So I was on my way to Germany again in November 2001. I had no program there but I decided to go anywhere. I wanted to spend time out of India and did not have many places to go to. I was happy my friend had invited me again and so I went. He picked me up, just like the first time and there I was, back in his flat in Itzehoe.
When I told him about the program that I had done in London, he had the idea for me to have a lecture in Germany, too. He happened to know another Indian person who worked at a Hindu temple in Hamburg. He phoned there, told them that he had a visitor, a Swami from India, staying with him here in Germany. They were happy to invite me there for a lecture. The next weekend, my friend and I took a trip to Hamburg to the Hindu temple.
There is not really much to tell about that lecture there. It was a usual temple, with deities and religious people who have a certain day and time during the week to go to the temple. Instead of their usual priest, it was me holding the lecture on day. For them it may have been a bit different from what they usually heard, because I have always been used to speaking more from my own mind than from another person’s interpretation of religious scriptures. For me it was a normal but nice day, doing what I was used to.
After this time with my friend however, there followed some days which passed in a way that I was absolutely not used to. Diwali time was coming and my friend had told me before already that he would fly back to India for Diwali. I was however invited to stay in his flat on my own, no problem.
I also expected it to be no problem. I did not expect to get homesick but this is what happened: I got homesick for the very first time of my life.
I am a traveller and have always travelled, my whole life long. I have spent many months away from home and I have also spent long durations of time alone, without anybody close to me. I had never felt this longing for home, for those you love and for being together with your family. Maybe it was the fact that I was in a foreign country. Maybe it was because it was Diwali time, the time of celebration and family in India. Or maybe it was that I was really alone in that flat and had nothing to do.
Whatever the reason was, I felt lonely and wanted to be back in Vrindavan, where my parents, brothers and my sister were celebrating Diwali together. There was no way to send emails or to chat because my friend had no computer. So I talked to them on phone for a while and listened how they told me what they were doing.
Apart from that there was really nothing that I could do. I spent my time doing really nothing except for my mantras, my daily ceremony and some prayers. I cooked and ate my food and slept.
One day I picked up the phone and called the number of the German doctor whom I had met on 27th May 2001 on the flight to Mallorca. With my broken English I asked him whether I could come. We agreed that I could come and stay with him for some days.
This is how I got on a train to Hamburg-Altona where he picked me up. In November 2001 I thus came to Lüneburg for the first time.