Volume 5

Lessons on the Road

Volume 5, Chapter 10 September 15 – November 01, 2003, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan. After the meetings in Rome, I went on a whirlwind tour of temples in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. These countries share a common past of authoritarian communist rule, and their present situations are similar: weak economies, unemployment, crime,and political uncertainty. Although some [...]

He Lives Forever

Volume 5, Chapter 9 September 01 – 15, 2003, Rome, Italy. Soon after the last festival in our four-month tour of Poland, Sri Prahlad and I flew to Rome to meet with some devotees about planning festivals in other parts of Europe. On the flight down, I sat behind an elderly couple from America on [...]

A Sweet Raincloud

Volume 5, Chapter 8 August 17 – September 01, 2003, Baltic Sea Coast, Poland. It took 50 devotees three full days to break down our festival at Woodstock. By the time we left, not a soul could be seen on the huge field. As we drove away, I thought back on the success of our [...]

Help From Above

Volume 5, Chapter 7 July 02 – August 16, 2003, The Woodstock Festival, Poland. Mathuranath das and I were the first to arrive on the Woodstock field, two weeks before the great three-day event. Although 52 bands and 500,000 people would soon come here, only a few rabbits now scurried across the large grass field [...]

Now There is Hope

Volume 5, Chapter 6 June 21 – July 07, 2003, Mlawa, Poland. Our last festival of the spring tour was in Mlawa. The newspaper that had slandered us was also in Mlawa, so I was a bit nervous as we drove in to the town with a busload of 60 devotees for the first Harinam. [...]

Give No Quarter, Show No Mercy, Take No Prisoners

Volume 5, Chapter 4 June 06 – 11, 2003, Lipno, Poland. The festival in Lipno was one of the most memorable in the 13 years of our Polish tour. News of the mayor’s rousing speech to open the event spread throughout town, and even more people came for what was supposed to be the second [...]

Aspiring to be a loyal disciple

Volume 5, Chapter 3 June 01 – 07, 2003, IIawa, Poland. When Nandini and Radha Sakhi Vrinda visited the Mayor of Nidzica, as he had requested, he congratulated them for our three days of successful festivities. Ninety-five percent of the town was in love with Hare Krsna, he told them. “What about the other five [...]

Garlanding Heads of State

Volume 5, Chapter 2 May 27 – 31, 2003, Nidzica, Poland. The success of the Brodnica festival was confirmed the next day, when a local newspaper published a front-page article about the event. Under the headline “Hindu Festivities in Brodnica,” it ran a large color photo of a devotee painting gopi dots on the face [...]

Back on the Tour

Volume 5, Chapter 1 May 15 – 26, 2003, Brodnica, Poland. On May 15, I flew from Los Angeles to Ukraine for Nrsimhadeva Caturdasi. I felt uplifted to be going back to Eastern Europe and to my responsibilities on the festival tour in Poland, but the 36-hour journey, with connecting flights in Detroit, London, Warsaw, [...]