Throughout the Bhavagatam Prabhupada describes the role of a woman as being the power of inspiration to men (4.26.15.,1.9.27.) and an always auspicious source of energy to men (4.21.4.). This is in a nutshell her precious position within human society - indeed a very beautiful and invaluable contribution.

On the 14th of June I flew to Budapest/Hungary to visit Sivarama Swami's community of New Vraja Dham. For many years I had been contemplating the idea to visit the devotees there, and now Maharaja had invited me to come and give the course on spiritual culture to the ladies of the community....

On my arrival on the 5th of June in Goloka Dham/Germany I was greeted with a heartfelt welcome offered by the local devotees: kirtan, joyful and affectionate smiles and a Maha garland - the loving exchanges when receiving a guest....

As we all know, for the past months there has been political turmoil and instability in Ukraine which has been gradually escalating to more and more violence, with a lot of blood being shed. Naturally I had been very unsure whether or not to visit Ukraine this year. Furthermore the media in the Western world tends to misrepresent the actual situation, and things are easily blown out of proportion. So it was not easy for me to assess the actual situation - whether it was safe enough to visit the Ukrainian devotees.

On my arrival in Munich/Germany on the 9th of May I was requested to give the evening lecture.

The devotees are renting a spacious house in a quiet residential area of a suburb of Munich. The facilities are very nice, nevertheless only a hand-full of devotees are living in the temple. Recently HG Prthu Prabhu (ACBSP) decided to base himself here to try and recruit new devotees to join the temple. Very enlivening news! He wants to specifically target the
students and young people - something I have also been meditating on for a long time.

On the 10th morning we drove out to Simhachalam - an ISKCON farm in the very Eastern part of Germany, (near the Polish and Czech border) which serves as the abode of Lord Nrsimhadev. They call it "Der Loewen-Tempel", or "The Lion-Temple" - very befitting and attractive to newcomers.

On my arrival in Sweden on the 24th of April I visited the devotees for three days in the Hare Krishna Center in the city of Stockholm. For many years the devotees have maintained a well established Govinda's Restaurant with an adjacent Preaching Center and Govinda's Boutique.
Indeed ideal preaching facilities....
And a ten minutes' drive takes us to Brahmakund - a nice two-storey Scandinavian style building with around ten little flats where devotees and vegetarian non-devotees are living. And in the cellar is a little temple room and a well equipped kitchen. Again perfect facilities.....

On my arrival in Germany on the 14th of April I visited my mother in Tubingen for three days. It was her 83rd birthday. Neighbors and friends from the village and the nearby city dropped in during the entire day expressing their good wishes and offering little gifts. Together with her sister I assisted her in welcoming the guests and entertained them with some little conversations. Some inquired about my life in Krsna consciousness, which gave me some little opportunities to preach.

Sometimes one's service attitude is the best preaching and leaves powerful impressions on people's hearts....
I cooked a nice birthday lunch for her, with mango chutney made from dried mango - all the way from Bangladesh. I had bought for her some Indian sweets at the Delhi airport which she always likes to eat, and I had requested the devotees from Goloka Dham in Germany to send her a little parcel with maha sweets from Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohan which arrived perfectly in time. And furthermore I had purchased for her some CD's with Christian meditations and prayerful rituals - something which will help her in developing God consciousness according to her practice. She was delighted by all the little surprises I had arranged for her and accepted them with gratitude.

On my arrival in Dhaka on the 23rd of March the devotees took me out to Rup Ganj, our ISKCON property outside the city where we had scheduled a Holy Name Retreat for students.

Rup Ganj is situated in a very peaceful rural area where the city planning will develop a new part of Dhaka in the near future. We are planning to develop this property in order to conduct all kinds of seminars, Youth Festivals and retreats. The location is very central and easily accessible for devotees from all around Bangladesh, and the peaceful environment invites to conduct programs to deepen our spiritual life.

Prabhupada himself liked to have a long term vision when purchasing properties. When he secured the land for our Krsna Balarama Mandir in Vrindavan people were wondering why Prabhupada took a property which was so far away from the center of Vrindavan. People were almost afraid to go there, being out in the no-where! A similar situation was there also with the Juhu property. So we are following in Prabhupada's footsteps - in fifteen year's time Rup Ganj will be in a newly developed part of Dhaka, surrounded by Universities and Colleges.....