We arrived in Vrindavan on the 15th of March - one day before Gaur Purnima. The Holi Festival was in full swing, and the last couple of days are usually intense and can almost become violent, so I mainly remained at our ISKCON temple or in the Kirtan Ashram.

I still had not completely recovered from my nasty cough, and my voice had also not returned to full strength. Especially as a preacher the voice is our main weapon, and I was concerned to give it a good rest - the foremost way to heal the voice. Devotees had warned me not to over-strain my vocal cords since this can lead to permanent damage. So I decided to give my body a good break and cancel the seminar, which I was scheduled to give here in Vrindavan: an introduction into the topic of spiritual culture.

My time in Mayaur had been very intense, with two Holy Name Retreats in Ekachakra, one Retreat in Nepal, three weeks of teaching followed by the inauguration of the Institute for Spiritual Culture, while attending the Kirtan Mela and the Maha Abhishek. It had been a blissful marathon.

The first time I met Abhyarci Mataji was in 1990 or 1991 - I can't exactly remember. I was married at the time, and by Krsna's arrangement we were establishing the temple in Riga/Latvia, which was in those days part of the Soviet Union. HH Niranjana Swami had sent some girls from Ukraine to us to receive some training, and Abhyarci was one of them. She stayed for around six months with us, and already then I noticed her as a very enthusiastic and sincere devotee, always eager to serve the devotees and distribute books.

Then, for some years, our paths didn't cross. I met her again regularly from the year 2000 onwards, when I started preaching in Ukraine and Moldova, and also came to Mayapur every year. I always appreciated her as a simple and straight forward devotee - sincere and like minded, and I have always liked to associate with her.

Some years ago, when Bhaja Govinda Prabhu from Kiev/Ukraine left his body in Mayapur, we took care of him, together with her husband Govinda Datta Prabhu. I then bought the Krsna Art Book with the nice paintings to help Bhaja Govinda absorb his mind while looking at the beautiful pictures. And I pointed at the paintings which she should show me when my turn would come to prepare for death..... Little did we know that she would leave first....

The 5th of March marked the long awaited day when we inaugurated the Institute for Spiritual Culture at the Mayapur Goshala....

Ironically, exactly that morning I woke up having almost lost my voice! For the past few days I had been fighting a cold with a nasty cough sitting deep within my lungs. And exactly on this day of the inauguration I could hardly speak....! Krsna forced me to be a little quieter, which would maybe make the program more auspicious....!

Nevertheless, I was determined to simply make the best out of the situation.
I had a good team of matajis and a group of brahmacaris and students from Bangladesh who were eager to help me with all the necessary preparations.

We returned from Ekachakra to Mayapur on the 28th of February - the first day of the Kirtan Mela...
Our Holy Name Retreat at Nityananda's birth place had been an excellent preparation of our consciousness and heart to more deeply absorb ourselves in chanting the holy name during the upcoming Kirtan Mela.

Every day I joined the kirtans performed by my favorite kirtaniyas - mainly HH Niranjana Swami, Madhava Prabhu and others. The temple room in front of Pancha Tattva was wonderfully decorated and transformed into a sublime kirtan arena. And it was marvellous, seeing thousands of devotees from all around the world coming together to congregationally chant the Holy Name here in Mayapur. Coming from the secluded Ekachakra it was almost a little overwhelming. Bhaktivinoda Thakur's prediction was certainly coming more and more true...