Page 33 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

Village Life in Bangladesh

A Personal Recollection

Bhakti Vikāsa Swami shares his memories of rural Bangladesh.
He describes a way of life close to the original Vedic culture.
This sublime culture, being inherently religious and in harmony
with nature, helps the villagers to live happily despite their
many hardships.

Prologue

I first went to Bangladesh in 1979 as a member of the
ISKCON worldwide preaching mission. I stayed there, at
first continuously and then intermittently, for about seven
years and traveled extensively throughout the country.
While preaching there I endured physical hardships and
repeated sickness. But even more difficult for me was
adjusting to a culture quite different to that in which I
was raised.

My British forefathers had sailed forth to India to “civilize”
the natives and bathe them in the blood of Jesus. The
British conquered, ruled, and ultimately retreated. And
now I was coming, having been conquered by Indian
culture — specifically Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, the religion

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