Volume 4

I live only for those moments when crowds of people stream into our festival grounds

Volume 4, Chapter 23 August 09, 2002 – September 21, 2002 After the Woodstock Festival at Zary in the south of Poland, we returned to the Baltic Sea coast in the north and concluded the summer with eight more highly successful festivals in small towns and villages. To the very end I cautiously awaited the [...]

I stood under the Polish national flag and spoke to the nation

Volume 4, Chapter 22 July 17, 2002 – August 09, 2002 Amid the intensity of our daily festivals along the Baltic coast, while simultaneously looking for land as a future base for our tour, we prepared for the Woodstock festival by sending a crew to the site, 550km to the south in Zary, one week [...]

My dear Lord, out of your kindness the ‘mountain’ has come to us!

Volume 4, Chapter 21 July 04 – 17, 2002 The pressure to find our own land along the Baltic Sea coast for a tour base increased when locals told us the mayor in Swierzno, where we are renting a school as a base this summer, will definitely not be re-elected next year. It was through [...]

I can honestly say, your book about Vraja Lila saved my life

Volume 4, Chapter 20 June 28, 2002 – July 03, 2002 As we drove north to the Baltic Sea coast, I looked forward to the first festival of our summer tour. It was to be held in Kolobrzeg, a town with a population of 100,000. Last year’s festival there was the best of the tour [...]

Practically the entire town of Czluchow came and received the mercy of Lord Caitanya

Volume 4, Chapter 19 June 14 – 27, 2002 The punch sent me reeling and knocked me senseless. When I came to, my US Marine Corp drill instructor was straddling me, angry as a hornet. He had caught me relaxing in my foxhole as a rival platoon over-ran our position in the hills of Camp [...]

The last kirtan continued for over 90 minutes, when it ended the crowd demanded more

Volume 4, Chapter 18 June 05 – 12, 2002 The site of our fourth festival on this year’s Polish spring tour was Chelmza, a town of 23,000 people. Ranked as one of the poorest towns in Poland, with 28 percent of the population unemployed, I was uncertain how the festival would be received. Previous experience [...]

With his dying breath he told his daughter to follow the path of spirituality that’s within Bhagavad-gita

Volume 4, Chapter 17 May 30, 2002 – June 04, 2002 After much discussion, we decided not to involve the local police in the discovery of the microphone and radio transmitter planted in Nandini dasi and Radha Sakhi Vrinda dasi’s room. We know that their investigation would not go far. Last year, the police investigating [...]

I am back on the battlefield

Volume 4, Chapter 16 May 20 – 30, 2002 As my flight circled over Warsaw Airport waiting for permission to land, my heart beat strongly in anticipation of the great adventure ahead. This year marks the 12th anniversary of our Festival of India tour in Poland. Most of the 200 tour devotees from 15 countries [...]

She immediately grabbed my arm and pleaded, “No, please don’t move. We want to talk to you”

Volume 4, Chapter 15 May 05 – 20, 2002 On the evening of May 5, I boarded a Virgin Atlantic Airlines flight from New York to London on the first leg of my journey to Poland to join this year’s Festival of India tour. As I entered the cabin I scanned the rows of seats [...]

Here’s a song that will change the whole world

Volume 4, Chapter 14 May 04, 2002 The day before leaving New York for London, I went into Manhattan with Bhakta Pankaj to purchase some sound equipment for our festival tour in Poland. It was a cold, drizzly spring day, and people moved somberly through the streets to their respective destinations making little or no [...]