The gigantic Bhakti Sangam Festival is always the final highlight of my time in Ukraine. On the 29th of August I flew together with Bhakti Purusottama Swami from Kharkov to Lvov via Kiev, where we had a stop-over of seven hours. The devotees had prepared a lunch for Maharaja to take along, but since it was not so well packaged, the dhal went all over the place and made a big mess, which kept us busy washing all the containers and bags....
On my arrival in Kharkov/Ukraine on the 27th of July I was looking forward to stay here for one month. I had been on a busy traveling schedule, and Kharkov is one of those yatras where I like to stay longer and try to give inspiration and visions for the further development of the community.
On our arrival in Almvik/Sweden I was immediately busy looking into various aspects of our upcoming Scandinavian Bhakti Sangam Festival. As in previous years I was playing the role of the overall supervising and hosting mother of the event, coordinating things in cooperation with Paramesvari Mataji and others.
Sunday the 17th of July was the day of arrival, followed by five seminar days with kirtan in the evenings, and the Saturday being a 12-hour kirtan day. On Sunday the 24th we had our usual massive harinam in the old part of Stockholm, concluding the event by taking the holy name into the streets, after nourishing and recharging our internal life.
Sunday the 17th of July was the day of arrival, followed by five seminar days with kirtan in the evenings, and the Saturday being a 12-hour kirtan day. On Sunday the 24th we had our usual massive harinam in the old part of Stockholm, concluding the event by taking the holy name into the streets, after nourishing and recharging our internal life.
On our arrival in Kishiniev/Moldova on the 27th of June we were settling into a comfortable and spacious flat - our home for the next two weeks.
After an entire day of traveling we arrived late in the evening in Odessa. The devotees eagerly received us and took us to Bhaktin Linda's home, where we stayed for the next five days.
Her little house is not far away from the temple, in a quiet and peaceful residential area. Her husband was away on his job in Kiev, so we had plenty of space. A naturally kept garden surrounds her house and has a big pond which is inhabited by lots of frogs. Upon our arrival we were welcomed by a huge frogs' kirtan, which continued throughout the entire night. Fortunately my room was facing to the back of the house, so I was not disturbed by the noise.
Her little house is not far away from the temple, in a quiet and peaceful residential area. Her husband was away on his job in Kiev, so we had plenty of space. A naturally kept garden surrounds her house and has a big pond which is inhabited by lots of frogs. Upon our arrival we were welcomed by a huge frogs' kirtan, which continued throughout the entire night. Fortunately my room was facing to the back of the house, so I was not disturbed by the noise.
On my arrival in Zuerich on the 14th of June I needed a few days to adjust again to the European time zone and climate. And it was rather cold here for this time of the year. Rasarani Mataji had arrived from her trip to the Canarian Islands, and from here we would once again continue our journey together.
Hayagriva Prabhu, a young brahmacari from Montreal had attended our Holy Name Retreat in Ekachakra two years ago, and it had been a life-changing experience for him, deeply impacting his spiritual practice. Thereafter he had traveled around Canada sharing different principles of the discussed topics with devotees here and there, and he had requested me to come to Canada to offer a Holy Name Retreat. And when he heard that I was scheduled to give courses in Montreal and Toronto he immediately took up the mission of arranging for a retreat and invited the devotees from all the surrounding yatras to come together to deepen their relationship with the holy name.
The train ride from Montreal to Toronto was very comfortable and gave me an opportunity to get some idea what the country of Canada looks like. It somewhat reminded me of a blend between Norway and Australia.......
It has the vegetation and climate of Norway - thick forests, short summers and cold winters, and lots of wild nature. And it has the empty space of Australia. And even the trucks and also the country towns look just like the Australian one's.
It has the vegetation and climate of Norway - thick forests, short summers and cold winters, and lots of wild nature. And it has the empty space of Australia. And even the trucks and also the country towns look just like the Australian one's.
On my arrival in Montreal Airport I was curious to experiment by showing my old and damaged passport at the immigration. And surely enough, the lady at the passport control immediately noticed the defect and commented somewhat jokingly: "So you tried to fix up your passport a little, did you?" She was visibly relieved when I pulled out my new one and explained the situation. Upon my question whether it would have caused me a problem if I didn't have the new passport, she confirmed: "Yes, we would have had to take you aside and talk to you...."
I was glad that Krsna had made me go through the ordeal of getting a new passport in Moscow, so I could now enter Canada without facing any problems. Just see - Krsna arranges everything perfectly....
I was glad that Krsna had made me go through the ordeal of getting a new passport in Moscow, so I could now enter Canada without facing any problems. Just see - Krsna arranges everything perfectly....
On the 18th of May I flew from Simferopol to Moscow, with an onward flight to Munich/Germany to attend Nrsimha Caturdasi in Simhachalam. When going through the passport control in Moscow the immigration officers stopped me. My passport had been slightly damaged on the way into Russia, and now they did not allow me to leave the country with this damaged passport, claiming that it was invalid. They even accused me of having put in the front page myself with sticky tape. It did indeed look like this - to a person who does not know how German passports are made. The first and laminated page could look indeed like it was inserted with sticky tape, especially when it is a little damaged on the top end.
No matter how hard I tried to explain them the situation, that the passport was damaged by their collegues when entering the country - they were stubborn and insisted to keep me in the country, not allowing me to board my flight to Munich. Russian bureaucracy! I tried everything - emphatically telling that I had an extremely important conference (on Lord Nrsimhadeva's appearance) to attend, which I couldn't possibly miss. But they were unfazed by my dramatic performance and arranged for an airline officer to deliver the bad news to me - that I would have to miss my flight.
No matter how hard I tried to explain them the situation, that the passport was damaged by their collegues when entering the country - they were stubborn and insisted to keep me in the country, not allowing me to board my flight to Munich. Russian bureaucracy! I tried everything - emphatically telling that I had an extremely important conference (on Lord Nrsimhadeva's appearance) to attend, which I couldn't possibly miss. But they were unfazed by my dramatic performance and arranged for an airline officer to deliver the bad news to me - that I would have to miss my flight.
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