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"To show them special mercy, I,
dwelling in their hearts, destroy
with
the shining lamp of knowledge the
darkness born of ignorance."
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dipika.org
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Diary
of a Traveling Preacher
Indradyumna Swami
Volume 6
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Srila Prabhupada dipika.org Features Books Contributors Discussions Downloads Padayatra Photos Websites Worldwide Earlier Articles
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Diary of a Traveling Preacher
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July 29–August 10, 2005
"Dreams Coming True"
After the difficulties we went through on July 7, I started having nightmares every night. One evening, after a week, I talked about it with Sri Prahlada das. "It's been a long time since I had a Krsna conscious dream," I said. "Since the tour started in May, I've only been dreaming of war or being chased or having to hide. I know it's the result of preaching in a society often opposed to what we do, but I wish there were some relief, at least in sleep."
"I know how you feel," said Sri Prahlada. "I've been having some bad dreams lately as well, but things will change when we go to the Woodstock festival in a couple of weeks."
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July 5–28, 2005
"Difficult lessons"
Our spring tour had been a success. We had put on 12 big festivals with a total attendance of over 60,000, so our spirits were high as we began the summer tour in early July along the Baltic Coast. Our ranks had swelled to over 220 devotees, filling to capacity the school we had rented in Siemys'l, a village of 300 people.
The school would be our base for the summer, and the villagers welcomed us with waves and warm smiles, in sharp contrast to their mood last summer. I asked Nandini dasi, about the change.
June 21 – July 4, 2005
"The Frowning Girl"
One day, when Monika was seven years old, she surprised her mother. "Mommy," she said, "I believe in reincarnation."
"Really?" said her mother, a devout Roman Catholic. "Where did you ever get such an idea? Certainly you haven't learned this in church."
"I don't know, Mommy," Monika said. "But I know it's true. After we die, we are born again."
"Well keep it to yourself," her mother said. "Out here in the countryside, people just won't understand."
On the last day of the Woodstock Festival, Tara Dasa and Radha Sakhi Vrnda Devi Dasi were married on the main stage of Krsna's Village of Peace.
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June 9–20, 2005
"Back On The Front Lines"
On the flight from Moscow to Warsaw, I counted the money I had collected for the festival program in Poland. I had gone to Russia to raise funds for increasing the security of the program, but my collection didn't come to much. In fact it barely covered the costs of my travels through Russia.
But I didn't lament. The wonderful experiences I'd had preaching in Russia were priceless. As Srila Prabhupada once wrote to a disciple, "Preaching in the snows of Moscow is sweeter than the sweetest mango."
June 5 - 8, 2005
"Without Discrimination"
Every morning while I was visiting Rostov, Russia, we would drive from the apartment where I was staying to the temple, an old house in a poor neighborhood of dirt streets outside the city. The temple didn't have facilities for more than a handful of devotees, what to speak of guests.
Over 100 devotees would line the road to greet us with kirtan, but one morning I noticed three or four dark-skinned people in ordinary clothes among them.
June 2-4, 2005
"The Debate"
Throughout my Russian preaching tour, I had been corresponding by email with Sri Prahlada das about managing my time better. My schedule has been so intense the last six months that I have found little time to study, an essential practice for one who lectures two or three times a day. As I grow older, I also find myself hankering to spend more time chanting japa as well as worshiping my beloved Deities each morning.
May 26 - June 1, 2005
"Sharing Good Fortune With Others"
My three-day visit to Tatarstan went by fast. It is said that if you enjoy what you are doing time passes quickly but if you are bored or annoyed time drags on. And I was doing what I enjoy most: sharing my good fortune with others.
Several months earlier, I had been talking with my son, Gaura Sakti dasa, about how the devotees of my generation are starting to pass away. "You've lived such a full life," he said, "even if you were to die today, you would have nothing to lament."
"In Service To Him"
Just over a thousand devotees came to the festival in Dniepropetrovsk, a large city in Ukraine. It was a three-day event: a day in glorification of Srila Prabhupada, the appearance day of Lord Nrsimhadeva, and my birthday. It also marked the 18th year of my service as a spiritual master.
On the morning of my Vyasa-puja celebration, I checked through the list of my disciples. There were over 2,000. Although all of them certainly knew me, I could not possibly remember each and every one. I took a deep breath. "It's a heavy service, isn't it?" I thought. "But it's the order of my own Guru Maharaja."
May 16 - 23, 2005
"A New Beginning"
I took a flight from Warsaw to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, with Sri Prahlad das and Rukmini Priya dasi. We landed in the early afternoon on a warm spring day. As we walked outside from the international terminal to the domestic for our connecting flight, we saw many people lounging about casually on benches or sitting at small sidewalk cafes.
April 29 - May 15, 2005
"Same Mission, Same Mercy"
I arrived back in Warsaw on May 8, after an absence of nearly six months. My travels had taken me to the far corners of the earth, to such places as Australia, India, the United States, and South Africa. People in those prominent countries often consider Poland, tucked away in Eastern Europe and off the beaten track, as a place of less importance.
April 14 - 28, 2005
"Tales of Wonder"
As our two-month tour of the American temples was coming to a close, I found myself drawing on my body's reserve energies. Our schedule of two or three programs a day meant I rarely went to bed before midnight. Constantly on the move, traveling back and forth through different time zones, eating irregularly, and sleeping in a different home every other day had become a taxing routine and had taken its toll on me.
In Alachua, Florida, I fainted one morning as I left the temple. A devotee helped me outside and sat me on the lawn. "Maharaja," he said, "you'd better slow down. Take it easy."
February 11 - April 13, 2005
"Lessons on the Road"
Since leaving Sri Lanka in late February I have had several dreams of the devastation caused by the tsunami and of the victims that I attended to. That real-life drama left an indelible impression on my mind. Even the most beautiful scenes of nature now appear tainted, for I realize more than ever before that everything in this world is temporary and subject to destruction.
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