namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

by Vijay Venugopal dasa and Prema Padmini dd

Saturday, 22 September 2007

The vyasa-puja of HH Prabhavisnu Maharaja was observed in the morning and Aditi Dukhaha Prabhu sang his intense kirtanas. Back at the room we found the GSM had no more memory space for taking pictures; we had to transfer them to portable USB memory via Bluetooth and delete them from the mobile phone. Using a devotee's laptop, struggling with the settings, we finally succeeded. Lunch was brought to our room by eager devotees, and we went to conduct a seminar, 'Happy Vaishnava Life,' at 5 pm.

We used the material prepared earlier for our 'Grihasta Life' seminar to brainstorm on 'Features and Difficulties,' and how to overcome them. Over three-hundred devotees attended, listening attentively for two hours, asking many questions. Then we had meetings with devotees, including a mother who's son was said to be possessed by evil spirits, causing him to suddenly display great anger. He was quite normal otherwise, and we suggested that intense and prayerful chanting of the holy names by the mother ought to drive away evil spirits. At 9 pm we went over to the big tent, where the inauguration of the 'Sadhu Sanga Festival' was in progress.

Many senior sannyasis had come and more were expected, including our beloved gurumaharaja, HH Jayapataka Swami. The tent was packed, but our escorts managed to squeeze us through and get us chairs.

Among the speakers were Their Holinesses Indradyumna Maharaja, Bhakti Visrambhava Madhava Maharaja, Lokanath Maharaja ("some people perspire while others get inspired"), and His Grace Srutakirti Prabhu, secretary to Srila Prabhupada ("Srila Prabhupada's touch has brought three thousand Russians to Krishna consciousness and to this Festival"). Then everyone sang "Hare Krishna To You" for Prabhavisnu Maharaja, accompanied by an enthusiastic trumpeter (whose name we do not know).

At 10:30 pm we packed and went to sleep. At 3 am Devananda Pandit Prabhu was to pick us up and drive us to Krasnodar to catch our flight to Moscow.

Sunday, 23 September 2007

Punctually at 3 am Devananda Pandit and his good wife Parvathi Mataji arrived. We were touched that such senior devotees took so much trouble to drive us to Krasnodar so early in the morning. They were spending hours of their time which they could have spent at the festival, but such is the wonderful character of the Russian devotes, which attracts us so much. We chanted japa during the drive and arrived at the airport by 5 am. They insisted on waiting until we checked in, as the counter was not open yet.

Neither of them knew English well, so we talked slowly, referring to our phrase book, but managed to communicate reasonable well. They invited us to their city, Saratov. They were helping devotees in grihasta life, and regretted that so many Russian marriages were unstable. We talked some more about this issue, then it was time to board the plane.

The flight took off at 7 am and landed in Moscow at 9. Another helpful devotee, Yaduraja Prabhu, picked us up to drive us to the Sheremetyovo airport. Here I was to take a flight to New York in the afternoon, while my husband's flight to Delhi departed in the evening.

We had our packed lunch and I went to the check-in counter. Prabhu watched anxiously from the barrier, since one can never be sure about boarding a flight to the USA these days, and my visa was several years old. Finally I emerged from the crowd with my boarding pass, and finally boarded the flight.

Vijay Venugopal das: There were several hours to wait. I spent most of the time reading and chanting. Finally it was time to board the flight. I dumped the bottle of water as per the new rules, and boarded the Aeroflot flight. I was lucky to get some sleep before an early landing at Delhi. Calling my wife, I was relieved to find she had landed at New York. On calling Vrndava Prabhu (Sudarshan, ex Mathuradesh), I heard that Madan (ex Mathuradesh) would soon be at the airport to pick her up. The rest of her narration of our trips to New Jersey, Lima, Peru, and Russia once again, will appear in subsequent issues of our Bhakti-vriksha Diary.

I tried to nap in the noisy domestic terminal of the Delhi airport where flights were being announced every few minutes, even at this early hour (5 am). Finally my Jet Lite flight was called, and I was on my way home to Bangalore, to spend the next three weeks alone with Pradeep, cooking for both of us.

Your servants,
Vijay Venugopal dasa, Prema Padmini dd