What is the formula?

Russia was great. The country gets a lot of bad press, but the people I met were warm-hearted, sincere, and kind. I found lots of new friends and said hello to a few I'd already known. I'm trying to put photos of everyone. God bless all of you and thanks for the memories. Then it was on to Ukraine.

Another Aeroflot 747 later, and I was in Kiev.

The next day we drove through the birch trees and blizzards to a secluded farmhouse,

\Home to an old Ukrainian ritual known as Bannya.

The Ukrainian guys got ready for a super-heated sauna and a quick dip in the ice-hole.

Genuine Ukranian Hole in Ice

Spot the American

Ukrainians and Russians share a firm belief that a quick ice-bath will ward off the respiratory problems that plague the cold months of December, January, February, March and inoculate against all winter health complaints.

After the experiments in climate change, it was off to the hotel where our conference was taking place. Our theme was "The Wisdom of the Vedas."

I did my best to explain why it's necessary to aks certain questions, like "Who are we? Why are we here?" and we reflected on the wisdom of the ancients.

Wisdom of Vedas lecture in Kiev

Lecture in Kiev

 The lecture was wel-attended.

People had a lot of questions and listened politely for over two hours.

The lecture was recorded and live-streamed over the internet by our crack team of IT specialists.

They didn't want me to stop and stayed until the hotel management turned out the lights.

I thank the people of Kiev for being such a great audience. It's an inspiration to speak when people listen.

There were questions, but they weren't combative. These folks really came to listen.

As the hotel was turning out the lights, we served refreshments and sold some copies of "The Search for Shri Krishna."

On the left in a white sweater: Asutosh Krishna, translator

We thanked the audience and sang a few old Bengali bhajans with the drum.

Vedalife Yoga Center

The following morning we went to the Vedalife Yoga Center, where I was asked to speak on the meaning of meditation in the Bhagavad-gita.

Anna Dukhnivska, Events Co-ordinator at Veda Life

 The folks at Veda Life are all strict vegetarians and followers of yoga and Bhagavad-gita. They were even better listeners than the group at the hotel.

Here we spoke for 3 hours on meditation and the meaning of life, and how to go beyond meditation to actually dedicating one's self in divine love. I'm not sure what my qualification really is to speak all these things, but I was involved in publishing books on these subjects back in the 1990s. the translations have just come out in Russian, and somehow it's a big hit right now in Russia and Ukraine.

Young people especially, who are concerned with war and conflict, listened carefully to the spiritual message of peace.

Again we took questions from the audience of friends and newcomers and tried to give thoughtful answers and even ask some questions of our own.

Again the yoga students showed great patience. We had a long dialogue about war and peace and no one picked up a cell-phone.

I did my best to be attentive and thoughtful and give every question the care it deserved.

They did kirtan and aroti, Ukrainian style.

we sang a few bhajans...

And then had a brainstorming session with the technology people...

brainstorming

more brainstorming

Lalit Sundar: techno-man

Then it was time to wrap things up, pack my bags, say goodbye to the cat...

And make for the Borispol International Airport.

We had some thoughtful conversations about how we can make the lecture series more successful next year, talked about the big summer festival...

Discussed the relative merits of Dostoyevksy, Pushkin, Bhaktivinod Thakura, and current ruble crisis...

My name is Bond...James Bond. Do you have the papers?

And it was time to get on another plane: back to Moscow.