Out around Moscow: Red Square

Here I am with my new friends in front of St. Basil's Square in Moscow.  We're laughing it up for the cameras. On the left is my faithful translator, expert in Sanskrit, Russian and English Muralishwar. On the right is Nama Chintamani Devi Dasi, she's also a good translator and works in media promotion for the Moscow Vedic center.

St. Basil's

The plan was to do a kirtan on ice at a skating rink close to the temple, but we decided, given the weather, it would be best to do it tomorrow, right here in Red Square, so stay tuned to this space, we won't disappoint you. Best time is at one o'clock.

With Prithu and Chintamani

After the group photos they said it would be good to have an author pose, so I gave it a shot.

The Author in Moscow

St. Basil's Cathedral

The lovely Nam Chintamani

The transcendental crew: Muralishwar, Chintamani, and my manager, Prithu Das

As we strolled around Red Square, we passed Christmas Trees and decorations. The big celebration here is New Years.We scouted some locations for tomorrow's kirtan on ice production, and finally, frozen to the bone we went for a nice hot Darjeeling Tea at the Vienna Tea house.

These buildings are part of the sights and sounds of downtown Moscow.

It was cold outside so we found a nice warm tea room to continue our discussions. Devotees wanted to know about the old days of the Hare Krishna people, Prabhupada, the 70s and preaching in the United States.

So we had a long talk about the future of the Moscow Center, plans for doing something in the United States, the existential spiritual pain of  Dostoyevsky, the genius of Pushkin, Rupa Goswami's message and the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Appreciation was given to Avadhuta Maharaja, the mysterious Russian Swami behind all this largesse and  Bhakti Sudhir Goswami whose ideas have shaped the Russian Mission in a big way. It was decided that the best governing rule for future missions would be "No Vaishnava Aparadha."