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A Russian Awakening
In May 1988, I asked Swami about playing a small role in the awakening of Russians to his presence. I asked him for permission to go to Russia to find a publisher for the Russian translation of my first book. Aer thinking a moment he agreed. I made my first trip to Russia in October 1988. At that time I had le the manuscript with some interested people, and eventually it found its way into publication. There developed a growing number of Sai devotees in Russia, and many had heard of Swami through reading the book.
Ten years later, I was formally invited to speak at the Russian National Sai Conference to be held in May 1998. My wife, Sharon, joined me. The Sai conference was held at a campground 40 miles outside of Moscow, where approximately 300 devotees assembled. They came from all over Russia, from as far as Siberia, as well as from the Ukraine, St. Petersburg, the Ural Mountain region, and places I had never heard of.
Before the conference, Sharon and I spent three days in St. Petersburg. From the moment we were met at the St. Petersburg airport to the time we le the Moscow airport, loving Sai devotees surrounded us. We were driven everywhere, and always with an interpreter who helped with the sharing of Swami’s love. Each day in St. Petersburg we spoke twice, usually at noon to a group of 20 to 40 people at the home of a devotee and in the evening to a gathering of about 300 at a large hall called “The House of Friendship.”
From St. Petersburg, we traveled to the conference in Moscow, where we spent another three days. In the early morning, devotees quietly gathered in an old and weathered room in need of paint. The wooden floor was aged and worn. A simple candle lit the image of Sai on the altar. From the silence of this simple and modest seing stirred a vibration of supreme holiness. The first emanation of the holy primordial Om brought a chill. Vedanta teaches that all creation emanates from this holy vibration. In it, we were all one. Our love and
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