September 2008
(by Ishani d.d.)

Hare Krishna, dear God brothers and sisters!
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to our beloved spiritual master!

I’d like to make a short review of Guru Maharaja’s trip around Russia. More information will be available later in the “Lava-matra” magazine.

On September, 9 Guru Maharaja came by plane from India to begin his South Russian and Ukrainian tours. The plane arrived at 7 a.m. It was a working day and also the time when everybody goes to work. The main highway and all the bypasses were completely stocked with cars, so instead of usual 30 minutes Guru Maharaja had to go to the apartment for 3.5 hours! You’ve probably heard that there’s no temple in Moscow for the time being. The devotees were given a temporary accommodation. Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja pointed out that this “temporary” accommodation became a “permanent” one, therefore the devotees decided not to wait till the new temple is built and to prepare it for the winter by warming and widening it. Moscow Deities Sri Sri Doyal Nitai Sacisuta moved to a room on the second floor for the period of repair. In the evening, before lecture, Guru Maharaja entered the room to bow down to Their Graces. The lecture was in the pandal. The autumn came, people were wearing windbreakers. Many people came to the lecture. Guru Maharaja wanted to give lecture the next day too. But then as it turned out his plane was departing from Domodedovo, the most far Moscow airport, And we had to get in time through Moscow’s traffic jams. So the lecture was cancelled.  

On September 10 we saw Guru Maharaja off to Volgograd. The plane departed at 2 p.m. Guru Maharaja’s translator, Aniruddha prabhu, and his assistant Acyutagraj prabhu promised to tell us all the details of the trip. I only can enlist the cities which Guru Maharaja visited on September 10 – 17:
September 10 – 11 Guru Maharaja gave whole-day lectures and darsans in Volgograd.
September 12 in the morning he went to Rostov by car.
September 13 he was in Rostov for the whole day.
September 14 in the morning Guru Maharaja went to Novorossiysk by car.
September 15 he spread the mercy in Novorossiysk.
September  16 Guru Maharaja went to Krasnodar by car.

September 16 late at night I landed in Krasnodar. There’s a nice two-floor temple in Krasnodar with beautiful Goura-Nitai and Nrisimhadev.
After morning lecture, having associated with devotees Guru Maharaja went for a walk. Then immediately he went for lunch to a very nice couple which always invites him when he comes to Krasnodar.

Guru Maharaja brought Goura-Nitai dressed in flowery clothes, Giriraja and Krishna and Balarama’s feet to the lecture. After lecture he didn’t leave, ready to give his association to everyone who wanted to speak with him. Besides, Guru Maharaja is a GBC on South Russia, therefore he always meets the temple’s authorities and local GBC to help with managing some organization questions.  

I left the temple at 10 p.m. while Guru Maharaja was still giving darshans…

September 18 early in the morning Maharaja went by car to Maykop. Then he was to go to Kurjinovo, then to Cherkessk and September 19 in the evening he was to give lecture in Essentuki. I don’t know how he managed to visit so many cities in such short period of time. I guess he had to sacrifice his own sleep and rest (as usual) and, maybe, also his daily morning walk in order to lead the aratis, give lecture and associate with the devotees in all these temples. It was impossible for me, so I went straight to Essentuki.

September 19. Essentuki

It was about 8 p.m. the devotees were having kirtan, patiently waiting the spiritual master’s arrival. I’d already written before that although Essentuki’s temple is not located in the city center it is still in a very prestigious district. The temple hasn’t yet been built, so the devotees still meet in a small temple room.
Having bow down to Srila Prabhupada and the Deities, Maharaja went straight to Vyasasana. He apologized for being late, told that he was happy to see everyone and then began to sing Jaya Radha Madhava. The lecture was on the 18th chapter of Bhagavat-gita.

September 20. Essentuki

Guru Maharaja came at 9 a.m. he lead Srila Prabhuapada’s Guru-puja and then we had a long ecstatic kirtan. When Guru Maharaja was told that the devotees hadn’t yet taken prasadam he smiled and said that they had a chance to avoid falling asleep at the lecture.

The shloka was written on the board with the “invisible” pensil. Although it was written in a large print, nevertheless the letters could hardly be seen. Guru Maharaj joked about this. He said that one has to have eagle vision indeed in order to see that properly.

In the evening Guru Maharaj gave one more class, and after that we went to Minvody, as our train to Sochi was supposed to depart from there.

