On my arrival in Kharkov/Ukraine I immediately focussed on the upcoming festivals of Janmastami and Prabhupada's appearance.
As we know Bhaktivinoda Thakur said that Vaisnava festivals are the mother of devotion if we celebrate them deeply, with heart and soul.
We had only a few days left to get absorbed in meditating on all the arrangements....

I had made efforts to invite a preacher to come and visit us in Kharkov for those festival days. It always adds a special festive note to the atmosphere and is very uplifting to everyone's consciousness. But this time I had been out of luck. Many preachers were going to the 40th anniversary of the installation of the Deities at Bhaktivedanta Manor, which was a big event.

Nevertheless, we had the opportunity to receive one special guest amongst us: Mahabharata Prabhu from Moscow, who is serving there as the head-pujari.
He had kindly agreed to come and train our pujaris in various aspects of puja, and help us to arrange a very nice abhishek for Janmastami.

On our arrival in Lvov/Ukraine on the 14th of August we were welcomed by my translater Acyuta Priya mataji and several local devotees, who immediately took us on the two-hour journey to the site of our planned Holy Name Retreat in the Carpathian Mountains.Situated in the most Western corner of Ukraine, this area used to be part of the Austrian Empire before the war. And indeed, everything reminded me of Austria: the mountains covered by dense dark-green ferr tree forests and lush meadows, and the little villages with houses almost in the same architectural style like in Austria!
The only difference is the standard of life: Austria being much more wealthy and organised, whereas this part of the world looks like Austria eighty years ago....
In winter this area serves as the only skiing resort of Ukraine, where one can find high enough mountains for engaging in this popular winter sport.

The devotees had rented a simple holiday center which perfectly served our needs: enough accomodation for more than one hundered devotees, a big kitchen and prasadam area, and a suitable room serving us as our bhajan kutir to hold the seminars.

On the 8th of August a comfortable train ride took us from Goloka Dham to Koeln - along the beautiful Rhine valley with its castles and old settlements....

Yes, Germany is indeed a very beautiful place - beautiful to the sense perception of our eyes.
Once we look a little deeper we discover that underneath the pleasant and attractive surface it is all rotting away....

People are depressed, frustrated and empty within their hearts - all the comfort, beauty and sense enjoyment is simply not satisfying to the soul....
People cannot find a higher purpose in life.
Without Krsna it is all zero.
If we could only add Krsna, then it would be indeed like a heavenly
planet - the one in front of the many zeros makes it a million....

Margarita and myself arrived in Goloka Dham/Germany on the 31st of July. The local devotees happily greeted us with a little kirtan party, and everybody was excited and joyfully receiving us with big smiles.....
Here Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohan are the Lords of the establishment - very beautiful Deities Who are nicely taken care of by Their personal servants.

I had come to launch the second and main part of our course "Exploring The Roots Of Spiritual Culture" - for the very first time in Germany. We had  sceduled it for the 3rd/4th/5th/6th of August.

I was curious to see how it would be received in a country which had a strong history of spiritual culture many years ago, but is now strongly influenced by materialistic culture.
And furthermore, since I have not spent much time in Germany I am not so well established as a preacher here - another reason which made me wonder how everyone will accept my presentations....

Around forty matajis arrived from all around Germany, a couple even coming all the way from Sweden and Latvia. This was indeed a revolutionarily big crowd for this part of the world!
Some Russian and Ukrainian ladies who live in Germany also attended - they had heard about this course from their friends who had attended it in Kharkov/Ukraine and who had highly recommended it.