Holy Pilgrimage to Port Said

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Hare KrishnaBy Padmapani Das

We started from Port Said today at about 1 p.m. The Port Said city is nice. It has long narrow neat and clean roads with lofty buildings. The city is not at all congested. While passing the rear point of Suez towards Mediterranean sea, the city is clearly seen. But it is a small city with some industrial factories. Although in the desert in the city all varieties of vegetables available. There is also a Marine drive like Bombay Chowpatty beach. I could see a good park in the city. (Port Said is known as "Egypt's Forgotten Treasure") It's interesting to note that Srila Prabhupada wrote the following in his diary: "The Port Said city is nice. It has long narrow neat and clean roads with lofty buildings. The city is not at all congested. While passing the rear point of Suez towards Mediterranean sea, the city is clearly seen. But it is a small city with some industrial factories. Although in the desert in the city all varieties of vegetables available. There is also a Marine drive like Bombay Chowpatty beach. I could see a good park in the city." Here is some historical information to confirm the words of Krishna's pure devotee: "Port Said was where Western ideas of urban space met the East. Port Said was planned to become a city, laid out on a checkerboard pattern with wide, straight streets intersecting at right angles. Port Said's streets were lit by gaslight in 1876, and by 1891, only nine years after New York, Port Said had electricity. Its rigid geometry was in marked contrast to traditional Middle Eastern cities, with narrow and winding medieval alleys. Egypt's Viceroy Ismail was impressed, and sought to emulate the European model by reconstructing parts of Cairo in belle époque style." Egypt was the first country in which Srila Prabhupada set foot outside of India. He stopped in Port Said on September 2, 1965 and visited the town with the captain of the Jaladuta steamship. Prabhupada said he liked it. As I was based in Cairo from 1978 to 1983, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Port Said in 1979 as a pilgrimage to this historic city. Walking around the docks where the big freighters stopped to gather supplies en route to their worldly destinations provided me with a rare chance to solemnly meditate on Srila Prabhupada's divine mission. Who could imagine the great spiritual significance of such a journey by one lone passenger on an Indian steamship bound for New York? It was the beginning of the worldwide Hare Krishna revolution. While in Port Said I did some research to find out the exact place where Srila Prabhupada and Captain Pandiya would have disembarked in 1965. I took a photo of that place (see below). I've also included some relevant information regarding the spiritual significance of Port Said in Srila Prabhupada's lila. Needless to say, visiting that important city was a milestone in my life and a trip I'll never forget. "To cross the Atlantic Ocean took ten days. This great sea is usually full of storms and fog and is very disturbing. But by the mercy of Krishna, there was no disturbance. The captain of the ship, the main officer, told me, 'This kind of quiet Atlantic I have never seen in my life.' I told them that this is only by Krishna's mercy, nothing else. After the troublesome storm in the Arabian Sea, I knew that if I had had to face a storm like that again, I would die.

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