We are proud to present immimentary* about an immigrant who came to America looking for success and who found his spiritual way…

Tons of people from across the globe have come to the United States seeking the opportunity for a better life. America is a country that was built by immigrants, some who brought their talent and others who found themselves while pursuing their dreams in a new land. Here is one story about the life of a modern-day immigrant.

Like many people, I came to America to get rich and to be happy. For me the concept of happiness was money, the more money, the more happiness. Everything was going well to a certain point, to the year 2001, before I got sick. My name is Vladimir Traynin. I started doing business in 1987. I was selling audio tapes. That business was successful. And in 1988 I was able to start selling videos. I was the director of the Central Committee of Komsomol video studio. From dawn to dusk I was in business. No personal life, just business. Business, business, business. Everything was great until 1993. In the year ’93, my brother invited me to America. He told me, Vladimir you have some money, and it seems you are good at business, here you will be able make a thousand times more than you can make there. I moved to America in 1993. Moved with my wife Ira and daughters Lena and Jana. My brother invited me. He was already an American citizen. He told me, with your business flair, you won’t have problem to make living here. After we met here, our first meal was pizza. I really liked it. The first and second days here were the only days I had rest in America. I ate a pizza and all sorts of yummy chickens. I mean, I ate food that I really, really liked. I opened a store and sold movies. I knew that business well. Books, toys etc. Everything was going very, very well. Like I already mentioned, I wanted to be happy, for me happiness was associated with money, and I was making more and more money. That’s how it was until the year 2001. That year has been a crucial year of my life. I become very sick. So sick that I wasn’t able to enjoy America, I wasn’t able to enjoy money. I wanted to die. I started having kidney problems. I had heart problems. I wanted to kill myself. I’ve gained a lot of extra weight. When I came to America my weight was 176 pounds. At that moment, I was already 242 pounds. I’ve got divorced. I’ve lost interest to everything. I repeat, I wanted to kill myself. Until I met someone. His name was Murari Muham. He became my teacher, afterward. He introduced to me Krishna. When I was a kid, my Mom, for the first time in my life sent me to a children’s summer camp. At the beginning I’ve cried a lot, then I got used to it. Then, after a week, I not just get used to it, I liked it. We were playing catch-up game. I made a lot of friends there. When you are a kid you get friends easily. We played my favorite catch-up game when I saw my mom coming. I threw myself at her neck crying like I’m crying right now. I said, Mommy, it is great that you came. I am very happy. And I started kissing her. The same way I had fallen in love with Krishna. I threw myself at his neck. I told him, Krishna I was told that you’re Almighty God. I’m an ordinary man, I’m in pain, please help me. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. He responded, Vladimir, don’t cry. I’m Almighty and that means I can do anything. All you have to do is follow four rules and you’ll see whole your life will change. You will come to me. The important thing for you is to accept me. You can only use the Road of Love. You’ve already accepted me since I’m talking to you and you’re talking to me. So, you’ve already come to me by the Road of Love. Then he said, the main thing in a man’s life is to establish a relationship with me. The shortest way to that is the Road of Love. But in order to follow it, and it is the easiest and nicest way to go, all you have to do is follow the four rules. The first rule, don’t drink alcohol and don’t do drugs. The second rule, don’t eat animals. The third, no gambling. And the fourth rule, don’t have sex outside of marriage. I’ve shouted, without even thinking, I’m ready for it! To that Krishna replayed, I’m the scriptwriter and director of your life. I am the father of all people in the world. I’m in the heart of each of you. Love me, love each other. That is the most important thing in your life. Love is the basis of the universe, love is the basis of being. Only love brings happiness. And knowing that I’m around it’s easy. Love me, love yourself and you’re happy. I’ve got my goal – taking the Road of Love and go to God. it is like when I was a kid when I saw my mom I quit playing my favorite game, I quit my friends and ran to her. The same way I run to Krishna. I quit my business, which was already abandoned. And I started to do everything Krishna told me. I became vegetarian. Every morning, at 5:0 AM I went to the ocean. While walking on the beach I was recalling my conversation with Krishna. I was repeating mantra. The most beloved was the Hare Krishna mantra. Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare I am became a vegiterian I quit drinking. I quit gambling. Though I loved buying lottery tickets and visit casinos. I had Krishna’s words in my mind. “I am the father of all men in the world, you are all my children.” And then happened the miracle. Two weeks after that, what I was doing is only talking about Krishna. “Krishna Krishna Krishna” I was saying everywhere. A friend of mine told me, Vladimir you’re crazy, “Krishna Krishna God Almighty, he’ll make me happy…”. If he is Almighty, can you eat fruits only? If so, then I’m also gonna repeat the Hare Krishna mantra and agree that Krishna is the Almighty. I said – I can! I just shouted it out. I don’t know why. Then I went back to Krishna and told him – Krishna, you know about it. I’m sure you know how to help me become a fruitarian. And again, the miracle happened. I became a fruitarian in just two weeks. Two weeks after that I started running. Instead of walking for two hours, I began to ran for two hours. Before that I’d been walking for two hours. My walk was eight kilometers. At the beginning four kilometers then five, six, seven and then eight. A week after I became a fruitarian I started running every day. For the first two weeks I ran eight kilometers daily. Then I started running sixteen kilometers. Over the course of a year I’ve lost 66 pounds. Next year I’ve lost 22 pounds more. My weigh then was 242 pounds. And now, my weight is 139 pounds. for last 12 years I’m in the same weight Shortly after, my business become more profitable. I signed new contracts in Moscow. I began to receive, as I thought, better books. Even though, I thought, my orders were the same as before. Better movies, better audio cassettes. I made up with my ex-wife. We are still divorced, but we became best friends. I made up with my daughters. Who at the time of the divorce turned their backs on me. I think the relationship with them now is better than ever before. It’s no secret that customers here, on Brighton are no good. But for me, my customers are the best. So, Krishna made a miracle. He’s Almighty. Everybody, myself is no exception, wants to be happy, and like I said before, for me, the concept of happiness was money. Now, for me, the concept of happiness is going on the Road of Love. And that my spiritual happiness. It is divine happiness. In the material world, where everybody want to be important and rich, and as I have shown, at least by my life, it was a world of suffering and sorrow. The spiritual world, when you’re on the Road of Love to Krishna, when all the people around you are your brothers and sisters, when the meaning of life for you is to be on the Road of Love. And take with you as many people as you can. Not forcefully, not. With own behavior, with own life as an example, to show them, so, they can say – Here comes the guy, he’s always happy and with him around we are happy, and we really like him. They’ll ask – How did you become so happy, Vladimir? And I’ll tell them about my life, as I just told you. And I’ll tell them, guys, there is a material happiness, that is money, and the importance of being rich, and there is a spiritual happiness, that is love to God. God is the scenarist and director of our lives. Love is the foundation of the universe. A man can only love if he plays according to the script of the Almighty. Which means loving God and loving each other. I’m sure that each of you, even if you feel so bad that you want to die, even if you have nothing, at some point I had only debts, that is less than nothing, at any moment change your life and become happy. I love you all very much. Be happy. Almighty, o my love. How much I love you. You’re the light, you’re the sun, you’re the moon. You are my happiness and love. With you I’m falling a sleep. With you I’m waking up. With you I’m working whole day. You gave me joy and peace. You are my loving inspirer. But the most important thing is that you gave me love. I would be dead without love. Krishna you are my love. I’m with you forever. And with you, my dear friends, I am forever with you. You and I, we will go, I’m sure, on the Road of Love to God. One morning, I walked down the beach, sang a Hare Krishna song and thought of Krishna. And I was met by my friends and they asked, Vladimir, you keep repeating “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna”. We see that you’ve changed a lot. You look so happy. But one of us is a Muslim, one of us is a Jew and one is a Christian. What should we do? Please help us. I told them that God is only one. Roads to him are different. When I was a little kid, I had a mother and a brother. My brother and I had six years difference. My mother said to my brother one thing, to me she said another. What I could do, my brother couldn’t anymore. She asked my brother – are you a little kid to do such things? Some things I wasn’t allow to do, that my brother have been allowed. She spoke to us in different languages. God’s ways are beyond human understanding. By God’s will, there are many religions. You are a Christian, you are a Jew, you are a Muslim and I am a Krishna. But for all of us the main goal is to find God and go on the Road of Love to him. When I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to go to my mom’s office by myself. And on my sixth birthday, she told me, Son, you can go to my office by yourself. I started crying in joy, just like I’m crying now. Those tears were tears of joy. I asked my mom, which way to go there? She said, you can take any of four roads, I use all of them. Come and see me, but don’t go off road. So, you, my dear friends, also go to the mosque, go to the synagogue, go to the church, listen to the priests, listen to your teachers and take any road that takes you to God. Go and don’t turn off that road.

