Movable Kitchens, Puri, Odissa, India
November 12th, 2018
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Today I am in Puri, in the Indian state of Orissa on “yatra” (pilgrimage) with a group of 6,000 other pilgrims from India and around the world.
This is the place of Lord Caitanya, Sri Krsna, coming in the mood of a devotee, the founder of the Sankirtan movement, which sparked the Bhakti renaissance in sixteenth century India.
Sri Caitanya appeared in Mayapur, Navadwip, West Bengal, but after his renunciation called “sannyas”, he moved here to Jagannath Puri.
[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]When he came to Puri he began to fully exhibit His ecstasy as Krsna in the mood of Sri Radha, His divine feminine counterpart.[/perfectpullquote]
Yesterday, these pilgrims cooked 2600 preparations of food to be offered to Krsna in devotion. The occasion was the Disappearance Day of our guru, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Yesterday was the 41st anniversary of the day he left this world, to return to the spiritual world from the holy Sri Vrndavan Dham.
These devoted pilgrims have devised a most amazing moveable kitchen that transports a daily feast to wherever this yatra takes place each year in different holy places of India. Ten people could stand in each one of the cooking pots. They have railroad style tracks for moving the pots from the cooking area to the serving area.
[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]When the British came to India they couldn’t understand why these bhaktas are always in the kitchen. They dubbed it, the “Kitchen Religion”. It was inscrutable to them, but it’s all about pleasing the senses of the Supreme Lord of the senses, a personal way of loving and serving God, or Sri Krsna.[/perfectpullquote]
This amazing movable kitchen was featured on the National Geographic Channel called ISKCON’s Mega Kitchens. You can watch the show by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5exabSuKhQ&fbclid=IwAR2ozF8K--4lWxIZafD2fYmXzMN3b7P0UPSsBAy2ZaHKkiuPQm-0i-TSDb4
Incredible India!
All the best,
Rukmini Walker