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By Suresvara Prabhu

When I grew up in Krishna consciousness—in the 1970s—we were very sympathetic to the Vaiṣṇavas in the former Soviet Union. After all, they were persecuted, jailed, and tortured by the KGB. Yet, they remained seemingly indomitable and could not be broken. We would hear their stories and think, “Wow, this is amazing.”

In 1991, however, the Soviet Union disbanded, and we soon received word that the first group of Russian devotees would come to India.

Keshava Maharaj was one of t

“I was distributing on a sidewalk at an intersection in Barcelona, Spain. Every day I would try to stop the same young lady, but she would ignore me. One day I walked with her a few meters, pleading with her in a friendly way: “Come on! Just take one book!” Pointing to the Teachings of Queen Kunti I was holding, I said, “Here, please take the teachings of the queen!”

But to no avail; she wouldn’t stop.

“However, the next day when I saw her she humbly approached me and asked, ‘Can I buy the Teac