Veda Life Kiev

After the Banya experience, it was time to go to the hotel where Veda Life had rented a hall and where I was to be the guest speaker.

We returned to the apartment lent us by the generous Anuradha and got ready for the talk. 

The sun goes down early around these parts and by 7:00 it was pitch dark. Our program was in downtown Kiev, close to the church of Sofia.

The people attending the lecture are mostly professional, some are writers, poets, journalists, intellectuals looking for a new point of view, but many are interested in yoga teachings, and some are devoted followers of Prabhupada, Shridhara Maharaja, Govinda Maharaja, Acharya Maharaja, Goswami Maharaja and Avadhuta Maharaja.  My subject was "The Secrets of the Vedas."

It was a collegiate atmosphere and the audience listened politely as I talked about the origin of the universe, tatastha-shakti, Mahavishnu, Brahma the creator, and how the flute-song of Sri Krishna in the form of gayatri evolves into the 4 Vedas, 108 Upanishads, 18 Puranas and the Vedanta Sutra. I gave a quick run-down of the different Vedanta Sutra commentaries, respecting Shankaracharya but recommending Baladev Vidyabhushana and the achintya-bhedabheda-tattva of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. We talked about life's goals and determined that the real secret of the Vedas is contained in the greatest of mantras, the maha-mantra.

The gathered truth-seekers listened attentively and after a while we took questions. 

The Veda Life staff served refreshments to our attentive audience.

We took a few more questions from the public...

Finally we had a little kirtan and it was time to go home.

Where I found that even the cat, Cassiopea was seeking the light.  Reminded me of the old BTG masthead: "Nescience is darkness, Godhead is light. Where there is Godhead there is no darkness."