September 21. Sochi

At 7:54 a.m. our train arrived to Sochi. The weather was like in India. The nature somehow resembled to Indian also. Our spiritual brother Drishtadyumna prabhu drove Guru Maharaj to a comfortable two-storied house. There was a beautiful four-storied house nearby in the yard, in which the owners of these two buildings lived – Drishtadyumna prabhu and mataji Svetlana, our wonderful spiritual sister, she cooked different delicacies for Guru Maharaj every day.

At 16 p.m. Guru Maharaj arrived to the temple to lead Sunday Program. In Sochi there are few roads, and all of them are very intricate. Such an impression is gained as if two or three roads have contrived to twine the whole city. The roads are twisting and because of hilly relief they constantly go up and down. The traffic has only one stripe to each way, that is why once you get into the traffic jam, it takes too much time to get to destination. Good for us it was a weekend. There were few cars and it took us 20 minutes to get to the temple. By the way the temple is situated at the opposite side of city from the place where Guru Maharaj put up at.

Maharaj gave the class, and after that sang kirtan. After kirtan he offered to sing Gaura-arati, and then one more small kirtan. By that time devotees haven’t taken prasadam yet. Gurudev said that by the end of kirtan the appetite would rise and the devotees would have chance to enjoy prasadam in full. Maharaj said it with such a charming smile, that even those the most hungry forgot about food. Because kirtan in a company of a saint person is much sweeter! Guru Maharaj knows how to inspire the devotees.

After kirtan Guru Maharaj came up to the first floor to the room for darshans, being waited by those who wanted to get his association. The rest remained in the altar room in anticipation for prasadam.

September 22. Sochi

Our spiritual brother Lakshmivan prabhu has arrived, this time he drove Guru Maharaj over the South Russia. We hurried to the temple, people hurried to work. The traffic jam appeared on the narrow road, coming down from the hill. All the cars just stopped. No one wanted to give way. No one wanted to retreat. It seemed that there was no way out except for jumping out to the opposite direction side, roughly violating the rules by that. No one wanted to loose the driving license, that’s why everyone just humbly waited. But our courageous Lakshmivan decided whatever happened to bring his Spiritual Master to the temple in time. He rushed to the opposite direction side, turned around as if he prepared to go opposite direction from the traffic jam, but he didn’t go that way… His car started to do backward motion, sliding downhill  by that! Guru Maharaj was surprised and amazed by such unexpected change of events. He laughed so much!
We went backwards up to the crossroads leaving behind so many cars waiting in the traffic jam… Before the lecture Guru Maharaj told the story how we economized on time due to skilful and clever tricks of Lakshmivan. The lecture was on Shrimad Bhagavatam 7.15.25. There was also Bhagavat-Gita class in the evening.

September 23. Sochi

The altar room was much less packed with devotees. Many of them either left to the festival or were going to leave after lunch. There was no necessity to give evening class. Guru Maharaj gave Bhagavatam class, had some association with devotees and went for a walk…

Everyone knows that preaching for Guru Maharaj is his life and soul. That’s why Drishtadyumna prabhu and mataji Svetlana decided to give pleasure to their Spiritual Master and to organize mini-lecture in their house. They invited their friends: the wife of ex-mayor of the city, famous sculptor, who’s name I ashamed to forget, one of the richest people in Sochi and many other big persons. There was about twenty people altogether. Guru Maharaj gave a short lecture, in which he stated the essence of our philosophy, told about the purpose of human life, about the miseries of this world and the importance of commitment to God. Gurudev decided to reserve more time for questions. And there really were many questions, and Guru Maharaj noted that all of them were reasonable. It seemed that the audience was quite prepared by the efforts of  Drishtadyumna prabhu and mataji Svetlana. People listened carefully and with great interest. Then Guru Maharaj offered to do one “yogi exercise”. He took his beads and told what they were needed for, shortly explained the meaning of Maha-Mantra and all the present started to do this “yogi exercise”. It was pleasant to observe how people chant djapa. Then Gurudev asked everyone to chant Maha-Mantra alone. Everyone pronounced Holy Names with readiness.

Some of the guests charmed by  erudition, wisdom and at the same time simplicity of communication with Guru Maharaj came up to him after the lecture desiring to associate with such an unordinary and wonderful personality.

