Radio Lotus Interview

Not everything is black and white

After breakfast, Goswami Maharaj and I leave the Prema Shanti Ashram to spend our last night in Durban at the home of Shyamali Devi Dasi and her brother, Ramanath Prabhu and his wife Indumukha Devi Dasi. Shyamali Devi Dasi was the third South African to take initiation from Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

In the afternoon, Goswami Maharaj and I are driven to the South African Broadcasting Corporation offices near the beachfront for an interview with Radio Lotus. This is our second radio interview in South Africa. The interview was arranged by Gopinath Prabhu and his wife, Rama Mohini Devi Dasi.

Radio Lotus (motto: "Not everything is black and white") is a commercial, national FM radio station with an average daily adult audience of 250,000 listeners, mostly "South African citizens of Indian descent."

The interview is, um, shall we say, lively. Apparently, a major contention amongst Indians these days is the active recruitment and conversion of Hindus by the Christian churches. Goswami Maharaj jumps in with both fists flailing, as it were, assailing the so-called Hindus for abandoning the wealth of their Vedic culture for a more tolerant, permissive religion that allows them to do anything and everything without the consequences of karma or a sense of guilt.

If this were a call-in program, the switchboard would have been jammed. Good stuff!