Pilgrim's Diary - March 27, 2001 - Heidelberg, Germany
By Vipramukhya Swami

I'm sitting in a room with light now falling outside here in Germany, about 40 minutes drive from Neuremberg. My Salagram Silas are packed away, I've had breakfast, and now we're getting ready to drive to Heidelberg. Tomorrow I will fly back to England.

What a month this has been! At the beginning of the month I was in Nepal, first at Kathmandu, later at the Kali-Gandaki River searching for Salagram Silas - those same Salagram Silas that I am carrying with me now. We also visited Muktinath, a very difficult climb for me up to 12,700 feet above sea level (about 3870 meters). Also in this month was a lot of anxiety about late flights. There was that flight out of the Himalayas that we thought was going to drop out of the sky - a very scary flight because of the wind. Also in this same month was the problem that Indian Airlines lost my suitcase - the same suitcase that had all of the Salagram Silas in it that we found at the Kali-Gandaki River.

It was in this same month that I went to Mayapur again, thinking my suitcase was lost forever. It was in this month that I watched the golden full moon rise over Mayapur and feasted with my Godbrothers.

It was in this month that the Salagrams came back to me and I returned to England. After 8 days in England I flew to Hahn, Frankfurt in Germany.

Abhinandana and family in front of their house in the forest, about 40 minutes drive from Neuremberg, Germany.

Now it is my last full day in Germany.

The family I've been staying with has this great house in the forest (see picture).

12:30 pm - We're lost in Heilderberg. Abhinandana is driving the car around trying to find the temple. No more snow. The sun is out and the trees here have a hint of green. Some of them are flowering.

Abhinandana's temple room in the forest.

1:30 PM - We're here. There used to be a big temple and restaurant in this city, but it's no more. Now the devotees are staying in an apartment complex. It's a nice apartment with two floors. There's a sizable temple room and wonderful deities known as Radha-Govinda. There's also a small set of Jagannath Deities, Gaura Nitai Deities, Krishna-Balarama Deities - well it's a very full altar (see picture).

Radha-Govinda and a whole bunch of other deities grace the temple room in Heidelberg, Germany.

There's a mataji here named Subhala devi dasi. She has told me that there will be an evening kirtan at 7 PM, followed by Tulasi kirtan. After that they are hoping I'll give a lecture. What I've been doing in Germany is giving short lectures and then showing devotees pictures from my computer of my recent trip to Mayapur (including the GBC meeting), Jagannath Puri, Kathmandu and the Himalayas.

© CHAKRA 28 March 2001

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