Gītā Jayanti Comemoration in Sanskrit Class in Wat Bo

Hare Krishna
We drove motorbike from Yashodapura Ashram to Wat Bo Pagoda on the evening of Friday, December 1st,2017. It was about 5.30 pm. After entering pagoda, we searched for park. There are a lot of student there, because it is actually a learning center. We had appointment with Ms.Chhom Kunthea , we called her Kunthea Mataji, one of foremost Sanskrit scholar in Cambodia. We had agreed that on that that we would like to gather in her class, conducted in Wat Bo Library. Also that time we have one devotee guest from New Zealand, Rupa Manjari Prabhu, he also went there with us. We asked him to be the main speaker that time. Also present, one our short volunteer from Portugal, Ms Claudia Gonsalves,who is also providing all pictures in this short news.

Write mantras in white board

Kunthea mataji arrived then meet us in the parking area then show us the place, located in the second floor of Sala Phutika(Buddhist School) of the pagoda. There was three student monks there, the librarian, and some other students from Siem reap. After very body nicely seated, then Kunthea Mataji introduce us to everybody present. She asked me to write something in the white board. I wrote “Oṁ Namo Bhāgavate Vāsudevāya”, “Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahamantra”, and “Gītā Jayanti”in Devanagari script.

Introduce what is Gītā Jayanti

She then asked one of her student to write the mantra in Khmer Script. Then i just shortly explain about Gītā Jayanti in English, Kunthea Mataji translated in Khmer language. Also i introduce Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is, International Society for Kṛṣṁa Conciousness and HDG A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupada,

HG Rūpa Manjari Prabhu give the speech on Bhagavad-Gītā to all present.

Then we requested Rupa Manjari Prabhu to give overview of Bhagavad-Gītā. He He explained it nicely about it. Everybody was very focus on listening to his speech. After sometime he also explained about five kinds of our relationship with the Supreme i.e. santa rasa, dasya rasa, sakhya rasa, vatsalya rasa, and madhurya rasa. It seems very new thing to them, but anyhow finally come to conclusion about the importance of Hare Krishna Mahamantra.

Then later on there was a question from one student monk. He asked whether the word yoga and meditation is the same. I answered the question by mentioning that yoga means connecting ourself with the Supreme. I added that in modern days the word yoga is just simply gymnastic exercise, still very far compared to ancient dhyana yoga explained by Lord Krishnam where the Lord describe nicely about one who wanna practice dhyana yoga should go to secluded place, situated in holy place, put on kusa grass and deer skin etc. Also i added about the supremacy of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahamantra as the only way to achieve success in spiritual life in this modern age of kali Yuga.

After that Rupa Manjari Prabhu sing very nice melody of Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahamantra, everybody lhappily listening to him. And after sometime we also play karatal. After that we give out our leaflet and contact to everybody present. KLunthea Mataji then ask everybody together read Mahamantra loudly for several times. We thank everybody and the program conclude. Hare Krishna
The following are photos of the events.
For the Video please click this links:
Part 1
Part 2