Srila Sankarshan Das Adhikari
writing emails from
Istanbul, Turkey (April 2005)

                    REPORT FROM TARTU, ESTONIA

I would like to give you a report about the visit of His Grace Sankarshan
Prabhu and his wonderful wife to Tartu, Estonia.

It was an amazing time for the devotees - the Tartu devotees were waiting
for him since his last visit.

On Thursday, the 15th of September, when they arrived in Tallinn, Hemalata devi dasi and Igor Prabhu met them at the port and took them to meet with Srivatsa Prabhu, ISKCON's leader for Estonia, at the Tallinn temple. Later in the evening
they arrived by car in Tartu where the enthusiastic devotees were already
waiting to welcome them with flower garlands and an ecstatic kirtan with
mridanga and karatalas. Sankarshan Prabhu then gave a short arrival class
before taking rest.
 
The whole next day after the ecstatic mangala aratik and Bhagavatam class,
he sat patiently in the temple room and answered the hundreds and thousands
of questions from the devotees. Many devotees used this opportunity to get
answers for their questions about Krishna Consciousness. In the evening we
had a wonderful public program at the University of Tartu.

After the lecture many enthusiastic students asked intelligent questions on
the practice of Krishna Consciousness and some of them even joined the
devotees back at the temple to continue their discussion with Sankarshan
Prabhu. Very self-givingly, Sankarshan Prabhu sat with the devotees and
guests until late in the evening answering all their questions.
Igor Prabhu's parents and aunt who were very encouraged by the last day's
program joined him for the mangala aratik at the temple next morning. They
were very inspired and asked many practical questions about practicing
Krishna Consciousness at home. They left the temple after breakfast prasadam
with chanting beads, neck beads and Prabhupada's books, being filled with the desire to start practicing Krishna Consciousness on a more serious level.

During that day some devotees took an opportunity to meet Sankarshan Prabhu
in private darsanas. At 4pm we had a wonderful program with a lecture and
kirtan at the temple for the celebration of Bhaktin Helis´ birthday, where
she had invited her friends and relatives, and many people who had been
inspired by the university program the day before also came. I was really
surprised to see so many people so sincerely enthusiastic and interested in
Krishna Consciousness after the kirtan, lecture and prasadam. Many of those people promised to come again. After Sankarshan Prabhu and his wife had left the next morning one devotee said something that nicely underlines everything that happened during these last days: "I have never seen how a spiritual leader can bring devotees together and create such a loving atmosphere between them". We honestly feel from Sankarshan Prabhu so much support and protection that he gives to all the devotees during his visits. I see that after his visit many devotees are encouraged to enhance their chanting of the Holy Names and to become more serious about their
spiritual lives.

Sankarshan Prabhu's visits to Tartu have been very enlivening for all the
devotees, and we are very much waiting him to return. We really feel he is
giving some shelter to the Tartu devotees who are very much in need of it.

with best wishes
Your servant Rangadevi dasi