$title="7th July 2001 - East Slovakia"; include("../sys/top.php"); ?>
Dear devotees, PAMHO! AGTSP! AGTGM!
Thursday June 28. Today we are leaving for Slovakia. In the morning GM
delivered wonderful lecture from SB 4.13.28. He talked about three stages of
devotional service according to Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu. The first stage is
sadhana bhakti, DS under the rules & regulations. It has two subdivisions, #1
vaidhi bhakti and #2 raganuga bhakti. This stages mean to take care for bhakti
lata. The 2nd stage is bhava bhakti, DS in extasy. And the 3rd stage is prema
bhakti, pure DS, which is the most rare among spiritual achievenents. She is
'krsna karsini'-brings Krsna under F U L L control of a devotee who has it.
It is still possible for us to achieve it, B U T we must qualify ourselves.
The glory of Krsna's pastimes is that He relishes even 'offenses' against Him
by His pure devotees. GM gave as an example Jatila & Kutila, who were always
rebuking Krsna and calling Him ill names, because none of them liked that
Krsna was secretly meeting with Srimati Radharani. But this only increased
Krsna's enjoyment of the relationship with Radharani. And it doesn't mean, that
these women are hating Krsna, no. This is their service to Him. Another example
he gave was of Mantara, the hunchback old women, who gave to Kaikeyi the idea
to persuade Maharaj Dasaratha to exil Lord Ramacandra. But it only enabled Lord
Rama to display His wonderful pastimes. So GM concluded: "...so, if you want
to commit offenses, don't do it now. Become qualified to make offenses against
Krsna..." and everybody laughed.
Short before noon we have left New Vraja Dham. Parmesvara Prabhu again drove
us to the borders (now it was different place than where we went in), where
Kusa pr. was waiting for us with GM's van. There was some excitement among the
custom officers, because the circumstances surrounding us (some people obviously
waiting for us for a long time with a German car) were suspicious to them, so
we underwent a flood of straight questions like "Who you are? Where are you
going? What you will be doing there?" I was trying to somehow satisfy their
curiousity without teeling them too much. When the man was asking the last
question "How did you meet together?" (because he saw that we have different
nationalities), some human feelings arose in him and he even began to smile
mildly as I was answering him. Then he let us to go thru. We immediately
transferred all our luggage into the van (of course without the officers to see
us), while GM took some fruits and yoghurt.
Now it took us about 45 minutes to reach Presov, big city in eastern Slovakia.
The devotees have a project nearby from this city, which is called "New
Ekacakra Dham". Interestingly enough, it's the same name as the farm in
Bulgaria. This place was thus named by HH Bhaktivaibhava Maharaja, maybe for
it's peaceful atmosphere. It is situated in the begginings of the hills, so
broad view over the whole surrounding including the Presov city can be seen
from there. Raghunath Pryia Prabhu (a disciple of BVS), who is a leader here,
welcomed GM and introduced him into his rooms, which are on the first floor in
one of two buildings here. Fortunately, my room was just next to his. The
houses are freshly renovated and all equipment is completely new. The devotees
here were working hard for one and half year to make this come true. Now all
devotees from Slovakia (about 15) have come here to have an association of GM.
On Saturday and Sunday GM gave morning and evening classes and he was in full
preaching spirit. They were wonderfull, full of deep wisdom & realisations, and
naturally many questions followed after each lecture. On Monday (July 2) he
didn't give a morning class, but instead Raghunath P. drove us to Presov to
show GM their another project there, Govindas (which is not designed as a
typical restaurant, but rather as a 'Vedic Cultural Centre'). It is right on
the main square and it's quite small, but very nicely done-the style of
furnicure and decorations is in the late 19th century fashion. The project is
in final stages before opening and GM appreciated it: "Hmm, it's very nice!"
When we returned back, I have packed all the things into the van, because
today we leave for Prague, whis is about 650-700 kms from here. Just before
leaving GM gave darshans to a few devotees. Because Czech and Slovak languages
are very similar, I was translating for the devotees (as all lectures here)
and I could just get appreciation of how GM deals with different kinds of
people and various questions. It's really amazing, because it's perfect. And
because he has touched subjects which were also important for me, I have used
the oppourtunity also to tell him something and hear his view.
Meanwhile Dhairyavan P. prepared a lunch for GM, because it was almost 1 pm and
GM didn't take anything today yet. And usually he takes only some fruits and
yoghurt while in the car and also today's journey will be long and it was quite
late now.
It was 2 pm when we have finally started for the journey. I have got some
vegetables and herbs for GM from Syamala Mataji (the wife of Raghunath P.),
which they grow here in the garden. The trip was nice and we didn't have any
problems on the Czech-Slovak borders. The guys here take it easy. They almost
didn't look at our passports and they even considered GM to be a Czech. We have
arrived to the Prague temple at 10 pm and there few devotees were waiting for
GM and have helped me with GM's luggage up to the 2nd floor where is his room.
GM took some prasadam prepared by Omkaranath P. and then he did some work on
the computer until the early morning.
(to be continued)
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