and we performed some kirttan with them and heard their recollections about Srila Gurudev's stay in Fiji. On our way back to home base, Sripad Narayan Maharaj enthusiastically stopped the car to do some preaching to the local village people .
That evening we held a program at Madhura's home, which was attended by people from the local area and included bhajans, kirttan, a lecture and prasadam. As usual, all arrangements were made by Madhura Narayan.

Day 5
Today we travelled to Bula Bula, which is near the town called Ba, where we stayed with the in-laws of Ajay Krsna, another brother of Madhura Narayan who lives in Sydney, and was the one who gave much encouragement to Sripad Narayan Maharaj to visit Fiji. Many families live and work on the one property which has three small mandir's, one of them even has a mandir suspended over a small kund behind it . The local people eagerly participated in the evening program of bhajans, kirttan and lecture .

Day 6
Today we performed sankirttan in Ba and received many donations from the local people who enthusiastically appreciated our presence.

Day 7
After leaving Bula Bula, we visited Madhura's aunty near Tavua, where we sang bhajans. Narayan Maharaj gave a lecture and much nourishment to the three sons of the houshold, who all took turns at leading bhajans. . After taking prasadam, we returned to home base at Drasa.

Day 8
In preparation for our journey to the north island of Fiji, we travelled to Madhura's youngest sister's house in Navua, where we performed bhajans and Maharaj gave a lecture. A university lecturer who has been a penpal of Murli Krsna for some time drove for one hour in heavy rain over bad roads to have Maharaj's association.

Day 9
Our journey to Labasa, a town on the north island started at 3:15am so that we could reach the bus which departed from Suva at 5am. After two hours, we reached the boat which took a further four hours to reach the north island, after which there was another four hour bus journey over predominately dirt roads. Finally we reached the destination and were greeted with garlands by the relatives of our hosts on the south island.

Day 10
After the morning program, we visited the Naga Temple where a hood-shaped rock has been worshipped for many years as a manifestation of the Kaliya serpent. This rock was originally only a couple of feet high and is constantly growing, so much so that the roof of the building has been extended to accommodate its' increasing height. The murti now stands approximately 15 feet high.

Day 11
Today we performed sankirttan and distributed books in Labasa, where we were happily welcomed by the local residents. This little girl was transfixed for the entire time that we stayed outside this shop.

Day 12
Today we travelled for two and a half hours by bus to Savusavu for sankirttan and book distribution. After a short rest we returned to Labasa.

Day 13
Today there was a Ramayan program at the house where we were staying, which was also the 1st birthday celebration of the households' youngest child. . Sripad Narayan Maharaj and Murli Krsna both gave lectures and Maharaj also led a lively kirttan.

Day 14 & 15
Today we returned to the south island, this time we decided to fly, which greatly reduced our travelling time. Baram Singh , the brother of one of Muralidhar Prabhu's friends' collected us from Suva airport and gave us a tour of the city, including the ISKCON temple. That evening we performed bhajans and kirttan with the family and some additional friends. Baram Singh and his family accommodated us very nicely whilst we were in Suva.

Day 16
Today we performed Sankirttan and book distribution in Suva. Despite the apparent political unrest, we were greeted by all of the residents, shopkeepers and peacekeepers of Suva with smiles of appreciation. At a local building site, the workers on the scaffolding enthusiastically whistled and danced whilst we chanted down the road next to the new construction. After taking prasadam at one of the many Hare Krsna Restaurants in Suva, we caught a taxi for the 3 hour journey back to Lautoka. In the taxi we met a lady named Shirley, who mentioned that she had spent some time with devotees and happily accepted our suggestion that we visit her in-laws on Dipawali, as we had planned to spend that day visiting many people in that area to do kirttan.

Day 17
Today we returned to Bula Bula for an evening program with the local residents.

Day 18
Today we attended Tavarau Bhartiya School, where they were having performances in celebration of Dipawali. Sripad Narayan Maharaj and Murli Krsna Prabhu both gave a talk about the glories of Lord Ramachandra followed by discussing the glories of the mahamantra, followed by a kirttan which the children enthusiastically took part in.
In the evening we attended a program at a local residents house near home base

Day 19
Today is Dipawali and we are visiting many households for kirttan starting at Madhura's eldest sister and her husband. After that we went to Shirley's in-laws house (the lady we met in the taxi from Suva for kirttan and prasadam . We then visited a very nice devotee family from ISKCON who were very happy with our association and kirttan. Next stop was the Krsna Kaliya Temple for darshan and more kirttan. When we retuned to home base, the family had decorated their house for Lord Ramachandra's return and also performed their Aarti ceremony. We finished off this day by doing sankirttan door to door in the local village where we had been staying until ten o'clock that night.

Day 20
Our trusty driver Madhura Narayan took us to the airport for our return flight to Australia and we had a very affectionate farewell. When we arrived in Sydney, we bathed and then went to the first of two programs for the evening. Firstly a home program organised by Ajay Krsna Prabhu
After this we attended the Goverdhan Puja festival at Ajay Krsna Prabhu's house which included a talk by Sripad Narayan Maharaj about Govardhan Hill, kirttan, bhajans and abhishek of Giriraj Govardhan.