by Nandarani dd

Srila Gurudeva in Finland

Srila Gurudeva arrived in Finland on Wednesday January 29th. On Wednesday and Thursday nights he spent visiting his disciples and on Thursday morning he gave a Bhagavatam class at the temple. The verse (2.6.20) as well as the purport were quite straight ones so we were waiting with a little excitement for what kind of class it would be.

After the class Gurudeva said that he did not want to give any heavy sannyasi class about renunciation in its own right. So, he was talking very nicely about how our consciousness is the thing that matters. The real renunciation is to think about Krishna’s pleasure, not our own. It is artificial to act as a renunciate but not to try to please Krishna.

Gurudeva wanted to visit Estonia too like he always does when he is visiting Finland. However, this winter has been colder than usually and boats have had difficulties to get into their destinations because of ice. The situation has been especially difficult when ice has been moving because of the wind and blocking open areas made by icebreakers. There has been several boats at the same time on the sea unable to proceed or return. Also it happened just prior to Gurudeva’s visit that some cruise passengers had to stay in Estonia and their boat returned to Finland without them since the boat could not pick them up because of the wind. Estonia does not even have any icebreakers since they sold the only one they had last year because there had not been any need for it for seven years.

When Gurudeva came to Finland from Sweden the boat was late because there was so much ice on the haven. So, he said that he wanted a guarantee that he would be able to return from Estonia. Otherwise he would not go there at all because his busy schedual would be spoiled if he missed his flights from Finland to Slovenia.

I do have to admit that we were pretty specific on informing Gurudeva in detail about the difficulties boats have been having. His visit in Finland was a shorter one now than usually and we would not have mind if he had stayed a little longer. However, for the benefit of Estonian devotees he decided to go there and although boats were late, there were no serious problems. He travelled on Friday and returned the next day.

On Saturday night we had a home program at Astasakhi’s and Jayananda’s appartment. They are both Gurudeva’s disciples. We started the program around 5 PM but Gurudeva’s boat was late so he arrived a little later. The small appartment was really packed but everyone was happy when chanting together and having Gurudeva’s association. Gurudeva and his disciple Venu Gopal were taking turns on playing the guitar and again it was noticed, how chanting Hare Krishna mantra is both fun as well as the solution for all miseries.

After chanting Gurudeva was reading The Nectar of Devotion. The chapter was about vipralambhaseva, service in separation. After reading Gurudeva told a very sweet story from Brhad Bhagavatamrta about Krishna’s feelings of separation.

Krishna was in Dwaraka and one morning His feelings of separation from the residents of Vrndavan were so strong that He did not want to get up from His bed at all. This was very extraordinary since usually He always wanted to set a good example by getting up early in the morning at the Brahma muhurta time. However, this time He did not do that and all the residents of Dwaraka were really worried about Him. They were considering how to best serve Him and finally a replica of Vrndavan was built near Dwaraka and Krishna was taken there. However, all the residents of the replica were just statues so they could not move. Still, to enjoy His pastimes Krishna was acting under His yogamaya potency and He did not notice that the residents were not real. He was just thinking that they were in ecstacy to see Him and were like stones because of that. Gurudeva said that the whole thing was Krishna’s therapy for depression!

Gurudeva was also asking some questions from Srila Prabhupada’s Krishna book and made us embarrassed because we were unable to answer most of them.. Gurudeva is always saying that too many devotees do not know well enough even the basic books like Bhagavad-gita and it is not good at all that they do not concentrate more on studing them but prefer reading so many other things. So, many devotees decided to do some homework.

After taking Prasadam we all started to leave since it was getting a little late. Of course, it would have been great to continue forever since we had such a good time together but Gurudeva is always stressing the importance of sadhana and setting an example for us with his own regular schedule.

On Sunday Gurudeva gave the Bhagavatam class in the morning and the Bhagavad-gita class in the Sunday Feast. Otherwise he spent practically speaking all his time talking with devotees on that day as well as the other days during his visit. Even after the Sunday Feast he had guests in Kesava Madhava’s appartment were he was staying. He had not have a chance to meet them earlier so he had invited them for a dinner. During the dinner other people also came to say goodbye.

Gurudeva left early on the Monday morning. Like always, during his short visit he made us feel that actually he is serving us much more than we ever could serve him – although it should be vice versa.