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by Vijayvenugopala dasa and Prema Padmini dd

Ekaterinburg—Thursday, 3 May 2007

The seminar was held at a cultural center with rooms and halls for cultural events. Due to the traffic it took over thirty minutes to reach. As we entered through the heavy doors and walked up to the first floor, people looked at us with friendly curiosity, as all of us were wearing Vaisnava dress. We smiled at them, and they smiled back. Upon entering the room we were greeted with loud cheers and jaya! for Angira Muni Prabhu and us by the assembled devotees. While waiting they had been singing beautiful kirtanas.

This was another group of wonderful devotees, from here as well as other towns in the Ural Mountains region. Siksastakam Prabhu, like Angira Muni, was an early convert to Bhakti-vriksha. After the falldown of a leading sannyasi, devotees and temples were lost all over Russia, which convinced Siksastakam all the more that Bhakti-vriksha preaching was the way to go. They had been using the Bhakti-vriksha Manual of HH Jayapataka Maharaja as their guide. Having met some success as well as obstacles, and subsequently having received the Mathuradesh Modules translated into Russian, they were very keen to receive our help and guidance.

We started with “The Mood of Bhakti-vriksha.” It was very interactive. For example, to illustrate the difference between being a bad listener and a good listener, two matajis spontaneously did a very fine skit, in which one mataji was trying to tell the other how she came to Krishna consciousness. The first one admitted that she felt miserable when her partner was acting as a bad listener, and happy when she was a good listener.

After ninety minutes we took a break, and afterward divided the devotees into groups of four or five for a brainstorming session about obstacles they faced in their implementation of Bhakti-vriksha. They produced a list of twenty-eight obstacles, and as we suggested how each one could be overcome, they accepted everything very positively—they clapped and cheered! After a while it was time to break for lunch.

We drove back and met with a delicious spread: a bowl of rice, a bowl of spaghetti with sabji and fried eggplant, chapatis, cake, herbal tea, and, of course, soup with smitana. Our hosts served us very attentively and were happy that we liked everything.

After a brief rest we returned to the seminar and continued dealing with “obstacles.” Everyone was very happy. We finished at seven o’clock for darsana, and afterward devotees came to ask for our blessings to start the Bhakti-vriksha program.

There was still daylight, so before dropping us back “home,” Rasalika Mataji (first from the left in "The Devotees" photo) and her driver-husband took us around the city in their car. We enjoyed seeing this beautiful city (see the photos in our last Diary issue). Among others, we saw the place where the last Tsar, Nicholas, and his family were assassinated.

During the drive Rasalika told us her fascinating story. When she was just five years old she told her parents she wanted to go to India. Later, when studying in college, she wrote a novel. Can you guess the names of the hero and heroine? Radha and Krishna! And for her art exam she painted Krishna. She really was attached to India: once she saw an Indian man in St. Petersburg, rushed up to him, and took hold of his hands in happiness! (He was a little alarmed by that experience, she said.) Another time her mother called her to listen to the radio, saying there was a program about India. In fact, it was about the Hare Krishnas (this happened after Communism had been removed).

From then on she became very eager to meet devotees, and on 1 April she finally met them at a book table. Within a month she visited the temple and wanted to join. One mataji there sternly said no, but another, more soft-hearted one agreed. After five years she married, and now has one son and a daughter.

Friday, 4 May 2007

I began the seminar with kirtana, and apparently the devotees liked it very much, since one of them approached my husband during the break, saying, “I came a little late and heard that I missed Mataji’s kirtana. Can we please have another kirtana with her?” So after lunch I led another kirtana, and then we continued with “obstacles” until after lunch.

Next we asked the devotees to write what they needed to start Bhakti-vriksha preaching, how they would invite new people, and what their plans were. The response was excellent—almost everyone made enthusiastic plans. Ratnavati Mataji reported how they could contact new people in their cooking classes, which had been attended by more than four hundred so far. Her husband, Abhirama Thakura Prabhu, the efficient organizer of the seminar, was also keen, as was Siksastakam Prabhu, the regional secretary for this area. We finally finished at eight o’clock and headed “home.”

I kept my promise to Siksastakam Prabhu, who is a good cook (just like Sarvalokeswara Krishna of Mathuradesh) and made sambar for us. He loved it, and wrote down the recipes for both sambar and rasam.

Moscow—Saturday, 5 May 2007

At six o’clock we set off to catch our flight to Moscow; the plane left at around eight. We ate our packed breakfast prasadam, but pleased the airline staff by also accepting fruit juice from them. Due to the time difference of two hours, it was again eight o’clock when we arrived. At Angira Muni Prabhu's home we had a tasty lunch, some rest, and then left for the holiday camp, where Nrsimha-caturdasi was to be celebrated.

Leaving Moscow we passed many dachas, cottages where city dwellers keep small plots of vegetables, fruits, or flowers. They go there during weekends or holidays, to relax and tend their plots.

At last we arrived at the holiday camp, consisting of a few big buildings with playing fields in between. All of us were staying together in one building with many rooms, obviously built during the Communist era—small, austere, and cold. The bathroom flush tank had no lid, but worked if adjusted carefully. The tub was ancient, but fortunately hot water was available.

Leaving our luggage in our room, we went to the hall where the program was in progress. It was packed to overflowing, but by following Angira Muni we managed to slowly squeeze in at the back. A discourse by HH Bhakti Vignana Maharaja was going on, a highly popular Russian sannyasi with many disciples and admirers. He was describing the story of Prahlada Maharaja with great drama, receiving cheers from the devotees.

We were on next and spoke about building a Vaishnava community through the Bhakti-vriksha program. About one hundred devotees attended. After prasadam made from buckwheat we went out to the stalls. Noticing a DVD of HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja, we asked the price, and the devotee immediately offered it as a gift to us as their guests; and when we looked at some kirtana CDs at another stall, they also refused to accept any payment from us! This generosity is typical for Russian devotees: even if they are not very well off themselves, they never hesitate to be hospitable and generous.

Hearing that HH Jayapataka Maharaja, our guru-maharaja, had arrived, we rushed out and saw him getting out of a car, being greeted by Angira Muni Prabhu. Seeing us, he beckoned, and asked how we found the weather compared to the Arabian Gulf (a sweltering 45 degrees Celsius). We told him about the Russian devotees' enthusiastic response to our Bhakti-vriksha seminars, and when he went for prasadam—he had not eaten the whole day—we returned to the hall.

Now was a play about Chand Kazi and Nrsimhadeva appearing in his dream. The costumes were excellent, as was the acting. Soon HH Jayapataka Maharaja entered and spoke about his recent travels, including seventy-five initiations in Mathuradesh and the Nrsimha-caturdasi festival in Mayapur. He also spoke about Bhakti-vriksha and our visit to Russia.

Angira Muni Prabhu then took us to the second floor for our seminar. After a brief explanation about Bhakti-vriksha, we asked devotees to introduce themselves and ask questions. In this way we had a very interesting session. There were devotees from Tartarstan and other places, and finally, at ten-thirty, we had to stop. Everyone was eager to implement Bhakti-vriksha using the new Mathuradesh Modules. A devotee from Moscow, Sasha, came with his wife (who had not attended the Tula seminar). Under the patronage of Angira Muni, they had decided to start a Bhakti-vriksha group with four other grhasta couples.

Your servants,
Vijay Venugopal dasa and
Prema Padmini dd