“For all”
Durban, South Africa
Every year that I come here to South Africa to attend the Chariot Festival, I watch people pour in and this year is no exception. I’m referring to people of devotional inclination who come to enhance their spiritual life. This is in no reference to the multitude of sports fans that will descend upon Durban for the world cup soccer games.
In the temple at Chatsworth, I’m observing local people busy in service and visitors from Pretoria , Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg , Johannesburg likewise. One very revealing aspect of these representatives from the various cities is the equally strong representation of the three dominant ethnic groups in South Africa. You have the blonde hair, blue-eyed Afrikaners, the richly-dark Zulus and the fine-featured brown east-Indians.
At Kirtan sessions you can view all individual groups participating. The blacks have everyone beat with their agility at dance but everyone is involved in song and dance. As is commonly done at such exhilarating moments, a circle of people is formed and it is a given that this humble self pulls people in one by one to exhibit their moment of ecstatic dance either in free-style or in a more conventionally “swami-step” technique. Virtually we all step back into a childhood spirit. It is indeed an internal international type of experience, something to be observed in India for instance at temples at traditional festival times. This is a feel good situation without a doubt. And even though I found no time to work the legs through walking that was compensated by stretching leg leaps in Kirtan-dancing and mouth muscles in chanting.
It’s a well-rounded program for everyone.
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