On the Road Again

And so, for now it's time to say goodbye to the friends in Moscow...

Vijayanti Devi Dasi 

Master Chef and Pujari Ananda Vardhana with Nitya Gopal
longtme personal assistant to Govinda Maharaja

Two dedicated hard-working men who help keep the wheels turning in Moscow.

Nitya Gopal had endless stories about Nabadwip dham, Govinda Maharaja in the old days, and of course that celebrated dish of all connoisseurs of Bengali cuisine: Muri. While Prabhupada once told Govinda Maharaja that Muri is simply cheating the stomach, Govinda Maharaja heartily disagreed and his robust figure argued that the weight of the evidence was on his side.

So we jumped in the sturdy tilak-wagon manned by Gokula-Taruni Devi Dasi and raced off to one of Mosco's fine airports. 

She guided us through the early morning rush hour traffic...

and on icy slick roads to the airport, as we listened to an old bhajan tape of Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaja singing Narottama Das Thakur's ye anilo prema dhana...

Moscow Airport

As more snow fell, Taruni found a spot and we disembarked from the Tilak-wagon.
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Prithu Das

On hand to say goodbye were Prithu Das, my ever-well-wisher and road manager...

Muralishwar Prabhu

The deep-thinker and expert translator Muralishwar who had accompanied me through my lectures, ensuring that the Russian public got the message...

Arjuna Prabhu

And the sagacious Arjuna, student of literature, high-tech IT specialist and liaison with local universities. We sat for a while, people watching, contemplating time and space and karma.

Our driver Taruni showed up fresh from parking the tilak-wagon. Russians are the world's greatest consumers of black tea, and goodby's are just as good as any other time to sit and talk and have a tea. And so we sat in the local tea shop in the airport. It's called Mu-mu like a cow, but Muralishwara pointed out the connection between the name and an old Turgenev story where a dog gets run over by Stalin's car. Or something like that. Something got lost in translation.

 We remembered the bhajan tape we had heard in the car and Taruni asked me to say hello to Goswami Maharaja when I see him. We talked about how dedicated he was and how he had given up an entire lifetime to serve Krishna.

Until finally it was time to go. I said goodbye....

And found my gate...

Passed customs and security and wended my way through the airport.

Moscow Airport

The airport was gloomy and businesslike, like much of Moscow.

With all the ice and snow on the runway I was amazed that the planes could take off and land.

But the airport was crowded and passengers were rushing to their gates with destinations in Ulan Bator, Munchen, Stockholm, Milan and San Francisco. The airport was crowded.

I found Aeroflot and waited patiently for what seemed an eternity.

That's my airplane, Aeroflot flight 1806 to Kiev over on gate 30. A sturdy if somewhat rusty Aeroflot airbus. No legroom or arm room to speak of. Next to me was a gruff Russian actor who threw his baggage into the overhead compartment and left it hanging out for the steward to adjust. He wore long hair and a beard, tight black brulkis and a belted wool tunic as he hustled his girlfriend into the seat next to him. She wore a long mink coat and a leopard-skin mini skirt with high heel boots. They argued the whole trip as she pretended to listen. She chewed gum and stared a hole in the seat in front of her.  They weren't happy. I had the vegetarian meal: a tiny bun of whole wheat with two cucumbers and a slice of tomato. But overall the staff were friendly. I asked for and got an extra plastic cup of water. The flight only lasted about an hour and a half. And suddenly I was in Kiev. 

I was picked up at the airport by old friends: Andanda Mayi, Achutananada, and Krishna Das, who I knew from Thailand. We talked about Thailand, translations and transcriptions and upcoming projects, and muscled our way through the Kiev traffic to the home of Anuradha Didi. Here's Asutosh Krishna and Alakananda Devi Dasi, masterminds of Vedalife.

Asutosh Krishna, translator, transcriber and lecturer. He's a great intellectual, follower of the line of Govinda Maharaja, and my translator for the Kievan tour. He  came for a visit with Alakananda Devi Dasi, the exuberant organizer of Veda Life talks. Here they are peeling tangerines.

It was good to see Asutosh again: we met at the Vedalife festival in August. We feasted on fresh tangerines and good Darjeeling tea and planned our talk for tomorrow.

Finally it was time to rest. Tomorrow's a big day. This is a view of Kiev at night taken from my window.