Date: January 10, 2023
To: The North American Leaders and Congregation
From: Niranjana Swami
Re: Some News from Ukraine
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Hoping that it will please you, I will provide a different kind of report this time for an update.
I am aware of how important it is to keep all of you abreast on how your recent donations are being spent. Our https://shareyour.care website provides some of those details. We have also recently sent additional reports to North America in response to the latest campaign which was initiated by Kuladri Prabhu and supported by others too numerous to list here once again.
Our last two reports, therefore, focused on the ongoing purchase and installation of the electrical equipment which all of you sponsored. We hope to update those reports as more of the purchased equipment arrives this month from abroad for the reasons given in our last report.
With this report, however, I would like to share some details of book distribution, the marathon, devotee care, community maintenance and community development, which in part, has been encouraged by well-wishing Vaisnavas from around the globe.
During my October interview, in response to one of Anuttama Prabhu’s questions, I answered that the devotees in Ukraine get strength from the healthy, devotional camaraderie which has evolved from working together for so many years in devotee care initiatives. This remains true.
However, it would be incomplete to not also mention that throughout this ordeal, so many devotees in Ukraine are getting strength from knowing that you have been there for them with your support. It is due to this collective display of kindness that I am motivated to report to you that devotees in Ukraine are not just struggling to maintain. With your help devotees have been able to think about representing Srila Prabhupada’s way of displaying compassion towards others. Naturally, this includes their support for each other as well.
Book Distribution
Despite the war and the fact that so many devotees left Ukraine due to the war, some temples increased their book distribution.
The following temples had increased percentages of books distributed during 2022 over the number of books which were distributed in 2021:
- Kyiv +9.77% from 2021
- Kharkiv +12% from 2021
- Kishinev + 32.9% from 2021
- Vinnitza + 48.71 % from 2021
- Belaya Tserkov +27.99% from 2021
74,577 books were distributed in 2022 which included 23,392 Maha-big books and 11,128 Big books.
Marathon:
265 devotees contributed to the marathon result, although a minimum of 200 books each were distributed by the top 25 distributers. Additional distributors were organized from within some of the different “Nama Hatta” groups.
31,783 books were distributed during the marathon, which included 9,982 Maha-big books and 7,250 Big books.
From Acyuta Priya dasa:
Devotees were happy to go out, and also used many alternative methods of book distribution. One method was exchanging presents with people for the New Year and Christmas. A whole team of ladies (they called themselves Srila Prabhupada’s Elves) were making contacts with people through the internet and sending them books through the post. Many books were sold through the internet site. Many devotees were purchasing hundreds of books to make presents to their relatives and friends.
Street book distribution was also quite prominent. Brahmacaris and some grhasthas were going out daily, distributing a hundred or more books a day.
On January 4, 2023, the Kyiv temple was able to organize a book distribution festival which was attended by a large number of devotees who are still in Kyiv. With your help the Kyiv temple now has uninterrupted electricity and heat so that such events can go on without interruption.
In fact this year’s #3 distributor for the marathon, Mangala Bhakti devi dasi, wrote to me in her personal report that she frequented the temple during the morning programs because the temple now always has electricity and heat whereas the flat where she and her husband live would often have neither.
The following two-minute video clips were taken of the top second and third distributers of this year’s marathon, Ekantita-buddhi dasa and Mangala Bhakti devi dasi:
Ekantita-buddhi dasa distributed 2,256 books during the marathon. He distributed 430 Maha-big, 1,208 Big books, and the remainder were medium and small books.
Mangala Bhakti dd wrote in her report on the day this video was taken:
“Today was a very good day at sankirtana. I took more books (81) and they were all gone in 3 hours. There were good sincere people who were interested in books. The brahamacharis came today to film the distribution. And the very presence of other devotees was very inspiring, I stopped feeling lonely.
The girl in the first photo took a video yesterday, the latest. She herself came up to me and asked what kind of books I had, that she often sees me here. She said she wasn’t satisfied with what she was doing. And that is looking for the meaning of life. She is open to everything new and wants to read books. She gave a donation and was very happy to receive a whole set instead of the one book she chose.
The second man took the books today. He was one of the first to take books. He too, was looking for something new in life, looking for himself and his destiny. He was also happy to take the books.
