Diary of a Traveling Monk in Africa

By the mercy of Guru and Gauranga,we traveled in Malawi
and east Africa for almost two months. Since that time I have
witnessed the amazing mercy of Srila Prabhupada, and the immense
blessings of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. I had come to be with Murari prabhu,
a disciple of His Holiness, Bhakti Vikas Swami Maharaj. Murari has
been has been here since April last year. Since that time, he has
been sincerely following the orders of his Guru Mahara, who instructed
him to come to preach in Malawi. Murari is from Tanzania, and lived in
India for four years on a sankirtan party travelling around south
India. It was while in India that his Guru Maharaj instructed him to
come back and push on Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON movement in East
Africa. He stayed in Dar Es Salaam and thereafter, came down to Malwi
- first to Lilongwe, then finally to Blantyre. He is doing very nice
cultivation, book distribution and regular programs. Since he has come
to Blantyre, Srila Prabhupada's mercy has been manifesting in so many
ways. Many locals have been assisting him, not only that but he is
having nice programs with the local Africans of Blantyre - the main
focus of his preaching. One very nice well wisher, has come forward,
and has offered to build him a small centre, that will have all the
facilities for his preaching. Since Murari has come to Malawi, he has
been mostly managing by himself. His plan is to gradually find some
locals who can assist him. Murari's wonderful quality as a devotee, is
that he is sincerely following the instruction of his Guru Mahaharaj.
Although Malawi, is one of the most poorest countries in the world,
the people of Malawi have cheerful personalities, always smiling and
have a wonderful culture of respect. When when people take Srila
Prabhupada's books from us, they do so with eagerness and ask very
nice questions. Whenever we are walking in the street, we here many
people calling out to us; "Hare Krsna." When we ask them to chant Hare
Krsna, they do so spontaneously, smile and become very joyful. This
shows that they are a very pious people.

After a week, here in Blantyre, we travelled to Nairobi, to attend the
annual Ratha Yatra on the 19th of June. We stayed in Nairobi for a few
days before the Ratha Yatra, after which we travelled back to Dar Es
Salaam along the coast. We were asked by the devotees in Dar Es Salaam
to please come and stay for some time. We stayed for about a week, did
some book distribution, and did some programs at devotees houses. We
were very fortunate, that Prakash prabhu, who is in the construction
bussiness and owner of some flats in Blantyre, took very nice care of
us, allowing us to use a flat he keeps when he has guests While in Dar
Es Salaam, we took the ferry for the day to the island of Zanzibar.
Prakash prabhu arranged that we we would be met by a friend of his
when we arrived, two hour journey from the mainland of Dar Es Salaam.

After we passed through entry point of the island, we walked to the
local hindu mandir, a nine minute walk, along quaint alleys, in an
atmosphere as though we had gone back into time. On arrival at the
temple, we paid our humble obeisances to Radha and Krsna, and had our
breakfast prasaadam. As the island is almost ninety percent Muslim,
most of those that we distributed books to were Muslim. I remember a
bookshop with a man at the counter who was reading. I showed him the
books and told me that he would very much like to take one and gave me
a nice donation. Just then a friend of his came in and I introduced
myself to him. As I walked out of the shop, he came up to me, and
told me, that the holiest of books is the Koran. I thought he was not
pleased that I had given the book to his friend, but he had just come
to politely tell me about the glories of the holy Koran. I thanked
him, and replied to him: "Peace be on prophet Mohammed and his holy
name - he thanked and said goodbye to me. We left for Dar Es Salaam
later in the afternoon - knowing that the distribution of Srila
Prabhupada's books had been a sucsess, many Muslims had taken his
books and had received his mercy!

We left Dar Es Salaam two weeks ago, and had a two day hellish bus
ride back to Malawi. On arriving in Lilongwe, we stayed at a well
wisher's house there and returned back to Blantyre. By the mercy of
Guru and Gauranga, a well wisher here in Blantyre has got me a flight
back to Johannesburg!

I am indeed most fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel on this glorious
sankirtan safari, and to be in the wonderful association of Murari
prabhu, and to know that so many special souls received Srila
Prabhupada's mercy and the blessings of Sri Sri Gaur Nitai. There is
so much preaching and book distribution that needs to be urgently done
here in Southern and East Africa - it is our prayer to Sri Sri Gaur
Nitai, that they will send us some nice preachers in Africa, to share
the mercy and good fortune that Srila Prabhupada has kindly bestowed
upon us, to the people and nation of Africa, so that they may claim
the rightful inheritance from Krsna who is there father. Srila
Prabhupada ki jay!