St. Petersburg in the snow

The trailer I posted shows some ideas we're working on. We want to understand more about the Vedic cosmology and how the ancient astrologers of India saw the world. Of course, as truth-seekers, we're interested in much more. We want to go beyond the subjective and objective planes of material reality to uncover the super-subjective planes of spiritual consciousness: the land of dedication. My first stop in discovering more about the land of dedication is the Lahta Yoga Center in Saint Petersburg. I'm leaving on Thursday, Dec. 4 from Mexico City to Cancun to Frankfurt on Condor Airlines. Arriving Frankfurt the next day in the afternoon, I'll arrive at the airport in Saint Petersburg at about 7:30 at night. There I'll meet with my guide Prithu Das and we'll see the Russian version of Gaudiya Vaishnava, Chaitanya Saraswat, dedication. I'm there to celebrate the birthday-appearance day of Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaja, the great follower and friend of my Guru Bhakti Rakshaka Shridhar Dev Goswami. Strangely, according to the solar calendar, our birthdays coincide. Govinda Maharaja was born December 17, 1929. I was born December 17, 1953. But the great souls calculate their appearance day based on the lunar calendar, so we'll celebrate Govinda Maharaja's birthday on December 8th. I will do my best to remember him. http://www.scsmath.com/events/calendar_events/12_SrilaGovindaMaharaj-VyasaPuja.html

Trailer for Mysteries of Angkor

Here's a trailer for our documentary. Obviously this is a work in progress. Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex in the world. It is 500 times the size of the pyramids at Teotihuacan and can be seen from the International Space Shuttle. One of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, Angkor Wat's largest temple is dedicated to Vishnu. Within the temple are thousands of statues of Apsaras, Daityas, Asuras, and other figures from Puranic literature. One of the most striking of these representations is the depiction of Mahabharata, carved in stone, showing the mystic conversation between Arjuna and Krishna: the Bhagavad-gita. The temple of Angkor Wat itself is constructed to reflect the Vedic cosmology as it was seen and understood thousands of years ago by a lost civilization. Our team will travel to Angkor to document its secrets and reveal to the world the greatest discovery never told: The hidden meaning behind the temples of Angkor. Was Angkor originally part of Greater Bharata? Journey with us as we unravel these and other mysteries in a search for truth that will take us far beyond this mundane plane and into the realm of lost worlds.

Moscow University in August

Here's a picture from the trip I took in August. This is Moscow University. It's a huge building in the "Stalinesque" post-war Industrialist style. Looks a bit like Batman's Gotham. I'm there with Bhakti Ranjan Madhusudana Maharaja, with translator Chintamani DD and old friend from San Jose, Sudarshan Das, son of Shri Govinda. I'm writing this blog to have a better place for these memories. Facebook doesn't really give me a chance to write about what I'm doing, what I've seen, who I've met and what I'd like to share with you. Facebook is a very open social media for me. Many facebook friends are former english students. Some are distant friends and acquaintances I like to stay in touch with. But for the purpose of this trip I want to start a blog so I can write things more specifically touching on my spiritual friends. This is my first attempt at really writing a blog and I'll try to keep it interesting with spiritual reflections, talks with friends, and lots of photos of faraway places.

Countdown to Petersburg

This is a photo of the Vedalife festival in Kiev, Ukraine. People there seem more interested in spiritual life and seeking new answers. Wherever we put on festivals we got crowds like this one. I took the photo from the little stage where I was speaking. We were there with Avadhuta Maharaja, an energetic and charismatic spiritual entrepeneur, Bhakti Sudhir Goswami, my old friend from San Jose California, and many others.