After the association the guests went downstairs to the room where prasadam waited for them. Guru Maharaj came in when the entertainment was in full swing. The candles in beautiful candlesticks were burning in semi-darkness, tuneful music was playing. Svetlana stood at the bar counter and distributed beautiful tall glasses with something attractively white looking like ice-cream decorated with strawberries. Her daughter Anuradha d.d., disciple of Guru Maharaj, poured out hot tea, and cold drinks for those wishing to cool down after heated emotions appeared as a result of such an unordinary meeting. In the middle of the room there was a table full of sweets. Nearby there was something like a little shop with glass windows through which Indian decorations, different attractive things, beautiful Indian clothes and of course Shrila Prabhupad’s books could be seen. All present discussed actively the information they had rceived at the lecture. Guru Maharaj was pleased with what was going on. That evening was a success.

September 24. Krinitsa

Probably many of you heard about the famous Autumn festival “Sadhu-Sanga”, which took place for a long time in Divnomorsk, then in Anapa, and for the third year takes place in Krinitsa. All the mentioned places are situated at the seaside, that’s why the devotees can plunge here not only into the waves of nectar of the Holy Names, but also to dip into the warm waves of the famous Black Sea.

Every year 4-5 thousand of sincere souls gather together willing to attend lectures of spiritual masters and senior devotees, who come here to inspire other devotees to serve Krishna. Our Guru Maharaj also tries to find the opportunity to come to this festival and comes with pleasure. This year the following senior devotees arrived to share theirs accosiation: H.H. Djayapataka Swami, H.H. Indradyumna Swami, H.H. Bhactiwaibhava Swami, H.H. Prabhavishnu Swami, H.H. Bhakti Chaitanya Swami, H.H. Lokanath Swami, H.H. Bhakti Bringa Gowinda Swami, H.H. Shachinandana swami, H.H. Bhaktivigyana Goswami, Shriman Rohinisuta Prabhu, H.M. Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, H.M. Drutakarma Prabhu and others.

Today it was the opening day of this grandiose Festival. Almost all abovementioned Vaishnavas gathered on the stage in order to express the warm words of greeting and thankfulness to thousands of devotees who arrived from all over the CIS in order to get nectar association, to become absorbed in Krishna-katha and as our Guru Maharaj said to get charged by the spiritual power and determination.

September 25. Krinitsa

Each day of the festival was dedicated to something or to someone. For example, the first day of the festival was dedicated to Shrila Prabhupada, that’s why all the lecturers spoke about Shrila Prabhupada at their seminars the whole day started from Shrimad Bhagavatam in the morning. Guru Maharaj who was supposed  to give seminar on “Chaitanya Charitamrita” and “Chaitanya Bhagavata” almost all the time spoke about his Spiritual Master.

Sea wind kept on making a big noise blowing out the material of pandal, and distracting from the lecture. Gurudev said that things were even worse at the stage – the noise resembled the bomb explosion over his head every second. However it was the only place which could accommodate a big quantity of people daily coming to the seminars of Guru Maharaj. There also was a small pandal, in which Guru Maharaj once gave darshan for his disciples.

September 26. This day was dedicated to the Holy Name. That day Guru Maharaj told about the importance of attentive chanting of the Holy name without aparathas.

September 27 was dedicated to sankirtana. After the seminar at 18:30 Guru Maharaj gave one more seminar dedicated to book distribution, where he spoke about sankirtana as the best service, about the importance of book distribution and also touched upon the topic “The weekend warrior”. At 20:00 the ceremony of granting awards to all the veterans of sankirtana started – to the devotees who heroically go out to distribute books of Shrila Prbhupada every day. Guru Maharaj asked all sannyasi to come on the stage so that they also could give their blessings to the best sankirtan warriors.

September 28. The topic of the day was “The impact of vaishnavas to the society”. Guru Maharaj touched upon this topic in his seminar.

I think that there is no much sense to retell the seminar. We will place all the lectures on the website so that you could enjoy this nectar in full. Now you can see the photos of all  the cities Guru Maharaj has visited during this short period of time. Right here you can see the photos which Anirudha prabhu has just sent: http://foto.mail.ru/mail/aniruddha_gkg/7512
And also on the site www.gkg.ru.

September 29. Guru Maharaj gave initiations. 59 devotees passed through the ceremony, 12 of them got brahmanic initiation.

September 30. There was a closing ceremony.

October 1. All the devotees left to their homes after breakfast. The sanatorium became deserted. Only GBC members left for two more days in order to discuss some of the ISKCON questions.

Guru Maharaj returned to Moscow on the 2nd of October at 7 p.m. The next  day he left to Kiev by plane in order to continue his preaching over the Ukraine.

To be continued…