SOULS ON FIRE #122 | Easter Kirtan Camp 2023

On Friday, Isvari and I woke up early at 4:30 am to get ready for our trip to Hawkes Bay for the Nurturing Soul retreat to do kirtan. We left at 5:35 am, but little did we know that Krishna had arranged for us to take a different route than usual. As we were driving through Orewa, I called Vadim, and coincidentally, I saw him on his morning run. I offered him some bliss balls and invited him to join us on our trip to kirtan camp. Without much deliberation, Vadim agreed, and we went back to his place to pick up his stuff before hitting the road.

Later, Sitapati asked me to call Rawiri, and I realized that I had forgotten to invite him. I called him immediately, and he was grateful for the invitation but hesitated because of his bad knee. I assured him that I would take care of him and asked him to join us. He agreed, and we went to pick him up. Next, we picked up Joy, who had prepared a whole feast for us. We had our lunch stop at her place in Hamilton before continuing our journey to Nurturing Soul in Hawkes Bay. We arrived at 10 am, exchanged hugs and haribols with the devotees and guests, and took rest.

The next day, we had an opening circle at the retreat where everyone shared their name and what they hoped to get out of the weekend. We formed our groups, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Bhakta Peter, a 12-year-old who came to bhakti through Profest with his mom Hannah. He shared that he had chanted 16 rounds for the first time and had been following the four regulative principles nicely. He chants between 1 and 4 rounds daily and reports in our japa integrity group on Signal.

Last time we had met, I had challenged Bhakta Peter to learn a sloka so he could answer anyone who asked him why he chants Hare Kṛṣṇa. To my delight, he fulfilled the challenge and was now learning an analogy to further clarify the purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

During the retreat, Bhakta Rawiri taught me how to play the Prabhupada melody on bass guitar. The atmosphere at the retreat was ecstatic, with kirtan going on throughout the day, and I felt a sense of relaxation and peace in the company of like-minded vaisnavas.