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Some of the older links at the bottom of this page do not work yet - this page is still under construction.
On The Way to Maribor It's Wednesday, the 3rd of April 2002, 3:20 PM. My collapsible Palm keyboard is balanced on my lap as I bounce around in a 12 seat diesel van.
We're on our way to
Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia. There will be a Nama
Hatta program, a kind of congregational gathering, and I'm supposed
to be the guest speaker.
A Steep Climb Monday, 1st April 2002, Ljubljana, Slovenia. If you look at my schedule, you'll see that on March 30 2002 there was a scheduled "visit to the Slovenia countryside," or as the local devotees preferred to call it, "a trip to nature." I thought, "Okay, we're going to go for a drive and they're going to show me some scenery. Maybe I'll see some Slovenia farms, some vineyards, some rivers, etc."
Actually, however, it was none of
these.
Friday, March 29, 2002, Slovenia Yesterday we
had a big festival for the appearance of Lord Chaitanya here in
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. About 200 people attended, and
the highlight of the evening was placing very large, beautiful, neem-wood
deities of the Pancha Tattva on the altar. Earlier in the day we
performed Harinam congregational chanting in the streets of downtown
Ljubljana.
Wednesday, 27 March 2002, 30,000 feet above Europe.
Wow. Those mountains
look spectacular now. They are directly beneath the aircraft. Very
rough looking. Deep snow and glaciers. A treeless wasteland. Ahead,
suddenly the jagged mountains come to an abrupt stop and beyond them
are distinctly different and rounded mountains without snow. Very
rugged country down there. The flight is still smooth. Sometimes you
get turbulence over mountains.
Amalaki Ekadasi Today is the twentieth anniversary of my accepting sannyasa in 1982.
I'm sitting on a
carpeted floor. My portable Palm keyboard is attached to my Palm
M505, propped on a heating unit in front of a large picture
window overlooking the huge aircraft I will be boarding in half
an hour.
Somewhere in Connecticut March 23, 2002
It's 5 minutes past
five in the afternoon and I'm with Pyari Mohan Prabhu, temple
president of ISKCON Hartford, and his 15 year old daughter, Nila.
We're in a hall filled with tables, and around each table are a
bunch of Cub Scouts and their parents, eating. Pyari and Nila
are setting up for the magic show, soon to begin.
Saturday, 23 March 2002, Hamden, Connecticut By Vipramukhya Swami
Wednesday, 20 March 2002, Greyhound Bus
The other night
there was a huge Harinam in Manhattan led by His Holiness
Indradyumna Swami, but unfortunately, I missed the opportunity
to go. From the reports, it was a very ecstatic Harinam. I have
heard Indradyumna Swami is visiting the New Jersey temple in
Towaco, which is about 10 miles from the place I grew up but a
long way from Long Island.
15 March 2002,
4:30 PM, ISKCON Long Island, NY, USA. As soon as I heard, I
became stunned. I stopped packing my bags and went downstairs
where there was a meeting of senior devotees taking place,
discussing the situation.
12 Noon,
Seattle Airport, USA, March 1, 2002. The Lord Nityananda Cooking
Contest is a wonderful festival where devotees come from around
the world to glorify and cook for Lord Nityananda in Vancouver,
Canada. In the words of my friend, Ram Agrawal, who was one of
the judges this year, "It is better than the Winter Olympics,
and the scoring is more honest, too."
Australia to
Canada in One Day
11 AM, 27 January 2002, Qantas Airline flight 747. We are high above Australia, flying from Sydney to
Adelaide. It's an hour and a half journey by air. A few minutes
ago I could see the Sydney coastline. They say Sydney has some
of the nicest ocean beaches in Australia. Unfortunately, I never
had a chance to visit the ocean in Sydney, but I sure had a
great view of them out the window of this airplane.
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Yesterday we drove to the New
Gokula farm, which is located near Milfield. It's about 3 hours
from Sydney. The devotee that drove Devahotra and me was
Amrtananda. He was a very congenial, talkative devotee who had
an ancient 1979 Volvo car. The car was in mint condition and
handled very well. Amrtananda let me drive it for most of the
way.
