How the Soviet Hare Krishnas Were Freed

Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Today I am remembering the valiant effort of many devotees to rescue, in the mid 1980's, the Soviet Hare Krishna devotees from harassment and internment in Soviet prisons, labour camps and psychiatric institutions. The Committee to Free the Soviet Hare Krishnas, led by Kirtiraja Prabhu, coordinated an international campaign in the mid 1980s to bring attention to the KGB’s harassment and internment of Hare Krishna devotees in Soviet prisons, labour camps and psychiatric institutions.

In Australian the campaign included protests in front of Soviet embassies in Sydney and Canberra in 1986, as well as a national bus drive throughout 1987 to collect a million signatures. Hearing of the Soviet devotee’s persecution a young 12 year devotee boy named Sri Prahlada Das wrote a letter to the President of the USSR Michael Gorbachev to express his dismay and request the devotees release. The letter attracted a lot of attention in Australia’s print and broadcast media. In addition to sending it by post, he also read it out to the media at Soviet embassy demonstrations in Sydney and Canberra.

To bring even more public attention to the cause Sri Prahlada later recorded the letter as a song, with his school mates singing the chorus “Mr Gorbachev Please Let our Friends Go”. This song was televised on national programs such as ABC's "7:30 Report," and was later released as a single and on an LP by record giant EMI.

In late 1987 while reading a news article about devotee’s hunger strike in front of the Soviet Embassy in Canberra, Prahlada noticed another article. He read that Australian prime minister Bob Hawke would be visiting Moscow to meet President Michael Gorbachev where he would request the release of Soviet Jewish dissidents. A request to the Prime Minister’s Office received a positive response that Bob Hawke was also willing to raise the issue of the Soviet Hare Krishnas with Gorbachev. A letter rushed to the prime minister included the names of some 25 Soviet devotees, headed by Srila Prabhupada’s Soviet disciple, Ananta Santi Prabhu, whose release had been a key focus of the campaign.

Within days of Bob Hawke’s Moscow visit several high-profile Soviet Jewish dissidents received phone calls confirming that they would be allowed to immigrate to to Israel. Soviet Hare Krishna devotees were also freed, beginning with Ananta Santi Prabhu, who spoke gratefully with Sri Prahlada by phone shortly after his release describing it as “sudden.”

The eventual release of all the Soviet Hare Krishna devotees in 1988 was the culmination of great effort and struggle by devotees all around the world, not least by Kirtiraja Prabhu and The Committee to Free the Soviet Hare Krishnas.

We are eternally grateful to Kirtiraja Prabhu and Sri Prahlada Das for their efforts to free the Soviet Hare Krishna devotees. And we hope you enjoy the video below of Sri Prahlada singing his song.

Sri Prahlada Das Leads the Devotees in Singing for the Release of the Soviet Hare Krishna Devotees

Sri Prahlada Das Singing for the Release of the Soviet Hare Krishna
Sri Prahlada Das Singing for the Release of the Soviet Hare Krishna

Ecstatically Teaching the Highest Truth

Ecstatically Teaching the Highest Truth

Video for the Day - Here is Sri Prahlada's song to free the Soviet Hare Krishnas

Answers According to Vedic Wisdom

Sankarshan Das Questions and Answers in Vilnius Lithuania
Sankarshan Das Questions and Answers in Vilnius Lithuania

Question: Problems For Enlightened Person?


As an enlightened person, are you perfect, or do you also have problems in your life like other unenligthened beings?

Pamela Mills

Answer: He Perceives Differently

My Dear Pamela,
Please accept my blessings.

A person who has realized the highest truth will externally experience the same birth, death, old age, and disease that everyone else is experiencing. However his perception of it will be entirely different. Instead of feeling how he is being pinched by the miseries of material existence, he will see how at every step God is blessing him with unlimited kindness by bringing him back to His eternal kingdom in the Spiritual Sky.

Hoping this meets you well.

Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari

P.S. Those are serious about realizing the highest truth should check out my free e-course at: Ultimate Self Realization

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