The Mood of Transcendental Competition
Kurma Dasa: It wasn't long before the devotees in Sydney and Melbourne were competing to have the nicest temple. Prabhupada approved of the mood: I am encouraged to hear from you that Melbourne temple is even better than Sydney temple, so I must surely come there to see it. Go on like this, transcendental rivalry, just like San Francisco and Los Angeles. This pleases me very much. But it is not that we are envious! No, material envy is not like that. Even the gopis, they were envious of one another in a transcendental sense. They were thinking: Oh, she has attracted Krishna more than me, that is very nice. She has given Him more pleasure than me, now let me try more to please Him. That is the process, how to improve in Krishna consciousness. The mood of transcendental competition between Melbourne and Sydney encouraged the devotees more and more. Since the Sydney chapter were reaching out to the suburbs, the Melbourne branch did likewise, taking towns like Geelong and Ballarat by surprise. Both temples were also inspired to improve their standard of Deity worship, although Melbourne as yet had no installed Deities. Citralekha, who had left Melbourne when her visa expired, had recently returned again from India. While in Calcutta, she had acquired a set of beautiful 30cm brass Radha and Krishna Deities, along with a variety of articles for Deity worship. Citralekha was an expert seamstress, she had been well-trained in India and she set about sewing numerous outfits for Radha and Krishna. Upendra had already written to Srila Prabhupada asking if the Deities could be installed.
Prabhupada had replied that he would be happy to install them when he came to Melbourne. Meanwhile, on Prabhupada's advice, Citralekha started training selected devotees in Melbourne in the art of Deity worship, as she had learned from Prabhupada's senior women disciples in India. Particularly expert in cooking, she would demonstrate the timeless art of traditional Bengali sweet-making: rasagulla, fresh cheese balls simmered in sugar syrup; sandesa, a creamy cheese fudge; and burfi, a rich milk confection flavoured with cashews, saffron and spices. On special occasions, she would prepare kamala kheer an amazing combination of freshly condensed milk and sugar, folded with little cells of sweet tangerines. A few boys and girls were eager to learn these arts from Citralekha, who gave her all to train them. Similarly, in Sydney, devotees were sewing Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha new sets of clothes and daily decorating Their altar with the profuse frangipanis that bloomed in Sydney's summer heat. They too tried their best to improve cooking standards, although they met with an occasional obstacle.
Kurma Dasa: We received a circular letter sent originally to Los Angeles from Prabhupada, encouraging us to improve the standard of Deity worship in our temple. Prabhupada had given some details, and especially he mentioned that we should offer bhog to Krishna five or six times daily. None of us had any idea what bhog was. Was it a vegetable, sweet, or a type of savoury. Someone speculated that they thought it was a type of rice. We looked it up in whatever scant Indian cook books we could find, but discovered no recipe. It must be important, we reasoned, because Krishna eats it six times a day. We would ask Indian guests who came to the temple, but to no avail. It wasn't until months later, when a devotee coming from India told us: Bhog! Oh, you mean bhoga! That means unoffered food! We were relieved to discover that despite our ignorance, Radha Gopinatha were already regularly receiving ample offerings of bhoga every day!
Reference: The Great Transcendental Adventure by Kurma Dasa
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