Croatia 1998

Dear Godbrothers and Godsisters!

Please, accept my respectful obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to our wonderful Guru Maharaja!

Here are some notes about Guru Maharajas activities in Zagreb, Croatia.

He left from Ljubljana, Slovenia, early in the morning at 10th of August ("to avoid the heat") and therefore arrived to His accomodation place outside the Zagreb unexpectedly early. There, at the house of our Godsister Haladara priya dasi and her husband, devotees were not yet ready to properly welcome Guru Maharaja. For instance, they just brought a bouquet of flowers for His garland. But when they found out that there is no time for making garland, they just gave Him the bouquet. Guru Maharaja commented: "Oh! It's a potential garland!". Then devotees asked Him to accept padyam, but He said: "Oh, no! Not again! Just consider as it has been done. My feet are clean, thank you." So, that ceremony hadn't take place in Guru Maharajas accomodation house, but still, it seemed to be Krishnas plan to honour Guru Maharaja with padyam, becouse when He came to office (the temporary stay of our Sri Sri Goura Nitai) it was too early for darshan with the Deities. There was just enough time to do padyam ceremony and this time Guru Maharaja couldn't evade it. In that way we got the chance to glorify our spiritual master (and to get some maha sweets, of course!).

At 6.00 P.M. Guru Maharaja's lecture was supposed to begin, but just in the moment when He started to play harmonium, all electricity went out. Devotees ran here and there to solve the problem and meanwhile Guru Maharaja commented: "Here is an opportunity to remember Suta Goswami and 60000 sages of Naimisaranya!" and "There are several types of miseries in this material world: adyatmika klesa, adybautika klesa, adydaivika klesa and klesa which comes out from the lack of electricity!" When Guru Maharaja started to chant "Om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya" Hari varsa dasa begun to fan Him, but He said: "I'm fine. It's them (the audience) who need it. I'm O.K. I have lots of air here (by the window), but I don't think they have very much air." So Hari varsa turned to the audience and waved with the fan few times, causing cheering from the audience. Finaly, the problem with electricity was solved and Guru Maharaja was able to continue with the topic He has chosen to speak about here in Zagreb. And the topic is rather unusual, but at the same time very up-to-date, becouse, as Guru Maharaja informed us, there is much talk about it in academic circles, especially in USA. This topic is "the feminine aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead". The question is whether the God should be considered a male or a female. So, Guru Maharaja stated that there are both male and female qualities present in God. To affirm His statement, He discussed about several female personalities described in Vedic literatures, beggining with demigodesses Ushas, Prithivi, Aditi, Sarasvati, Vak, Niriti and continuing with the Laksmidevi the next day. So, much more nectar is yet to come. Stay tuned!

In service to Guru Maharaja and all the devotees,

bh. Dario