Meeting “Anthony G”, a Gaura Purnima gift.
Gadidas, April, 2016: This year, in consideration of the appearance of Lord Caitanya, we took Harinam prabhu to the park….Centenial Park… Nashville, Tn… we rented a pavilion and set up camp. The day was pristine, and we began kirtan… brought a ton of prasad, and a stack of books… We had kirtan, and about an hour or so into the effort, “Anthony G. “ rolls up on his electric cart for the disabled. Inspired by the loud kirtan Anthony G started to get animated…and suddenly got down from his assisted transport on the ground and started crawling toward the center of the kirtan…more specifically toward the girls…we felt caution…and suddenly he was lying like dandavats, and started break dancing. The kirtan moved louder and stronger watching Anthony G. do his part for the pleasure of Harinam prabhu….
He turned and indicated he wanted to get up, seeing he needed help, some devotees helped him up and back over to his mobility chair. The kirtan accelerated from all of this and we started going in a circle around a stone pillar….suddenly Anthony G gets up and starts dancing and chanting around with us, as if he had no disability… raising his arms in the air and chanting. The kirtan accelerated again, as observers watched for the next transformation. This went on for some time, and finally Anthony G returned to his chair, and kept chanting. In the meantime. He leaned over and asked who was that person in the picure…(we had a small sacred area made with pictures of Prabhupada and Panchtatva… A young Indian man told Anthony that his name was Prabhupada…and out of nowhere, Anthony raised his arms and started chanting “Prabhupada,Prabhupada, Prabhupada….well we were all astonished and the kirtan just went off the chart… and mind you, we had not chanted “Prabhupada” not even once so far… he just did that out of some inspiration from within the heart.
After an hour or so we concluded the kirtan and began reading some beautiful pastimes of Lord Caitanya from Chaitanya Bhagavat. Somewhere along the way Anthony G asked me if I would read some poetry of his…of course I agreed and found the poem he chose to be one of surrender to God… God being his only source of strength and inspiration, of complete dependence , etc… it was a fitting end to our day, and a great memory. Anthony G we will never forget. There are so many adventures awaiting out there, just waiting for the HariNam Sankirtan party to arrive and stimulate the heart.
Although most of our regulars did not make it to Centenial park, we were thinking of them, and wishing they hadn’t missed this HariNam Sankirtana adventure. Sorry, no pictures…
Hoping all is well inside and out…your servant because of his mercy, ..Gadidas