A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY
Dear _________. (Dear Friend)
Hari bol, I hope you are doing well. You look very good. What a life! What next? Well, we can be sure it will be ecstatic whatever Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has in store.
Seeing you at Ratha Yatra, St. Augustine, was really sweet. The history is amazing. The Ratha Cart parks in front of the first church in America. Just wonderful.
I was remembering the Boston Krishna temple in the early 70's and you, bhaktin N______ in the sewing room with Su________, G________ in the kitchen making muffins and me running around with Tulsi Devi. Sa__________ was kidnapped and deprogrammed. Those times were really something that no one could make up.
But I reached a breaking point. I so wanted to feel I had a friend in the temple, I know Krishna is the Friend, but I needed to connect with the devotees and it just wasn't happening. I didn't know how to relate to anyone. I came in like that and it has been a long road to get to where I am now and OMG there is so much further to go. It's not just me, we all are on the same journey with our individual challenges. Nothing new here. 🙂
Su___________ was ordering me around and I was trying to surrender to it. But one day at lunch I couldn't stand it anymore. I threw a chapati at her Frizbee-style with amazing accuracy. Just as she was about to sample her maha sample plate the flying chapati caught her on the cheek.
HaHa. We really did need to develop more of a sense of humor. But there was none. We were all under tremendous pressure.
T___________ with raised fist threatened he would punch me but because I was a woman he didn't. He opened the front door and threw me out. December in Boston. No shoes, just plastic flip flops, no coat, wearing a saffron sari, and no money with orders to everyone not to let me back in as he drove off for two weeks with the brahmacaris to distribute books.
Oh, God. But there was N____________. an angel for sure, leaning out the second-floor window of the renovated funeral-home-Krishna-temple with $2 wrapped in a kleenex. Where she got the money from? Who knows. None of us had even a penny. How can I ever forget you?
The whole thing turned out to be a blessing in disguise and a chance for me to make more advancement very quickly. The $2 was enough to get back to my parents' house in Randolph and after 2 days of 64 rounds a day walking all around the house, they offered me a 1-way ticket anywhere in the world. But it would be 1-way. Haha. I called G________ at the temple and asked her what to do. She told me Prabhupada was in LA and if she had a ticket she would go there.
So I did. Jaya Srila Prabhupada. That was during the publication of "Chaitanya Charitamrta." and all the excitement that surrounded Him at the time.
Link to "Chaitanya Charitamrta"
https://prabhupadabooks.com/cc
$2? A little goes a long way in eternity....❤️
Evidently, I am eternally yours in Krishna..
Wow, such an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Hare Krishna. I heard a story yesterday that made my hair stand on end. For me, this is the attraction to the devotee community. "The devotees" They are so amazing. Everyone is unique and quite eccentric in so many ways. It's a lot of fun. As long as I don't fall into the trap of "should" "supposed to" etc. Just appreciate what it is. "Far out" for sure. I heard this story yesterday when by Krishna's arrangement I got to spend some time with a devotee I had only briefly met before. So we went a little deeper sharing. Evidently, he was a young Brahmachari and lived in the ashram in the mid-'70s. He knew he needed to marry. He wasn't going to be able to remain austere and celibate. There was only one young woman available in the temple and he immediately became infatuated. She was all he could think about, being with her and sharing intimacy and loving exchanges, etc. He was going coo coo house. These desires when aligned with love of Godhead give us entry into eternal life, but he was becoming enamored of a devotee. I'm seeing this is the great mercy of the association of devotees. The Lord can bring us to him by using his devotees to help each other. Anyway. he was a mess. The marriage did not take place and he thought he was going to die. They sent him to New Vrndavana. A farm community and he got himself together with the help of fresh air, birds, trees, gardening, and cows. But then his desires came back. He couldn't stop thinking about her. The community wanted to help him and they told him there was a young woman there that could be a good match for him. It was a large community and he didn't know she was there too. Neither did they know the history. But it turned out to be the very woman he was obsessed with. And this was years later. amazing story. They married and lived very happily together raising a beautiful family. He said he was like Superman and nothing could stop him from doing anything. He was on top of the world during that time. But then their lives drifted apart. Prabhupada had left the planet and the movement was in turmoil. She left him. He is almost 60 now and the children are grown with families of their own. But he looks at what happened in his life and is amazed. It was wonderful to hear his story . He understood everything was Krishna's arrangement to help him become Krishna conscious. He is so in the present moment. He glows and when he talks the words are filled with love and appreciation for the Lord. He is a living testimony now.
Are you near a community? If not, that is why I like what Srila Gaurahari das is doing, in his own down to earth way. He is available all the time live on the internet. Best wishes. Hare Krishna...