Just Strolling Along

Hi, everybody, thanks for tuning in to this space. It's good to know that people are reading. Always feel free to write a comment, I'm happy to hear from you all. I'm continuing to write about my time in Kiev. Morning comes quickly to Kiev: The winter sun brightens the city for a while and then quickly vanishes.

View from my window, Dec. 13, 2014

And while I was exhausted from my travels on the transcendental lecture circuit I realized that I had only one precious day left here, so after a quick breakfast of tea and tangerines I asked our team co-ordinator and VedaLife manager, to accompany me on a quick stroll through the downtown streets.

Ana Dukhnivska https://www.facebook.com/yaaammmi

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Ana or Alakananda, as she is known at Vedalife, is the astute and enthusiastic co-ordinator of events at the local center in Kiev, versed in the technology and marketing of social media. Amiable, well-educated, and professional, she has been responsible for the success of our talks in many ways. She agreed to show me around a bit, and so we donned our down-filled jackets and sallied forth into the biting wind.

This is a grand old church on our way up the hill to the Olympic Stadium, not sure the name. 

As we walked, we discussed the importance of education and talked about the possibility of a language and philosophical center for adult education, perhaps in an eco-village outside Kiev.

Just strolling along...

Everyone's getting ready for Christmas. A lot of people have asked about my wife, Aurora. While at the moment I'm visiting Kiev, Moscow, and Petersburg, the aim is to be in Thailand and Cambodia in a few days. It really is an arduous trip involving a lot of work on my part. A kind of "around the world in eighty days" venture. And given the expense and difficulty of traveling to so many places in such a short time, it was decided that this time I would travel alone. Perhaps in the future we can do it together. Right now, I'm dedicating my energy to giving talks about the philosophy of my Gurudev, Bhakti Rakshak Shridhar Dev Goswami. So, I'll have to leave the celebrations until I return. This year I will spend Christmas and New Years flying from one destination to the next, while my faithful and loving wife waits for me in Mexico.

Quiet Streets

Sunday afternoon in Kiev, the streets are quiet. The sun comes and goes quickly here, and the light was fading fast. 

We took a look at the Olympic stadium, built to house the international games...

Olympic Stadium

...past a chic Italian restaurant....

An Old-fashioned Kiosk from the good old days

...and paused to take a few tourist pictures at some of the uniquely European artifacts. This is an old-fashioned Kiosk announcing events at the local Opera House. And after a bit of exercise, it was time for our event at the Veda Life center. More on that in the next post. 

Veda Life Yoga in Kiev, Ukaine: translator and computer genius Asutosh and Co-ordinator Ana Dukhnivska, and driver

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."

Ukrainian Traditions: Banya

 With the dawning of a new day I saw Kiev in a new light.

It was time to rise and face the challenges ahead. With my soar throat now raging it would be difficult to do the speaking program that was lined up for me. Veda Life was expecting about 100 people to show up to listen to me speak on "The Secrets of the Vedas."

http://testlpgenerator.ru/mahayogi/

The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. But the people of Kiev have an organic answer: it's called "Banya."

A typical "Banya" setup

Banya is a kind of indoor sauna practiced by Ukrainians since time immemorial. You sit in a wooden hut with hot rocks and sweat the poisons out. So we loaded up the truck and drove through the Ukrainian countryside.

Birch trees in snow outside Kiev

We drove over icy streets in the snow and through the beautiful birch trees.  The leaves of the birch trees have medicinal properties and curative alkaloids and are used in the Banya. The leaves are formed into switches which are steam-heated. The banya-master is expert in their application and beats you about the head, neck and legs with the birch switches, forcing the poisons out in sweat.

Arrival at Banya

Here we are arriving at the Banya, out in the Ukranian countryside.

Rustic cabin

Banya Ice Hole

Outside the Banya was the typical ice hole. The more extreme Banya enthusiasts jump in the ice hole after a hot sweaty steam bath.

But our group is a bit more easy-going.

The Banya Crew Ready for Action

So we prepared ourselves and the Banya master adjusted the heat. I'm standing next to the Banya master. There's Vallabha on my right, Birchandra on the end.

Typical Banya Situation.

It's enough to sit in an oven-like setting, beaten by birth brooms. I imagined myself in Calcutta during the tropical heat and made it through. Another aspect of the Banya program is the salt masssage, where your entire body is dusted with salt, there's a macho rubdown followed by the hot-cold treatment again. Works wonders. After this, my throat was in good shape for the talk.

Typical ice-hole procedure after Banya.

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.