And the woman in the last photo, she’s a psychologist. Very well-mannered and calm, she practiced some kind of mantras, and on her arm she had some kind of tattoo with a mantra. And she knew something about the Vedas. I also started looking at books and chose one. She gave a big donation. I gave her another book along with BG, she was very happy with it. ”
BBT
Any book printed in the Russian language after January 1, 2023 will be banned from selling or distributing within Ukraine. What this means is that during 2022 a substantially large team of devotees within Ukraine had to be mobilized, with the help of the NE BBT, to step up the production of Ukrainian books for the future. They have been especially working on translating the entire Srimad Bhagavatam into Ukrainian.
In addition, three small books in Ukrainian (UK EJTOP, UK POY, UK RV) were sent to the printers in October for distribution during the marathon.
Food for Life
On the following site you will see all of the promotional material and the statistics for Food for Life in Ukraine in 2022. You can get daily reports of the number of volunteers and the amounts of food distributed in each city with detailed statistics listed right up until December 31, 2022. Just click on “Daily Reports” and then on a city of your choice.
https://foodforlife.org.ua/en/
Devotee Care
On January 2nd, Acyuta Priya dasa organized an annual meeting of the Kiev counselors. He sent me a report. The following is an edited version from part of that report:
It was the first offline meeting of counselors since the beginning of the war. During the war we had regular fortnight meetings, but they were only online. About 80 group leaders were present for the offline meeting in the Kiev temple. There were an additional 40 Zoom connections for those who are currently outside of Kiev or even outside Ukraine.
At the end of every year the counselors collect statistics to understand the current situation and to see what progress has been made in devotee care. Of course we must bear in mind that these are statistics. As we all know, figures could be misleading because they do not accurately represent the essential things like the quality of care. Still the numbers were quite interesting and I felt I should share them.
Before the war started, in year 2021, in Kiev there were 96-98 counselor and Nama Hatta groups which were meeting regularly once a week or at least once every fortnight.
By the end of December 2022, after almost a year of the war, in Kiev community we had 72 groups actively conducting regular meetings (51 groups offline and 21 groups online for those group members who evacuated).
During year 2022, 25 groups stopped regular meetings due to leaders and group members needs to relocate to other parts of Ukraine or abroad due to the war.
At the same time during this year there are 6 new groups were formed and started functioning.
Many devotees at that meeting were asking when we will resume the worship of the big Radha-Madhava Deities.
Spiritual Nourishment
As in our last report, we provided short video clips of Acyuta Priya dasa’s travels to temples where devotees can still congregate under the present circumstances.
On January 8th, just two days ago, Acyuta Priya sent me the following short report and video clips from Nikolaev, Ukraine.
PAMHO,AGTSP. Yesterday we (me and my wife) were in Nikolaev and had very happy program. I’m sending you links, maybe you can choose something useful.
Temple is alive there, they have daily programs. FFL distribution also current. Light and water supply working.
After the program there were lot of talks with devotees.
Please bear in mind that earlier last year Nikolaev underwent intense and sustained bombing. Many devotees were forced to flee.
As Sastra-krit dasa has written on https://shareyour.care,
This is the city closest to the frontline in the South of Ukraine. It is daily bombarded with projectiles. Most devotees have been evacuated to safer regions. But still, there are devotees who are still staying there: they cannot leave their parents behind, someone is in such poor health that they cannot survive the relocation. The temple is still holding everyday programs and Sunday feast programs. The Food for Life program is a crucial element in the city’s social life – people come to get hot prasadam and Srila Prabhupada’s books. The locals have always loved harinamas on the streets, but now there is special meaning attached to harinamas – it is a symbol that spiritual life continues even when everything around collapses. It is quite interesting that the construction works done in the yatra just before the war had to do with repairing the basement… It was really destiny. Now devotees often go down there because of air raids. The devotees remain enthusiastic in serving Srila Prabhupada’s mission and are confident that things will get better. They are very humble and hardworking. Caring for these wonderful devotees is the source of great joy for us.
This short report could be much longer. But due to the unique circumstance which befell upon the lives of thousands of devotees in Ukraine, I thought I should give at least a small snapshot of how devotees are coping with the realities they are confronted with from one day to the next.
On behalf of all the Ukraine devotees, I wish to once again say “Thank you” for your kind assistance.
Yours in Srila Prabhupada’s service,
Niranjana Swami