->

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #20 – Queen Kuntī was Right!

May 12th, 2025

When I grew up in Krishna consciousness, we were very sympathetic to the Vaiṣṇavas in the former Soviet Union. After all they were persecuted, jailed, and tortured by the KGB, but they were seemingly indomitable and couldn’t be broken. In 1991, however, the Soviet Union disbanded and we soon received word that the first group of Russian devotees would come to India.

 

Kesava Bharati Maharaja was one of the Vaiṣṇavas who greeted them in Calcutta when they first arrived. He told me a touching story:

 

“When the devotees from the Soviet Union came, we offered them a big feast. I sat next to one humble soul. He looked at his plate and picked up a piece of papaya in his hand raised it up and turned to me and asked, ‘A fruit?’ I nodded. He bit it and cried. I was shocked that his previous existence was so seemingly deprived.”

 

When the first contingent of devotees from the former Soviet Union visited Vrindavan, we met them at Bhaktivedanta Gate on Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg and then ushered them into the temple for kirtan. As they approached the front entrance to the temple, we showered them with rose petals from above.

 

Sivarama Swami and Govinda Swami were especially eager to honor them, and Govinda Swami, a gourmet Hare Krishna cook among his many talents, made them an amazing feast which they served in Tamal Krishna’s house. They had a plan to honor them for their sacrifice. When I describe it, it may seem strange, but their plan represents how much we honored these devotees’ courage, and the sacrifice they underwent to spread the mission of Śrī Caitanya. Their plan was as follows.

 

The two maharajas would serve them so much prasadam that their plates would be piled with their remnants. They also placed sand in front of the doorway so that when they left “the dust of their lotus feet” would mix with that sand. After the Russian devotees left, they would eat their remnants and bathe in the dust of their lotus feet. And they did!

 

As for me, I was housing arguably the most persecuted and toughest of the Russian devotees, three Armenian brothers—Sannyasa Dasa, Kamala Mala,  and a third brother whose name I forget. After the feast at Tamal Krishna’s house, Sannyasa, who was tortured in prison, started to complain to me. He was disturbed when he found out that the maharajas had eaten their remnants and bathed in the dust of their feet. In general, the high level of respect he received since coming to India upset him. In broken English with a heavy Russian accent he expressed his feelings about it.

 

“I think it is even more dangerous here than in prison. In prison they can only harm your body, but here with all this worship they can kill your bhakti!

 

Just as he was griping about the worship he was enduring, Kamala Mala, a very tall imposing person, was walking by and overheard what his brother was saying. He, stopped and turned his head to me and in a very heavy tone commented:

 

“Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

For those unfamiliar with that reference, he was referring to the famous statement by Queen Kuntī. She lamented that Krishna was leaving because the horrible war which called for His presence, and caused her family untold suffering, had now ended.

 

“I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.25

 

We generally feel closer to God in times of tragedy, but how many of us value God’s presence and shelter to that degree?

 

Dear Śrī Lord Krishna, I pray that one day I can value your presence in my life so much that I too may proclaim:

 

“Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

 

Comments are closed.