In mid of December, my writing retreat at Goloka Dham/Germany was suddenly interrupted when I received the news of my mother being hospitalised with Covid. She had been tested positive at a routine check but did not have any symptoms whatsoever - even though she is almost 92 and not vaccinated! Since her caregivers and home care nurses could not come any longer, they had no other choice but to admit her in a Corona ward in the hospital, where she was extremely unhappy and miserable.
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Shortly after Govardhana Puja, in mid of November, the Corona restrictions became tighter, when I decided to start working on my next book entitled "Family Life as an Ashrama - Secrets of Success". The restricted winter season would be a good time to go in seclusion and embark on a writing retreat..
After spending one week in Cologne temple in Germany, I took a flight to Stockholm/Sweden on the 4th of November to visit our farm community in Almvik, the home of Sri Sri Pancha Tattva
Throughout the month of October I did a 3-week preaching tour around Croatia, visiting several devotee-communities along the coast and inland where I had not been before: Split, Zadar, Osijek, Virovitica and Varazdin. Other well-known places such as Zagreb and Rijeka I also included in my tour. I chose to travel by public bus - a nice way to see the country with its beautiful coastline and islands, and at the same time have the internet to catch up on my correspondence. Traveling inland, high mountains had even received a first layer of snow - as if the demigods had sprinkled some icing sugar around....
For the main Vaishnava festivals of Balarama's appearance, Janmastami, Srila Prabhupada's appearance and Radhastami I visited the main temples in the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I had a great time on this one-month tour, with wonderful Vaishnava festivals, Holy name retreat, seminars and classes, TV interview and interviews with journalists from three popular magazines - all the while distributing lots of copies of my books, including the newly published one entitled "Entering the Grihastha Ashrama".
In mid of August we celebrated a unique wedding at Simhachalam: Tribhanga Prabhu, who is in charge of the agricultural department and Bhaktin Zina were giving their vows in front of Lord Nrsimhadeva, the sacrificial fire and the assembly of the Vaishnavas to serve and support each other in their roles as husband and wife. The celebration was sweet, simple and yet very unique.
During the last six weeks I have been on the road again, using the opportunity to travel and preach while the Corona restrictions are not too tight. I have had a busy and blissful time visiting devotees in different temples in Europe and thus could not find much time to write - it felt so great to be moving again....!
Two days ago, the long-awaited moment came when I received the first box with copies of my new book "Entering the Grihastha Ashrama". At the moment I am in Tallinn/Estonia - the devotees in Ukraine who had arranged for the printing had sent the first box to the Baltics, so I would be able to offer it to the devotees here on my preaching tour.
On the 14th of July I arrived in Vienna to associate with the devotees in their little preaching center in the city. I was invited to conduct three evening programs and the Sunday feast, and I enjoyed meeting well-known faces and connecting with new people who had started to come to the temple since my last visit in autumn 2020.
On 1st of July, two days after returning to Simhachalam, I left for the Czech farm called Krisnuv Dvur - Krishna's Village. A devotee from Czech Republic came to pick me up by car - it is only a three hours' drive.
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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! Archives
November 2021
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