In2-MeC

Timisoara, Romania
25 June, 2003

Since leaving Budapest, my travels to Szeged and then to Timisoara, combined with my work on two more parts of the Transcendental Psychology series, put a delay on uploads of real-time journal reports. Today I'm catching up on all that got left behind in the rush from there to here. In omnibus requiem quaesivi et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro Srila Prabhupada! That's Latin...I'm in Romania now, where the language is so alike the tongue of this country's ancient Roman colonizers that an Italian devotee who visited here in the early '90's remarked in mild shock, "Romanian is closer to Latin than Italian is!"

A view from the street of the ISKCON center in Szeged, Hungary. Compare this to the photo below of ISKCON Timisoara in Romania. Two different countries with two different languages. but the mix of modes of nature is quite similar. We are in the Balkans now.

Class at ISKCON Szeged

At a public preaching program in Szeged. I spoke on the Vedic science of mantra.

A view from the street of ISKCON Timisoara. Enter through the metal gate on the right, and you come into a nice plot of garden land with rose bushes, grape vines, and a big walnut tree. There are two buildings on the land: the temple which you see here, and a bungalow housing a sannyasi room and a brahmacari asrama. If there was such a thing as a "most peaceful temple" award, ISKCON Timisoara would be a candidate to win the prize.

O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade;
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.

I spoke on Vedic psychology at a public program on 21 June. Many Rumanians show interest in yoga and Indian concepts of mind. The noted Rumanian-born scholar of comparitive religions, Mircea Eliade, was a pioneer investigator of the concepts of psychology taught by ancient Indian philosophers. He became world-renowned as a professor at the University of Chicago. Every half-way educated Rumanian knows about Eliade and takes pride in his importance in modern academia. No doubt that in Srila Prabhupada's estimation Eliade would rate as a "nonsense rascal mental speculator." But nontheless he opened a door in Rumanian consciousness to Indian spirituality; no small accomplishment, since Rumanians tend to be provincial in their thinking. Rumania is very rural and still largely a country of herdsmen. Who are the men and who are the sheep is often a hard question to answer. Now you know why it is so peaceful.