Six days after getting back to my home base in New Goloka from Fiji, I was supposed to travel again to Slovenia. This meant that I would have to endure a 14 hour change in time. This is the most difficult part of traveling for me. Flying I find relaxing as there are no phones or other disturbances and I can take advantage of the time to read Krishna Conscious literature.

A few weeks ago Saranam paid for a handheld computer (PDA) for me. I found that I could load all of Prabhupada’s books into it as well as the supplementary Vedic literatures like the Mahabharata and Ramayana. So now I have a whole Vedic library in my bead bag pocket!

On Wednesday, May 2 I embarked on my first trip to Slovenia. Somehow or other Krishna has arranged that I take on the GBC for Slovenia. I have never been to Slovenia, but some devotees (including the temple president Damana Krishna) from Slovenia knew me and they requested the GBC body that I take this responsibility.

The GBC’s duty is to act as the representative of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, to ensure that the spiritual standards are followed (morning program, sadhana, etc), as well as acting as a watchdog for the society protecting the society’s assets both material and spiritual. In general the GBCs duty is not to manage directly but to inspire the local leaders with the proper vision and standards to carry out the management.

I flew into Venice because the flights are a lot cheaper than flying directly to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia where our temple is). It is only a two and a half hour drive from the airport to the temple.

Arriving at the Venice airport I was surprised to be greeted by an airport official who loudly exclaimed, “Hare Krishna,” and then offered to carry my bags to the waiting devotees. The official is the father of one of our devotees in the Prabhupadadesa temple which is close to Venice.

Outside I met Damana Krishna Prabhu and Kavi Karnapura. Damana Krishna is the president and Kavi Karnapura is the treasurer of our temple in Slovenia. Damana Krishna was previously (before he joined the movement) the weight-lifting champion of Sweden and was able to press over 200 kilos (440 pounds). He definitely looks like a weight-lifter. At least I knew that I would be safe in his association.

The drive back was uneventful. The guards at the border were so sleepy that they did not even check passports, they just waved us through.

Arriving at the temple I was surprised by the nice reception the devotees had arranged. There was a big kirtana at the temple entrance.

I could see that there were many nice young devotees here. Damana informed me that there are hundreds of initiated devotees in Slovenia. This is remarkable considering that the population of Slovenia is less than 2 million. If we had the same proportion of devotees to the populace in our state of North Carolina (which has a population of over 6 million), we would have thousands of devotees in North Carolina. It is very enlivening to be amongst so many young enthusiastic devotees. I told the devotees during my arrival address that I felt 20 years younger just by being in their association.

The presiding deities here are Sri Sri Panca Tattva. They are the happiest Panca Tattva Deities that I have ever seen. I took many pictures of them.

Because I arrived late in the afternoon, I decided to just take prasadam and rest for the rest of the day. I was quite exausted after traveling all night in the plane, changing planes in various airports and taking a two and half hour car trip.

The next morning I woke up before Mongal Aroti. Even though I was jet lagged out because the time is 6 hours later than the east coast of the USA I knew that I must make it to the morning program to set a good example for the devotees. I see that setting a good example of sadhana; chanting with the devotees, attending the morning program, etc. is my most important service. Without a strong morning program temples gradually fall apart.

Of course sometimes it is a real austerity to wake up early when one is accustomed to another time zone. But I don’t even entertain the thought of rising late. This time in Slovenia I was so tired that I felt that someone had removed the upper portion of my skull but somehow or other I made it through the program.

Generally it takes me 2-4 days to completely adjust to a new time zone. Of course going to India usually takes a whole week. And going from Fiji to Slovenia (a time zone change of 14 hours) is a real challenge.

After the morning program I met with the devotees. I was very happy to see that Smita Krishna Maharaja, my old friend, was there. He and I took prasadam together and decided to go for a walk later in the day.

Also I met many of the devotee musicians who were heading to the German farm for Nrsimha Caturdasi. At the German farm there was going to be a really big festival with devotees from all over the world. As much as I am enthusiastic about festivals I know that they are not for me as I don’t have the stamina that I used to have and it would not be the best thing for my health to get overstressed and overexausted. I am very carefully moderating my daily activities. I compare my life to the race of the turtle. I may not go very fast but at least I am slow and steady.

I went to a rehearsal of the musicians and was impressed by their ability. They have studios here, and when they return on Monday, they promised to do some recording and music with me and some of the other devotees who were coming.

Later Friday the 4^th I went for my daily walk with Smita Krishna Maharaja and Isana Prabhu. The local of the temple is amazing. It is only 5 minutes walking from the center of the city, and 2 minutes walk to the most beautiful city park that I have ever seen. The park is situated on a hill and there are wonderful trails around this hill. Perfect for exercise and chanting.

