The last few days have seen the end of Summer and the beginning of the Russian Autumn. Actually Ananda Vardhan Prabhu explained to me that now there is another season, a rainy season, just like in India. Certainly it's been raining regularly over the last few days but I wasn't sure if he was telling truth or not. He added that actually it rains for the next 3 months and then the rain gradually turns into snow... an exciting prospect from behind the double glazing of my warm room, that's for sure. As we sit outside in the midday sunshine taking prasadam, I am wrapped up with several jumpers while my Russian counterparts are walking around in T-Shirts and Indian kurtas. Within 10 minutes of prasadam I feel my hand is about ready to fall off. I'm starting to notice how most of the visiting dignitaries are taking prasadam indoors, looking out of their respective windows at the brave souls outside. So it's certainly going to be an adjustment for Srila Gurudeva and his party from Bangkok, which is mild, warm and temperate, to the constant waves of dark rain clouds riding the strong breezes blowing over our Lahta temple from the Baltic Sea.

So Sunday was the weekly street sankirttan on the famous Nevsky Prospect of Saint Petersburg. Sripad Madhava Maharaj was in full voice along with Sripad Siddhanti Maharaj and about 30-40 devotees. I had done this sankirttan many times in previous years and it was once again special to return. On this occasion there was a particularly special addition and I have been waiting for Ashutosh Prabhu to post the pictures on harekrishna.ru in order to see this addition.
And what was it? Well for the first time ever, they miked my mridanga with two FM microphones to a second amplifier carried by the devotees. I joked, that finally I had someone who could play synchronously with my playing, pointing to a devotee with the amplifier around his neck. As far as whether it worked or not, I have to say it was a wonderful success and I found that I could stay back in the centre of the kirttan party dancing with the devotees while my amplifier stayed alongside Madhava Maharaj at the head of the kirttan supplying the beat for him. Really the Russian devotees do a very good job of supplying the technological advantage in the preaching and distribution of Mahaprabhu's message, and once again they came through with flying colours. I have to say I'm looking forward to next Sunday...

Now that I've arrived here in Russia, I'm doing classes 3 or 4 times a day with many of the devotees here. Everyone wants to learn. Which prompted me to consider what it means to produce a multilingual website... considering also that there are Spanish-speaking devotees who are also keen to learn. So Prithu Prabhu a resident brahmacari here pointed me to an interesting site... www.translate.ru which has an English version of their site. The site will freely translate any url you feed it. So we put my site in and had a look at the result. I've pasted it in here, beautifully captured as a whole page by the excellent program Papparazzi.
But seriously, I'm looking into this now, and I think I will have a solution within a week or so.

I came to Saint Petersburg a few days back, to await the impending arrival of Srila Govinda Maharaj and to join the temple program and activities organised by Sripad Avadhut Maharaj, Sripad Madhava Maharaj, Sripad Vijay Raman Prabhu and the dedicated Russian servitors. One such dedicated servitor, Subala Sakha Prabhu came to India at the start of the year and returned to Saint Petersburg in February. Upon his return he started a brand new endeavour to take the books of our Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math into bookshops across the city of Saint Petersburg. Over the course of the 6 months or so to date around 500 books have been sold through 20 or 30 shops that are all ordering our books, and reordering them as they sell. To me this is a remarkable and wonderful effort of preaching to serious intelligent persons, and an excellent avenue that would be great to see attempted in other cities around the world.
Last night, Subala, Indubala dd, Amrita Krishna Prabhu and the other devotees here organised an official launch of the Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat Russian Edition in the central outlet of one of the largest chains of bookstores in Saint Petersburg. Sripad Goswami Maharaj attended and delivered a beautiful presentation of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the Krishna conception of divinity. An intelligent audience of 40-50 people asked questions for about an hour and Sripad Goswami Maharaj beautifully charmed and captivated them. Even midway through his talk, people were eagerly purchasing the large volume from our support staff. A video of Mahaprabhu's life was shown for 10 minutes and 10 minutes of chanting in kirttan rounded out a very successful program.

With Srila Govinda Maharaj's travel postponed, I find myself separate from the tour for some days. This weekend I stayed in our Moscow Ashram at Kiselnyy and we had some very nice programs with guests and devotees coming as possible to attend. The Sri Giriraj deity, usually presiding in Moscow, had taken a vacation to Saint Petersburg in expectation of the arrival of Srila Gurudeva, so we were without his presence. It is really very inspiring to see the humble service mood of the devotees here and to hear of their recent successful preaching endeavours in Moscow tied in with the Indian Independence anniversary celebrations.

