Found God in the Gita
My husband started reading the Bhavagad-gita over two years ago. He was searching for God. He said he couldn’t find the whole truth in the Christian religion. I was on the same search with him, and we just couldn’t really find God wherever we looked. We even joined one church in hopes that somehow that door was a “way in.”
After that hope died out, we faded from the religious path and almost came to a conclusion that God was whatever it was and one day after we died we would find out what it wasif it was. My husband then remembered that when he was seventeen, he had come across a Bhagavad-gita. He said he tried to read it, but he was not capable of grasping it at that time. He said he knew he could recognize the name of the author (His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) when he saw it. So he found the Gita at the BBT (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust) site and bought it. He also bought the CD to listen to it while reading it. He then began praying and chanting, and I noticed he was beginning to change in a wonderful way. I decided to join him and see what he was learning.
Lo and behold, we found GOD! The absolute truth was in the words of the Lord Sri Krishna. We get up at five in the morning each day for prayer and chanting. We couldn’t live without surrendering our day before it begins to the Lord Sri Krishna.
Krishna is doing wonderful things in our lives. We are vegetarians, we have love for all of God’s creations, we love Krishna with all our heart, mind, and soul. We read or listen to the Gita each day, but most importantly, we are involved in the service of the Lord. We give when and where He leads us to give.
Another thing we do is we buy the pamphlet Krishna: The Reservoir of Pleasure in bundles of fifty and leave them wherever we go. We hand them out, and we mail them to churches. One Christian pastor wrote back and said we were going to burn in the lake of fire for eternity. My heart was saddened for him because he just does not know the truth. Anyway, we love Krishna, and we love serving Him. In the love that is Krishna, we are Vanessa and Marlon
Krishna in the Workplace
Hare Krishna! Thank you very much for the letters you published about giving Krishna consciousness in the workplace [“In Your Own Words,” Jan/Feb]. I found inspiration and new possibilities to talk about Krishna at my workplace.- Judith Baarda Holland
High Degree of Devotion
I was very much attracted and deeply touched in heart by reading the devotional article “Exemplary Service in a Humble Home” [Jan/ Feb], about Satish and his family in Bombay. My special thanks to Murari Gupta Dasa for drawing every one of us to learn more about this high degree of devotion. And thanks to BTG for publishing such a nice issue.- Vijay Patel Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Feeling Krishna’s Absence
I am a devotee of Sri Krishna, but I have days when I feel away from Him. I can’t feel Him with me. I know He is always with me, but that whole day I am affected. I get very upset. I do chant His name. Please help me. – Krishna Dasi
Our reply: It is not bad to feel that Krishna is away from you. Great devotees in ecstasy sometimes lament in that way: “O my Lord, O most merciful master! O master of Mathura! When shall I see you again? Because of not seeing you, my agitated heart has become unsteady. What shall I do now?”
Here’s a prayer that may make you feel better: “I know no one but Krishna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly in His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally.”
That is an exalted prayer, but we can benefit from it in a simple way. By uttering that prayer we inform Krishna that no matter how He treats us, we are still interested in serving Him. By connecting with Krishna through offering this very loving prayer, the feeling that Krishna is not there will go away.
Also, by doing any form of devotional service, we come in touch with Krishna, and thus the feeling that Krishna is not there will disappear. Chanting the holy name, associating with Krishna’s devotees, reading Srimad-Bhagavatam, worshiping the deity with faith, and living in a holy place are five powerful ways to connect with Krishna and transcend the feeling that He is not present.
What About the Women?
I detected the scent of gender bias in BTG’s recounting of the early struggles in Russia [March/April]. Many women traveled by train alone and unprotected to all corners of Russia to spread Krishna consciousness. They too bravely confronted the KGB and endured severe hardship. One such woman is Yajna Dasi, who made endless sacrifices and remains a dedicated and faithful servant to this day. (In her photo, on page 24, the caption refers to her as “this devotee.”)
As an historical fact, when I joined in Moscow in 1979, Yajna’s apartment served as central headquarters for the covert Hare Krishna movement. All correspondence with the outside world originated there, traveling devotees were housed there, and plans for spreading the movement were hatched there. As a result Yajna was forever harassed and threatened and physically bullied by the KGB. I have a distinct memory of her defiantly slamming the door on the nose of an intruding KGB officer to allow time for devotees to cover up their operations.
In the spring of 1989, on the day of the first ever public harinama [chanting] in Moscow, we devotees were all quite nervous, fearful of what might happen. I remember Yajna’s bold and reassuring words when she announced to the assembled Vaishnavas, “I know exactly what’s going to happen. We’re going to go out there and save those fallen souls.”
We all erupted with a “Ki Jaya!” and the rest is history.- Udarakirti Dasi Saranagati, B.C., Canada
The reply to the letter from Krishna Dasi was written by Krishna-krpa Dasa.
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