Walking out the front door of the temple I was amazed to see a statue of a naked man who was depicted as running through an opening, apparently escaping from something. At first I thought that maybe this was a monument to a devotee who had somehow or other escaped (blooped) in the middle of the night from the temple but had not made it!

I told the devotees with me that they should at least put a dhoti or underwear on this statue as it was not proper in front of the Hare Krishna Temple. The devotees informed me that this was not permissible as the statue was a government monument commemorating the escape of a Slovenian citizen from the basement of this building during World War II. This building was used by the Nazi storm troopers to torture people. I was shocked to hear about the cruelty of the Nazis. This is the opposite of Vaisnavism where we are supposed to consider other’s happiness and distress more significant than our own.

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The devotees also informed me that because the building was used for such nefarious purposes before it was not auspicious and that many ghosts were there. I assured the devotees that where the Holy Names are chanted even negligently, ghosts could not remain. I have this firm faith in the holy name.

Many times in the past devotees have talked to me about ghosts and how we needed some professional ghost busters in different places to take care of them, but I have always refused to listen to such talks as my faith in the sastric descriptions of the potency of Krishna’s names remains unshakable.

Years ago there was one “ghost buster” from India who was invited by the local GBC to visit different places in Europe. He charged about 50 dollars a pop to bust people’s ghosts. Devotees were lined up for blocks practically to avail themselves of his services. He became very rich by this process. I was thinking if I ever needed any money I could do this too!

When I was temple president in Caracas, Venezuela we had one mataji who would do sankirtana by dressing up as a gypsy and telling peoples fortune with a crystal ball. It was quite amazing to watch her.

I personally will just go on chanting. Krishna’s names ki jaya!

Smita Krishna Maharaja, Isana, and myself had a wonderful walk to the other side of the hill. Isana was kind enough to pay our admission to the small zoo.

We spent about an hour in the zoo seeing various species of life, from serpents to gorillas. I was lamenting that I did not bring any prasadam to feed the poor animals. Actually someone who is simply living to eat, sleep, mate and defend is no better than the animals even though he may do it in a sophisticated way. At least I was able to chant to the animals and in this way implant the bhakti-lata bija in their hearts.

Saturday (the 5^th) Smita Krishna Maharaja gave the morning lecture and I decided to give the Gita class at night. Damana Krishna and myself also went for a nice walk on this day, and met with various Vaisnavas. I told the devotees when I first arrived that my main service was helping them, so I wanted to meet with each and everyone of them to get to know them.

Sunday (the 6^th) was Lord Nrsimha’s appearance day! We followed the normal morning schedule. Mongal aroti here is at 5:00 AM instead of the regular 4:30. I appreciate this as I am usually needing more rest than normal after changing time zones.

We are reading in the morning from the 10^th canto, 6^th chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam concerning Krishna’s killing the Putana demoness and accepting her as his eternal servant. It is quite amazing to think of Krishna unlimited mercy in this regard.

It was raining today so there was no chance of a walk, although I ran around my room. It is important for me to exercise daily.

The evening program started at 4 PM with an abhiseka of Prahlada Nrsimha. Then I gave a class on Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance from 5 to 6PM. I spoke about the reasons for the Lord’s appearance and also the pastimes.

At 6 PM Isana Prabhu had me give certificates to those who were advancing through the different preliminary stages of the siksa program. I am very impressed with this siksa program. He has developed it into a systematic method of engaging everyone in Srila Prabhupada’s service. I hope to be able to institute this system elsewhere in my zone.

The rest of the week was spent in meeting individually with the devotees. Srila Prabhupada has stated that the primary duty of the GBC is to help the devotees. He has emphasized that others can do more outside preaching but the GBC members must care for our existing members.

I was able to visit a wonderful community about 45 minutes away from the capital. It is in a beautiful area of the country surrounded by rolling hills and farm land. The members of this community are outstanding members of Slovenian society who are supporting our movement.

All in all I was very impressed with the calibre of devotees in Slovenia and see great potential for our movement becoming prominent in the near future.

Before I left Slovenia I met with the musicians (who were once part of the famous band “Transcendance” and discussed the means to reorganize the music program. Previous this band was one of the top bands in Slovenia and literally hundreds joined the movement being attracted to their music. I am going to try and gather some funds from different sources to help them get some equipment and if everything goes well I will join them for some of their programs.

As I was flying back to the United States from Venice early in the morning (about 6 am) I decided it was more practical for me to spend the night in Venice. Fortunately there is a wonderful devotee couple that lives 10 minutes from the airport and I was treated to genuine Italian Prasadam (my favorite) before my journey back to New Goloka.