Kishiniev/Moldova

On our arrival in Kishiniev/Moldova on the 27th of June we were settling into a comfortable and spacious flat - our home for the next two weeks.

I have been regularly visiting the Kishiniev community for the past fifteen years - long before the devotees had managed to aquire some land in the city and build a little two-storey temple building. Thinking back of the "early days" when we used to rent a dark and dingy hall in a public library for the Sunday programs and for Janmastami, I could only marvel at the fact how nicely the community has been developing. Since then so many young and intelligent people have come to Krsna consciousness here, and they are eager to hear and chant.

I was scheduled to give once again the course "Men and Women in Spiritual Culture" to a mixed audience. The devotees had arranged the printed materials into a nice little handbook which each participant received. Over seven days around 75 devotees assembled every evening for around three hours, and we also included the entire Saturday as a full seminar day, with a lunch break inbetween seminar sessions. The devotees eager for lively discussions, and their world view was entirely transformed! Such systematic courses have a deep impact on people's hearts and stimulate internal work. It goes far beyond "spiritual entertainment" and truly initiates the "boiling-the-milk" process within devotees' spiritual practice, which Srila Prabhupada so strongly recommended. Each session ended with my favorite loving exchange of distributing prasadam. And we concluded the entire course with a question-and-answer session for ladies, which gave us an opportunity to discuss various topics in a more personal and confidential setting - without the presence of the men.

One interesting topic was the importance of cultivating tolerance. This quality directly reflects a person's spiritual strength and advancement. We can only be tolerant proportionally to how much the false ego is subdued and ultimately dissolved. And this is indeed a sign of spiritual advancement - letting go of the urge to explode, complain, retaliate, answer back, defend etc. In SB 11.19.36-39 we hear in the purport: "Tolerance means to patiently endure unhappiness, such as that provoked by the insults or negligence of others. One must also sometimes accept material inconvenience to carry out the instructions of scriptures, and that unhappiness must also be patiently endured."
And in SB.1.18.48 we are instructed that "the devotees of the Lord are so forbearing that even though they are defamed, cheated, cursed, disturbed, neglected or even killed, they are never inclined to avenge themselves."

Of course, in material life tolerance is not given any credit at all, infact it is seen as weakness. Very often we hear people say: "I'm not going to tolerate this - who do you think I am....!?" "How long should I tolerate this nonsense?!" It is considered to be a sign of strength and victory not to tolerate. However, within spiritual life the values are the diametric opposite.

To truly cultivate tolerance is not such a cheap thing. It requires internal work - ultimately to deeply within our heart take shelter of the Lord. It is not simply a matter of supressing the urge to answer back, to complain and to retaliate. To simply supress will not lead to true tolerance. When we supress our emotions we are still internally hanging on to our false ego. The false ego is still whispering into our ear that this is very unfair, and that after all we were right and others were wrong, and that we were badly treated, etc. So we continue internally our ego battle, and our bitterness and feelings of being offended will build up, until we might even explode. And sooner or later such negative feelings and diseased condition of the subtle body will manifest in disease in the gross body.
We should not mistake this to be the process of cultivating tolerance.
Tolerance means that we let go of our false ego - we take shelter at Krsna's lotus feet. We see Krsna's hand in the situation - how He wants to teach us a valuable lesson. Our mood has to be: Krsna is so kind - He gives me only one drop of what I really deserve....". With such mood we will not accumulate bitter feelings within our heart, but we allow things to pass by - we don't hang on to our false ego's demands.

Any internal transformation requires the following steps:

1) Hearing again and again about the importance of certain qualities
2) Desiring to transform and develop those qualities
3) Lamenting and regretting about our shortcomings, while internally calling
out to Krsna and begging for help
4) Endeavoring to do our very best
5) When failing to do well - at least we will now recognise it, whereas before we might not even have noticed it.
6) When failing to do well, we again lament and call out to Krsna
7) He will witness that we do endeavor and turn towards Him, and therefore He will come towards us and help.
8) And gradually there will be changes happening, and we will find ourselves in situations where we all of a sudden do the right thing, even though six months earlier we might have still done the wrong thing.
9) Understanding that only by His mercy and help we can be successful

Only such kind of internal work will bring us to the cultivation of true tolerance. If we simply swallow our agitation without turning towards Krsna, we will sooner or later end up frustrated and offended.
However, when we agree to do this internal work, then we actually make advancement and receive deep purification. Our service and big achievements are a more external part of our spiritual development. Real progress is taking place deeply within our hearts, as a result of internal work.

Marriage and family life is indeed a wonderful opportunity to cultivate this most important quality of tolerance - especially for those spirit souls in female bodies.....

​After concluding the course I remained for several more days in Kishiniev to work on the materials of a new course entitled "Children in Spiritual Culture - It Takes a Village to Raise a Child". To my greatest joy HH Niranjana Swami was visiting the community during those days, and I had the opportunity to attend his classes and kirtans which perfected our visit to Kishiniev.....

On our way to Almvik/Sweden we stopped over in Riga/Latvia for two days. I had to go to the German Embassy to apply for a new passport, and in the evening the devotees had arranged a program in a new little preaching center. It was well attended by around 35 eager devotees. I felt inspired to visit more often in the future - the idea came up to arrange a Holy Name Retreat for the Baltic countries, and courses on spiritual culture.....

On the 13th of July we moved on to Almvik/Sweden.....

Your servant, Devaki dd