iMonk Archive: 2003

A Silicon Valley network administrator abruptly quits his job in March, gives up his possessions, and flies to India to become an itinerant monk — to be initiated as a sannyasi by Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaj. Instructed to travel and preach, the iMonk spends the next nine months in Russia, Siberia, Ukraine, Turkey, England, and South Africa.

March
Enter the iMonk: a former Silicon Valley network administrator journeys from San Jose, USA, to Calcutta, India, to fulfill his spiritual destiny, to accept the mendicant order of tridandi-sannyas — to become an itinerant monk.

April
Follow the iMonk as he travels through the former USSR: by overnight train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg and back, by airplane to remote Siberia, and by automobile from the city of Novosibirsk to Tomsk — and back to India again.

May
The iMonk returns to Delhi, India, from the Russian cities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, and the Siberian cities of Novosibirsk and Tomsk. He spends most of the month at the lotus feet of his guru, Srila Govinda Maharaj, in Kolkata.

June
After nineteen years, the iMonk returns to the land of his birth — South Africa. Dare you venture into the jungles of Africa, to the fabled African "City of Gold" (Johannesburg) or "The Land of the Zulus" (Natal)? Come, bwana — be brave!

July
Spend the first part of the month in the cradle of civilization — Africa — then head north with the iMonk, up the coast of the Dark Continent, to the ancient former Byzantine and Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and its capital city, Ankara.

August
After a brief sojourn in Ankara, the iMonk leaves Turkey and travels to Saint Petersburg, Russia, via Istanbul, London, and Moscow, to join his gurudeva, Srila Govinda Maharaj, on His Divine Grace's 20th World Tour.

September
Back from a three-month tour of Russia, Turkey, England and South Africa, the iMonk stays with his gurudeva, Srila Govinda Maharaj, in the holy dhams of Govardhan and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, and in Kolkata, West Bengal.

October
The iMonk spends the first half of the month with his guru, Srila Govinda Maharaj, in Kolkata, West Bengal, then returns to Russia — his third visit this year — to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

November
Beginning with the Ukraine, the iMonk travels by rail to Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, Kiev, and Odessa, returns to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, then embarks on a tour of western Russia, visiting Tambov, Saratov, and Balakovo by automobile.

December
Continuing a five-city lecture tour of western Russia that he began last month, the iMonk travels by automobile from Tambov, Saratov, and Balakovo, to Tolyatti and Izhevsk, then returns to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.


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