Krishna's Mercy at the Russian Border

8 October 2007--Krishna really blessed us while we were crossing the Russian border to re-enter Lithuania. Our Russian driver, Lila Avatar Prabhu, drove us from Kaliningrad to the Russian border at Sovetsk where we were to walk with our luggage across the bridge over the Neman River to the Lithuanian side where our Lithuanian driver, Kedaranath Prabhu, was waiting for us. We cross the border on foot because getting a car across the Russian border is a much more time consuming red tape process that going across as a pedestrian.

Even though the simpler pedestrian-style crossing is also always a hassle due to the lording-it-over-mentality of the Russian border guards, once you get past that quagmire walking crossing the bridge over the Neman River is a pleasant experience. This time however was different. On our drive from Kaliningrad to Sovetsk it had been raining the entire time. The sweet devotees in Kaliningrad had kindly supplied with raincoats. And just before reaching the border crossing Lila Avatar stopped at a grocery store and got plastic bags for covering our luggage and our feet. At the last minute before getting out of the car at the border, the rain all of sudden intensified like anything. We sat in the car carefully donning our raincoats and tying plastic bags on our feet while Lila Avatar hopped out into the rain to remove our luggage from the trunk and quickly cover it with plastic bags. Then with full rain armor we headed out to the border guard station, luggage in tow, into the deluge.

By the time we finished our hassle with the border guard hidden behind tinted glass who demanded documented evidence of our flight from Riga to Amsterdam in order for us to leave Russia, the rain had stopped and we could see through the parted clouds a beautiful blue sky opening up on the Lithuanian side of the border. Even though there were so many water puddles we had to walk through or around, we crossed the bridge without experiencing even as much as one drop of rain water. Once we were safe and dry in Kedaranath's car on the road to Kaunas, the blue sky immediately disappeared and the rains came pouring down again sometimes with great fury with winds so heavy at times that debris was being blown across the highway in our path.

The moral of the story? Always chant Hare Krishna. Spread it everywhere. And always depend on Krishna. He will never let you down. He will always take great care of you.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Bridge at Russian Border in Sovetsk

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Immovable Soul?

I have a question I am submissively presenting before you.

In BG 2.24 Lord Sri Krishna states:

"This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same."

Please explain what does Krishna mean by "the soul is immovable"? If soul is situated in the region of heart and we move every day, so then how is the soul immovable?

Your servant,

Phani Karthik Maradani

Answer: Immovable Within That Body

In the original Sanskrit the word given is acalah, which means "fixed", "immovable", and also means "mountain" because a mountain is fixed in one place, immovable.

Immovable means "immovable within that body", just as driver is immovable within the car, always remaining in the driver's seat. The car may be moving a hundred miles per hour, but within the car the driver is in a fixed, stationary position.

Similarly, throughout the entire life the soul is always situated within that particular body. Therefore it is known as immovable.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari