January 14-15, 2002

Monday, January 14th, 2002

Guru Maharaj is coming back from Bombay and is getting ready to leave for an 8-days long trip to Central Asia. We spent the whole day packing and re-checking everything a few times to make sure that we dont forget anything. It's going to be cold in Central Asia, and the suitcase seems to be heavier than usually.. Winter coat, warm socks, chaddars . . .

Guru Maharaj arrived to Delhi at 7pm, and he is very tired. This morning he gave a class in Bombay, and spent all day in the meetings. I asked him to take a little more rest today, but it seemed like my words were just words, because today is the last day before his journey abroad, and many people come to visit him at night and relish his instructions. I am trying to stop them from entering Guru Maharaja's room, but Guru Maharaj tells me to let them all in.

It's a difficult situation, and sometimes I get confused.. From one side, I am supposed to follow whatever Guru Maharaja tells me to do, which means that I do have to let all the people in, but from other side, the voice of a secretary inside me tells to stop this constant flow of people, and let Guru Maharaja rest. After thinking for a while I come to a conclusion that afterall, it's my duty to care for his health and make sure that his preaching runs smoothly.

Tuesday, January 15th, 2002

Today, at 12:50 we are leaving by Uzbekistan Airways for Tashkent. I tried to take as little personal luggage as possible, because Guru Maharaja's suitcase already was overweight. But by Krishna's grace people at the Delhi airport were very nice and they let us off with little overweight, because they saw that we are devotees.

This morning it suddenly hit my head that I forgot to make an income-tax clearance certificate. You need that paper in order to go out of India if you stayed in the country more than six months. I was feeling a little depressed because I knew that if they will ask for it, I am not flying anywhere, and the next flight was only after three days. I don't think Guru Maharaj would like the idea of my catching up with him 3 days later, on his 8-days long trip. I took a bunch of small beautiful calenders with me to give to passport control personnell as a gift.. Maybe that would work, I thought. I was only affraid that if I won't be able to go, Guru Maharaj will think of me as of a spaced-out inefficient secretary, and I really didn't want that.

The fatal minute has come. Passport control officer was going through my passport when I smiled and took out a small pocket calender with beautiful picture of Sri Sri Radha-Parthasarathi, presiding Deities of the Delhi temple. I was sure that officer will get purified by looking at the Deities and let me go. Well, at least I really wanted it that way.

"Hare Krishna.!" - I looked at the officer making my smile as good as I can, "Here is a small gift for you. Have you ever been to our Hare Krishna temple here in Delhi?"

The officer stopped eating up my passport with his eyes. While slowly rising his eyes, the expression of his face has changed and smiling back he said "Well, I've heard a lot of good things about you guys, but I've never actually been to your temple. I'm sure I will go there one day. Thank you."

It was taking me longer than usual, and Guru Maharaj, having gone through passport control came up to me wondering what's going on. He addressed the officer in Hindi - "Hare Krishna!" The officer looked at Guru Maharaj with respect - "Hare Krishna, Swamiji."

"He is with me." - stated Guru Maharaj. "O'kay, Swamiji" - uttered the officer and put stamp in my passport letting me go. Wiping off cold sweat from my forehead, my heartbeat became normal and I followed Guru Maharaja to the plane. I felt great relief and was full of bliss. Afterall, Krishna does exist.!

It was not a very long flight. Only 2:20 minutes, and we have arrived at Tashkent at around 3:30pm local time. The temperature outside was +2, and it was pretty cold compare to India. There was snow lying here and there, but it was all wet and half-melted. There was the whole bunch of people standing on their toes outside, at arrival gate, concentrating on what was going on inside the airport building, where the passengers were. They were all dressed up in winter civil dress of blackish grey palette. It was difficult to make out who was a devotee and who was not.

For a moment I thought that maybe noone came to pick us up.!.. but hey, as soon as we came out, devotees have revealed their real svarupa (form) and began chanting and dancing. Wov! There were lot of them. Maybe around 20-30, I was too tired to count. :) Making sure that all the bags are in the car, we have proceeded towards the house we were staying in. This nice facility was offered to us by Mathura Mohan prabhu. He gave his house to the devotees so that Maharajas can stay there when they come to visit Tashkent.

After taking a little rest and getting ready, Guru Maharaj went to the temple, which is only 7 minutes away. There he leads Gaura-arati and gives 1,5hrs long class on Bhagavad-Gita. He is very tired, but his tremendous preaching spirit does not let him rest.

. . . to be continued . . .