Mysterious Russian Swami

Who is this mysterious Russian Swami?

Avadhuta Maharaja

Me and Avadhuta Maharaja in Kiev

Here's a photo of Avadhuta Maharaja and myself at the Veda Life Festival in Kiev. His holiness, Bhakti Bimal Avadhuta Maharaja is a transcendental genius, spiritual mentor, and visionary entrepeneur. He's a difficult man to describe. I spent an hour trying to explain my time in Thailand to a friend and they went crazy trying to understand Avadhuta Maharaja. Don't try. This man is a mystery. You'll never figure him out. Keep it that way.

After we met in Bangkok, Avadhuta Maharaja insisted that I visit Russia. "Come in the summer. You'll love it."

School gets out for me in July so it was a perfect fit. I studied a bit of Russian in High School, and all these years I've been waiting to try it out. My itinerary took me to Kiev, first, where Avadhuta Maharaja had organized the Veda Life Festival.

Kiev in Summertime: Temple of Sophia

I was to speak on "Subjective Evolution of Consciousness" or how consciousness generates matter. Matter does not produce consciousness, rather consciousness produces matter. More about this later. But any way we raced over to the fair-grounds where the Veda Life festival was held.

At the fair-grounds in Kiev

Avadhuta Maharaja discussing the philsophy with  a young man from Kiev

Goswami Maharaja's lecture

Listening attentively

This was a slow crowd. It's about 11:00 in the morning and the festivities have yet to begin.

Group photo with Bhakti Lalita, Sudarshana, Madhusudhana, and Bhakti Sudhir Goswami

This time with Avadhuta Maharaja, center

With Veda Life Kiev

Listening to Bhajans and relaxing.

This is kind of a "Woodstock" for Yoga.

Sophia temple in Kiev in Summer

more Vedalife

"The materialistic demeanour cannot possibly stretch to the transcendental autocratic who is ever inviting the fallen conditioned souls to engage with him and participate in the divine dance of dedication..."

The people of Kiev are great listeners, fascinated with the ideas of the ancient wisdom traditions of India. I did my best to represent the concepts mentioned by my Guru Bhakti Rakshaka Shridhar Dev Goswami in his book the Search for Shri Krishna, Reality the beautiful.

In this way, Avadhuta Maharaja gave me a great opportunity to meet some wonderful people in Kiev, Ukraine. After this it was off to Moscow .