By Daiva dasa
Our Hawaii yatra was blessed to welcome and help facilitate the Om Sri Surabhi Campaign 'Chant & Plant' Island Tour led by His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami. This is his second visit on behalf of this 12 year global campaign to promote deeper appreciation for Mother Surabhi & Mother Bhumi and further stimulate the growing interest in actually creating Vedic villages that are connected to the city temples. He was accompanied by campaign Continental coordinators Sri Krsna Purusottama and his brother, Sri Rama and took place from October 15-20. The tour's theme, a slogan used by Bhakti Raghava Swami, 'Chant and Plant', was the continuous underlying message that deeply resonated with our island devotees. And rightly so, since in the very early days of Hawaii preaching, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada instructed the local devotees that 'preaching in Hawaii means farming'. This is a fact which makes total sense to those who understand the essence of the rich land-based traditional Hawaiian culture deeply rooted in care for all of nature's sacred resources and its dependence on Akua (God).