it was early evening on july 11,1972.chess entuasiasts filled land ,while millions watched on TV and listend on the radio.in what was dubbed "the match of hte century"Bobby fischer challenged Boris Spassky,the russian world chess champion,for the title ,knowing full well that emerging victorious would have implications in the cold war world .just one year earlier ,srila prabhupad had been strategizing to bring god into godless Soviet Russia .if we think of prabhupad's quest as a sort of chess match ,it would have seemed that he had few pieces on the board ,while the soviets had the most powerfull pieces and key sqaures blocked .but even one pawn or knight backed by the most powerfull kings and queenmay sometimes checkmates castle fortresses and brilliant startigists thus,the story of prabhupada's victory trumps that of the world chess championship of 1972.srila prabhupad had initially tried to come to the USSR as an official representativeof india ,writing a letter proclaming his intent to the ministry of culture .but he was denied entrance without explanation .finally after several attempts he was given a tourist visa that granted him a short stay,even if he was not allowed to lecture at moscow universitythe lecture had been one of his reasons for wanting to visit .Still,prabhupada's five days on russian soil provided him ample opportunity to position himself well for eventual checkmate his movement would play in soviet russia .His initial stratergy imerged when,thruogh his deciple and secratory syamsundara dasa,he met a young russian seeker -antoly Pinyayev-who would soon become ananta santi dasa ,his courgeaous lone student in the soviet union .another forward move was prabhupada's talking with the proffesorG.G.Kotovsky,then head of Indian and Sount Asian studies department of the USSR Acadamy of sciences.prabhupada left a dinstict impresson on profesor Kotovsky,who got there conversation published in an important Russian Periodical(Vaishnavism in otkrytyiforum 1 ,1997,pp.109-114)but it was ananta-santi who took prabhupadas message to heart,single-handedly,vigorously,sharing what he had learned with hundreds of soviet people ,many who become devotees.After meeting the entuastic russian ,prabhupad had remarked ,"just as u can wheather rice is properly cooked by picking out one small grain ,so you can know an entire nation observing one of its handpickedyouths".Next in 1997 and 1979,the BHaktivedanta book trust received an invitation to the prestigious Moscow International book Fair acquanting Moscovities with Prabhupads Books for the first time THE NEW YORK TIMES (July 31,1983)noted the significance:"[the exibit ] drew curious russians,the books spread,and HARE KRSNA was on its way in Russia."But by 1980,under Brezhnev's rule ,several devotees were thrown into prison,initiating a tense and often tarumitic relationship between Iskcon and soviet union .by the mid 1980s Yuri Andropov was in power,and he intensified the campaign already underway against the hare krsna movement .he saw devotees representing all things religious and was determind to wipe them out because of anant santi contagious enthusiasm and the straggering result of the book fair ,semyon Tsvigun ,the deputy chief of the KGB UnderAdropov,said that the three main threats to the Soviet Union were "POP MUSIC,WEATERN CULTURE,and HARE KRSNA"Such pronouncement,and the sentiments that fueled them,led to intense presecution of hare krsna devotees.
You need to be a member of ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT to add comments!
Replies