Hacha Puri and the Peace Formula!
Govinda Swami: Saci, Vrindavan Kirtan, and I arrived in Moscow yesterday afternoon.
On a chilly Moscow afternoon we were warmly received by Radha Raman Giridhari, Sri Rupa Manjari, Sarasvati, and Master Baladev.
We then travelled from west Moscow to south to the home of Nandi Mukhi and Radha Preyan to spend the night. They are Georgian devotees that date back to the early, early days of ISKCON during the Soviet Union.
They are both from well-to-do families during Soviet days and their choice of Krishna consciousness was not the most pleasant thing for their folks to digest.
Consequently they spent years on the run. Preaching, running, preaching, running, and dodging the KGB at every step.
Radha Preyan was once captured and put in a KGB prison. One day an opportune moment came and he jumped out of a second story window and never stopped running.
One evening last summer Vrindavan Kirtan and I sat with Nandi Mukhi and Radha Preyan completely enrapt in hearing their ecstatic preaching stories.
So, though I had requested our standard diet of steamed veggies, soup, and salad … when we arrived we were treated with Georgian hospitality to a wonderful feast of Georgian cuisine.
We ate delicious things, the names of which I cannot even pronounce, and, they were all accompanied with the king of Georgian mineral waters Borjomi.
Being the hooligan that I am I kept requesting them to bring Georgian wine, and Radha Raman Giridhari would say the funny exotic names of the Georgian wines he had drank in his youth.
But, the undisputed king of all of the preparations was the “Hacha-Puri.”
This is a delicious bread, baked with huge amounts of white cheese till the cheese browns on top, served straight from the oven.
It is so delicious I won’t even attempt to use more words to describe.
For dessert there were a few cakes and an intriguing Georgian pudding type preparation made from boiled sweet red grape juice.
Saci Suta Das passed out, Vrindavan Kirtan Das kept slightly moaning and rubbing his belly, and I was carried upstairs and put to sleep by Gopijanavallabha Das.
Everywhere we travel the devotees are always so gracious, hospitable, and filled with love.
Just in the past 18 days we have been overwhelmed with the kindness of the Texas Krishna’s, Haridasa .. the Texi-Chino wonder devotee, the Singh clan in Tennessee, our beautiful gracious and cultured devotees in Dubai … and now back to Mother Russia.
This country is a wonderland.
I remember when I was a kid I was programmed to think that all Russians had horns on their heads and a long spiked tail.
Well, when I came here I was humoured to learn that they were programmed the same way about us
But really, the folks who live here are some of the most open and big hearted people that I have ever met. And, the culture of hospitality is beyond belief.
Well, maybe we should make an arrangement for the big powerful people at the top of the world to get together and have a few Hacha Puri at Radha Preyan’s home .. in the association of vaisnavas.
I bet if they did that it would work wonders to help them see one another without the “horns on the heads and spiked tails.”
Well, we are out the door at 7 AM to Kazan, Tatarstan for another ocean of Russian vaisnava graciousness and hospitality !!
Hare Krishna !!
Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=18205
Comments
Haribol!! All glories to the Vaishnavas.