Sydney, New South Wales I would like to give a special thanks to Aniruddha Prabhu, the temple president of ISKCON Melbourne. I must say that Aniruddha was a very gracious host while I was in Melbourne. Besides making nice arrangements for my care, laundry, prasadam, etc., he also drove me around pretty much wherever we needed to go, and made nice arrangements for preaching programs, etc. Yesterday he had Devamrta Maharaja and me over for lunch at his house, which is just down the road from the temple. My disciple Devahotra and I are now on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. We'll stay some days there before continuing on to Adelaide and then back to
Melbourne.
Krishna's Plan is the Best Plan Melbourne, Australia, 21 January, 2002– Devamrta Swami came cruising in
to Melbourne late last night from Singapore. He had been in London, India, and
Russia. He and I were new bhaktas together in 1973 in New York, so we know
each other pretty well.
Melbourne, 4:30 PM. ISKCON Melbourne is the oldest Hare Krishna temple in Australia. The deities look beautiful and well looked after, and the temple room is gorgeous marble tiled with ornate Vedic-style arches. Aniruddha dasa, the temple president, joined ISKCON in Melbourne in 1978
and has been the president of the temple since May, 1990.
Seattle to San Francisco January 15: I'm on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco to catch a connecting flight to Melbourne, Australia. Never been there before. My first trip to down under. It's also a free flight, thanks to an accumulation of frequent flyer miles. It's dark outside. It's 8 PM. Nothing particularly exciting. Wish I had a
devotee to accompany me, but I can't afford to pay anyone's airfare other than
my own. Contrary to popular myth, not all sannyasis and gurus are rich, though
Krsna is taking care of me.
Nasau County, Long Island, New York There's snow outside, and the sun is shining. My Salagram Silas and Govardhan Silas are situated on an altar a few feet away. I am in a living room. The floor is carpeted wall to wall. There are many plants, both real and artificial, and many pictures of Krishna on the walls. I am at the house of Balaram and Revati, two aspiring Indian disciples
originally from Trinidad. They have two grown children, both living at home,
both deaf from birth, one boy and one girl.
Neuremberg, Germany I'm
sitting in a room with light now falling outside here in Germany, about 40
minutes drive from Neuremberg. My Salagram Silas are packed away, I've had
breakfast, and now we're getting ready to drive to Heidelberg. Tomorrow I will
fly back to England.
Abenteuer, Germany Pilgrim's
Diary - March 23, 2001 (Abenteuer, Germany): It's pouring rain outside my
window. Last week, I'm told, there was three inches of snow here. Some of it
is still around in patches, though it is not very cold outside. It's Friday,
and they tell me this weekend the weather should become warm and clear.
Royal Brunei Airlines flight number 107 I'm
sitting in my seat on Royal Brunei Airlines flight number 107. The aircraft
has not begun to move yet. First stop will be Dubai, where we have to wait for
6 hours before our flight to London. There's a couple of passengers that they
are waiting for who are held up at the immigration line. The
big question on a number of our reader's minds, of course, is what happened to
my missing baggage? Well...
Calcutta: 10 AM About
an hour ago I phoned and spoke to Joya Chattergee, a helpful lady who works
for Indian Airlines. She was very apologetic about my suitcase. She said that
because there isn't a flight to Calcutta every day, Kathmandu sent the
suitcase to New Delhi.
Mayapur, India Last
night after watching the beautiful golden full moon rise on the eastern
horizon amid kirtan and an abhisheka of the Chaitanya-Nityananda deities, I
was invited to the roof of the lotus building for a feast sponsored by
Jayapataka Swami for senior devotees, sannyasis and former gurukulis.
Complaining About Krsna You
know, I have a complaint about Krishna. It's true that He always saves His
devotees, but generally He does it only at the last moment.
Anxiety over Lost Salagrams I'm
feeling anxiety and am praying to my Govardhan and Salagram Silas that are
with me. I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time, but if the
flight doesn't leave soon everything will be screwed up because my return
flight to India is still on March 7th.
Trip to Kali-Gandaki River in Himalayas, Nepal I
learned something Interesting in Jagannath Puri yesterday morning from Mr.
Singh at the Birla Guest House. Jomsom, on the Gandaki River where I will
eventually be going in a few days, flows directly between Dhaulagiri and
Annapurna, both mountains over 26,700 feel - comparable to Mount Everest. I
should be able to see them as the airplane passes between them as it goes up
the valley to Jomsom. According to Mr. Singh, it is said that the monkey
servant Hanuman in service of Laksman and Rama carried Dhaulagiri's mountain
peak away. This mountain, therefore, is famous to the devotees of Lord Rama.
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