From April 28- May 1st I was in Ljubljana (pronounced Yubyana)

Its a two hour car ride from Rijeka through some stunningly beautiful country side to Slovenia’s capital.

Slovenia has a small population, about 2.8 million, and until recent decades its main economy was all agrarian. People are very nice, friendly and the country is well maintained. New highways enable you to zip from one place to another without anxiety.

The temple in Ljubljana is excellent.  Its a complex of large old stone buildings, with walls about 2-3 feet thick. There’s one main building for the temple and asrama. And another for offices, guest quarters etc.

The presiding Deities are gorgeous 4′  forms of  Sri Sri Panca-tattva.

It was my second visit-I was here a few years ago-and recognized a few familiar faces. Its nice to see the same devotees whenever you go back to a temple, it shows steadiness and solidity in the yatra.

One face I was very happy to see was Madhusudana prabhu, who used to be my secretary when I was Co-Director in Mayapur in 1999-2001. He’s been off doing his own thing for the last few years but he came over to spend a day and catch up.

He was a young man when we parted company, now he’s creeping into middle age and he’s had a few good realizations, mainly about the limited nature of material happiness.

He told me how during the recent economic recession so many people in Slovenia lost their jobs and businesses, including his own, went bust. He told about a contractor he knew who had a company which employed 70 people. The hapless fellow, whom he had a friendly relationship with, did a job worth $2 million, and then ended up committing suicide because he couldn’t pay their wages. They had done the job and then the customer failed to pay. Very sobering.

Now this week Madhu is paying his first visit back to India in many years. [believe it or not, he just rang me from Delhi as I was writing this blog]

One new and very wonderful addition to the Ljubljana temple complex is Govinda’s restaurant. Its privately run by devotees but adjoins the temple buildings. Its beautifully decorated, and in two years has become the number one vegetarian restaurant in the city. Its very popular and the food is – divine!

Now you know why I have been putting on weight recently!

Another ‘must visit’ if you are thinking of going to Europe.

I did six sessions on Chanting from my seminar, again well received and I was sad to leave.

The devotees also hold many congregational meetings in nearby cities, and we paid a visit to Kranj, about an hour’s drive from Ljubljana, for a successful evening program in a small hired hall. A small but enthusiastic crowd of about 20 turned up for couple of hours of Prabhupada katha.

One pleasant surprise was meeting HH Chandramauli Swami who arrived from Zagreb just minutes before I left to go there, and we shared a few pleasant moments before I headed off to Croatia’s capital.

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