The last two days have been very sweet in the association of Srila Gurudeva and the devotees. Many Malaysian devotees returned home yesterday morning, and spent some time with Srila Gurudeva before going. Gurudeva visited a buddhist temple not far from our centre here, and fed the large fish in the lake there. He took several photos including one of a large form of Lord Vishnu riding Sri Garuda which was above the entranceway to the temple. Unfortunately he couldn't climb all the stairs in order to go inside. This morning Srila Gurudeva came downstairs and sat in his darshan chair to inaugurate daily sankirttan in the centre. Together with the devotees we took turns to sing songs from the morning program for an hour and a half. More devotees arrived including Urmila and the visiting Chinese devotees accompanied by Sripad Yudhamanyu Prabhu. Afterwards Srila Gurudeva retired to his room, and the devotees took breakfast.
This afternoon Srila Gurudeva decided to go to Safari World, a wildlife park here in Bangkok. There were lions, bengal tigers, rhinoceros, giraffes, himalayan bears, zebras, and many other animals in a drive-through park, where the cars drive within a few metres of the animals as they wander around. Gurudeva and the devotees took several photos, with the lions and tigers although a little sleepy in the afternoon sun, of most interest.

Srila Gurudeva along with all the devotees here, celebrated the Disappearance Festival of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj very beautifully yesterday. Joined by several of Srila Guru Maharaj's disciples including Sripad Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj, Sripad Srutasrava Prabhu, Sripad Yudhamanyu Prabhu, Sripad Anadi Krishna Prabhu, Sripad Parampada Prabhu and Sripad Aprakrita Prabhu along with family members, Srila Gurudeva led an intimate ceremony recounting the glories of Srila Guru Maharaj and his pre-eminent position in the Rupanuga sampradaya. He spoke extensively about Srila Guru Maharaj's desire to preach, his preaching activities in Sri Gaudiya Math, as well as his preaching desire after establishing Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. Although he was inclined towards a life of bhajan at that time, still he would accompany preaching parties to various areas, and also constantly encourage Srila Gurudeva and others to go out and preach the glorious conception of Mahaprabhu as given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur in the line of Srila Rupa Goswami. Srila Govinda Maharaj sang the songs 'Sri Rupa Manjari pada' and 'ye anilo prema dhana,' and led the pushpanjali offering to Srila Guru Maharaj, after the devotees had offered arati to Srila Guru Maharaj. A sumptuous prasadam feast included some of Guru Maharaj's favourite dishes; muri, samosas, and others and the devotees were very happy to have the opportunity to worship Srila Guru Maharaj in the presence of his chosen successor, Srila Govinda Maharaj.
In the afternoon, Srila Gurudeva took a ride to town to see the decorations and celebrations of the city in honour of the Queen's Birthday. Returning in the evening, Gurudeva took his prasadam and rest. More devotees arrived to see him and offer their humble prayers at his lotus feet, and everyone associated well into the night on this most auspicious day.

Our second day here in Thailand was very relaxing for Srila Gurudeva. Through the morning he saw the many visiting devotees giving his merciful affectionate blessings and expressing how happy and surprised he was that so many devotees had been able to come to Bangkok. In the afternoon, he went out to the neighborhood on a scooter rented for him by Paramananda Prabhu. He rode around with many devotees in tow, and surveyed the green parklands and waterways nearby. Afterwards he returned for his evening prasadam and preparations for the grand festival the next day.

Everything came together very nicely for the grand 23rd World Tour of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. The first leg of the tour was a nicely timed midday flight on Jet Airways from Kolkata into Bangkok, Thailand. Many devotees came from Nabadwip to see Srila Govinda Maharaj off. Devotees had visited and called for several days in order to offer their wellwishes and affectionate obeisances.
We were fortunate to have a flight that was perhaps half-full and every care was taken for Srila Gurudeva, with a padded wheelchair all the way to the plane. A short flight (including a few delicious chum chums) and we were soon descending on the green landscapes of Thailand. We weren't quite ready for the reception, which was beautifully orchestrated by Sripad Paramananda Prabhu, our host here in Bangkok. He was inside the airport, meeting us up the ramp with garlands and officials, to ensure the smooth transit of our whole party through customs and baggage claim. We calmly passed a two hour cue at immigration to the head of the dignitaries line and very soon we were looking on as Sripad Srutasrava Prabhu pulled up with Srila Gurudeva's car, with Yadu Krishna Prabhu of Russia in another car behind. We were swiftly whisked away towards central Bangkok, only to meet an uncommon jam. After patiently working our way through the many toll booths, we came away from the centre of the city and were soon at the Paramananda Prabhu's house of residence.
It is a beautiful two-storey house, with ample room and comfortable decor. Srila Govinda Maharaj was received by around 30 devotees who had travelled mainly from Malaysia and China. He sat immediately in his chair giving darshan, quoting a few verses including sadhu sanga sadhu sanga sarvva sastre kaya, lava-matra sadhu-sanga sarvva siddhi haya, about the importance of getting the association of a devotee even very briefly. He chatted with everyone for around 30-40 mins before retiring to his quarters for prasadam and rest. Every arrangement was made and the devotees all happily gathered to take prasadam, catch up and sort out accomodation. This evening is a time of rest as we prepare for what promises to be a busy weekend with the Disappearance festival of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to be celebrated on Sunday.