GURU PURNIMA - gnby2010germany.org

Decorations in the hall Sri Swamiji with the ‘Reception committee’ at the airport Sri Swamiji on the way to the hall
Purnima on Sunday? Could we guarantee safety? We
discussed this for a while and thought about an emergency
strategy. We tried to get the guest house to
take responsibility for the facilities they had neglected
and not taken appropriate care of. At the same
time we developed plan B.
Kala and Selvam transported all the things needed for
the trip on Friday to lake Möhne and drove back to the
hall to check on the workers we had called in. Nahusha
also stayed in Geseke to look around for another
available hall. Thanks to God resp. Sri Swamiji, everything
went well in the end and we mastered this
enormous challenge. Whether we will come to Geseke
again…
Cooking was like a Puja
In addition to the fact that the chef didn’t cook the
kind and variety of food according to our contract, we
had to organize a mobile kitchen to cook the Prasad-
am for Guru Purnima. The tent with two big pots on
gas cookers, about five tables and a refrigerator were
set up on the grass at the back of the guest house. A
hosepipe and electrical cable from the building gave
us the basic services.
Mukesh from London who has been running Indian
restaurants and catering businesses for over twenty
years, was our head cook. We drove with Mukesh’s
wife on Friday, after the outing, to a big supermarket.
It was a great challenge to buy the right quality, size
and amount of ingredients. The food that is available
in Westfalia is not particularly suited to Indian (big)
cooking. Mukesh and his wife kept on acknowledging
with little forced smiles, that things they took for
granted were simply not there. On top of that we had
to think in terms of tens of kilos instead of in grams,
in order to satisfy 500 people. After at least two,
which felt like three, hours we left the supermarket
with five fully loaded, big trolleys. And that was only
the first part! The next day we drove back there again
to pick up a few pre-ordered items and other things.
One problem was with refrigeration, since we had
several trays of large jars of yogurt alone…
At first, I was just the driver and interpreter in this
undertaking, but Mukesh needed some helpers in the
kitchen as well. Since Dhyani and I didn’t know exactly
who could do that (it was clear that those helpers
would miss most of the Guru Purnima celebrations), I
promptly joined the kitchen team with four other
devotees from London. In other words, my entire
experience of the whole Guru Purnima celebration,
was a five minute glimpse of the homa preparations in
the early morning and a quick jumping into the front
of the Darshan line with Mukesh (so we could get back
quickly to the pots).
However, helping to cook the holy Prasadam was the
high point of the whole event for me! It was such a
fulfilling feeling to cook for everyone. It was like doing
a Puja. I peeled potatoes, chopped vegetables, washed
pots, got rid of dirty water, and from time to time
stirred the 100 liter pots with a huge spoon. It was
lovely to do this seva. I was carried along by a feeling
of elation. In the end I was involved with the Prasadam
from A to Z, from shopping to the distribution behind
the counter in the canteen.
Ego-killing
The most difficult hours for me were yet to come. I
could talk my way out of it by saying it was just too
complicated and I wanted to save money, but as it was
I made serious mistakes with the transportation
plans. And unfortunately these mistakes didn’t get
sorted out before someone noticed it. I simply miscalculated
some of the transportation for our Indian
guests and especially their luggage.
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