During every pilgrimage in Vrindavan, devotees prepare theatre play as a gift for Guruji. This year honour to lead this project was received by my wife Achala. Knowledge and devotion she has for Krishna finally materialised in a form of creating – as Guruji said – the best theatre play he ever watched.

Even though I was not actively participating in the play itself, I cannot say that I was just chilling behind the camera and pushing the button either. The same like everybody else, I needed to go beyond my own limitation and boundaries of comfort zone.

Organising the play of this scale is not an easy task. Even less when you are on opposite part of the world and cannot practice with people.

Some 6 months ago before we left for India, Achala and I needed to record dance tutorials for choreography as she wanted something very specific to be performed. If you know me well, you know that dance is something I really don’t like. Actually it is not that I don’t like it. I will just do anything in my power to avoid it. Why?

Well, there are many reasons which are not even important at this moment. The point is that I needed to do something that I was avoiding for 28 years. I gave my best to avoid it. However, this time I failed. When Guruji is involved, everything becomes shaky – even the strongest fears we carry inside. So I danced and danced – and people watched me… And I survived! Life was good again.

Following 6 months were reserved for getting custom stitched clothes, organic make-up and body paints, setting up the stage and many other things. Apart from time and number of people involved, thousands of euros were invested into the play. We needed to get things from many parts of the world – London, Poland, Croatia, Romania, Mumbai, New Delhi, Vrindavan. A lot was at stake.

Fast forward until 2 hours before the play… People dressing themselves, painting each other, putting make-up on their faces. With every passing minute, it was harder and harder to recognise the people behind their new faces.

When I close my eyes now and go back to this moment, I can still hear all the shouting, screaming, confusion; see the pure chaos and stress. I would need to think really hard if I have ever seen bigger chaos than this one.

But then there was peace. Characters were ready to go out on the stage.

These were one of the most pleasant 70-something minutes of my life. The moment play started, energy of the environment changed completely. I couldn’t see my friends in front of my eyes anymore. They became somebody else. They embodied the characters that were living on the very same land more than 5000 years ago.

Guruji was laughing, enjoying. Couldn’t hide the smile from his face. After the play finished he just stood up, came to the stage and started to throw flowers at characters as pushpa (flower) Holi was about to start. He said that this was the most amazing play he ever watched. As the play was performed in Vrindavan, he said that the grace of all characters who lived there 5000 years ago was flowing on actors, and then through them during the play as they presented real mood very properly. And this was clearly felt…

By giving the opportunity to organise and perform in this play, Guruji gifted us with the most memorable moments we might ever have with him in this life – or many more to come…

Watch the recording of the play here.

Ps. It is a mystery to me until today how photo above (with Guruji throwing flowers) was taken. I don’t remember taking it. It just appeared in my camera when I was going through the photos. Even if I think how hard it would be to take such photo from purely technological perspective – I don’t know how to explain it. There were hundreds of flower petals coming my way every few seconds, yet camera found its way through all of them and took a perfect shot of Guruji. When this picture was later shown to Guruji, his comment was: “Wow, crazy!”

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