Arriving in Tashkent
Volume 1, Chapter 21
June 07, 1995.
Beginning early this morning we drove eleven hours from Bishkek to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekhistan, passing briefly through Kazakhstan. It was a long and arduous journey through eight hundred kilometres of arid land. One compensation was the snow-capped Himalaya Mountains that remained always to our left for most of the journey. There was not one petrol station the entire eight hundred kilometres, you either ‘bring your own’ petrol or buy from the old petrol tankers that park intermittently along the route.
At one point we found a crystal clear river coming down from the mountains and stopped and bathed for an hour. It was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat.
We arrived in Tashkent at 10.30 p.m.. The devotees had been awaiting our visit for more than a week due to our travel plans having been adjusted several times. When our car pulled up in front of the temple the devotees exploded into an amazing kirtana that swept us into the small temple room. After guru-puja Govinda maharaja and I spoke, thanking the devotees for the reception and telling them how much we looked forward to the next few days with them.
The temple is a simple building in a residential district on the outskirts of Tashkent. The devotees struggle to maintain it – they are able to collect only one hundred American dollars a month and that must go for all their expenses. I simply couldn’t understand how they survived. But people in this part of the world are tough and enterprising, and so the devotees go on. They have even started a small restaurant here, although on their income I couldn’t understand how. But the temple president said that everything in the restaurant – the small storefront itself, wood for re-decoration, kitchen equipment, and plates and cutley – was donated by friends and well-wishers, even Muslim neighbours!
The Uzbekhistan Government is very strict regarding all religious movements. No one, neither the predominant Muslims, the minority Christians, nor ourselves – is allowed to proselytise in any way, means or manner, because the government fears the fundamentalist Muslims who have taken control in countries to the south, like Afghanistan. We are not allowed to do harinama or public programs, so our stay in Tashkent is simply to be with the devotees and the congregation in the temple. The first Mogul invasion of India originated from Uzbekhistan.
One thousand years ago, the conqueror Mohammed Gazzi left from Samaekand, a city to the west of Tashkent, with a massive army to conquer India. When he reached the outskirts of Mathura he marvelled at its majesty and beauty. He is quoted, “In all my imagination I could never have dreamed of such an opulent and beautiful city.” Then he ordered his army to level Mathura. After destroying the city, its Deities and most of the population, he took all the gold and riches back to Uzbekhistan. It was the beginning of Islam’s long domination of India.