Camp: New Delhi

Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. All Glories to Guru Maharaja.

September 8th 2002, Sunday

This morning Guru Maharaj gave Srimad Bhagavatam class at New Delhi temple. He was talking about the importance of remembering Krishna at the time of death. Guru Maharaj was giving an example of Bhishmadeva, how fortunate he was that Krishna himself was present at the time of his death. He also said that if a person wants to progress in spiritual life, then Krishna will help him in the form of Paramatma, and if a person wants to forget Krishna, then Paramatma will also help him to do so. So it is very important to be serious and sincere on this path of devotional service, in order to remember Krishna at the time of death, get ourselves free from samsara, repeated cycle of birth and death and attain pure love of Godhead.

After going for his walk, Guru Maharaj came back to the temple and took a little breakfast. Laxman-priya, Guru Maharaja's servant packed Guru Maharaja's suitcase and at 11:30am we left for Jaipur by car, with one other devotee from Turkmenistan, Brajajana das.

It took us around 4,5 hours to get there. The trip was nice and smooth, and Guru Maharaj was chanting on initiation beads most of the time. I was falling asleep most of the time, but Guru Maharaj didn't let me space out. We had an air conditioned car, and sometimes, when everyone in the car would fall asleep (except the driver of course.:) , Guru Maharaj would suddenly awake and open the window. Jockingly he'd say: "Here is some fresh air for you so you don't fall asleep.. You should all chant." The car was moving fast, and hot air plus noise from open window would immediately bring me back to senses. Temperature outside was +45 C. Many times Guru Maharaj would look back and ask if the Deities are ok. I carried bag with Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai on my lap, and made sure that they feel comfortable.

In Jaipur we stayed at one devotee's place, and in the evening Guru Maharaj gave initiation to 8 devotees in the temple room. Jaipur temple is situated on 5 acres of farm land. It's a small building, but they are planning to build a big project there soon. They also have a goshala with 7 or 8 cows. After initiation, I showed the slide show about preaching in Russia, and then everybody had prasadam. We came back home late, around 11:30pm.

September 9th 2002, Monday

This morning Guru Maharaj got up at 3:45am, and at 4:05 went for mangala-arati to three famous temples of Jaipur - Sri Sri Radha-Govinda, Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha and Sri Sri Radha-Madanmohan. At around 8am Guru Maharaj did his puja, and then went to one devotee's house for breakfast. At 10:15am we left for Vrindavan. In some parts, the road wasn't so good, but Guru Maharaj probably didn't even notice it. He was very tired and I asked him to please take some rest. Brajajana prabhu did some massage to Guru Maharaj, and after two hours or so Guru Maharaj began chanting.

It took us 4 hours to go from Jaipur to Vrindavan, and we had to go through 2 or 3 toll booths on the way. When we approached the toll booth, Guru Maharaj would tell the driver to open his window, and tell the toll booth man with folded hands: "Hare Krishna! Ei mandir ka ghari hai.."(Hare Krishna! This is temple car.) The man in return would fold his hands before Guru Maharaj and say with a smile: "Aagar ei mandir ka ghari hai, to mereko tora prasad dedo.."(If this is a temple car, then give me some prasadam). I would then take out some of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda ji mahaprasadam sweets from basket and give it to the man. He'd put it to his forhead with respect, and walk away to share with his friends.

We've reached Sri Sri Krishna-Balaram Mandir at 2:30pm, and Ganapati Prabhu, Guest House manager and temple vice president welcomed Guru Maharaj with a big garland. Guru Maharaj took a little rest, and then to do 4:30pm arati to Sri Sri Krishna-Balaram. At 6:10pm Guru Maharaj gave Srimad Bhagavad-Gita class in Srila Prabhupada's house for all the devotees. At 7:00pm he lead Gaura-arati in the temple room, and then met devotees in his room till 10pm.
Guru Maharaj was very tired and I tried to tell devotees to see him
tomorrow. But when I did that, Guru Maharaj would call me into his room and say to bring in anyone who was outside.

Hare Krishna.