Srila B.B. Thirta Cancels Tour

[Guest guest]

Curtailing European Tour

BY GOKUL

INDIA, Oct 2 (VNN) — Sri Sri Guru Gaurangau Jayatah!

Dear friends and devotees, Dandavat pranams.

With great sadness, the European devotees wish to inform you

all that the European tour of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti

Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj, originally scheduled to last through mid

October, was curtailed due to the unforeseen terrorist events and

plans of impending war that have occurred over the past week.

Maharaj landed in London at 12:30 PM (London time) on

Tuesday 11 September, only 1 1/2 hours before the notorious

attact on New York City. Within hours, GOKUL in London had

received dozens of emails and phone calls from Indian devotees

begging Srila Gurumaharaj to return home. Although greatly

disappointed, the European devotees agreed that the European

tour should be cut short, allowing Maharaj's householder

disciples who had escorted him from India to return to their

families, some of whom live on the Pakistani border.

 

Large

scale cuts in the amount of air travel within Europe (about 1/3 of

the flights have been cancelled), as well as huge delays due to

increase in security measures, were also some of the

influencing factors. The feeling was that the longer the devotees

waited to return home, the less certain we could be about the

reliability of travel. While Maharaj expressed no concern

whatsoever for his own personal safety, he graciously decided to

ease the concerns of the devotees. After leading an intense

Nrisimha kirtan in Lekkerkerk, Holland (near Rotterdam) on

Wednesday night, Maharaj and his party left for Delhi from

Amsterdam on Thursday 20 September at 1:30 PM, escorted by

a tearful assemblage of European devotees from the UK,

Holland, France and Germany.

Maharaj spent 11-17 September in England, and then 18-20

September in Holland. This also included a Nagar Sankirtana

through the streets of Brighton, on the coast of Southern

England. Next week, GOKUL will be sending photos and

highlights of some of the highly relevant and deeply moving

classes that were delivered during those days.

Wishing you all well,

we remain,

Vaishnavdasanudas,

GOKUL <http://www.gokul.org> UK