Seva Kaplan: We met about 20 years ago in Manhattan. We had common business interests. I was amazed at this rare type of immigrant. A Muscovite with typical Muscovite’s accent. Kaluga or Kolomna dialect, not the central city. A simple good man. These type of guys used to live in those places. When we met, Vladimir weighed 230 pounds. Overweight guy for his height of about six feet. Even though his life in the Soviet Union, in years before he left it, was very harsh, he was one of the highlights of that time. An entrepreneur, energetic, people liked him able to take a punch. Vladimir had all of it in him. But he has been pressed by racketeers. He looked into my eyes and said, I was told such words that I gave up everything at once, all at once, and left with nothing. I mean, nothing at all. He bought ticket on borrowed money and came here. Here he borrowed money to start his own business. Settled down in Brooklyn Opened a shop. Named it Mosvideofilm. The shop was very popular. Back then, there weren’t any such possibilities as internet offers now. The shop become more and more popular. At one time, there was a simultaneous taping of movies on 80 pairs of VCRs, on VHS tapes. Vladimir has changed. He achieved the same material well-being as he had before emigration. But suddenly something happened. I don’t know what and when, but Vladimir became a Krishna follower. He changed so much. He changed, but kept all the good stuff, his inner core. Just added external component to it. Vladimir stopped eating. He ate only watermelon’s skin. He was running on Brighton beach, from its central part all the way to Sea Gate and back. It was bad for health. Because it is not healthy to ran barefoot on sand. But Vladimir had his own vision. He quit drinking alcohol. He quit smoking. Now he weighs as much as every self-respecting Hollywood star. If I’m on the beach in the morning, it’s rarely happens, I see Vladimir, he is not running anymore, he realized that he had to walk, that is more healthy. I see a boy’s figure in the distance, boy from my childhood, who walks on sand in a fast pace. Immigrant’s walk doesn’t change from the time they were kids. Especially if they’re the first-generation immigrants. I see that walk far, far away. You can’t see a face from that far, but I know it can only be one person in this new world – Vladimir Traynin.

*The term “Immimentary” is a combination of words “immigrant” and “documentary”.
IMMIMENTARY is a film production company and a series of documentaries that feature interviews with immigrants from all walks of life. Stories told by the immigrants themselves.