It was the first time that I visited this community as a preacher - I was always desiring to get the association of these wonderful devotees, but somehow it never happened. Finally the opportunity came about, and I was well taken care of, with my visit being exceptionally well coordinated.
My visit to Radha Gopinath Mandir in Chowpatty/Mumbai was truly a highlight on my preaching tour around India....
It was the first time that I visited this community as a preacher - I was always desiring to get the association of these wonderful devotees, but somehow it never happened. Finally the opportunity came about, and I was well taken care of, with my visit being exceptionally well coordinated.
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I reached India on the 29th of September. My first destination was Bangalore which is located on a plateau in South India - 900 meters above sea level; thus it has a very nice climate and is moderate even during the hot time of the year, with around 30 degrees during the day, always a fresh breeze blowing and cool at night.
When I hope to retire in Mayapur one day, I may come here during the hot season and spend time preaching in the different devotee communities. No need for me to leave India to go to a cooler place...! I chose to spend Radhastami in Zurich/Switzerland - one of the most dynamic communities in Western Europe. On Sundays they have two programs - for the Indian community in the late morning, and for the locals in the afternoon. In this way, the local people don't feel intimidated by big Indian crowds, and the Tamil community members hear the lecture in their language and happily enjoy their spicy Tamil prasadam thereafter....! A win-win situation!
I had decided to spend this year's Janmastami and Srila Prabhupada's appearance on Krisnuv Dvur - the Czech farm outside Prague - and offer some programs in the city itself on the weekends before and after these Vaishnava festival days.
For many years I desired to visit New Mayapur in France, an historic early 20th century chateau. Over the years, I heard so many glorious things about the wonderful festival they observe for Balarama's appearance. Srila Prabhupada installed beautiful, big marble Krishna-Balarama Deities there in 1975 - the first Krishna-Balarama Deities ever installed in the Western world. Furthermore, Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and Sri Sri Radha-Govinda-Madhava are mercifully accepting our service. Srila Prabhupada visited here twice, in 1975 and 1976, and his quarters are being maintained as a museum - a peaceful place to chant japa.
It was my first visit to France as a preacher. In my youth I regularly visited France on a student exchange program and explored all the famous landmarks of Paris. In those days I could quite fluently speak French - now, fifty years later it was rather rusty...
After visiting the temple in Wroclaw/Poland over 5 days and conducting a number of enlivening programs - some house programs, a Holy Name Day on Saturday and the Sunday program - I traveled by train to New Shantipur, a nice rural project
To create a culture of bhakti in our home is a challenge! This book gives insights and guidelines related to very practical aspects of life - how to adjust and transform our family life so it is an ashram, a suitable place to facilitate our spiritual growth and development.
It was my first visit to Poland as a preacher. I remember dropping into the temple in Warsaw around thirty years ago when traveling with my former husband from Riga to Germany to visit my parents. In those days the temple room was in an old building - meanwhile beautiful Gaur Nitai moved to a new temple building with a good size temple room. The property has a nice vegetable- and flower garden with fruit trees and bushes. There are only a handful of devotees living in the temple, with some of them being from Ukraine. But there is a good size congregation with local Polish devotees and also Indian and Russian speaking devotees.
Shortly after returning to Europe from the US, I flew to Vilnius in Lithuania to attend the Baltic Summer Festival which is always a nectarean event. This year it was graced by the presence of HH Bhakti Caitanya Swami, HH Dhira Shanta Gosvami, HH Ananda Vardhana Swami, Madhavananda and his wife and Narayani Mataji as main guest speakers, and Agnidev, Sistakrit and Ojasvi Prabhus as main kirtaneers. Over 6 days more than 700 devotees attended, swimming in the nectarean ocean of bliss while absorbing themselves in various kathas during the day and diving into blissful kirtans in the evenings.
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Devaki Devi Dasi's Traveling DiaryDevaki Devi Dasi is sharing her realizations and adventures in her Traveling Diary. Welcome to relish this nectar! |