Unfortunately it had to be canceled last year due to the political situation of war raging in Eastern Ukraine. And as the saying goes: absence makes the heart grow fonder - by missing it one year, we all realized even more how dear and meaningful this event had become to us.
"Only" seven thousand devotees assembled - on previous festivals we had twelve thousand people coming together to be part of this gigantic transcendental mela. The heavy economic crisis which had been shaking the country since the war had broken out made it for many devotees very difficult to find the money to travel all the way across Ukraine to the festival site. And for Russian devotees it had become almost impossible to enter Ukraine - only by invitation of a family member.
Thus it felt like great victory to once again have the festival take place - despite all odds. The devotees had worked very hard for this. It had not been easy to relocate the event by finding a suitable site where to hold it. It required a lot of accomodation for so many devotees, nice VIP facilities and an area where a gigantic tent could be put up - for the morning program and the evening kirtans. Also it required around six suitable venues and halls for all the parallel seminars to take place. Only well established holiday areas and resorts could offer such possibilities. And the devotees had done some extensive research and had finally found such a place - hidden away in the forest, and situated on the banks of a big lake....
I had flown from Frankfurt to Lvov on the 24th of August, arriving late in the evening. On the next day the devotees drove us to the festival site - on very bad and narrow roads, through deserted forests and fields. At some stage I was truly wondering where the hell we were going, and whether we would ever arrive at the right place! The navigator seemed to take us in circles, and the roads were so deserted that we didn't even meet a single car for a long time. It was almost a bit creepy, and the driver himself seemed to be rather lost. But finally we got to a main road which took us there....
I was nicely accomodated in a three-room flat in one of those new wooden block houses of a holiday resort, and I shared the flat with Nagapatni Mataji who is a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and comes every single year, all the way from the States to attend the festival, and Bhakti Mataji from Hungary who was accompanying Sivarama Swami to distribute his books here at this joyful event. So I had the best company...!
Also my well-wisher HH Badrinarayan Maharaja had come to attend the festival for the very first time, and he visibly enjoyed his stay....
The serving out was also well arranged, with a whole army of young fellows running back and forth, filling up the buckets again and again with prasadam....
The spirit of selfless service is such a strong element in this entire Bhakti Sangam Festival - the hidden secret of success....! The mood of the spiritual world: how can I serve, contribute, donate, be part of it all....?!
Just before my departure to the airport I had a meeting with my Guru Maharaja, HH Niranjana Swami. I gave a brief up-date on various developments and plans, seeking blessings and confirmations that I was heading in the right direction.
On the 31st of August I flew to Kharkov in the East of Ukraine, together with Hari Sauri Prabhu.....
Your servant, Devaki dd