A few days ago, early in May, I boarded Flight 677 from Warsaw to Moscow. As I looked around, I marveled at how times had changed. The Aeroflot plane was a brand-new Boeing 737, a marked difference from the one I took from England to Russia in the spring of 1989. In those days every plane in Aeroflot's fleet was well over twenty years old

After two months of preaching and fundraising in the United States, I was ready for a break, so when Swarup Damodar dasa, president of the Durban temple in South Africa, asked me to come in April for Ratha-yatra, I jumped at the chance

After my unsettling experiences in the San Diego and Vancouver airports, where I was interrogated by security officials, I again considered wearing non-devotional dress while traveling in the United States.

As my flight to Los Angeles took off, I looked through the window at the disappearing Australian landscape and thought about my three-month visit to the country. "Our festival tour was intense," I thought, "but it went by in a flash. When you enjoy what you're doing, time passes quickly."

With the hustle-bustle of Hong Kong behind me, I boarded a plane and settled in for the long haul to Sydney. Twenty-eight devotees from my summer festival program in eastern Europe had arrived in Australia the previous week. We would be touring the country for three months

He gave me a salagrama sila that had been worshiped in his family since the time Mahaprabhu stayed with them. And he made it clear that it was in appreciation of ISKCON and the great work you did in spreading Krsna consciousness all over the world.

By serving Madan Mohan one conquers material desires; by serving Govindaji one purifies the senses; and by serving Gopinatha, master of the gopis, one achieves pure love of God, the perfection of life

My dear godbrother Sridhar Maharaja, Each of us in his own way benefited from your saintly association when you were among us: your disciples from your fatherly guidance on the spiritual path, your friends and well-wishers from your brotherly love and affection, and the fallen jivas from your learned talks on the Absolute Truth.

The day after our last festival in Poland, I boarded a flight for India and landed the next morning in Delhi. I was going down a flight of stairs leading to Immigration and Customs when my knees buckled and I began to fall. A large man grabbed me from behind in the nick of time.

After the Woodstock festival we went back to our programs on the Baltic Sea coast. We were exhausted but determined to make it through the last seventeen days of our tour. There might be some austerities, but the satisfaction of sharing Krsna consciousness with thousands of people would far outweigh any discomfort.

"Over my dead body!" screamed the woman over the telephone. As I entered the office I could hear every word she was saying to Nandini dasi: "Never! I'll never rent my school to you people! Not in a million years!" With that, she hung up.

My dear spiritual master, I know that one day the curtain will close and my part in this festival program will come to an end. My hope and prayer is that my disciples will continue to push it on, having imbibed the purpose and spirit of this service from their own spiritual master.

"Losing the battle doesn't mean losing the war," I said to Nandini dasi. One of our festivals had been canceled despite her determined efforts, and she was sitting there fuming

On Monday the Polish police raided our school base looking for drugs. The next day, the devotees went for harinama on the beach. Most of the devotees went by bus, and I was in a van with a few others.

The atheists are always prepared to harass a devotee; therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu suggested that one be very tolerant of these people. Nonetheless, one has to continue chanting the Hare Krsna mantra and preaching the chanting of this mantra because such preaching and chanting constitute the perfection of life.

One thing I appreciate about traveling in Russia is the constant reminders that this world is an unhappy place. I am reminded again and again to become serious and to focus on my devotional service.

I am happy in Krsna consciousness. With each rising and setting of the sun, I come closer to the goal of my life. I constantly thank Krsna for allowing me to meet with Srila Prabhupada's books and my eternal spiritual master in this life.

Srila Prabhupada says: "I have been in Russia also. It is not that they are godless. The population is as good as in other country, but the government is suppressing. So that is another chapter...

A monsoon of ecstatic spiritual love brings great floods. All of Santipura floats on those waters. Alas! Ananta-raya's heart was not swept away by those flooding nectaran waters

So I have seen so many prisoners. They were shackled with iron chains. So we are also chained up here, and what is that chain? That is our sense enjoyment. Yes. We are chained in this material world by sense enjoyment. That's all.

Our festivals in Sydney were a huge hit. We had given the event a French name, Le Carnaval Spirituel. During December we averaged more than five hundred people a show. After the New Year, we traveled north to Brisbane and held another round of successful programs on the Gold Coast.

Our festival programs continued in the Sydney area with great success. I had come with twenty-eight devotees from various countries, and many of them were staying in rooms at the Sydney temple. Devotees from other parts of Australia were also staying there for the Christmas Marathon.

During the 1970s, I would get culture shock whenever I went to India. The crowded cities, the heat, the food, the occasional sickness, and the austerities of local travel would painfully remind me that I was a stranger in a foreign land.